Photo Summary 001

I shall use photos to describe the last two days.

Jia-Jia!

 

Shaved Ice, outside an AT&T dealer

My target is the hair on the left face.

In other news:

Obama gives free reign to Interpol. They don't need to follow American procedures or respect our right anymore, at least according to the letter of the law. It'll be awkward when people start getting charged with crimes legal in the US but not overseas, say, possession of certain publications banned everywhere but here.

Christmas wood fire ridiculousness. Liberals pass all sorts of laws for the stupidest reasons. If I have a fireplace, I'm going to use it. Oh, but my smoke might cause asthma attacks, you say? YOUR FUCKING CAR EXHAUST CAUSES FUCKING ASTHMA ATTACKS!

Destinations

There's a well know hiking trail in the San Gabriel Mountains where I live called East Fork Trail. About 5-6 miles up this trail is a bridge, called the Bridge to Nowhere. I've made several attempts to reach this bridge during this past year, all failing due to several reasons, mostly getting lost, but yesterday, I finally made it.

Previous attempts have all been overnight backpacking trips, but this trip was a pack light dayhike specifically targeted at this bridge, do-or-die. I even brought along a woman(first time hiker) as extra incentive to see it through, that I wouldn't risk shaming myself in front of her by not reaching the stated goal.

I think she had fun, but God knows how well I know womenfolk's minds.

About as well as I know the air speed of a swallow(an African or European swallow?).

It's a good hike, provided dry passage can be found over the many river crossings. Those more accident prone might be better served by bringing a helmet, as there are loose rocks present along the trail that could come down on your heads.

Highly recommended.

In other news:

I saw Sherlock Holmes today. Good movie, though not much of a mystery. I was hoping for something more true to the book, what with some sort of puzzle or something for the audience to work through, but the result was acceptable. The ending is open ended enough for a sequel, but probably with a different villain than the one this movie hints at.

An Eve of Philosophy

It's an hour and a half till Christmas Day as I type this.

I purchased and watched Ghost in the Shell the movie today. I finished it about 5 minutes ago, and it has left me in a pensive and contemplative mood. I've watched Ghost in the Shell before. I'm actually quite the fan of the works of Masamune Shirow(the creator of GITS). His works are always extremely philosophical and much more serious than one might garner at first glance.

The remastered 2.0 version just cuts in some completely unnecessary CG shots, which seem entirely out of place. I prefer the original.

Cognito ergo sum. I think, therefore, I am. I do not question my existence. I question the "how" of my existence. The question of what existence is and what come after it does not cross my mind every day, but it is always riding there, niggling me in the back of my brain. How does a collection of nerves and synapses make up what I am? When does the physical cross over to the metaphysical?

And even if I had the answer, would said collection of nerves and synapses have the ability to understand it? Especially when it can barely understand higher level mathematics?

Enough of this...off to do something else.


In other news:

I purchased my own copy of Scrabble today. Then, I realized that it would make a good present for my cousins in Taiwan, who are learning English. Whether or not they'll like it is a different matter.

I also purchased Super Mario Bros. Wii for my older cousin, who brought a Region 1 Wii back to Taiwan, then realized that it couldn't play Region 3 game disks. I'm tempted to play it myself, but I'll wait till I get back to Asia and play it with her.

As a last note: How lonely is a man who will spend Christmas Eve playing games with equally lonely men over Skype?

Last day to prove how naughty or nice you were this year

Had a long, eventful, and somewhat time constrained day today.

Worked in the morning, which was, again, a bust. Took the car to Goodyear Gemini to get the 80k tune up and to have the rear shocks replaced(total came out to about six Benjamins($600USD), ouch. Picked up some Moleskines at Barnes and Noble($8USD) and went to get both a regular flu shot and an H1N1 shot(which literally took about 2 mins, from walking in to walking out) at a private clinic ($20USD apiece).

Visited Turners Outdoorsman in West Covina, nearly put the money down for a Ruger 10/22 rifle that was on sale for $250(Still might do it, if they're open tomorrow) and fondled a couple of Mk IIIs.

A bit pricey for me though. At the moment, anyway.

Discovered my iPhone mysteriously died in my pocket. Unable to revive.

Made it back to Goodyear with 5 minutes to spare to pick up the car, plugged the iPhone in, then drove to Toys-R-Us to check out some stuffed animals, which were unbelievably expensive for some Made in China cloth bags stuffed with fluff.

iPhone was still dead upon return to car.
Returned home, resuscitated iPhone(hold both home and lock buttons for 10 seconds).

Now Blogging.


In other news:

North America Aerospace Defense Command(NORAD) Santa Tracker comes online in around 3.5 hours.

That's right, that NORAD, that Santa.
Track Santa here.

And I do believe that I just wrote an entire blog post without using the word "I."
Except in the sentence of declaration of such before this one, of course.

What I want for Christmas...

Didn't have much in the way of adventures or opinionations(I know that's not a word, but I expect ya'll to understand what it does mean) today/yesterday, but I saw something awesome while I was browsing around on CheaperThanDirt. And I now have something to post about.

African Blesbok hides, how manly is that.

If people walked into my room and saw that hanging on my wall, they'd surely say "Now this is the room of a Man."

But if that won't do, I've been eyeballing the Ruger Mk II and the Mk III Target model. I don't really like the tapered barrels of the standard models.

That said, I'd be happy with a brick of .22's or a box of .45s too!

In other news:

It seems like Obamacare is inevitable at this point. Anyone want to make a bet that it fails terribly and drags the country down with it?

That ****er

So Nan decided to start a blog. Even after bagging on my blog. But there are no hard feelings. In fact, I'm happy he started a blog. I hope he has the dedication and will to keep on with it.

Because now I can bag on his blog.

Mother****er.

Board Games

Today, I played several board games, something I have not done in quite some time.

After a short and unfortunately uneventful work day/morning, I purchased and half installed a deadbolt on my closet door. I say half installed because my father drove off with the remaining tools I needed to drill a deeper hole for the bolt. I expect to organize the walk-in over the week and move most of the dangerous gear in there, while at the same time organizing the closet that contains my clothes. Also, I'm current looking into a more secure door system than just the deadbolt due to storage of weapons and ammunition. I'd get a safe, but most of the safes of the capacity I want won't fit through my closet door, not to mention there's no way I'd be able to carry it up there in the first place. I'd really rather just secure the door.

After installing the lock, I went over to Nan's, where i watched him install his own new lock on his bedroom door. I suppose he got tired of his mother barging in at random times.

