PSA

I know very few people ever stumble across this little blog. I was looking over the entries and I can't imagine anyone finding what I write about interesting in the slightest. However in a meta-mastubatory act I have to make the smallest request.

People, update your blogs! Some of us are completely without a life and need to live vicariously through your entombment of whatever exploits you find a thumb in. To be sure I am not one of those pathetic souls but I feel that we, the jet-setting, are yoked with a responsibility to our socially handicapped brethren. So in agency I beg you, if you attend a concert, go on a date, help someone change a tire or dabble in drug muling please record your adventures for those less fortunate than you. Again, you yield in your fingertips the key to many lonely person's happiness.

On a completely unrelated note, I've been doing a lot of cooking lately. I resharpened my skill in preparing spanish rice, carne guisada, enchiladas, and arroz con pollo. I've also tried my hand succesfully at yellow coconut curry, ceviche, migas and lasagna. My unsuccesful endeavours are without name, though no shortage of colorful adjectives come readily to mind upon viewing them.

Hita

My grandfather would always wear guayaberas before he passed away and I've wanted one for as long as I can remember. Today I finally got one for myself along with a few other shirts. It's as comfortable as I thought it would be =-D.

Contacts

I got contacts today. After Dra. Ocampo, the cute 25 year old new grad, gave me a seemingly thorough eye exam I was handed two contacts to try out. Before trying them out, of course, I had to sit down with Beatrice, the assistant, and learn the intricacies of contact lense usage. After a few minutes of "Don't stab yourself in the eye" and related cautionary words I was given to attempt putting my contacts on for the first time. It took me about 2-3 trys per eye but I managed to get them one. Decreasingly initial discomfort threw me off for the first few minutes but I am getting closer to completetly comfortable with them on. Every now and again my right contact moves and sends my visual world reeling into a haze of blurry inaccuracies. So far I have been able to readjust easily. I can finally get myself a pair of sunglasses. =-D

Melinda

I just saw "Melinda & Melinda". I don't have any friends in the state who outwardly enjoy fringe movies and the like to say nothing for in McAllen. Fortunately Gabriel is as open-minded and malleable in taste as I was in the early days of high school and I managed to wrangle him in for a viewing.

The jury is still out on the movie. It was essentially two mediocre movies cut and reattached with the duct tape of an interesting gimmick. I also had a lot of trouble caring about any of the characters save for the comical Melinda. They were very cavilier with their personal relationships and that's one of my greatest turn offs. For several reasons all my own the movie struck me on occasion but I think that was all in my beholder's eye.

Tommorrow the entire family goes back to work/school and I'll be left entirely to my own devices. I'm not looking forward to that.

Alliance for LIFE!

That's right, you Horde mutha'fucka's! I'm straight A to the lizzle, wha' what! If you bring your weak ass shit to Storm City I and my mount having brothers will p0wnZ0r your ass faster than a virgin on prom night.

As you can see, in my more boring hours here at my parents' house I am playing a little WOW. My little brother was already into it and he helped me level up a bit and offered some armor that I probably shouldn't have had so soon. If any of you want to hook up e-style I am more than happy.

I'm also playing a lot of piano, turns out I am rather good. ^_^ Next time you see me I'll take requests.

Pride and Prejudice

Being single brings a few harsh realities to life, not the least of which is having no one to use as an excuse to see chick flicks. Curious as an explosionless, boobless 30 cinematic minutes can be, I do enjoy a good love story every now and then. Amongst my friends I find men, who aren't comfortable making a trip to see a girl movie, and women, who I feel odd asking to see a girl movie so I have trouble striking that perfect balance. Not only that, I am not anywhere near a single one of my cronies. So was my lot when "Pride and Prejudice" was released.

Fortunately, in McAllen, I have a last refuge. So me and my Mother went to see it. It worked out well for me: My Mom is happy with me, my Dad thinks no less of me because I am accompanying my Mother, and I get to see a movie I wanted to see in the first place. See? Family fixes everything.


Sidebar: Keira Knightly is extraordinarily easy on the eyes. =-D

Savannah

Dylan and I got settled on a place to live. It's out in the Far West area. We were just looking but the ladies managing the place kept giving us discounts, a total sum of 1600 with no application fee or deposit. I feel a lot better now that I officially live somewhere again, even though we don't move in until Jan. 3rd.

It's a 2/2 with 850 sq. ft. The bedrooms are actually quite large and there is a ton of closet space available in both rooms. The kitchen is a bit small, but it has a gas stove that makes up for that. The appliances are all fairly new too. Also we are between two floors, so our electricity bills should be low. The place is /much/ nicer than Le Med and we are paying less rent. A total of 707 a month. So I am getting away with 353.50. That leaves roughly 150$ for bills and food meaning, if I do it right, I can live on a 500$/month budget for a total of 2500$ for life until May, which lies well within my savings. Of course, that is assuming a meager life for myself. If I get the motive job (my interview is today) I'll even be saving money this semester and possibly summer. If I can pull that off words won't be able to describe my happiness. In fact, I just did some math in my head, any job that pays 8+ dollars an hour would keep my engines going. Worse come to Worse, I easily make that waiting, so I can really garauntee I save money this semester.

