Xmas Fun

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...I was treated well this Xmas season. But of course, I always treat my friends well. :) Spent time with my g/f's family, lunch and dinner, but also had an early dinner at my aunt's place. It was fun watching my little cuzins opening up their gifts. :)
This morning, I spent all morning with my g/f in my arms in bed, just cuddling (and utter stuff too hehe). Very sweet. "I wish this moment would last forever." It lasted 5 hours, almost as long.
I also saved dinner this evening. My friend Miriam invited me and my g/f over for a post holiday dinner, but forget the pasta sauce, so at the last minute I had to bring the sauce along to allow her to make her main dish. lol (I'm going to get shit for this...hehehe).

Hit and Run

Well, I was out having fun with Jenn and some other friends last night in downtown San Jose. We started off at this one classy rest'rant called Paolo's, hanging out and have some good laughs. Their was up to seven of us; two guys and 5 girls. We then headed on down to Toons on Santa Clara street. It's kinda a dive-bar of clubs in San Jose. Played some pool for a little while, but pretty soon everyone was on the dance floor just having a fun time til about midnight (this is a school night for most of us).

When we got out to my car parked on the street, I noticed someone had side swiped my car, screwing up my left fender, mirror, door and other parts. The mirror was just gone. I was bothered by this, but hey, it's done, so just hafta to deal with it. No sense bottling it up or exploding out my stress. Just best to just let it go and not lose any hair over the incident. Despite someone screwing up my car, I still feel the evening was great time.

New English

To use a term recently coined, I'm living in my very own gadget porn, and it just keeps getting better. lol

This Post goes under the "WHAA????" file

Some scientific group just published a study that suggests silver cars are safer than cars of any other color. "Silver cars were about 50 percent less likely to be involved in a crash resulting in serious injury than white cars," WHAT? There are so many problems with finding I don't even want to cover them. Then they go on the say that increasing the number of silver cars on the road would passively reduce injury from car crashes. Umm, hmm.
Ok, first of all I don't understand the results of this study. Silver cars pop up out of nowhere on you. You can't see them well on a cloudy day, dawn, or dust. I have one friend who drove a silver car tell me that he started leaving his headlights on all the time because he was cut off or almost hit so often because people just didn't see him. Maybe owners of silver cars are involved in more accidents, but have a lower injury rate cuz their cars are always in the shop (not on the road) for repairs from low speed accidents. lol
Secondly, to state a conclusion suggesting car color will save lives based on a study that is already using questionable science is just stupid. More creditable and serious work needs to be done on this hypothesis before action can be recommended on the data.
FCSuper mumbles, "Silver cars, whatever!"

Trouble tonight

Well, tonight's gathering turned out to be both a bit low key and fun. Mostly just drank at the nice rest'rant after Miriam's office Xmas happy hour party. Thangs started off pretty well, til everyone moved outside. The fun started with one of the heater gas lamps caught fire. It was like the fire was on fire, smokin up the place and looking pretty dangerous. We finally got smart enough to turn it off and try to use the other one, cep the other one wasn't working all that well.

Then, some of the girls started talking about starting up a phone sex hot line. I volunteered my sexy voice to the line too. Things proceeded quite rapidly and down hill after that. The tone went from PG13 to Mature in a matter of minutes. One of the women there had been drinking for 7 hours straight. She was not only drunk but highly horny and willing. Wearing a tiny red tank top that already showed her ample D cup cleavage and 2 sizes too small jeans she was the center of attention and she made it a point to keep it that way. She quickly got EVERYONE'S attention when she decided to flash her tits and her ass to the many senior citizens that were coming out of the NUTCRACKER play.

At that moment we all thought there would've been an indecent exposure complaint. But that wasn't the last time her bosom and her bum were exposed in the space of an hour. We saw it at least 6 times in a row, EACH! All in all it was an interesting night...mmmm D Cups!

Big night, first in awhile.

Well, looks like I'm going to be out a bit late this evening with Miriam and company. I'm not too sure on where we are going to end up. We'll see!!!

Technophile mood

My blog here tends to have moods. Sometimes, I'm telling stories. Other times, I'm ranting. At times, I recount events in my day. I even go into detail about my plans or recent decisions. Then there's the mood where I become a technophile. (Of course, two thangs I rarely talk about is the weather and this blog itself).

Currently, my blog is expressing its technophile mood. ...and here we go again!

The Canon Power Shot SD100 is a great little digital camera! Its very small footprint makes it easy to carry, handle and use. The detail of its photos is great! Navigation thru photos in memory is simple. One thang I hate about digital cameras is that most are just too complex. This one is very simple. The LCD screen on the Canon Power Shot SD100 is very clear and bright. Its voice recording is also clear. I love the fact it uses the SD card memory card to store its photos. This happens to be the same memory card used by my Treo 600 and my HP photograph 4x6 printer! So my camera, Treo 600 and printer can all exchange information within seconds! …and they can all do this without a computer! Overall, this is an enjoyable product to use.

Thank you Miriam

One week review of palmOne’s Handspring Treo 600

This review is slanted because I’m comparing my experience with the Treo 300 to the new Treo 600. I liked the Treo 300 for what it is, a PDA with an embedded phone. However, I love the Treo 600 for what it is, a phone with an embedded PDA.
The Treo 600 is intuitive. Its functions are easy to access and use.
-The new 5-way navigation adds to that easy of use. It is so useful; I’m amazed it wasn’t included on the Treo 300.
-The screen is backlit so well that you can view it in direct sunlight.
-The appearance of its size is more phone-like. It even has a thinner and shorter profile than many flip phones.
-Battery life is much improved. Normal usage without recharging during the day hasn’t drained the battery to the halfway mark. Normal usage is a few phone calls totalling an hour or so talk time, internet access thru out the day, playing games when bored, text messaging, taking pictures to play around, IMing etc.
-New Palm OS 5.2 is more stable.
-Internet access is twice as fast as dial-up.
-New keypad layout needs about a day to get used to, but once you are used to it, it works well.
-The device is highly customizable without the need for third party software.
-It can communicate in every from of electronic communication type available: Voice; SMS (full functionality requires TreoSMS600 on SprintPCS version); AOL, Yahoo, MSN and ICQ IM chat (with VeriChat); fully fuctional Internet; IR beaming of course; and can even send Faxes (using free Adobe Acrobat software). Additionally, Blue Tooth and Wi-Fi SD cards will likely be compatible with the Treo 600 shorty to add even more avenues to the internet in addition to PCS.
Ok, ok, I’m getting tired of listing thangs about the Treo 600. Just take my word for it, the list of qualities and thangs this device can do is at least 5 times longer than what I’ve included here. It’s a great, intuitive, flexible, and powerful tool that eliminates the need to carry around multiple devices, all in a relatively small package.

Essential Software for your Treo 600

To get the most out of your Treo 600, these additional software packages are necessary.

Adobe Acrobat Reader for Palm OS : Enables your device to view PDF files. The package also has a program that allows you to print from several programs to a fax machine, among other things.

pTunes or Pocket Tunes: Plays MP3 files from SD Cards. You can install various skins to change its look too.

QuickOffice : Open, view and edit Word, PowerPoint and Excel native formats.

Snappermail : POP3 email software that handles file attachments. This software package also includes a program for handling and creating ZIP files.

TreoSMS600 : For SprintPCS Treo 600 only, this allows full SMS functionality. Why does Sprint not allow this without third party software right now? I dunno. But given the fact that SprintPCS's CDMA network has twice the speed of GSM networks of the other carriers, I don't mind too much.

VeriChat : Enables you to chat on AOL, Yahoo, MSN and ICQ instant messaging all at once. It also allows you to keep these IM sessions open on standby 24/7.

Update on another cool program:

Skinner 2.0: Let's you change your dialpad and favorites screens with different skins.

Trouble with CDs and online music alike!

The people who are geared to selling music CDs just do not seem to understand that consumers' buying habits are changing rapidly.   Additionally, it is pretty obvious that CDs are way over priced. Too many customers have seen DVD movies (which have millions of dollars in production costs) selling for less than the average mundane CD (which often have production costs less than $100,000). How long do recording companies think they could hold their prices so high?!

The prices for music online are just as ridiculous! One dollar per song is just too much! At that price, the average albums would cost $8 to $15. There's no manufacturing cost to justify this price! This is just as high as the CDs!!! wtf??

The whole recording industry is lost right now. Here's my advice:

• Music CD's in the store should sell for $4.99 to $6.99, depending on the artist, quality, and number of songs on the CD. CDs will eventually be replaced anyway with online music anyway.
• Online music should sell for 15 to 50 cents per song, again depending on the artist and quality.

That's it.