We then went off to visit A mutual friend of ours, who then became host of a small gathering of friends in her kitchen/living room. We had homemade crepe and vegetarian(ugh!) lasagna while playing through several games of Munchkins, LIFE, and Scrabble.

With so much emphasis these days on co-op/multiplayer video games, I wonder if many have lost touch with the lower tech base games. I mean, getting a 35/6 K/D spread in Halo is great and all, but do you get the same "things to do before you die" satisfaction as when you use all seven letter tiles in a game of Scrabble and earn that 50 point premium?




In other news:

My car, Claus, is informing me of the fact that she is now 200 miles overdue for Service B, whatever the hell that is. I'll need to take her in either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Oh, and I totally forgot to drop off the dry cleaning today. I'll do that tomorrow, depending on work.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Making New Friends

There are some people out there who get nervous and scared when meeting new people. I think I used to be one of them. Nowadays, I can't imagine anything more enjoyable.

The last week, I got to know two new people. I got to conversat'n with them and took the opportunity to pick their minds and understand how they think. I think we hit it off well. One can never have enough friends, they say. As a plus, one of them is now an avid reader of this blog!(or so he claims.) But I think the best reason to make new friends is so that they might introduce you to their other friends. Then, you can have more friends!

Be selective though. It is as they say: You can't choose your relations, but you can choose your friends.

But since we're on the topic of friends, let's have a discussion of the recent advances in friend-making technologies. As far as I know, the best way of starting good, long lasting friendships is through the old-fashioned, tried-and true "friend-of-a-friend" method. This method has been used for as long as humankind has been around. But recent(relative to the existence of humankind) advances like telephones(cellphones increasing the technological benefit by a exponential factor of 5ish) and the internet have improved upon this friend-of-a-friend method. All the myriad of new networking sites(Facebook, MySpace, and, God forbid, Classmates.com) have made it easier to keep in touch with friends, old and new, and the potential benefits of these sites to stalkers and authorities alike cannot be discounted.

However, as time goes on and the world becomes more wired to this thing called the internet, can you imagine the possibility that one day, your friends will only be identified by a 'net handle? It's already happening, on instant messaging applications, through email, on gaming networks...

If it happens that one day, the world becomes immersed in virtual reality, in the tradition of Surrogates and The Matrix, do you realize that it is not beyond belief that your child's future BFF will be an entity named 1337aCer2092?

In other news:

Why the hell does everyone believe I'm gay? Is it because I'm not as homophobic as you are? Post your reasoning in the comments, so that I might either come out of the closet(unlikely) or go slap you across the face with a trout(much more likely).

On the other hand, if I was gay, are there any hot women out there who might wish to try and cure my gay? Hypothetically speaking, of course.


Tag teams are allowed, even encouraged.

Imma call you...Irena

Today(technically yesterday now) I picked up that Christmas gift to myself that I purchased eleven days ago(see post: Rain Over Me). Beautiful.

A Soviet-made 1933 Mosin Nagant 91/30. The receiver is a Hex-type rather than Round-Type, and the markings indicates it was made at Izhevsk Arsenal.

I have named her Irena, for two reasons.

One: it's a Russian name.

Two: Izhevsk and Irena both start with the letter "i."

Now I need to get the ammo to feed her with. Did you know that lots of Soviet-era ammunition was shipped in sealed spam cans? You actually need a can opener to get to it. Think of the tactical implications. That's socialist decision making for you.

I will leave you all with this link to a Mosin Nagant vs AK vs AR(M-16) comparison. It definitively proves the Mosin Nagant is the superior weapon.


In other news:

I'm leaving for Asia on New Year's Day. Requests are accepted first come first serve, and by feasibility.

What I like about Mormons

I'm not a religious person. That said, I do believe there's something out there, and I do believe that the very existence of the universe is not something that happened at random.

I believe religion and belief are two different things, and religion is not something I really practice. Actually, I am of the mind that religions have caused more trouble than good, what with all the religious conflicts throughout history, but occasionally I will run across something I find particularly useful, yet related to religion.

If any of you are curious, what religious leanings I do have gravitate toward Shinto, Taoism, and Zen Buddhism. I find them more...serene, for lack of a better word, than other religions I've encountered, but that's a post for another time.

Anyways. So I was surfing the net while on a long (emphasis on long) break from studying for finals, and I ran across some mentions of a survival preparedness guide published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints(the Mormons, to those of you who haven't figured that out yet). Intrigued, I Google'd it and found this.

And I'll tell you right now. It gets real. 222 pages of real.

Apparently, the Mormon Church believes in self-reliance in a big way. They  require adherents to prepare a year's worth of food for every member of their households. If said adherents really follow these instructions, I can see Salt Lake City being the best chance for humanity's continuation if we ever had a TEOTWAWKI(The End Of The World As We Know It) situation.

In the guide is a comprehensive week by week schedule for purchasing supplies, with descriptions of what to buy, when to buy it, how to store it, when it should be rotated, substitutions, and how to prepare whatever it is you bought. There's plans, instructions, suggestions and straight out "Don't Do That"s for numerous situations, nuclear war included(no zombie infection strategies though). Also included are possible situations where the authorities will violate your Constitutional rights on whim, giving you reasons why going it alone might be the better option. Bug-Out-Bag and 72 hour plans and equipment lists can also be found within these digital pages.

Read it. Preferably before any SHTF.

Strays

I had two finals today, one in the morning, one at night. The morning final was uneventful, and since I had a six hour gap between the two finals, I decided to go home and get some shut-eye.

My last final of the day was at 1930, so I left the house at 1900, plenty of time. Well it just so happened that there was a cop blocking the access into the parking lot I use, so I wasted some ten minutes on that. By then, it was 1935, and I was late to the test, and the nearest student parking was still a ten minute walk to the business building. Fuck it. I pull into a no parking zone as close to the business building as I could manage, grabbed my gear and sprinted into the classroom. Sixty scantron questions and 5 minutes later, I was out the door and back in the car at 1945. Didn't even check my answers. LIFO, Last In, First Out.

On the way back to the house, I dropped by a friend's(see post Modern Warefare 2 Midnight Release!) house to chill for a bit before I put my nose to the grind stone again. She was doing fine, but not sleeping enough, in case anyone was curious. She also had a rather disturbing picture of her boyfriend as her laptop background, but that's irrelevant to the current topic. After a bit of conversation, I accompanied her to pick up her younger brother from school, and the three of us made an additional stop at the Albertsons on Diamond Bar Blvd because she "needed" a gingerbread man cookie cutter(me: "Just use a knife, think of all the fun shapes you could make." her: "No!"). Well, as we pulled into the lot, a dog dragging a leash ran dashed us.

