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.