49ers kick Cardinal ass

What a great game to watch in person! I'm glad this is the game I took my dad to see. Damn, it was fun to be a fan! 50 to 14. At some points, you'd almost forget that the Cardinals were on the field! Ouch! LOL Woohoo!0

49ers Game and this Turkey Day

I'm taking my dad and my g/f to a 49er's game at Candlestick againt the Cardinals on the 7th. This is the first time either of them will be at a football game, let alone a 49ers game. This is going to be fun. We have good seats in the lower reserve. this is under the overhang, so we don't get wet in case of rain. I'm working on getting prepaid parking pass too, to make the endeavor even more enjoyable by not having to worry so much about parking and getting in some good tailgating. :)
This Turkey Day was interesting. I met my g/f's parents on Thurdays. That worked out pretty good. But then I took my g/f to my parents place for Friday and Sat. Well, my mom likes my g/f now. Damn, poor thang, she got her ear talked off by my mom. lol

Bad Santa

Bad Santa is a great movie. Gross, funny, good twist ending (though traditional), lots of laughs that don't depend too much on sight gags, and enduring. To paraphrase once critic, once you watch this movie, you'll never believe in Santa Claus again. lol

This is in response to the act of holding U.S. Citizens and "enemy combatants"

There is no need to hold U.S. citizens as enemy combatants since we are already held to a higher standard. There are laws already in place that hold U.S. citizens who act against America accountable for their subversion. If federal officials really believe that a U.S. citizen is aiding our enemies, they need to use our legal system properly by filing charges against these people. Our federal system needs to stop being afraid of its own shadow, and take a stand. It is cowardice on the part of federal officials to attempt to treat U.S. citizens in ways that are clear violation of the constitution. Treating any U.S. citizen as though they are not a citizen threatens the rights of every American, and this new practice needs to stop. Grow some balls and take those who have worked with our enemies to trial! Keeping them detained as "enemy combatants" is a threat to our way of life.

Ramble

Today, I thought I'd just ramble here in my blog. The goal is to really say nufin at all for as long as I can while still making some sense. So ... well, I think I may have reached the end of this attempt. lol

Steel Tariffs are bad

Ok, note to President Bush: Please eliminate the tariffs of imported steel. How are we supposed to have a free market economy when we are putting up walls like this? Get rid of them. They only serve to threaten to take the economy down in the same way tariffs ended up causing the deepening of the Great Depression in 1930's.

More Movies Matrix Revolutions

Matrix Revolutions is a good movie and a great science fiction story. The point of the story isn’t the battles. The point is questioning the purpose of life itself, dealing with spiritual and religious issues. There’s a lot of subtext to the story. There is s a lot of battles and special effects too. It’s almost a sensory over load in two completely different ways. The movie does have some weak points which detract from it at times, like when it takes itself too seriously a couple times, and when it was intentionally corny a some other times. Over all, it is a good story with a very satisfying end to the Matrix trilogy.

More more Movies

Pieces of April is good movie. It feels odd saying this, but it is a Thanksgiving holiday movie. But it's not a traditional Hollywood or made-for-TV type story. It's funny, quirky, intelligent. It's also sentimental, but without one ounce of sappiness. I know, that's hard to imagine, but this movie pulls it off. It's not a great movie, but it will end up in my DVD collection.

Kill Bill vol. 1. Well, this is a violent, stylistic, clever, and inventive movie. It plays out like a modern live action comic book. It is enjoyable. It is extreme. I'm going to reserve further judgment till I see Vol 2, due out sometime early next year.

Season's First Rain

I woke up early at my friend's place today, and hadn't been home since the previous morning for various reasons. I left around 5:30am. The instant I walked outside, I felt the cold morning. It has been a long time since the last cool morning because our area had a very hot summer that ended abruptly just yesterday. As I walked to my car, the season's first rain started. A few tiny sprinkles landed on me.
On the drive home, the rain picked up a little bit. The wind shield was fairly dirty from a long road trip two days ago. The wiper fluid isn't persistent enough to really get off much of the built up road grim, so the rain was allowing me to really clean my wind shield with my wipers.
When I got home and stepped out of my car, the aroma of the seasons's first rain hit me. I filled my lungs with the sweet, rain fresh, crisp morning air. It's been too long since the last of such experiences.
I really enjoyed the long hot summer. I appreciate it more because it is going to allow me to enjoy the relief of a shout cool fall.

Dear Lord!

I just realized how busy I am this week. Some how I have to find time to move funds around for the purchasing payment on the rental property I'm buying, get my car's oil changed, be at work for important clients, go sign the paper work to finalize the purchase of the rental property (4 hour drive to and from), go out with friends friday and Sat evenings, and Sail in sailboat races up north outta town on Sat and Sunday during the day. Dang it, I just realized I need a hair cut to look good for the client and the weekend. arg This will likely be my last entry till next Tuesday.

49er's Vs. Bucs

Ok, I was casually checking out the 49er/Buc game in the fourth quarter this weekend. First thought in my mind when I saw the score of 21 to 7 was, "Eh, big deal." Most of my life, the Bucs have sucked ass. I know they are now a great team, but my instinctive feeling is still that they suck. Also, I don't pay much attention to football til about the 8th game in the season. So, here I was, for a good half minute thinking the 49ers where beating a lame team, so the game didn't matter much. Then it hit me. This is Gruden's Bucs! Last year's Super Bowl champions! Damn, what the hell was wrong with them? So, they had a bad day. Now the 49er's are all confident again. It won't last, of course. They aren't a first or second tier team right now. You can prolly call them King of the Third Tier Teams. lol If they make it to a Super Bowl in the next few years, they'd prolly lose it. So, let them build up into a better team, then get back to the Super Bowl as healthy as possible. 49ers are the only team to win 5 Super Bowls without losing a Super Bowl. Ok, this entry is done cuz I'm starting to ramble.

Trouble with Democracy

The trouble with Democracy is that an idiot's vote counts that same as a smart person's. LOL Just kidding.

Reggie Jackson Tried to Steal my Cab!

So, did I ever tell you about the time I met Reggie Jackson? This was back in the mid-1990's. He tried to steal my cab late one night at the Monterey Peninsula Airport. I had gotten in on a red-eye flight. I'm tired as hell. After getting my luggage, I walked outside to wait for a cab. Others from our flight did the same. After waiting about 15 minutes, I figured sumfin was up, so I went to call one of the cab companies to come on down. Within 30 seconds, three cabs show up. Apparently, the airport had a rule against cabs waiting for passengers, so they waited to be dispatched from a just a block away. Anyways, I let some elderly couples take the cabs. This left me stranded. I had to wait for the cabs to return, so I sat and waited. While I'm waiting, another flight gets in. Reggie Jackson comes out of the airport building and sits down a ways over from me. Finally a cab returns, and what does that Reggie try to do? He tries to steal it from me. He saw me waiting with my luggage, but he still walks right up to the cab and prepares to load up. I walked right up to him and looked him square in the eye with a rather unpleasant look on my face and just said with attitude, "Is that your cab?!" Well, he matches my look for half a second, then tries to play it off with something like, "Oh, this one's yours?" I'm like, "Yeah." LOL So, the cabbie recognizes him too and gets all excited. I load up my luggage and get in. The cabbie tries to get Reggie's attention to ride with us to, and I'm like, "Alright, fine, ask if he wants to share." Reggie goes to sit back down. At this point, I know he's not coming in this cab, so I tell the cab to just go. I didn't have all that far to travel, so riding with him woulda been pointless, even on better terms. Who knows, maybe the cabbie got back in time to give him a ride before another cab showed up. Whatever. I wasn't going to let anyone steal my cab that night.

Well, the recall election is today

I've done voted via absentee last week. My mind hasn't changed, either. I'm still not happy about having to vote over the recall, but oh well. I think the law should allow counter-petitioning (or would that be counter petition or counterpetition?) during the petition collection process. Actually, that's not a bad idea. That would mean that any petition would need to collect a more reasonable number of signatures instead of letting a very small percentage of the population trigger something like a recall.

Some week off this has been

I had intended on doing nufin for a couple of weeks in the evenings, to just relax and veg. This is cuz last month I was soo busy. Well, it's not shaping up that way. I've gone out Friday, Sunday, last night and today, plus tomorrow and Friday again. I'm having a good time, so I'm not goin to stop the spontanious flow of activity. I'll just need to make sure I take it easy this weekend cuz I'm goin to need to catch up on sleep.

Microsoft's Settlement Refund...umm, wow

This is turning about to be one strange turn-of-the-century. First, we start getting tax refund checks in the middle of the year without filing taxes yet. Now, Microsoft is throwing money at us too.

Basically, you get a settlement for any eligible Microsoft purchases you made during 1995 thru 2001. No proof of purchase is necessary if the total reimbursement is does not exceed $100. Microsoft even had two of my purchases already listed. The really really scary part about all this is that somehow, they knew to send the reimbursement form to my current work address. I've been working at the same company all along, mind you, but we've moved a couple of times since then. Well, it's a refund that I'm sure I deserve. :) Anyone else wanna give me some money? LOL

Updated Post, August 14, 2006

I finally received my Microsoft voucher

Updated Post, September 15, 2016
Microsoft Settlement Refund...umm, wow Part 2

My Vote

Besides the recall vote, there's two other items on the California 2003 special election: proposition 53 and Proposition 54. I've stated before that I'm a political centrist (as opposed to moderate). So here I am, faced with two highly political propositions. What's a centrist to do?