Her: [Teko], go chase it!
Me: Ugh...

I ran after the stupid mutt, eventually caught up and stomped on its leash, causing it to trip over itself. Obviously it wasn't very happy about it and growled at me. It wasn't very intimidating, as it was some kind of mutt chihuahua and rather small. Then my friend, who had "parked"(I say that very in the most general way, seeing as she parked on top of the line between two parking spaces) her car, said "Here! Come here!" in that cutesy high voice girls use on little dogs, and what do you know? The mutt went over to her, tail wagging all the while.

We couldn't find a tag on the dog, or an owner lagging behind the dog somewhere, so my friend decided to bring the dog home with her. It's whining in her garage at the moment. Here's a picture of it:

She plans on making some "Found: Dog" fliers and posting them up at local businesses and neighborhoods. But if any of my readers(all eight of you) recognize the damned thing, tell me and we'll get it back to it's owner.

Ninja Edit: Dog is gone, maybe it'll find its own way back.

In other news:

Did you know that there's one place out there that's still hiring people? Lots of people! That's right! It's the US Government! And current employees get pay raises(some over a $100kUSD, before bonuses!) during the recession! So the public sector grow bigger and more costly to maintain, while the private sector hemorrhages tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of jobs a month.

Forgive my questioning of the Man of Hope, but isn't that like...I dunno, fucking over the productive bit of the economy to fund the growth of the unproductive bit?

I think that elections these days have become a popularity contest. People have forgotten that just because he's some figure of hope doesn't mean he knows how to run a country. Someone needs to explain to the man how a capitalist economy works. If Jesus was reborn and found as a 5-year-old, would you hand him the reins of presidency?

If you said yes to that, remember, he's 5 years old, he probably couldn't even repeat all the words of the Oath of Office, much less understand it.

On the other hand, we could probably find a not-as-popular but super-competent VP for him.

Fascination

You know what I've been fascinated about recently? No, it's not women, or guns, or any of the usual (while I do find them occupying an extraordinarily large amount of my mind-space, they aren't the topic at hand.).

Mob rule, politics, and the Obama Administration.

Really.

Most of my friends can tell you I'm NOT an Obama fan, which seems to be something of a rare breed among people of my demographic, if my Facebook on election night was any indication. I'm not qualified at all to give a measured opinion on how the administration is doing these days, and to say that I'm unbiased would be a joke, but I will say this: I have eyes, I have ears, and I use them.

I've been reading my way through the news these days, on both the (many) left-leaning newsgroups and the (much fewer) rightist newsies(or rather, newsie, singular, which Obama says isn't a real news outlet anyway).

The hot debate right now is the health care bill(or as many call it, Obamacare). I agree that health care reform is necessary, especially with the number of uninsured and the high costs we pay now(or your employers pay, whichever. Personally, I'm one of the uninsured people, but unlike most, I can afford it.). It makes plenty of sense that we (the country) need to get this thing sorted out right the fuck now(now being a subjective time period, starting somewhere last year and ending maybe 4-5 years from now), since we also have another imminent "unprecedented" "crisis" in the form of Social Security stepping up to the batter's plate.

But the way the whole Obamacare bill is going rubs me the wrong way(cat reference, ha!). It talks of creating a government program(which already freaks me out) that will cost us 2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS to START. I thought the whole idea of this health care thing was to reduce costs and decrease the nation debt. Okay, maybe not the decrease the national debt part, since Obama's "spend our way out of the recession" thing already cost us...uh, I forgot.

But it must not be too much, because he said he'll have cut the national deficit in half by the end of his first term.

Yeah.

So this government run health insurance thing, does it make any sense to you? Because I don't get it. It's like, I dunno, a basketball game, where the ref is also a player. But it must make sense to lots of people, since they keep pointing out how effective the Canadian health care system is. And really, people say prescription drugs are too expensive, and how for-profit health care is "disgusting." Maybe it's cause, I dunno, the US funds most of the medical innovation in the world?

Hey, here's an idea. Supposedly, capitalism made America great. Why don't we not bring more government into health care. Let's make it more privatized instead?

It worked for laser eye surgery, didn't it?

Should this health care bill pass, in ten years, if the public option isn't the only option, and we aren't even more ridiculously in debt because of it, imma eat my boot(the old one, after boiling). That is, if I'm not in jail because of it.

In other news:

I should get back to my finals studies now.

It's a small world afterall...

So I was at my friend Richard's house after we went out for dinner(korean BBQ) checking up on this blog on the iPhone. As I sat there wondering what to blog about, I was also passing the time over conversation with my friend's younger sister, Grace. I asked her if she blogged, and when she answered in the affirmative, I quickly brought it up on Safari and started reading.

And then, I happened upon this picture:

Something struck me immediately as odd, and after a few seconds of processing, I realized I knew this girl. and by this girl, I mean the more obvious one in the picture. She's the author of Flowers In His Hand and co-author of DUAL ACTION, and girlfriend to the author of The Suburban Dweller Almanac.

And apparently, she's Grace's roommate at college. And I now have something to blog about.

Small world, ain't it?

In other news:

I owe a friend of mine $60USD.
He owes me $30USD that I can remember, and probably 3-4 times that amount that I've forgotten.
He wants his money back.

What do I say?

"Sure, drop by tomorrow. Might as well pick up your Christmas present too."

Finals are Awesome

Finals Are Awesome. Really, they are.

In a "God is Awesome" kind of way.

There is a reason why great men are oft described as "God fearing men. Because they believe that God could smite them if they do wrong. Only Finals are tangible, and They will smite your ass if you do wrong.

Think about that for a second.

If course, many people are just as flippant about Finals as they are about God. But unlike God, Finals can and will reward you in a tangible manner if you do good. Your grade could rise from a "D" to a "C," or from a "B" to an "A!" But beware, should you do bad, you could straight out fail a class from Their influence.

This is why we must properly worship study whenever possible. Of course, the holy text(books) will lead the way, but the true path can only be found through your heart mind. How much dedication you show is key to whether or not They will smile upon you.

That said, I've included this link to illustrate what has happened to those not dedicated and unfaithful to Them.

In other news:

I like watches. I own several that I wear on a regular basis. I feel like those of us practical enough to wear watches are a dying breed. Today I felt like wearing a watch I hadn't in a while. Apparently, a while was longer than I thought as I arrived at my class an hour early and confusedly walked around wondering where all the people in my class were. The watch I strapped on had not yet be reset from Daylight Savings Time!