Also, the common area has a piano available to for playing. I most likely won't use it all that much but I'm hoping to get some regular practice on my spare time.

Waiting

I went to see "Waiting" with Matthew today. Though it's caracatured, the insight into waiting is pretty spot on. I laughed hard.

Crazy Story

So it's 2:30 in the morning and I am sleeping on Sean's couch with the sliding door to the patio slightly open for air. My bike is laid down in the patio so no one could see it behind the wall. All is quiet until I hear a sound outside that wakes me up faster than water to the face. I squint out the sliding door to see what it was and see my bike floating out of the porch. Immediatly fully awake and overtaken with aggression I yell out a nondescript gutteral sound, something to the effect of "Ho!". The bike continues it's journey out of my patio as I rise up and get to the door. When I see the dude trying to /steal my fucking bike/ I close to lose it. I yell out the same neanderthal "Ho!" and open the screen door to step into the patio and confront my would-be theif. Once I get out there he stops in his tracks and I ask "What're you doing, man?". For a couple of seconds we just stand there looking at each other. I was essentially waiting for him to return the bike and apologize. He began to walk away again. So now I am climbing over the wall with Sean's nine-iron in my hand (his clubs were handily on the porch as well) laughing in murderous disbelief. I was ready to completely destroy this dude, and I had a weapon so I felt god-damned invincible.

Fortunately it never came to blows. I managed to intimidate him in time to avoid all that mess and he said "take it, sorry man" and walked off. I almost roared in victorious passion.

Anyway, now I am very riled up and can't get to sleep.

Done

Made into Austin yesterday around 11:30. After a night on the town that I scarcely remember I feel satisfactorily aclimated. I need to square myself on new digs before I leave town. My recruiter interview with Motive went well and I got bumped to the test lead. I speak with him on tuesday. If it pans out the recruiter said I would start asap, as in after Christmas. So having a place to hang my hat would be nice.

I feel very homeless right now. I crashed at Sean's last night and likely will tonight as well, but I hate to inpose much longer than that. My plan as it stands is to do a wandering tour of friends willing to put up with me for a night. The strange aimlessness is oddly unsettling. I want to just head to McAllen now. My parents are obliged to feed and shelter me. It's right there in the Bible.

Can't wait for Thanksgiving! Word up the cranberry fluff.

Yee Haw

I had a hard 7:30 stop scheduled for tonight. I just can't miss "Lost" now can I? My wake up call didn't ever come, or I missed it, so I wound up starting late at 9:00ish this morning. That sucked. Not even 12 hours today. It's not really a problem since I was planning on stopping somewhere between El Paso and Austin tonight anyway, but it offends my sensibilities as a testosterone driven traveler.

Oh, and I love Texas. It's probably a string of coincidences but the previous two hotels I have stayed at had rude, unfriendly people at the desk and tonight I had a 15 minute chat with the desk person. Maybe there is some credence to the old addage. I just need to find a way to combine Texas and Seattle.

Tommorrow I get my school stuff in order and negotiate a good apartment deal. After all that, I am going out to be followed by sleep and mountain biking. Exciting.

John

I spent the large majority of my free time in High School with this guy. Take what lessons that you will.

Day 2 (2)

In Sacramento I was feeling lonely and decided to go for a walk to find a bar or pool hall or anything that would be open late and have folks to interact with. After 45 minutes of walking I found myself in what I can only describe as the "bad" part of town and found myself adrift in a sea of bail bond houses and tire shops...and a Denny's. I needed to muster the courage to make the trek back to my hotel and needed a safe port; the Denny's seemed like it would serve well.

Inside I found 1 waitress and a very full dining room. I bellied-up to the bar and ordered a soda. I wanted something light, not to greasy and not fried. As my eyes skimmed the menu I realized Denny's mightn't have been the best choice. After unsuccesfully searching for something I wanted to eat on the menu I started to look around the restaurant. It was then that I noticed the kitchen had a lot of orders up and the waitress was very, very busy. She had a look on her face that I knew all to well. It was the hopeless frustration combined with the steely determination of a waiter who is "in the weeds". My heart went out to her.

I decided to offer my assistance. I figured I could bus her tables and bring refill drinks while she did the actual waitress stuff. She said she couldn't accept because she didn't know if her manager would allow it. So I asked the manager (who was /not/ helping, btw) and convinced her to let me help for a bit.

So I bussed and poured water for about 45 minutes and got a free Country Style Steak from Denny's. Another waiter, Viet, showed up after a bit and I took my food and went to the hotel.


Made it to Tucson today. I am gonna spread the rest of the trip over two days. Take it nice and slow.