 
My viewpoint on Proposition 53 is that the last thing we need is more planned state government spending that takes money out of the budget. This proposition is giving our elected leaders no room to move when balancing the budget. I was very surprised to find that the Republican party of California is supporting this thing. Aren't these guys supposed to be against wild government spending? When I read the pros and cons, it just left a bad taste in my mouth to think this was even on the ballot. Yuk.

 
My viewpoint on Proposition 54 is that it is about time this issue is being addressed. I classify my race as American. Ethnically, that is what I am. It would be nuts to break down my family lines to choose just one of my origin ethnics as my own. The truth is that I represent none of these origin "races", or maybe I represent all of them. I am walking proof of the stupidity of claiming ethnicity. In a colorblind society, it wouldn't even matter. I am tired of being asked about my ethnicity by the government. I want this practice stopped. I read in the cons that this proposition will hinder health care collection of data. Well, it doesn't. Even if there is some loophole where this might occur, it would be fixed by the legislature next year anyway, so this is a moot point.

Economy starting to look to 1930's

Our country is running out of Economic Options. The policies of our government are running our economy the ground. Thangs are starting to look like the beginning of the Great Depression. I don't think we will have one, but we are being pushed in that direction more than we should because of some of the policies the current administration is perusing. This story by the USAToday says it well.

It is a myth that the U.S. has a Free Market Economy. We've never really have had a pure Free Market Economy. I'll rant more about this some other time though.

End of the Sailboating twilight Series

...And we lost Friday evening. We had a good start in the race, and were in the lead. Then another boat ran into us. No damage to the Spitfire, but it cost us 30 seconds. Our best competitor in the series caught up with us because of this incident with another boat. We did finish the race first, but with handicapping time, we still got second place by 19 seconds. That incident with the other boat cost us the race, and the series. Arg. Second place. Oh well. We finished the series with one 3rd place, three 2nd places and one first place finish. We got the winning gun three times but lost two of those races because our main competitor finished quickly enough behind us to over take us with handicapping.
It came down to the wire, so it was a fun series. Next time, first will be ours! :)

Rest needed

This is one busy week. This whole month has been busy, with the camping, Napa Valley trip, sailing, etc. Almost every non-working, non-sleeping period of time has been spent doing something or being with one friend or another in one way or another. It’s been great, but I’m going need a break. I’m just going to hibernate this weekend, I think. Maybe go for a drive somewhere. No wait, that’s doing something LOL.

Today is a strange day

Something wonderful happened today. Can't go into details.

Review of Chateau Hotel, Napa, CA

El Sh*t-toe is the term I overheard another guess use to describe the Chateau Hotel. It fits. The hotel looks good at first glance when you arrive, but in fact it is not well maintained. The rooms are old, outdated and not maintained. The dresser had one handle missing. The bathrooms were extremely simple. The beds mattresses squeaked loudly. The pillows were worn out. The bedspreads looked as though they had been in the room since the hotel was first built, decades ago. The A/C unit was horribly inadequate, and again looked to be as old as the hotel, yet added on as an after thought years later. The hot tub was a mess and its jets did not work in any useful manner. The carpets are dirty and old. The hallways where not cooled. The vending machines where out of stock for three days straight on the weekend during a busy season. The T.V. was small, appeared to be decades old, and buzzed very loudly every time a bright light was in the background of the T.V. show. The T.V. only had local channels and HBO, with no movie selections. The hotel is farther from Napa’s downtown area than suggested in the hotel’s description. On the plus side, they had a working ice machine. Oh, the staff was courteous, but seemed fully aware of the hotels issues.
Even at my discounted rate, the hotel is way way over priced. However, you couldn’t lower the price far enough to convince me to stay there again. In Napa Valley, I’ve spent much less on a room and received better, newer rooms and more services.

Napa Valley

Man, it was beautiful there this weekend. The weather was hot and clear. The only downside was the hotel. More like a glorified motel. Anyways, it was a lot of fun. Went to V.Sottui, Berenger, Copola, etc. Don't ask me to spell them right. LOL They are all on highway 29. Also, had a great lunch on Saturday at Fumé. Came back with prolly more wine than needed for the year to come. LOL

"Continue on 29"

::Driving on the highway up to Napa Valley from the Bay Area::
Miriam is driving her hot red Mustang, and I'm navigating. After we get past the bridge over the delta waterway on highway 80, our Mapquest instructions tell us to take the highway 37 exit, but we know we need to be on highway 29. She's not trusting my navigating skills (based on experience and the Mapquest map) so decides to hit the earlier 29 exit. She cuts across the whole freeway and just manages to get on the exit by the graces of a fellow traveller who waved us in. Now, 29 goes thru a city called Vallejo. It's been said that Vallejo is the armpit of California. On the plus side, we are on highway 29, so the route is easy to follow. Umm, well, not quite. As anyone who knows 29 in Vallejo, there is one confusing 5-way intersection. She hits that intersection and instinctively goes the wrong way. I forgot about the intersection, so wasn't able to direct her in the correct direction in time. We are forced to make a mid-street u-turn. We get back to that intersection, only to find it does not allow us to turn in the direction we need to go. So, we go straight thru again, and make another u-turn. Finally, we can turn the right way. After all of this, she asks, "Which way now?" I innocently look at my map for reference (though we are not following the route laid out). I reply, "Just continue on 29".

Some time passes, and we finally get thru the city streets. The intersection with highway 37 is ahead. Hmmm, we really shoulda gone that way. Oh well. She asks, "Is this the right way?" Again, I innocently look at my map. We are now following the path on the map again. The directions read, Continue on 29 so, I say, "Continue on 29".

Some more time passes. We are driving down 29. Now she asks again, "Is this the right way?" At this point, it is starting to be a running gag to me. I slyly look at the map, smiling, and just read what it says, "Continue on 29".

No more than 15 minutes later, "Matt, what's the next road we take?" she asks. "Let me look at the map. Oh right, it says 'Continue on 29'!" LOL She finally gets it. So finally, we get to the hotel. It was just off of highway 29.

The next day, we head up 29 to hit up some of the wineries. "Continue on 29" as again uttered several times, but mostly in jest. All of the wineries we were interested in are on highway 29, of course.

New KFC Popcorn Chicken (fwd)

Mmmm The new KFC Popcorn chicken is great. Damn really improved. I was
so surprized I'm entering this blog in from the road. It's like a
little slice of heaven. Mmmm


--- end forwarded text

Napa Valley Getaway II

September 19, 2003 to September 21, 2003

With Miriam Melo, visited Napa Valley and Old Faithful Geyser of California.  Original post/backup link.

Napa Getaway

Miriam and I are going for the weekend to Napa Valley to just relax. Take the wine train, sit by the pool, and just all around do nufin...after hitting up a bunch of wineries along highway 29.

I'm confused...

I'm confused, but I am not bothered by that confusion.

Weekend Camping

Went camping this weekend with some friends. We didn't have a plan other than to drive to the coast and find a place. We lucked out and found something north of Santa Cruz. It was more a resort with a campground attached. The camp sites were even powered with AC outlets! Very nice. It almost didn't fill like roughing it. The beach there was great. The weather was perfect. While the inland was scorching, we were on the beach in the sun and temp in the low 80's with a gentle cooling breeze. Of course the water was chilly! Turned out to be a great weekend.

Camping on California Coast

 

September 13, 2003 to September 14, 2003 

With Alice Leung, Stefan Schmeisser, David Erlichman and Miriam Erlichman, visited Santa Cruz, California and Costanoa for a fun trip up California Coast.  Original post/backup link.

Phone Bill

Ok, I've got my house phone bill rate down to under $5.85 on a measured rate plan. I dumped my long distance completely. So with taxes and other services, my total home phone bill is going to be prolly under $12.00 total.

Mvys

I saw Jason Vs Freddy (or is that Freddy Vs Jason) last week. Pretty good slasher. I don't watch many, but this one is worth the time. Entertaining. Not good enough to show up in my DVD collection though.

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean this weekend. Good movie. It was enjoyable to watch. It knows it's an action/adventure movie, and it revels in it. I do recommend this film. It will go into my DVD collection.

I saw Johnny English this weekend as well. It is funny, but not really hilarious, which a movie like this needs to be. Not a waste of my time, but it is definitely not going to show up in my DVD collection.

If you haven't notices already, my criteria for judging movies is whether or not is will end up in my DVD collection. This is a slightly higher bar than "thumbs up" or "hot or not". It means even a marginally good movie will not get a passing mark. It needs to actually be a good movie to end up in my DVD collection. Doesn't have to be really good. It just needs to have redeeming qualities if it is marginal.