Speaking of DST, check this out! xkcd FTW!

I is gud driver?

I received my first(and likely the last) Christmas present of the year the other day.

A MUVI Micro DV Camcorder

The think is literally the size of my thumb. It's advertised as the smallest DV camcorder in the world. While I am positive there are smaller ones, this is probably the smallest it's going to get on the commercial market at this price. I had no idea what to do with it. Certain others had suggested activities that are nowhere near safe for the younger public, and though tempted, I decided to do something a little more wholesome to start.

After a few false starts, I looked online to see what others have been doing with their MUVIs. Youtube provided the answer.

People have been zip-tying their MUVIs to their cars and taking them along for drives along whatever road they happen to be on. Very well then, I shall join this crowd.

Turn down the volume, as it's pretty much just wind noise.

It seems to me that the video doesn't really give the full effect of the drive. It looks safer and calmer than it really is. Case in point: Peter screamed the one time he went down this road with me.

In other news:

I really dig this kind of music. Found this on my other friend's blog,  DUAL ACTION. I'm not sure what the blog's about, but the YouTube vid below is the awesome. It's by this Icelander Ólafur Arnalds. Check out his 7 days of songs, collectively titled the Found Tracks at his website here.

Blood Will Tell

Today I arrived home to find a package from Thinkgeek waiting for me on my desk. Inside, I found this:

Note that not all the contents in the picture are part of the package,

just the blood test

A DIY Blood Typing Test! I always wondered what my blood type was, but never much had a chance to find out. I keep forgetting to ask my doctors when I do go in for the rare checkup, and my mother can't seem to decide what I am. She told me I was a type "O" one day, then changed her mind and said I was a type "B" a month later!
I decided I would find out for myself once and for all.

It's pretty simple, but a matter of a few drops of water and blood, and 40 seconds later, you know what your blood type is.

Key things to note:

• If you take the blood type test card out of its sealed foil wrap, you must use it within the day.
• Also, the automatic lancet is a one time use, I made the mistake of trying it out on a cardboard box, then having to make due with a sterilized knife point. Luckily, I had plenty of those at hand.

Here's my result:

The blood is a little faint. I didn't use as much blood as I

should have as I really didn't feel like cutting my hand open.

B Positive! That means I can receive blood from the Type "O"s and Type "B"s, but can donate only to Type "B"s and "AB"s. Get your own DIY Blood Type Testing Kit here!

In other news:

It was 36°F in my room last night. I had a glass of coke with ice, and the ice was still there 4 hours later. The term "bed-warmer" now has much more meaning to me. I could really, really use one now.

Rain Over Me

It's finally started, winter rain. Being that Southern California is a desert, this rain is much needed and welcome. Hopefully it will rain for a week.

I'm one of those people who like rain. I like the sound it makes on the streets, the feel of it tapping me on the head, the smell of it cleaning the world, the sight of it falling from on high.

I like rainy nights, when the world comes to a stand still. There's no movement outside, and the only sounds are you and the pit-pat of rain against the roofing tiles. It makes me feel so alone, yet at peace.

I especially like the days after rain fall, when the skies are so clear and the earth smells so pure. The night after rainfall, when the clouds clear out, let what stars we can see shine through even more.

Today was somewhat eventful. I woke up and went to work, driving a half hour to join a crowd standing outside of the courthouse waiting for foreclosure auctions. I bid on house, got beat, and promptly went off to find my friend Nan(see post Quit baggin on my blog! for pictures of Nan). I probably would have bid more had it not been so cold, but I was less focused on the auction and more on how long before the feeling in my toes went away entirely due to the cold.

The day before, Nan and I had agreed to get our haircut today. Nan wanted to try out a new salon and I(foolishly) agreed to go with him. Apparently, his friend uses this salon, and recommended it to him.

Mistake 1: Letting Nan choose the where even though he's never been to much less tried the where.

We found the place and walked in. Immediately, I noticed the place was dead. Not a single customer, though there were 5-6 stylists in the house. I was quickly beset by a stylist and was seated in a barber's chair. Nan took a bit longer, after making a call to his friend and asking which stylist he should ask for. I just told the man holding the sharp scissors to my head to "go nuts."

Mistake 2: Letting the stylist do what he wanted without specifying the service.

I usually go to a barbershop that services quantity over quality, meaning you were in and out in 5 minutes or less. Today was a different experience. The man removed tiny little patches of hair at a time, with those scissors that would only thin out rather than trim off locks of hair entirely. The end result was that the haircut took about 1.5 hours from me walking in to the lighter me walking out.

Mistake 3: Not asking the price getting a quote before they started working on my hair.

The haircut cost me $25USD. I suppose it took so long because they wanted to drag out the service so it seemed more worth the quarter-Benjamin it cost. I was not amused. This haircut cost me 5 times as much and 10 times as long as my usual haircut at my usual barber shop, ironically not more than 200 meters away.

And it looks pretty much the goddamn same as my usual haircut. Which probably took some skill, seeing as they had to remove the exact amount of growth from every strand of hair on my head since my last haircut. With a pair of thinning-out type scissors. Not as easy as it looks.

After some haranguing on my part to Nan, we drove up the street to the Big-5 Sporting Goods, where I purchased my Christmas gift to myself, to be picked up in ten days. Another short drive up the street and we arrived at Nan's dentist's office. Right smack next to the Deja Vu Showgirls strip club.

While Nan was getting up close and personal with some faceless drill-wielding maniac, I sat in the reception wondering whether or not to go next door and get up close and personal with-...well, you know. I was really tempted, as it has been some time since I last darkened the doorstep of such a venue.

But I had already spent all my ready cash during the last stop, so that decision was made for me. No titty for me.

After returning from his life-or-death experience no worse for wear(ma mou't if num'!), Nan and I returned to his abode where he cooked the well know Japanese pizza dish, okonomiyaki.

Opinion of the result varied, though the sauce tasted great.


In other news:

Tomorrow marks the 1 week mark before my first final.
Getting set for finals mode. Will game my heart out tonight.

Quit baggin on my blog!

Apparently, there are those of you out there(I'm lookin at you, Nan) who believe my blogging is a waste of time. Well that's your opinion, and you're entitled to it.

I, on the other hand, am entitled to my own opinion, which is stated thus:

This blog might consume more of my oh-so-valuable time, which you argue could be better spent relieving your boredom in some God-knows-what kind of activity, but I feel like it's opened my life up a little more. Before, I might have just stayed at home whenever people ask me to do something with them, but now I happily accept and go off with them on some random adventure, just so I can come back and blog about it!

