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!