Meteor

Last night, in the north (from Campbell, CA) I saw this bright greenish white glowing ball streaking down from the sky. At first, I thought it was fireworks or a burning plane. It was staying bright too long to be fireworks. It was moving down too fast and glowing to consistently to be a burning plane. It was so bright, I was able to clearly see it thru the city light pollution near the horizon. The glow suddenly faded as it approached the ground. The only thang I can figure is that it was a meteor that made it pretty far into the atmosphere. I've seen plenty of shooting stars, but never seen a meteor this close before. It was over so quick.

eBay Auctions

Ok, I've done something I haven't done in years, I'm actually selling on eBay! See the new link on the right. It's the icon "My Auctions eBay". Or click that link here too. :)

Updating the week

It looks like I'm done ranting for now. LOL So, here's a layout of my bus-i-ness instead, just for me. Monday, hung out with a friend in the day, and another friend in the evening. Tuesday, had pizza with Miriam and tried not to pay too much attention to reality TV she was watching, but damn that shit is so lame and it bugs me to see ... ok... umm... next topic. Weds, hung out Dave in the evening. (Please note, I never refer to work as busy time...it is just lost time, period). Tonight, I'm going to the movies with a friend. Tomorrow, Miriam and I are going to see Ronie up in the Delta. There's personal reasons for this. I bailed out on a sailboat race for this nite to go see her. Prolly going to play mini-golf just for the hell of it. On Sat, I'm going to catch a couple of matinee movies by myself, then meet up with another friend in the evening for drinks. It also looks like I'm covering the booth at the Campbell Farmers Market on Sunday, then going to take it easy for a breather that evening. My weeks have pretty much been like this for a few months now. blah blah blah...now I remember why I don't post these kinds of post very much. Just doing this to remind myself of what I'm doing. :)

Long Weekend?

Is this really a long weekend? It's almost over, kinda. Sunday. I was out Friday having fun, and hit up SF Zoo on Sat. Today, I'm taking it easy before going to a club in downtown San Jose, if you can believe it. Going to hit up the Tapestry and Talent Fair tomorrow.

Yesterday evening...

I went out yesterday. Had a lovely afternoon outdoors over at Viva Sol, a rest'rant on El Camino in Mt. View. Later, at my friend's place, I felt a headache coming on, so I asked where the pain relievers were. This lead me to take a generic Tylenol PM. uhh. Well anyway, my friend was in the mode for hanging out at a place in Downtown Mt. View. We where there most of the night until the PM part of the Tylenol started kicking in around 11. So it ended up being an early night. Damn, that's the last time I don't pay attention to the bottle and take PM anything. I'm still feeling it. yuk.

eBay

I’m an eBay user. I love the service, and use it frequently. I have one piece of advice. If you are looking for VHSs, DVDs, CDs etc, make sure you look at all sources and compare. Examples: Half.com, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble. I’ve been looking for a hard to find DVD recently. It had been hitting over $30 everytime it appeared on eBay. So, I checked Half.com and found it for under $16, with less shipping charges. The best part of this is that eBay owns Half.com, so ordering was easy.
So, when looking for bargains or hard to find items, it always helps to shop around. Often eBay will be the place where I end up, but not always.

Survival of the...science

As with other sciences, evolution is now in practical use within modern technology. This is due, in part, to the invention of PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) and other genetic analysis tools. These tools allow for more efficient studies of genetics. PCR opens the door into how all species relate to each other. Exploration of this interconnectivity allows much quicker identification and treatment of old and new diseases. The use of applications based on biological studies of evolution is benefiting our society. It will soon become part of our daily lives. Denial of evolution is the equivalent to saying that the Earth is a flat, or that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects.

 
There are examples of evolution’s survival of the fittest principle within our own species. There are traits in the human species that are fighting for dominance.

 
One trait in the Western Culture is lactose persistence. 75% or so of our population (Western Culture) can properly digest lactose (from milk) our entire lives.¹⁽¹⁾ This is a newer trait that has become dominant because of the long history of our use of milk in our daily diet. In other cultures, at least 75% of the population becomes lactose intolerant after the age of weaning. These are cultures that historically did not have access to milk on a daily basis, and so carry the older trait which naturally causes the weaning of a child. This older trait used to be necessary for survival, but now is unimportant.

 

Where lactose persistence is succeeding, there is another trait that is failing in the tropics. There is a genetic adaptation which allows an individual to be more resistant to malaria. But if a man and woman (who carry this trait) procreate, their children may have sickle cell anemia.²⁽²⁾  This is an example of a genetic trait that benefits the individual, but not the species. If left alone, the trait will likely die out eventually. Or maybe it will lead to further adaptation that does not cause sickle cell anemia.

 
More rapid examples come to us in the form of viruses and bacteria. These species evolve yearly. Understanding of their origins (made possible by PCR through biological studies of evolution) allows us to combat them more effectively. This will eventually develop into technologies that will be apart of our daily lives, like flying in an airplane or satellite TV.

Misspelling search keywords?

I’m getting many hits to this site for funny spelling of words, Ok…here’s a quick spelling lesson for the most recent searches. Governor, not govenor. Candidate, not canidate. I have entries and information about these items below. Here’s some links:

Link to the list of recall candidates for Governor of California.

Comments about the Recall

California Constitution rules about replacing the Governor

Brief general impression of “right” and “left”. I’m a centralist, by the way.

Three problems with California polictics right now, including the Recall.

Encinal We won!

The Spitfire won at the Encinal last night, and with Brant as skipper. It's the first out right victory of that boat since its restoration! Sports are more fun when you win. hehe. We had a great start, prolly do to all the practice last weekend. Once we got into the lead, we stayed in the lead the whole race. Our sister boat Double Trouble, skippered by Kevin, came in second, keeping are best competitor down at third. This is the first race Double Trouble didn't finish DFL, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Spitfire is now first place in the series, with one 3rd place, one 2nd place and now one 1st place finish! Let's just see if we can keep up the pace!

Acceptance.

For every reasonable belief system to be accepted without censorship, as a people, the government can not endorse any belief system or their icons. What of our Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and atheist citizens, etc? Do we also put up Muslim Koran scriptures on stones at Mt. Rushmore? Do we build Hindu statues in front of our town halls? Do we have a 30' budda sitting and laughing on the White House lawn? Do we put "God is Dead" on our coins? Do we build a Wiccan alter at Arlington? Hell No! For all of us to be religiously free, we must keep our government from choosing a religion or using relevant religious icons. (I believe using religious icons of dead religions, from Greek and Roman mythology, in the tradition of western culture is acceptable since they don't invoke any practiced religion)
And about prayer in school: Again, what of our atheist citizens? A moment of silence does impose a religious practice on to their children.

A fish named Goldy...mystery thriller and some sheit

At work today, there’s a bit of a mystery. A coworker of mine (I’ll call her Squeeks) had this nice mylar balloon of a large gold fish delivered for her birthday yesterday. It was actually kind of an eye sore from far away, but it really is a very nice balloon. She named it Goldy. Anyways, she gets in to work this morning to find a ransom note and pictures of her balloon with pitiful “help me” type printed messages, being threatened by sulfuric acid and a screwdriver in the eye. The kidnapper is demanding one stick of mango flavored Trident gum, a “shinny” (mispelt) 1977 penny and before & after pictures of Michael Jackson. It was signed “Sick Individual”. Squeeks and other coworkers are looking over the pictures for any clues as to who is involved. Her boss keeps seeing people in the reflections on the mylar surface of the balloon in the picture. No clear details, of course.
So, as if that isn’t ridiculously fun enough, I wanted a piece of this action myself! I set out to frame a cube neighbor of mine (I’ll call him Fred) for the heinous deed. I quickly printed out one threatening follow-up ransom note, which quickly got picked up as part of a large report that someone else was printing, and copied 60 times as part of that report. I couldn’t have planned that better if I tried! Needless to say, Squeeks got the message. She waited in the printer room for someone she suspected to come to the to pick up the now multiplied message. Fred haplessly comes walking into the printer room to pick up his mail. Of course, Squeeks immediately suspects him of the kidnapping! Again, I couldn’t have planned that any better if I tried. Phase two of my plan spoke for itself. I printed another threatening note and left it in Fred’s cube and just waited for Squeeks to make the incriminating discovery. As she’s still reeling from the first “discovery” when she finds the second note in Fred’s office. The timing was perfect. Of course, Fred is nowhere around, being in the labs most of the day. Their boss goes to find him to see if he is the culprit. Everyone is cracking up the whole time about this ridiculous situation.
So right before this lunch hour, Squeeks is in Fred’s office making further accusations about other “evidence” against him. Fred’s pitiful and weary “help me, help me!” cries were drifting from his office like a ghost’s moaning.
For lunch, their boss is eating fish…hmmm…very suspicious!

A Fish named Goldy Part II

Around 3:00pm or so, after meeting two/thirds of the ransom requirements, Squeeks got her golf fish balloon back. It turns out that it was her boss that staged the kidnapping! Too funny. Fred and other coworker were in on it as well. The fish is now safely back in Squeek's cube, no worse for the wear.

Well...