Also, I think my blog gives others insight to how my mind works and how I think, making me less scary/intimidating to them. It is as they say: You fear what you don't understand. This is my way of helping people understand.

Of course, whether or not they choose to understand is not my problem. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

In other news:

Today, Nan decided to call me and inform me of his boredom(something he usually regrets doing after-the-fact). I decided that he should go to work with me. And he did.

Nan working on a ceiling fan

 

Me demo-ing a set of kitchen cabinets

Nan grabbing some tools.

Note to self: get a haircut.

School Funds

(warning: rant)

I've been at Cal State Fullerton for four fall semesters now. Every winter, nearing finals week, I see the school setting up a ramp made of snow for sledding on, giving students a little winter's cheer before the stress of finals starts building up. This year is no different. I took this picture two days ago.

However, there is something different this year. Not about the slide, but about the school.

Having been diligently following my school-provided schedule for graduating in four years, I only need to take five more classes(one semester's worth) before I finish my requirements for graduation. This coming semester, two of those classes do not exist.

Not because "Oh, there were too many people adding the class and it filled up." I'm a senior, graduating. I get first registration priority. It's a "Where the fuck did the class go? It ain't on the course schedules!" Another victim of the PRK's self-destructive and uncontrollable spending habits.

I don't blame the Governator. Really. Well, maybe a little. But I think he's doing the best he can with the hand he was given. I blame all you liberals out there with your special interests and projects that all require money. You scream and argue about helping people and how greedy and self serving those who don't vote for your bills are,  yet you apparently can't balance a checkbook to save your life. Every time we pass one of your "Save the ****" or one of your "Promote Social *****" programs, it costs us money. Money we can't afford to spare, yet you make us spend. In California, we have state property tax, state income tax, state sales tax, state taxes on tobacco and gas, state retirement pension tax(taxes on our Social Security benefits), state inheritance tax...hell, we have every kind of tax out there. We also have the most ridiculously high corporate taxes. We pay more than 10%(average) of our personal income to the state taxes. Corporations pay so much that they have found that it is more affordable to MOVE their entire operations to another state and build new facilities there than it is to stay in California in their perfectly good current facilities. Which then, of course, lessens the overall tax pool, causing the state government to raise tax rates and acquire debt in order to make up the shortfall.

To cut it short, California collects more taxes than most countries. How the hell could you spend so much money that we're damn near BANKRUPT!? Now they have to raise tuition and cut classes at school throughout the state.

But let's concentrate on the point. The rising tuition isn't the point, as everything rises in cost. A coke was a nickle once upon a time, just as a liter of gas was. I already pay more taxes than I pay tuition. Honestly, a degree at a CSU is very cost effective. A semester as a full time student is now about $2500USD. That's 3-4 months of work at minimum wage. Chump change for a college graduate. I expect most CSU students can afford to have the tuition raised another 30% or so, despite all the whining about how expensive it is. What we can't afford is the cutting of classes. The situation is different at UC schools, where students pay on average twice as much as I do at Fullerton, but the point remains the same:

Cutting classes.

We already paid our money for our classes, now you tell us they aren't available? Where did all the money go?! Cut all the school activities and non-essentials you want, but keep the classes running. It's a loss, I understand, if we don't have sports teams and other school-funded activities, but it's an acceptable trade off to keep the most essential activities alive. We do go to school for SCHOOLING after all. If cutting all the non-essential student life activities out there today could allow the school to open even just 5 more classes, would it not be worth it? Especially to those students standing in the walkways desperately trying to add classes those first few days of school? Sure, I wouldn't have that hottie who says she's number 3 on the waiting list trying to seduce me into dropping a class, but that's beside the point(I didn't need that class anyway, it was only a filler).

Divert those goddamn school funds into schooling, or there's going to be a lot of pissed off super-seniors in the coming few years. I might even be one of them unless I change my concentration, since the classes I need to graduate DON'T EVEN EXIST ANYMORE!

Fuck your snow slide, give me my finance class back.

Ninja Assassin - A Review

If ninjas were as powerful and as numerous as they were in the movie, I'm surprised we aren't all sitting in seiza while eating udon noodles speaking Japanese to each other. Really, with that kind of power, they could have conquered the world already. A hundred pounds of gold? They should just knock over Fort Knox, there should be almost a million pounds in there. That's ten thousand assassinations, more than enough to make any gold-hungry ninja's day.

That said, the movie sucked balls. I don't care a wit that Rain was the protagonist or whatever, because really, neither of the two people in the theater watching the movie knew what the heck Rain looked like anyway.

And I say that with certainty, 'cause I was one of those two people. The other is the one taking the picture.

The only person I really cared about was Han(I don't know his real name, but he's Han from Tokyo Drift and Better Luck Tomorrow), who only showed up in the first scene anyway. Not that he could show up later on anyway, seeing as the first scene was pretty terminal for him.

But the movie does have its merits. It was fun to watch while making snarky comments about how venerable old ninja masters spoke English but named all his students in Japanese. The action was almost non-stop, and I say almost because the producers decided they needed to insert some totally unnecessary back-story and plot into a bloody ninja film. Speaking of blood, if the amount show is not enough to satisfy you, I doubt anything will, because I will tell you right now, from experience, the human body does not contain that much blood. Really. And for so much to come pouring out of a body, it should have bits of other stuff in it, like shit, because nothing complements the smell of a nice puddle of blood like the smell of warm shit mixed in.

Oh, and the movie had another point in its favor. It reminded me how out of shape I am. Will be getting right on that as soon as finals are over.

Whiskey

(warning: advertisement post)
The solution to all of life's medical problems.

Whiskey, 'cause if it can't cure it, it can sure make you feel better about it.

For as long as I can remember, every time I came down with some sort of sickness, I'd be given a shot of whiskey, gargle half, swallow half. Whatever it was, I've never been bed ridden longer than a day. I've tried Tylenol and Advil and God knows what else, but whiskey has been the most consistent and best working cure for me. You can use it for damn near anything. No rubbing alcohol? No problem. Feeling cold? Have a swig. Sore throat? Whiskey can help!

Why, just yesterday, I had some kinda cold/flu type deal. Fever, aches, stiff muscles and joints. Two shots and 15 hours later, I'm feeling like I usually do.

Hell, if I caught the swine flu, I'd know the first thing I'd turn to, and it ain't that Tamil-flu shit. That shit is for suckers. Ain't nothing resistant to good old-fashioned Jack Daniels.

