Random thoughts for the evening

I just got my cousin's wedding invitation in the mail. The wedding is quickly approaching and it looks like I am the only one that will be able to attend. It struck me that this will be the first time that I will have been in a Catholic church in probably 15 years. I am looking forward to this re-entry into a territory that seems strangely alien to me, despite my early years attending mass fairly regularly.

As a side note, connected by no other path than the chronology of the evening, everyone who reads this blog should check out Avatar: The Last Airbender. This is a Nickelodean cartoon that is strikingly good. The plot is interesting, the characters are deeper than you would expect and well developed, and there is a 10-ton, six-legged, flying bison. Enough said.

I judge your chili harshly!!!

I realized today that there are very few things in this world that I am more judgmental about than Chili. Let me explain...

Casie and I went to a chili cook off. The even started at 11:00 in the morning and there were about 30-40 participants. Both the top and bottom levels of the local expo center were filled with booths serving out all sorts of Chili, two live bands, and lots of places to get some beer.

While tasting the various chili, I found myself passing very harsh judgment on a lot of the different chili. Some were too thin and soup-like while others lacked essential spices that give that quintessential chili flavor. I walked away from this even with a few pearls of wisdom:

1. The investigative reporting team at KY3 couldn't manage to investigate themselves up a descent chili recipe and instead served chili-esque soup.

2. The chemistry department actually makes some pretty good food...as disturbing as that is.

3. Signing a waver to eat some food is just too troublesome for me.

4. Stripper chili is just inheritly off-putting.

5. "Chili cook off" is code for "an excuse to start drinking at 11:15"

2

"2?" you may be asking yourself. "Did I miss 1, and is there a 3 forthcoming? Would this 1, 2, and 3 be part of a list that may, in fact, extend beyond the boundary of a mere 3?"

This is not a post about a list. Nor is this a post that will be followed by a post on "3." This post is merely an outpouring of my outrage that the weather has the audacity to dip to the temperature of "2." I have been outside when it was 7, which I found quite offensive already, but this temperature of 2 is simply unacceptable. Why 2 degrees? What is accomplished at 2 that is not accomplished at 30, besides my outrage?

...And I have to walk to the dog!!!!

This ones for the nerds....(Walter)

How many super super-saiyans does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Just 1...
but it takes 30 episodes.


Thank you! I'll be here all week!
(I over heard some nerds talking and one of them told this joke)

Poverty saves you all...

Everyone should be very happy that I am not rolling in expendable cash right now. "Why?" you may ask. Why indeed...


While perusing for someone's birthday present recently (I'll not mention any names but their initials are Seng Tang) I came across some of the most wondrous things to give a person ever:



Wondering what the hell that is? Heres the explanation.

Thats right, if I was rolling in cash everyone would have a cardboard cutout of something.

Whats that you say? The red ranger isn't your style? Well maybe your would rather Barack Obama?

Clearly,
John McCain seems like a party animal.


I know, I know. Politics is poor taste. It just leads to fist fights. Never fear though. I have the solution. The best part about the Troy Bolton cardboard cutout? The description:

This is your chance to celebrate with your friend Troy Bolton at East High, no auditions necessary. Your party will rock like no other!

If your still reading this, you have my admiration for restraining yourself from purchasing any of these fine cardboard cutouts yourself. Especially Troy (your party would rock like no other).

The Dark Knight

THAT MOVIE KICKED ASS!!!! GO SEE IT RIGHT NOW.

Seriously, what are you still doing sitting here. Go.

Pull the Plug

Joe and I got into a discussion the other day and I would like others to weigh in on the debate. Do you think it would be easier to pull the plug on a family member that was unconscious and unresponsive or to help a conscious family member decided to go off of life support? I am not going to tell you who was on which side, so that the answers aren't prejudice...maybe guessing can be another game for everyone.

I'm 25 years old...

...thats like, halfway to 30!!!

It has been a good birthday all things considered. It would be nice if Casie and all my California friends were here to celebrate with me but thats ok. I still had a good birthday.

It snowed here. The forecast said it would be anywhere from 5 to 8 inches by the time the nights over and I would have to say we are on track for that. Una loves the snow. It provides countless things for here to chase (the snowflakes, as they fall) and she seems to get a strange sense of satisfaction from running through the snow-covered grass.

I ended my birthday with a trip to my sister's house where my Mom, Darin, Mia, and Quinn all wished me a happy birthday. Darin had to go to work but the rest of us all enjoyed cheese cake and the pure joy that can only come from watching me open presents (sorry everyone else had to miss out on that one).

One of the more unique gifts was a game that came from Colleen & Phil. It contains a deck of cards that have 4 dumb dares on it and 1 extreme dumb dare. There is also a little sphere that lights up when you shake/strike it indicating what dare you have to do. It is the office edition so all of the dares relate to my daily life. They are pretty funny but the ones that had all of us laughing pretty hard are the following:

1. Rummage through a colleague's bin and retrieve something they've thrown away. Ask them if you an keep it.

2. Place your ear next to your PC monitor and mutter "Yes... okay... we'll have to be careful though..."

3. Send an email to all of your colleagues enquiring how many of them would be prepared to respond to an unsolicited email even if they thought it was a total waste of their time.

4. Correct people's pronunciation of your name even if they're pronouncing it correctly.

Great fun and laughter was had by all. Mia laughed along too, though I am fairly certain she did not grasp the full hilarity of the dares.

All of my gifts were fantastic (that last one just made for a good story). Thank you to everyone who sent me something. To those of you that didn't: what's up?