Friday night was supposed to be a big nite, but ended up not going out. I do wanna check out a couple of new places in San Jose downtown soon, so maybe plan sometime this week. I did a little shopping this weekend too with some girlfriends as my guide (and to make the experience a bit more palatable). Despite my protests, they dragged me into the Gap. They wanted to get me shirts and stuff, but I insisted that I'd only get jeans there. Ended up a Banana Republic and got a couple of nice thangs there. I know, some say it's worse than the Gap (and it's the same company), but it is more stylish. I walked in the Guess too...what the hell are they thinking with all that ugly patchwork clothing? Yuk...doesn't looks interesting, stylish or wearable.
Yesterday, I was aboard the Spitfire practicing in the tactical position for getting our timing down on our race starts. It was a lot of fun!

Impossible to find customer service numbers for Amazon.com and others!

Here's some impossible to find customer service numbers for online retailers (as listed in U.S.News Aug 18-25, 2003)
Amazon.com 800-201-7575
Hallmark.com 800-425-5627
Netflix.com 800-585-8131
Sony.com 800-571-7669
Target.com 800-591-3869

Here's a page about issues with Amazon.com customer services and suggestions to resolve them. http://www.clicheideas.com/amazon.htm

Use in good health!

List of Candidates for Governor of California's Recall

Here's the link. You'll need PDFReader installed to view the page. http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/2003_cert_list.pdf

Sailboat Racing

The Spitfire team physically won our first sail boat race on Friday! Woohoo! We didn't get first place in the final standings because handicaps. We did get second place though. It was a lot of fun. The whole team is still stoked. There was a couple of mistakes that prolly cost us the outright official victory, like our very bad start, and almost going around a marker we weren't supposed to be rounding. With even better tacking, and without those mistakes, it is likely we can have more than one first place in the remainder of the racing series! The whole team is pumped for the next race in a couple of weeks.

Trouble with "canidates"

Candidates is spelt with a "d". Just FYI for those of you who are searching on yahoo and google for info about the governor's recall in CA. In some posts below, I've got some brief statements about the recall and some of the people involved with it. I intend on adding a link to the official list of candidates when it is made available, so feel free to visit back soon.

Movies this weekend...

I watched Dirty Pretty Things this weekend, oh, and American Wedding. Dirty Pretty Things is not as much of a thriller that it has been billed as, unless you have a weak stomach. It does have body parts turning up, but under real life type situations. Nothing fanciful, like American thrillers usually do. The movie is very entertaining. It exposes a rather dark underside to life as an illegal immigrant in London. I'm not sure how much of it is poetic license, since I've never been exposed to that topic before. The movie tells its story through character development, and not some flat plot. There are some powerful scenes, and some week scenes too, but over all, it is a great, enjoyable movie.
American Wedding was very funny sep for the very end when the wedding got started...then it got sappy. Watch it for the sight gags, situations and other laughs, but be prepared for a sweet ending when the laughs stop and everyone lives happ...ok, I'll not give away the final joke after the sappy wedding is done, but it is predictable enough for you not to care.

Governor Recall Race

This recall is an insult to California Voters, with the very wealthy slapping us in the face, trying to buy our government from under us. Anyone with a lot of money can come in and pretend to be a politician for a year. It's starting to get pathetic. Isis is like the third guy to come in out of the blue and try to pull something in the pass few years. Now there’s the Terminator pretending too. Note to the very rich newbies: Either be a real politician or just Fuck Off!
This recall has already made California look stupid, and it’s going to be more ridiculous if it passes. I predict that the results of this recall of the governor here in California is going to make Florida (with its hanging chads and false removal of eligible voters) look like a smooth and competent operation. There’s going to be lawsuit after lawsuit disputing the results for a year! Especially if the recall is approved and some marginal and/or nonpartisan player gets the highest number of votes (go Gary Coleman! LOL). That said, the Lt. Governor is supposed to take over if the office of Governor is vacated for any reason according to the CA constitution. Oh well.
Since the law now allows both a no vote on the recall, and a vote for replacement if the recall passes, I am using my back up for Bustamante. I’ve respected him for some time. He is a good man and a respected politician. Of course, it would be great to have Bustamante reporting to Gov. Gary Colemen. :) hmmm…

Flash Mobs, lastest story

Flash Mobs! I love reading about these. Funny-ass shit!

Blog update

I haven't written a blog status update in aeons, mostly cuz well...why? LOL Well, this is pretty cool. I added the picosearch thang to the right side bar menu, and I reconfigured my archives to be weekly instead of monthly, making just a tiny bit easier to find the interesting blog entry once you are on the page where the search as brought you. Anyways, that's that. :)

California Governor Candidates! Search words: 'california governor canidates'

I'm considering casting my vote for Gary Coleman or Larry Flint. They aren't taking this whole mess seriously, thank god! Actually, there may not be any candidates on the ballot when it's time for a vote. The California constitution is clear that the Lt. Governor is to be made Governor is the current Governor is removed for any reason. This means another portion of the Recall law is unconstitutional. Here's the article:

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 5 EXECUTIVE

SEC. 10. The Lieutenant Governor shall become Governor when a vacancy occurs in the office of Governor.
The Lieutenant Governor shall act as Governor during the impeachment, absence from the State, or other temporary disability of the Governor or of a Governor-elect who fails to take office.
The Legislature shall provide an order of precedence after the Lieutenant Governor for succession to the office of Governor and for the temporary exercise of the Governor's functions.
The Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction to determine all questions arising under this section.
Standing to raise questions of vacancy or temporary disability is vested exclusively in a body provided by statute.

So that's that, right? LOL No...I'm sure this whole recall thang is going to make Florida's hanging chads look like Saints. BTW, I don't understand the last sentence of the article either.

Have fun, y'all.

Trouble with Gay Priests? Jesus people!

Back when I was a devout Christian, seeing other churches with gay priests would have been confirmation of my own religion's legitimacy over those other churches. After all, how could a church claiming to be worshippers of God accept homosexuals into their ranks. Nowadays, I'm a bit more reasonable. I shed the nonsense of dearly holding onto modern perceptions of ancient, prejudice and convoluted texts like the bible.

 
The whole renewed push by "conservative" religious people against homosexuals is frustrating. It is sad to see fellow Americans openly treating other Americans as inferiors, using their interpretation of ancients texts to justify their prejudice, in the same way they were used to justify prejudice against blacks and other nonwhite races in the past.

 
I believe that a religion has the right to choose its leadership for itself. That's part of freedom of religion. Maybe it would seem like a contraction against the bible to have a gay priest or bishop in many faiths. To reconcile, maybe it's time for religious people to accept the message of their bible while leaving behind its prejudice, as we evolve into a more mature and reasonable society.

 
Final note, this is America, land of the free. How can anyone be free when we choose to oppress one segment of our population? Let's live and let live.

 
P.S., BTW, The bible never once forbids homosexuality between women. It doesn't even hint at it. It only specifically condemns sexual relations between men. So, it could be argued that only sex between men is forbidden in the bible, and not homosexuality itself. This would mean that it is ok to have a gay priest.

Damn, been hella busy

I've been hella busy. Been going from one thang to another for days now, almost not stop sep for what sleep I'm getting. It's not stopping now either. going to need a break...anyways, I got a couple of rants brewing, so there'll be more posts coming soon!

An Ant Cures Antrax in Cabo Tourist Shop!!!

Cure for Antrax found in Cabo tourist shop, and it's an ant! This picture was taken by an associate of mine in Cabo last year. (Photo copyright 2002)

Nessie the Loch Ness Monster is Dead

Sonar was used to prove, once and for all, that Nessie doesn't exist.

Political Opinion...hey, I'm allowed! LOL

I'm neither conservative or liberal. I find the battle between the two amusing. The terms themselves are often misused to apply some stereotypes. Heck, the terms freely are applied backwards when it comes to fiscal policies. Republicans in government want a free market system where money flows freely and let the markets correct themselves (liberal) and Democratics try to regulate the follow of money for perceived stability (conservative). Not to mention the fact that the most hardcore liberals and conversatives are the biggest hypocrates. The "don't tell me what to do, but here's what you should do" nonsense comes from both ends of US politics. How 'bout no one tell me what to do, and I won't tell you what to do! :)

I believe my rights are protected by protecting the rights of others. The more rights we all share, the more free we are as a people. If you have opinions (whether from the bible dogma or liberal social dogma) about human behavior, then live it, but stop trying to force other people to live it with you.

Commuter Theme today:

Get In Front of Matt and Drive Slow Day.

Some days have themes during the commute to work and from work. Today's theme is cars getting in front of me to drive slow. It seems like there was some organized effort. A lane would open up completely, so I'd change lanes only to have someone else get into the lane right in front of me and drive slower than the crowded lane. Once, twice, three, and then four times this morning. The traffic wasn't even heavy. I only got held behind one red light because of this, so it isn't as bad as it has been on other days.