You can use Whiskey for more that your everyday medical needs.

Every time I'm out in the woods backpacking, I always have a flask of good old Uncle Jack in my side pocket. Bear repellent, dontcha know.

You can use it to start fires and strip paint, and you can even use it as a sexual aid! Few things can get a girl into bed faster than "drunk." (Whether or not you're in that bed is not guaranteed.) For the ladies out there, if you're tired of a man pestering you, well, few things can stop a man in his tracks like "passed out." (Whether or not he passed out in a toilet stall of the ladies bathroom with Sharpie marker on his pale hairy behind is up to you.) If that isn't a good reason to go out and get a bottle, I don't know what is.

And above(below) all, good whiskey is goddamn tasty!

Steamers

Went out on Saturday night for the first time in a long while. A couple of my friends wanted to go to a jazz bar, and invited a group of us to go. And so we did.

One Car, Three Stooges, taken after the fact

We met up at a restaurant in Anaheim, K'ya (pronounced KAI-YA, supposedly Hawaiian). The theme of the food there is street food from around the world. The fare was simple, but delicious, and cheaper than you might expect, considering the ambiance and location. A good place for a date.

I commented that the restaurant must save a bundle on washing dishes, since the victuals were all served on paper, like real street food.

Images:
Left, Top: Jamaican Jerk
Left, Center: Grilled Scallops and Shooms

Right: Loco Moco

After our meal, we headed out to the jazz club. This is the moment where a (somewhat) monumental event took place: I used the compass on my iPhone practically for the first time. I was told to go North on Harbor Blvd, and had a bit of trouble figuring out north without being able to see near by landmarks, so I whipped out the iPhone and promptly made a U-turn. Another car was not so lucky; they were tardy by a half hour.


When we arrived at Steamers, located in downtown Fullerton, we(as in, our car) was unsure as to where to park, I was sure that there was much parking available, but nowhere as close as we wished it to be, being that Steamers was located in the popular SOCO night district. So we found a place in a back alley to park, hoping to whatever deities were out there that the car would be safe.

We entered Steamers, which was packed to the gills. Thankfully, we had a reservation(under the name Lazarus(spelling?), really.) and we had a space for ten prepared close to the stage. 

The theme for the night was Latin Jazz. The band(the name of which I don't recall) was good, and got better after I got a couple drinks into me. I had the house's Blue Note Martini(strong, sweet, recommended) and a Jack an' Coke(what's there to say, it's a Jack an' Coke). The rule I have for bars is to always try the house special first. The said, after comparing everyone's drinks, the Sangria sucked, but the appletini was candy-liciousness, but not at all manly.

There was no dance floor, but two of our friends managed to find a space and had a coupla steps. The space looks bigger than it really is, mostly just a strip two feet across and five feet long. They made what they could of it.

I really enjoyed music, just closing my eyes and letting the sounds invade my head, reverberating inside my skull. Of course, the same could not be said of others in our party, whom bore quickly(the youth of today...sigh).

Of course, everything must come to a balance, and our check came.
My charge was:
$8 cover charge
$7.5 Blue Note
$7 Jack an' Coke
$2 IRS
$4 Gratuity            

$28.5 Total

Please note I had the minimum two item requirement per person/per set. Also note that the cheapest thing on the menu was a Coke at $3 a can +glass&ice, no refills. They have an excellent espresso bar, I heard.

I also covered a friend, who's birthday I had missed last week for the Thanksgiving get together(see Good Night post). His tab was $40. For the entire night, including dinner for myself, I spent around $90USD. Not cheap. I only planned to spend half of that, and would have, if birthdays and guilt didn't come into play.

The night was fun, and new experiences are always welcome. Hopefully, they won't always be so overpriced.

Now pondering the feasibility of opening a jazz club.

Gummi Bears, Serious Business

I'm a salty kinda guy.

After running that through your head and coming to all the wrong conclusions, I'll rephrase that statement.

I'm a guy who prefer salty snacks over sweet. As a general rule, I avoid candy, as anything too sweet literally makes my teeth hurt. And no, it's not because I have cavities. I'll eat sweets, but not in large quantities and mostly out of politeness or for curiosities' sake.

I suppose it's more a "growing up in a Asian house" thing, as Asians did not traditionally have the gratuitous amounts of sugar that the Westerners did, and their snacks and foods are representative of that. I grew up eating nori(seaweed) rice crackers and pickled plums. My mother did the grocery shopping for most of my life, and I eat whatever she hands me. Like most mothers, Mother didn't hand out candy without prompting, so I never got into the habit of eating sweet things. The situation has not changed much over the years, even as I grew up and encountered more Halloweens. I never did develop the taste for chocolate bars and fruit flavored candy rolls.

But like all things in this world, there are exceptions. I do, occasionally(maybe once every three months or so), seek out candy.


I love gummies. Gummy bears especially. Specifically the tiny ones.

The large neon green one in the center is the standard size bear, for scale.

I've tried every gummy bear I've ever run across, from small confectioners to factory produced 5lb bags. Nothings ever beat the taste of these cute little things dissolving on my tongue.

The sense of satisfaction I get when I eat them is similar to what I'd imagine I'd feel if I were to rid the world of a thousand idiots(related note: watch the movie Idiocracy, or at least the intro), except the murders that are actually happening leave very little evidence and are accompanied by slight sugar high.

You can find these things at your local Sweet Factory(like the one in Brea Mall).

SkiFree

So I was reading xkcd today, and the strip was about that old game SkiFree. Everyone my age and older who ever interacted with a old Windows PC has played SkiFree. In fact, I do believe it was the first computer game I ever played. Now, the first computer game I ever bought was Command&Conquer, but the first game I ever played was SkiFree.

And it was awesome.

But the xkcd strip told me something I never knew about. Apparently, if you press the [F] key, you can ski faster than the yeti and escape death! So I promptly went online and downloaded the 32bit(the original SkiFree was 16bit) version of SkiFree here and tried it.

It worked.

Imagine that.

When Technology Fails, Book Review

I'm fond of living. Really. Sometimes, I do things that really risk said life, but I really am fond of it.

And because I'm so fond of my life, I try to learn things that allow me to keep it. Survivalist, I am.

There are a number of books and online media available(not all true) for any survival minded person, but never have I seen such a comprehensive and in-depth collection of knowledge in one place.

Everyone who cares about their life enough to learn how to keep it during a disaster should have this book. Keep it next to your copies of the Survival Guide(both the SAS and Zombie editions) and whatever maps you might have.