Day 1 (2)

Day 1 of the trip home went smoothly. The Honda was packed up and ready to go around 5:40am. I made a quick stop to fill up on gas before I ruddered southbound. The whole town was asleep, apparantly people in Redmond don't get up before dusk. So I had the entire town to myself, it almost echoed while my breath set flurries of steam into the air. While I leaned on Joycie, waiting for my tank to quench itself on unleaded and admiring the silence I grew lachrymose, some of the previous night's farewells finding their way easily into my most difficult. In retrospect those moments seem so silly but at the time they feel very real, and my detachment does not, so I value them in spite of myself. Humanity is an elusive little creature, isn't it? To be perfectly honest I wish more than most things that I would be visited by those moments while in the company of others. Specific others, but others none-the-less.

I divurge: I regathered my wits and pointed myself Towards Californi-ai-ay, speed set to $LIMIT + 5.

If you ever want to feel passionate hatred for a State I highly suggest attempting to get Gas at an Aarco in Oregon. The process is so dat'blasted complicated with their "full service" law and Aarco's "No-Credit Card" policy. I wound up having to go into the store 3 times for the single transaction of purchasing gas. And not only do they only accept debit cards, but they have a horribly designed POS system for accepting them /AND/ charge a fee. I almost puked half-digested indignation all over that smug little twat's face.

California has a city called "Weed". Now thats worth a chuckle in it's own right, but the welcome sign for the town reads: "Weed Like to Welcome You". I laughed hard enough to slightly veer off of the road.

The Woodland, California Comfort Inn has the worst deskperson I've ever come across. He was rude and unhelpful.

Tommorrow I head for Tucson, or Pheonix, whichever meets my fancy.

Haikubes

We got put in cubes
I was given a whiteboard
This is what they wrote:

In Microsoft cube
What is my major goal now?
Productivity.
-- Alfonso (The first one that inspired the rest =-)

A great sea of cubes
Let fly your neighbor's airplane
I need a nerf gun.
-- Alfonso

Work on, Cube people,
You must raise value of stock.
No office for you!
-- Jim

"Cubes won't be that bad,
Just remember to find bugs!"
We are cube monkeys.
-- Amy (The first two lines are an actual quote, fun)

In Microsoft cube
I look at the screen blankly.
What was my major?
-- Tanya, remix of Alfonso's haiku

In Microsoft cubes
Everyone is watching the
Bottom line. Are you?
-- Jim & Tanya (This is fucking hilarious to a select few)

Tonight, like last night,
If not for Network Outage,
I'd be trooping on.
-- Tanya

Thanks for the cookies
Hey, someone took my guest chair
Cubicle Commune
-- Alfonso & Tan (Donna both gave me the cookies and took my guest chair)

Late night in the cube
Nobody's phone is ringing
I'm s'damn lonely
-- Unknown (we argued over whether the 's' counts as a syllable)

Morning Radio
Drumming in my ear the name
of Saddam Hussein
-- Tan

Perfect remedy
I'll be bringing home today
Plasma screen TV
-- Tan (in a brilliant fit of cynicism)

This is not a cube
I have invisible walls
Get my resume
-- Rob (his cube is a "window" cube meaning there is no wall)

No haiku today
Productivity instead
Oh Shit, just wrote one
-- Jim

Get back to work, jerk
Go, Automate your best test
N'do it right, tonight
-- Unkown (I really dislike this one)

Taquitos, yum, yum
Mexican breakfast, so good
Oh my God, kill me
--Jim

I will win this hand!
Pocket aces are my cards!
Tatiana wins
--Jim (this commemorates a poker win streak the likes of which we had never seen)

Nothing Left To Do But Pay The Caterer

I still don't have a solid travel plan. While I often procrastinate I imagine this is a symptom of my reluctance to leave Seattle. I float in an aether of ambivalence. My two minds simultaneously desiring the company of friends in Seattle and Texas. Short of being recruited by the Q I don't see many strings of events that will lead to complete contentment. Pero que sera, sera, as I often say and if anyone is good at dealing with change it's going to be me.

I did manage to accept my looming future and nailed down a solid departure date-time (Monday 11-14-05 5:00am). I figure I can take it easy and roll into Austin by the weekend and then head to McAllen sometime the next week, making with plenty of time for Thanksgiving. That also gives me some goofing off time on the road. I've been told to spend a day or two in San Francisco and, of course, Vegas. I don't know if I will since I'll be alone and, as we all know, I don't cope well with loneliness. Also, when I travel, as poor Alice could testify to, I burn with the desire to put as many miles behind me as quickly as possible. I usually get on the road by 5:ooam or 6:00am and go until evening. It's hard to stop the train, y'know.

Istanbul, If You Were Wondering

T-Bag, Jim and I went to see They Might Be Giants last night. As with any concert I walked out of the venue only vaguely aware of sounds outside the loud, high-pitched droning ringing in my recently obfuscated ears. I think the affects had something to do with our placement inside the speakers. Peanut-Pedagogy-like afflictions aside, the show was fantastic. I was soured slightly when the question on my mind was resolved with "They aren't actually giants" but I soon forgot my disillusionment when they opened with my favorite song. They were very entertaining.

Tragic

I took him on his first snipe hunt, if I recall. He was a good kid and the entire community feels the loss.