I like it when the commuter theme is more along the lines of Get Out of Matt's Way Day, obviously. :)

Sailboat racing

The first race sailboat of the season this past Friday afternoon, aboard the Spitfire in Oakland, was a lot of fun. We did well, coming in second in our class. The race lasted a little over an hour. I had just gotten over a cold, and was a little wore out, but managed to do well in my position on the boat. We saw a lot of good work on the part of all the sailboats, and one crash between two boats near the mark. It was all fairly exciting.

Trouble with California

First, this whole recall business is making California look stupid. It is proving that our system is for sale to the highest bidder. Anyone with a lot of money can come in an pretend to be a politician for a year. It's starting to get pathetic. Isis is like the third guy to come in out of the blue and try to pull something in the pass few years. Note to the very rich newbies: Either be a real political or just Fuck Off! I'm against a recall until after the budget has been hashed out for this year. Then if you aren't happy, let's get rid of Gray. Problem is, anyone who becomes governor now is going to be faced with the same issues and is politically doomed.

Second, term limits in the state legislature is leaving our leadership in shambles. Any experienced members are lame ducks, and the rest are rookies. There's no accountability because no one is around long enough to care! Originally, term limits was supposed to help minorities and women get into government, but now it is having the opposite effect. We need to get rid of term limits.

Third, is the ridiculous requirement for a 2/3rds supermajority vote on the budget each year. This is a democracy, where the majority rules, but the rights of the minority are protected. How is a supermajority vote requirement for something as mundane as the yearly budget supposed to do either? It is unheard of to use supermajorities except in cases of political crisis (impeachment) or changing winds (changes to the constitution). To use them for anything else is damn near anti-democratic! We need to get rid of the supermajority vote requirement for the state budget. Even this "55%" replacement requirement being floated around is not acceptable. It is still a supermajority requirement.

If you have any rants to add to this, please leave a comment. Gray (or it is Grey) Davis, you are welcome to leave a comment about your recall if you like too. LOL

Anthrax Detection at your local Post Office may come soon

Check this out! Of course, the reason I care is cuz the company I work has technology at the heart of the detection system. :)

There's a lot of stars out there

A lot!!

U.S. fights Fake Wars from Time to Time.

The U.S. wages two kinds of wars; Real wars and fake wars. How can you tell the difference? Here's how: If the name of the war begins with "War on...", it's fake. As in, War on Poverty (late 1960's), War on Drugs (1980's, 1990's), and War on Terrorism (turn of the 21st Century). Real wars have names like Civil War, World War II, Persian Gulf War, and Cold War. So, if you are ever in doubt about whether or not the U.S. is really fighting some declared war, just judge it by its name.

Bodega Bay again

I drove up to Bodega Bay again for a weekend get away with a friend. I had planned on snorkeling, but the weather was a bit unpredictable on Sat, so we ended up at the pool instead. It was a nice relaxing weekend. On the drive back, we stopped up at Stintson Beach. I'm going to check the rates there for a future weekend getaway that isn't quite so far, even though it can get pretty crowded.

Weapons of Mass Destruction Found?

Enter the keywords "weapons of mass destruction" in Google or Yahoo and come across this site: WMD

Bodega Bay Trip

 

July 11, 2003 to July 13, 2003

With Alice Leung, visited The Inn at the Tides and Bodega Bay, California for a nice and relaxing getaway. Original post/backup link.

Describe the Universe in 6 words

The Universe is "Beige, Flat and really really big." Nuf said. lol

Weekend LONG!

This was a good and long weekend. I took Thursday off to make it even longer. I had lunch with Miriam on Thursday, and then in the evening I headed over to my parents cuz I was taking my day to an A's game on Friday (it's like a two hour drive, so I didn't want to drive there, and then to Oakland all in one day). We tailgated at the ballpark. I'm glad we got there early cuz the ballpark handed out some really nice caps to the first 10,000 people. See my previous blog entry for more about this day.

Anyways, got back home on Saturday, and hung out with Miriam again. I brought for Monsters Ball and Seven Year Itch DVD's to watch. Since Monsters Ball is depressing, I brought the silly 50's comedy to lighten the mode afterwards into the night. Then on Sunday, I hung out with a friend most of the day.

In between of all of this activity, I managed to watch 14 other DVD's of mine, including all 8 Star Trek movies. (Contrary to Paramont's claims, there are not 10 Star Trek movies. "Star Trek 5" and "Star Trek: Generations" do not exist. LOL) I'm still pretty far behind on watching new DVD's of mine.

"Skinny Dipping Pics" and A's baseball game

It seems that my brief story about skinny dipping has stumbled my Blog into the sorted world of voyuerism on search engines. All of a sudden, I'm getting a bunch of hits from searches for the words "skinny dipping pic" or "girls skinny dipping" etc. Kinda funny, but weird too. It tempts me to actually put skinny dipping pics on my blog. LOL Yeah, I'm not doing that, but hey, it's a nice thought.

My dad and I went to the A's game today. The sun was out in full force, and everyone seemed to dress accordingly.  Great day for baseball. It was pretty much a pitchers' duel, with only one Angles score somewhere in the middle of the game. So many players on both teams were thrown out a first! It was fairly exciting cuz of all the close calls and in-field hustles.

So, before we took-off for the game, my dad dons this weird natural colored cap with a stitching of a palm on it. I'm gave him some shit for it, cuz it was a weird hat to wear to a ballgame. So while tailgating before the game, he goes to the port-a-potty and some girl there gives him shit too, telling him "The potties are for fans only!" LOL He's a Giants fan, so it was particularly funny. So when we get back to the car and tells me this little story, I give him some money and tell him to head for the team store and come back with an A's cap. He does, and all was well. :) Too bad the A's lost though.

Long weekend ahead!

I'm going to an A's game on the 4th with my dad. Should be fun!

In-field Babe Ruth

I wasn't bad at sports. I just never really tried. Once in awhile, thangs click when I want something badly enough. There was this one time [at Band Camp LOL] back in high school in PE, the class was playing softball. I wasn't that good at sports, sep I could run fast. Anyways, this one guy on the opposing team was hassling me. He was playing short between first and second. He heckled me, telling me to hit it right at him. He was putting on a good show, punching his fist into his glove. So, I got belligerent and pointed right at him and said, "Alright, you've asked for it! The ball's going right for you!". He then was all, "Alright!" and held his glove like a catcher, waiting for my hit. 

The pitch was made, and I swung, driving the ball right at his glove. I took off for first at full speed. As I was running, I watched the ball hit his glove and drop to the ground. He was so stunted he didn't move until I was almost to first base. Everyone on his team was screaming at him to pick it up! He finally did, but I was safe. Needless to say, I wasn't heckled by anyone for anything again in that class. I'm still not a good softball/baseball player, but ever since then, I am very rarely thrown out at first.

Skinny Dipping

The last time I went skinny dipping was a few years ago, with a couple of cute girls. It was on a camping trip along the Delta in SF Bay Area. I just took of my clothes and hopped in the river. Didn't take long for the girls to follow. I'm not going to share further details besides to say it was fun.  I did pay for it the next day, with second degree sunburns across my back and forehead.

It is very likely I will be adding a permenant link to my website for this:

Strong Bads Emails

Softball

Yesterday's game was a heart breaker. The weather was hot, with the wind blowing to in the field and the sun shining directly at the batter. We started off well, scoring 3 runs in the first inning. The opposing team got up to bat and covered our 3 points with some good infield hitting. They scored 4 more runs in the next couple of innings, holding us to just one run. In the sixth inning, we started coming back, but fell one run short.

I struck out my first time up by letting the count fill, then swinging at a high ball. I made up for it later with a shallow shot to right field which got me on base; then a great shoot to center right field. It would been enough to get me to second, but a slow runner was in front of me, who held up at second. Then there was another great shot to center field by Kenny (who was at the top of our line up). The slow runner had enough time to get to home to score the tieing run, but was held up at third, again preventing me from moving more than one base. With bases loaded, we were one run down. The next batter hit an infield grounder past second, allowing the fielder to throw out the runner in a forced out, ending the game.

Time Out

Friday night after work, a bunch of people from here at work ended up for happy hour at Rio Del Mar on Shoreline just off of 101. After enjoying some mighty strong margaritas and dinner, we headed down to 251 Castro and then Molly McGees next door. Had a great time. Had to take it easy on Sat to recover. :)

On Sunday, I went sailing with Brant, Tina and company. Both the Double Trouble and Spitfire were out, sailing over to San Francisco and back (from Oakland). The weather was great. No big waves in the bay. Lots of fun! I'm really glad I've gotten into sailing. I'm having a great time learning the ropes and going on great outings. I'd post some pics, sep there's enough of them online already at the Morphine Racing site (the Brant and Tina link above).

In other news, our company softball team hasn't played a really good game of softball for a couple of weeks. Two weeks ago, we where robbed of a good game when the entire ump staff walked off the job in the middle of the game. Last week, the other team didn't show up. That's ok, cuz I didn't show up either. LOL Hopefully this week we can get thangs rolling.

Also, here's another daily journey blog I found. You Are Not A Slave.