This book has everything you may need to know during an emergency or disaster, but goes further to give you instructions and suggestions on making yourself self reliant and sustainable. The topics it covers includes the basic bushcraft topics, but also includes simple chemistry and metal working. There is also a section on energy and power, as modern civilizations would not be modern without the electricity to keep it running. I can see anyone with a working mind and enough willpower would be able to survive years with the knowledge in this book.

Get it at Amazon here.

Good Night

Yesterday, I had two planned activities. And I did both. One was enjoyable, the other left me somewhat unbalanced inside.

Yesterday morning, my internal alarm clock woke me up at 0700 because I was supposedly to meet up BWI(see Carbon Footprint post) at 0845. Not really wanting to go to whatever nonsensical event they had planned this week, I made an agreement with my club president the night before. If she woke me up in time for me to make it to the event, I would go. Otherwise....well. I figured that having a cute girl wake me up in the morning was payment enough for me to do whatever it was they were doing for a coupla hours.

I rolled over and went back to sleep. 45 minutes later, my phone rang.

That morning, we(BWI) were to head off in support of UCLA BWI(seems they need a lot of support) and help them with the restoration of some creek that ran thorough the UCLA campus.

So there we were, three cars, 15 people driving some 50 miles across Los Angeles County to help the few UCLA BWI members that deigned to show(some 4-5). When we reached UCLA, we spent a half hour trying to find the parking structure we were directed to park at, and paid 10USD a car for that same privilege(that's two hours of work after taxes for most people). UCLA is clearly not lacking in funds, seeing as they have some 20 parking areas, all at 10USD/car and all having at least a hundred cars in them.

Already, a unsettling feeling had grown in the pit of my stomach. We came to volunteer, and it's already cost us 10USD not counting time and gas money to do so, paid directly to UCLA.

So we meet up with the UCLA BWI members and were handed tools (after signing the ever present non-liability waiver) and given an explanation as to what we were to do that morning. Apparently, we were to remove some invasive plant life from the creek area make room for the native flora to grow back in. Basically, we were weeding, for free, because someone at UCLA was smart enough to slant it as volunteer work so they wouldn't have to pay people to do their weeding for them.

So there we were, squatting on our haunches in the dirt, digging and pulling up grass and weeds. With our group and the fraternity that had also showed up to fill their volunteer quota for the quarter, we had some 40-50 people weeding in the creek bed.

That's not me, BTW. I'm more hardcore.

This is me, jumping on the shovel handle.

I immediately figured that someone at UCLA was extremely clever. Not only does UCLA get their weeding done for free, but they also get the income from the parking fees of the people that came to help UCLA during their time of "need."

Honestly though, UCLA is clearly a well off school. Compared to all the other BWI chapter campus', UCLA's campus was by far the most posh, for the lack of a better word. Having us go there was like asking the poor to help the needy rich. It really was a case of the rich getting richer, at the expense of the unwitting poor.

I suppose it wasn't all bad. I got to meet some new people and explore the UCLA campus a bit.

I still want my 10 bucks back though.

After I left that den of (insert something not nice here) and the group of obliviously naive volunteers(who were happy with their day of "good deeds"), I went to meet with my usual crew of friends.

It was an early Thanksgiving get together, with a small footnote: it was also a birthday(I got him some nun chucks I looted from work). It took place in the apartment of our friend's girlfriend, who made dinner for us with her roommates. Beyond the chauvinistic connotations, the gathering brought a warm, fuzzy feeling into my cold heart.

We had good food, good company, and good conversation.

Never mind the facts, that most, if not all, of us were college students living off our parent/guardian's dime.
Never mind the fact that most of us would graduate next year and have to scrabble desperately to find jobs.

We were all together, without a care in the world. It was a good night.

I wished nights like these could last forever.


In other news, I met a cat today. It was pretty.

Another Friend

It's amazing how many people I know blog, but I never knew until I started blogging myself.

Here's another one: tiffanytai.blogspot.com. It's really random, just like her. She can literally change subject mid-sentence. If you aren't used to her, you'd quickly be lost.

Trance Around the World

Goddamn, this is hot shit: http://www.trancearoundtheworld.com/ Internet Radio.

Also, gotta love the Groove Salad at http://somafm.com/.

Recently can't get Fireflies by Owl City out of my head.

Too busy with Harvest Moon for a longer post, just wanted to deculture.

Distant, yet closer

Just like everyone else in this world, I have two genetic donors: my father and my mother. From each of these two donors, I have additional groups of people with whom I share genetic coding, groups consisting of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, not to mention the in-laws. Although both sides of the family are from Taiwan(Taipei area, specifically), only my father's side of the family has since emigrated into the United States. The entirety of my mother's side of the family, excluding my mother, still remains in Taiwan, and shows no sign of wanting to move to this day.

For the longest time, I had no sense of family beyond my mother and father, and with only two people to worry about(and seeing as they could more than take care of themselves), I lacked a sense of belonging to anything greater. That is, till I visited Taiwan for the first time.

We(Father, Mother, Yours Truly) do not get along well with my father's side of the family. Although their proximity to us is about 1/270 of the proximity of my mother's side of the family, we are far closer to Mother's family than Fathers. While my father may feel different, seeing as he grew up with his side of the family, I do not feel any familial bonds that connect me to my father's brothers and sister. My cousins seem more like casual friends than anything else. For many reasons, this side is broken.

All my sense of family outside of the nuclear come from my mother's side. I am always eager to visit them in Taiwan when vacation comes along. Interacting with my mother's family truly gives me the feeling of familial bonds. When I am with them, I can understand why people go to such distances for family. My father is closer to my mother's mother than he is to his own. They are the people I willingly invite to stay at our house for months at a time if they could. In their eyes, I can see their openness and welcoming thoughts towards me. I return home(for that is where I consider my home, with my family) as often as I can, willingly shelling out thousands of dollars for airplane tickets every time.

I feel the same as I do with a select few of my closest friends, who I now consider part of my family.
MY family is growing, even though some have passed on.


I understand what family is now, and I will say this:

To keep my family safe, I would destroy the world.

Petty Crimes

So my buddy, Alun (blog The Suburban Dwellers Almanac) had his car broken into 4 days ago. It happened in Tustin while we were visiting a friend. My Emotions post was about the drive back from that event. His back window was smashed in, and some of his drum equipment was stolen(not the drums themselves, he left those at home, thank God). I actually parked my car two spaces down the side street we were situated in, but I left 2 hours before in order to give my other friend, Wolf, a ride home early. I don't really know how angry Alun is, but there's an anger inside of me knowing that someone would dare rob from my friend. Not to say that we're special and should not be robbed from, far from it. It's just the fact that it happened and I couldn't do anything about it.

I'm no stranger to thievery, being the victim of such several times in my life. My first memory of being robbed was when I was 7, when my family returned from a day at work to find the patio door smashed in and everything in a mess, especially in the bonus room, which we had converted into the office for the family business. I don't want to say exactly how much the thief/ves made off with, but I will say the first number was not one(1) and it was a five(5) digit figure. After that event, that house truly became a castle. We had iron workers come by and install steel doors and window grills on everything, upstairs and down. We had a security system installed, one with a specific device to detect glass breaking. Also, we got a pair of Rottweilers(Allison and Rambo, though they were more likely to lick a thief than attack him).

That house was never burglarized again.

While I was in high school, I had a car window smashed in and the car ransacked. I didn't have much inside, the thief ran off with my emergency overnight bag full of clothes. No big loss.
Around the same time, I was mugged twice and and held up once. It was the nature of the family business that I usually had to go to the shadier parts of LA county. I suppose back then I acted and dressed like a walking target. But after making some friends in the area, and getting a little smarter, I started thinking about things differently. The world isn't the happy peaceful place that school taught me to believe. I've been stabbed(not so deeply that some fishing line, a lighter, and a needle couldn't fix), and I had buckshot in my leg. These aren't the signs of a peaceful and safe society.

I took off the rose colored glasses the liberal world never wishes to remove. It's not the guns that kill people, it's the one that pulls the trigger. And they do it for any reason they want. It's a war on the mind. Do you run, hid behind words and avoid the bad areas? Do you shake your head at the people who are robbed, stabbed, shot, raped, and killed everyday, saying they deserved it for being in the bad part of town? Or do you go out there, and show them that not everyone is helpless against those predations, that there are dogs among the sheep?

I changed myself. It's made me a colder and more cynical person, but I felt it necessary. You who believe that bad men are inherently good and are forced to do violence, do not forget that they still do violence, and it hurts you the same no matter how good the bad men are inside.

Now I never leave the house unarmed. I dress like I have what I have and I'm keeping what I have. My driver side door has scratches from when I smashed it into the side of a would be car jacker. The last time someone pulled a knife on me, I pulled my own. He tagged me, but his knife was a dull piece of shit he probably never maintained in his life. It barely made it through my jacket. He ran, after I showed him the importance of having good equipment, knowing how to use it, and taking care of said equipment.

If someone ever finds me dead in an alley, they won't label me a victim.

Victims don't fight back.

Watch Over Me

(Introspection Warning, reaffirmation of existence below)

No, this post isn't about Big Brother, or The Man. While I am suspicious about those kinds of activities by the government, I don't believe that I have reached the point where my own government is interested in my activities(except maybe the IRS, but they're interested in everyone).

I'm talking about the older me's. By older, I mean the ones that came before, the me from last year, the year before, the one from grade school. The one without all the experiences that I have now. The one free of heartache and bloodshed. The innocent me.

I wonder what they would think of what I am now. What I've done, what I've become. The man I am today.

Would they think that I'm cool? Would they be proud that they would one day become the current me?

Or would they be horrified, and shake their heads at how my mindset is now?

But this post isn't just about myself. It's also about the others that I believe are watching over me from the sky, or from the depths of the underworld. These "spirits," for the lack of a better word, are all those that are no longer present here with us in the material world, with only the memories ever reminding us of their existence.

Friends, Ancestors, and those brothers in all but blood. Those who I will join when my own time comes.

Watch over me, all of you.

I will make you proud.

Carbon Footprint

 Yesterday, I went with a group of new club acquaintances to a presentation on food miles. This club I was somehow railroaded into joining is called Bliss and Wisdom International. When I first heard the name, I thought it was a pot smoker's club. Its not, but the name is quite misleading.

This being an intercollegiate presentation, hosted by the UCLA chapter of BWI, our group had to drive from Orange County to the far west side of Los Angeles to UCLA, which took two vehicles an hour and fifteen minutes.

I found the presentation somewhat interesting, if readily obvious to anyone with more than half a brain and 5 minutes of thought. The gist of the presentation was the carbon footprint left by the food we buy in the grocery store, measure in miles.

According to the presentation, our food that we purchase at our local supermarket, travels an average of 1800 miles. Their example was asparagus from Peru. The asparagus was grown in Peru, shipped to a distributor in Florida, then shipped again to the supermarket it was purchased at in California.

Another example was cheese, a processed food, which means there are even more added costs. First, corn must be grown to feed the cows, a process that may or may not destroy a few hundred acres of rain forest in order to create the farmland to plant the crops in. then, the corn must be shipped to the dairy farm and fed to the cows, which are then milked. For 1lb of cheese to be made, 20lbs of milk is used, the water weight being discarded. Making the cheese is actually quite carbon producing process, since fermenting cheese is just a controlled spoilage, and which creates methane gas, a greenhouse gas much worse than carbon dioxide. The cheese then must be shipped to a distribution center, from which it is then shipped out all over the nation/world.

But that's not all. After reaching the supermarket, consumers like us drive to the supermarket and peruse the cheese in its open refrigeration displays, which use lots of power. Also, some idiots drive to the market only to purchase one or two items, not caring that it takes the same amount of gas it takes to buy one item or fifty, since it is, after all, a single trip to the market. Why not just go once every week, instead of driving to the market every time you need a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread?

Additionally, about 25% of the food in the United States ends up being thrown out, either as left overs, expired, or spoiled. The landfills this practice creates also makes methane gas.

The presentation concluded with a trip to the local farmers market, where the products travel far less than the ones at the supermarket, most of them from within a hundred miles or so. I think everyone had a good time, and the hypocrisy of us traveling 55 miles to go to a "local" farmers market was not commented upon, beyond a note(by yours truly) that there was a farmers market not 5 minutes away from our carpool meeting point that morning.

I believe the best part of the day was while we were eating lunch at a local noodle joint Mr. Noodle(the iced barley tea was terrible).

There, I had the pleasure of explaining the term "booty call" to a young(16) girl. The president of the BWI chapter at my school, a shy, sheltered, and easily flustered(my favorite trait) little thing, had her hands full trying to put a block on my graphic explanation, at once busy trying to stop the younger girl from listening to me, and at the same time taking time out to blush at my examples and illustrations, some which featured her(the president) in the starring role.

I met new people, flustered some women, and ate something new. It was a good day.