First Sailboat Race / Trouble with Sleep

I was in my first sailboat race last Friday evening. It was a lot of fun. I'm learning the ropes, literally. :) We got into this one situation at the marker where this little sailboat of ours was surrounded on 3 sides by larger boats. That was exciting. Somehow we got thru that without being rammed by the larger boats. We were on a little 20' boat with no name.

During the week, my sleep has been reduced to an average of 8 hours to 5. This is partial because I'm not getting home til midnight every day, but also due to the fact that I wake with the rising of the sun. So if this was winter, I'd be waking up around 7, but right now I'm waking around 5:30am. Don't know how I'm doing so well durning the days. I used to hate losing sleep. I'm enjoying myself without being crazy or going overboard, so it's all good.

Piracy On the High Seas

I went sailing with a friend Brant here from work. He, and his friends, had three sail boats out Sunday afternoon. His boat is the Spitfire. I was on the boat Double Trouble, skippered by Kevin. I think there was ten people total. We where out sailing in the Alameda area near Jack London Square in Oakland. It was my first time, so I was learning the ropes, literally. There was a video camera out, so any embarrassing moments would be preserved for all time. There's a lot to learn about sailing, and hopefully I can pick up on it quick. The Spitfire was all fixed up and waxed, so (at least to a novice) she looked like she was sailing the best out there.

At one point, the different boats started bombarding each other with grapes and ice. Double Trouble came along side Spitfire and I boarded Spitfire, pelting its crew at point blank range with the grapes. I got stuck on board, but soon escaped back onto Double Trouble with some loot (beers from the cooler), pulling off a daring raid! LOL This prolly isn't something that is going to happen everytime we are out there. Oh, and where was the Coast Guard while this piracy at sea was going on? They where blasting 50 Cent over their intercom system. LOL Everyone was having a blast.

It looks like I'll be able to join up with the racing crew on the Spitfire. Update to come.

Trouble with Burger King

Ok, so I just officially had my worse Burger King experience ever. It's not a horrible experience, but one that annoys. I decide to hit up Burger King in Sunnyvale just off of 101. It's my lunch break today. After making up my mind, I drive up to the order speaker. I promptly order a large Number 1. That's the Whopper value meal, priced at $4.09. The girl taking my order asks if I want cheeze, and I tell her no cheeze. She asks what I want for a drink, and I tell her Coke. She comes up with a price like $5.60 or something like that. I shrug it off as I drive up, but when I get to the pay window, she repeats the high number. I'm thinking, "Over a dollar in tax for a 4 dollar item?" So I check the order. She had put cheeze on my order. That's like 50 cents or so. She corrects the price to 4.89. I pay it, not really thinking about it again. Cuz of the muck up, I don't get a receipt from her. So, I drive up to the food pick up window. The girl there give me my bag with the Whopper and Fries. I just to make sure it has no cheeze. It doesn't. Then she tries to hand me a low-fat milk as my drink. Huh? All I can do is look at her weird. "Um, large Coke," I tell her. So I get my Coke, and ask for some ketchup. She gives me two packets. I've never had a fast food window only give two packages. After I get back to work, I realize they also didn't put a napkin in the bag. It also hit me that I still prolly paid too much, somehow, since the sales tax on 4.09 should be 34 cents, not 80 cents. Oh well, looks like I can't turn my brain off the next time I go there...sheeze.

It always seems like it's Thursday

It always seems like it's Thursday when I find myself here. :) Been hella busy. Playing softball tonight. We lost the last game. blah blah. Ok...no rants recently, sorry. Just been to spent to build up the energy for it. Also, I will be added new poems to my poetry blog soon.

Going sailing this weekend! Should have some pics from that available next week! Tomorrow night is my friend's b/d party at the Tied House in San Jose. Going to be a blast, I'm sure. Hope I don't cause too much trouble. hehe

La la la

Been keeping pretty busy for awhile now. Feels right. Even too busy leave real entries on the blog...but I will try soon.

We Lost, but hey, not by much

More the same's been going on. Keeping busy with stuff. Lost the game yesterday, but it's ok...wasn't by much and it was against a good team. No rants right this minute, but I got a couple stewing, so they may be showing up on this blog soon. :)

Matrix Reloaded

This was a good movie. The subtext was surprizingly deep (at least for an action movie), and of course, the eye candy was great. Over all, fun movie. Warning, it's a two-parter, being concluded with Matrix Revolutions in Nov.

We WON!!!! Yeah!

We actually won our game, like 16 to 9. Woohoo! Awesome. We celebrated with many drinks at the clubhouse. Fun fun fun.

Xperts

My company's softball team is playing again tonight. We've not been winning all that much. I do have a number on my shirt though. 23. It means nothing. Just there cuz no one else as a number. LOL

Got plans...

For Matrix Reloaded this Friday! Yeah!!! Anyone seen the promo's for the Hulk? eh...the CGI hulk is looking too cartoony next to the RL stuff going on around him. I'm not convinced.

In case...

In case I have some regular visitors these days, I'll mention that I've cleaned up my links and created a secondary blog just for poetry and other creative writing projects. Click the link at the top of the Site Seeing column to the right called "Reading This". It is just getting started. I'm putting older works up right now. Just added a poem that is very important to me. I can't go into details as to why right now, but just know it was written for someone that loved me very much. If you have any works you'd like added, contact me and I can post them on the blog.

ALSO...
I'm a bit unsettled right now. Something has happened. Something wonderful, yes! Something confusing. Something which requires my patience and feelings to cohabitate. Something that has reminded me that I'm alive, and not just living.

Beautiful day out today...nice after all this rain...

>>>I"m going to cruz around...just got the car washed! yeah. hehe

X2: X-Men United

Stupid ass title. The movie itself it great. Better than the first. Given the lame title, my expectations were low, but even my picky ass was impressed. It was more than just simply enjoyable. There is a little suspence, but mostly climax. It works for this film. The ending was a bit unexpected. I liked the way they tided the whole basic story of the X-Men together too. Fun story. Now, I can't wait to see Matrix Reloaded!

Infamous Miniature Golf story

Ok...here's the story infamous Miniature Golf story..

This one time, like two years ago, I took Miriam to play Miniature Golf at a Golfland in San Jose. She hadn't been to a Miniature Golf place in aeons. So, we get our clubs, balls, scorecard and pencils, then head to the first tee. Being the gentleman that I am, I let her go first. She bends down by sticking her ass up in the air as usual (this being a family type place, mind you) to put the ball on the black mat. It starts rolling around a bit, but finally she makes it stay in place. While this was going on, I'm watching her out of the corner of my eye, just kinda waiting for her to get her ball to stop rolling around. Getting the ball to stay in place was, of course, a pointless exercise given what she does next.

She swings. I hear a panicked "Oh!" She's looking back at me, embarassed, kinda laughing, kinda wimpering. Then I notice the club is no longer in her hands. I briefly look around for it, confused. Then I realize, she's thrown the club up in the air during her swing! I ask, "Where did you throw the club?" Then I realize further, the club went straight up in the air! Worse yet, it hasn't come down yet! Then, my even more profound realization is that it has now been 5 seconds, from when I was wondering why Miriam was embarassed to this moment (when I realized the club was still up in the air), and the club was still up in the air! I shout at Miriam, "Get out of the way!", while using pure instinct as to where not be when it finally decided to come back down to earth. We both duck and run. I turn around, worried that this magic club (which has now been in the air for over 6 seconds) might land on someone else. To my relief, it tumbles to the ground safely, right on the spot that Miriam and I had just ran away from.

We laughed it off, and were relieved no one got hurt. But to this day, we wonder how the hell this club shot straight up out of her hands into the air far enough to land in the same spot a whole 7 seconds later!

Fun Filled Weekend

Well, I did my online grocery shopping. Forget to use my discount code. Oh well. Really funny is that I accidentally ordered 10 boxes of Kellogg's Frost Flakes. I mean, I love Kellogg's Frost Flakes, but 10 boxes? LOL Anyways, no big cuz the driver just took them back. Got a few items at Farmers Market, so I'll be doing some cooking this week. Prolly tonight.

Had a fun date Saturday evening. Good times. The date was at Scott's in San Jose. Good wine and food there. We ended up in Los Gatos. I don't know the name of the place though.

On Sunday evening, I hung out with Miriam. She's all telling me about this guy. With Miriam, had take out from Frankie, Johnnie and Luigi's mmm

I had a pleasant lunch-date with Chi last week. We both have had busy schedules, and lunch on Thursday was about the only time we could fit in to see each other. It was at this place in Sunnyvale that I always call The Tomato Place, it's call Tomatina's. The way thangs are right now, we prolly won't be able to meet up for another month or so. It's always been kinda like that, and I really don't expect it to change anytime soon.

Ok...after like 2 weeks, Blogspot finally gets my ftp arg...

I haven't been have to publish a blog entry since the 16th of April. A lot has been going on in this time. Been out almost every night, and sometimes squeezing in several points of fun into one evening. Last friday, I saw a movie with Miriam which ended around 6:30, got down for a tgif thang at Acapulco's for a couple hours with some co-workers, then headed up to visit Ronie in San Mateo. It's good to be buzy like this cause it's not a type of buzy where you are buzy just because.

The movie we saw was Anger Management. It was pretty funny, but didn't have a strong story...mostly just skits tied loosely together. Still enjoyable.

I think the next day I'll have some good free time is Sunday, so I'll prolly head down to the Campbell's Farmer's Market to get some stuff I'm in need of. That reminds me that I need to so serious grocery shopping too...time to hit up Safeway.com again. If you sign on for Mypoints, Safeway sends you $10 off codes for online shopping.

I'm getting ready to co-sign for some morgages. ::crossing my fingers:: One is to help out a friend and get the tax benefits. A couple of others are for income property. big moment coming up here.

See...lots of stuff going on...this ain't even the half of it.

Reno Trip II

 April 20, 2003 to April 21, 2003 

With David Erlichman and Miriam Erlichman, visited Atlantis Casino Hotel in Reno, NV.  It was a cool little trip covered by some timeshare promotion.  Original post/backup link.

Waiting to Exhale

Just here at my friend Miriam's place, waiting waiting for her to get her*self out of the shower and ready to go out. So her friend Jennifer is here from Florida telling me about this threesome that a "friend" of hers had in a truck on the beach one time. Very interesting. She wants to move here...don't know why. She is not Satan's Spawn though ...she's working for T-Mobile, but she ain't a tellamarketeer. Now she's reading what I'm writing as I'm writing it. Making me think to hard about what to say next. LOL

Going out to Downtown Mountain View tonight. Might have my cuz and her man come out, gots Miriam and Jennifer, and another buddy from work for pool, drinking and shit. Sunday I head out to Reno. The drive should be interesting...hoping to avoid the snow. In Reno, I'm going to get a couple of free vacations from those time-share bums...and have a good time.

Today is moving pretty fast.

yeah! blah blah blah

Yesterday errands

Wow I got a lot done yesterday. I took the day (Tax Day) off from work to take care of errands and stuff.

It started off with picking my friend up for her dealership in the morning after she dropped off her new car for due bill work.

Then I got a hair stylist appointment and got my hair taken care of. I then headed down to the Post office (a secret one that is never too busy, even on Tax Day) to mail off my tax returns certified mail.

Then got my passport photo made. I need to find my birth certificate before I can start the process for my passport now...but at least I have this detail taken care of.

Then I picked up my friend from her work to take her back to the dealership to pick up her car. Before the car was ready, we ate a late lunch at Spoons.

After waiting with her for her car at the dealership, I took off to take my shirt from my company's softball team to put numbers on the back just for the hell of it, just so I can be a bit different from everyone else on the team. :)

I got home around 6:00pm just in time to catch the Simpsons in the evening, but too late for softball practice. Our first game is Thursday, but I think I'm ready cuz now I have numbers on the back of my team shirt. j/k

::takes a breath:: ok, back to work today.

Softball

Spring Softball is here! Ready for the season to begin in a few days. Our team, the Xperts have been doing pretty good in practice. I know I'm surprizing myself. I don't know...something just clicked. We even got t-shirts with the team name. I'm going to add a couple of thangs to my team shirt...like a big number and something like the the phrase "We Know!" (cuz of the name Xperts) anyways, should be fun!

I updated the blog and utter stuff

This weekend, I spent a couple of hours updating my blog a little bit. I added some links to the right for reference. I have found that these links have been useful to me at some point, so I share them with the world! :) Also cleaned up some of the site's code. Been having trouble with Blog*Spot Plus since I upgraded, so I'm still not really using it. I'm sure I'll get it sorted out soon enough.

Also spent a few hours at Netopolis playing battlefield 1942. ::zoning:: Lol

Had a good time hanging out with my friend Alice on Sunday. Saw Phone Booth, but missed the Simpsons. oh well. The movie was a fun little short movie that was almost like a simple Twillight Zone movie but with a gun instead of a sci-fi element. Pretty good. Not on my list of movies that will be in my DVD collection though.

A Haiku of mine, might put more creative works up soon.

My Quiet Warm Heart Inside Tired and Resting Building Morrow's Strength

Well, I'm working on adding links and stuff to this site...trying to use Blog*spot plus, but running into problems..arg

Thank God

Ever hear this at a ball game? "I thank God for our win today, without him, it wouldn't be possible." Do they really think God was helping out? I mean, is this like Angels in the Outfield where a bunch of angels got nothing better to do than help a sorry-ass team to cheat in order to win? What is God more worried about, a fleeting little sports event that doesn't even show up as a stat on the books OR your eternal soul? HMM. lol And you never hear this "You know, I was playing flawlessly, in top form in our game today. My teammates where playing at their peaks as well. We lost cuz God wasn't holding up his end." LOL I just wrote this on another blog's comments (backup link) cuz I found the guy had pet perves about most of the words and phrases. I thought it was pretty funny by its own right so I'm adding it here. I even added another couple of words to top it off: BTW, aks my friend about this and she's all "it should count ekspecially in Washington D.C." :Supposably it does," I told her. She looked acrosst at me and asked "What about libarys in nuculur power plants?" "As long as you warsh up afterwards, it should be ok," I replied. She was like all discussed or something and hopped into her jagwire or "jag-YOO-ar" to sound fancy and took off to get some expresso. Irregardless, I think she was wrong, but hey, same difference, right?

Trouble with New York Yankees and the lack of some sort of salary cap...

Basically, because the New York Yankees are so heavily funded, they pretty much just buy any great players on opposing teams to keep their stock of great players full and to deplete other teams of those players, thus turning the entire American League into a farm league for their one team. It is hurting baseball. The profit sharing now in effect will help, but it is not the full solution. Players need to be paid based on first senority, then skill as base salary, then paid bonuses based on their actual performance. Free agency would need some adjustments with this sort of system, but it would increase team loyality and allow more teams to benefit from the great players they nuture. blah blah. ok, I'm done ranting about this, prolly forever.

Ok...I don't normally add a blog entry just for a link...but this is hella funny

Orgasm Project (backup link) Click the left button first.

Softball

D'oh, I forgot softball practice today. Sux...I gots a headache too...don't think I'll make it. :(

Ok. a newer pic of me...

Trouble with "Under God" - "In God We Trust"

Well, I believe in god, but I don't believe it has any place in government. Just look at the Middleeast now, and also to the Dark Ages in Europe. Using god to govern leads to oppression cuz it always comes down to a human's individual superstitions being enforced by force over another's views. We have no right to enforce our beliefs on anyone, atheists included, regardless of how small the act is. It’s not even historically part of our heritage to use terms referring to god on money or in the pledge. It is an abomination added by a select few in the 1950's, who's posterity now pretend its been there all along. Those people who don't believe in the god mentioned in the pledge know who they are (atheists or people of non-christian religions), and they know it isn't inclusive of their beliefs. This is the problem with using the god terms in government.

Trouble with ...oh hell with it

Been pretty busy this week with work in the day and hanging out with friends on various nights. However, I am keeping an eye on the war too. It almost seems like a Wag the Dog meets Monty Python with a flavour of Saturday Night Live. I recommend watching Wag the Dog if you haven't seen it already. It was meant as a critism of Clinton, but it seems even more appropriately applied to Bush II. Monty Python bits would be Saddam himself, with the goofy coke bottle glasses and his opening "graphics" which look like he ripped off directly from the Monty Python show. The Saturday Night Live part is because it looks as though its all supposed to be funny, but ends up being very boring and putting everyone to sleep.

Oh, on to what I've been up to. Having fun. Last night hung out with my friends in downtown Campbell. Turned about to be more fun than I thought, but not cause we were, but cuz we just had a fun time hanging out.

Right now, I'm at a place called "Netopolis" for online gaming. I don't have a working computer at my place anymore, so I do it here or use my work computer off hours at work. It's actually pretty liberating. Instead of spending all my time online, I do random stuff like head out of town on a whim, or take care of business that I'd never bother with. Even though I pay for my time, it's still cheaper than having my own broadband access and computer (like $20 a month verses maybe $60 for computer payments plus $40 for highspeed internet.

Have fun!

Time to start backing down from spending

I think I've been singlehandedly supporting the U.S. economy in the past few months. LOL Well, time to start saving and looking into investments. Gots some ideas, but I'm not telling. :)

A friend's opinion

What do you think about the war?
"Saddam needs to be killed, but I don't agree with Bush's airheaded method. That's what you get when you have a hotheaded cowboy as Pres."

Breaking News from the Living Room

Miriam feels like Taco Bell Nachos. She's patting me on the shoulder telling me all about it. Now her head is on my shoulder...rubbing me for some reason. Turtle face now. ok now...the "other" Miriam face. Is this hell? "Shut the fuck up" she says....now she's taking about Taco Bell again. Now she's poking me in the side with her toes. "Why are you ignoring me?" Ok...that's the latest.