True to form of posts since Casie has been gone, I have revelations:


Revelations - the birthday edition

#5

If you are ever going to get a singing card for someone - for any event - be sure to write something very long on the inside of the card.

#6

Deep appreciation for things often comes at inopportune times.

#7

25 really does feel like halfway to 30.

Chronicles of a Lonely Joe...Part 2

I really should stop with the numbers here because it will quickly become ridiculous.

After being roused from a stupor this afternoon by my own tears falling on my hands, which were cradling my head at the time, I came upon more revelations.

#3

When I get stressed/irritated/bored my initial reaction is to stop, reorganize, and clean.

Thats right, I clean when I get stressed out (calm down ladies). Our bathroom is now the cleanest it has been since we moved in.

#4

If I don't make time to do things I want to do and create the life that I want then my life will gladly be swallowed up by something else, something I didn't plan for, and my time will cease to be my time.

I am sure that life will reveal more as I go along in my lonely days, Una and I taking on the world for 7 weeks. Eventually I may update everyone on exactly what is going on in my life...I suppose that something would actually have to happen for that to be relevant though.

Chronicles of a Lonely Joe

Day 1 without Casie...

I have heard that when people are forced to spend some time by themselves they often come upon some interesting revelations. I thought that I would chronicle my time alone and document any such revelations that come upon me in my utter solitude.

Revelation #1:

My dog likes dried apricots, a lot.

Revelation #2:

If I do not force my self to do something, I would be content to sit on my ass all day long and never move except to put in a new movie that I have, in all likelihood, seen already or a new video game which I will, in all likelihood, not finish. This leads me to believe that I need to schedule my days out more and stick to the schedule.

Riddle me this...

So, I have decided that Casie's tendency to leave things out on the counter is not really a clever ploy to drive me insane. Rather, it reveals her true nature as a super-villain. Yes, a super-villain. She is... The Riddler!!!

(As a side note, check out my photoshop Microsoft Paint skills)

She earns this nickname because she leaves me riddles. The latest one is this:


This riddle is interpreted as: "Riddle me this, why do we need corn, both yellow and white? Why is best on the counter, exposed to the light?"

The can was sitting on the counter. We don't eat canned corn, ever! We always eat frozen corn. Why is it that we needed both white and yellow corn?! I don't get it!!! Truly Casie's villainy knows no bounds!!!

Influence

There are many ways that you can see Joe's interests influence in my life. I play Magic and video games, read gaming and PC magazines, and all other manners of nerdtastic hobbies that I have taken up since meeting him. Seeing my interests reflected in Joe's life is a little more challenging.

Friday night however, my influence was affirmed. Joe had a dream that involved a musical dance number.

One Wild Night

Last night was weird.

Joe spent a good portion of the evening working in the office on stuff for CSS, so I was mostly left to my own devices. I watched TV, did homework, and read until I started to get tired. At this point, I got ready for bed and decided to read in bed until Joe finished up with "one last drawing."

Of course, I fell asleep fairly quickly.

Next thing I know, I am awakened by Una's "I need to go out" whine. All the lights in the apartment were still on and Joe was nowhere to be seen. Confused and disoriented I checked the time...it was 4:30 am.

So, I got up and went into the office where I found Joe asleep, fully clothed, kneeling on the floor with his upper body curled up on his office chair. I woke him up, explained what time it was, and asked why he had not come to bed. He explained that after finishing up work stuff he was very tired and thought that he would just rest for a minute in the chair. Which as we can all see, turned out to be a bad plan.

By the time Una was walked it was already 5:00 am. We usually get up around 6:00 am. So, rather than go to bed and sleep through our commitments for the day we went to IHOP.

What a weird night.

Like looking into the face of...Walter?

So I got a message from my friend Walter today. I am pretty sure that everyone who reads this blog knows who Walter is but on the off chance that my popularity is even greater than I possibly imagined and we have gained a small but faithful following of readers, I will share some thoughts on Walter.

Walter is a really great guy...he's weird as hell, but a really great guy. He is always good for a laugh, or a good time,...or a concerned and questioning look.

The message that I received on my phone asked me how I was liking my new job. Specifically, how I was liking my white, middle-class, not-part-of-the-solution-so-I-must-be-part-of-the-problem job. How I was feeling now that I am an incarnation of "the man".

I must say, it feels pretty good. I like being part of the system and keeping people down. Support the establishment!!! Damn the under-privileged man! Go with the flow of the power!

Honestly my job is shaping up to be pretty good (although I say this after 3 days of being on the job). The training is going to be painfully long but everyone seems pretty nice and I am starting to get the idea of how the overall system is organized. Navigating my way on a mainframe system is trickier than I thought it would be. I spend a lot of my time clumsily typing in commands that I have only the vaguest of impressions of their functionality. It is really exciting.

And now for something completely different

This was one of the top stories on DIGG today. I just thought that it was worth some attention.

Photos taken at the exact right time

Check it out. It is some pretty cool stuff.

Since I'm kind of plugging some other stuff on our blog, I will take one step further. Everyone should go to Lynnwood link on the left side of our page. That is the band that our friends Chris & Meghan are part of. Take a look, listen to their songs and be their friend. Apparently it helps to have a lot of My Space friends if you want to start getting better shows.

As an aside, they are in the process of recording some of their songs in the studio. This means that at some point there will be a CD and a lot of high quality songs available.

Anyway, check them out and be their friends. Check out the pictures that I linked to at the top too. I'm sure we'll do something interesting soon too. (Maybe we'll post pictures of our Halloween 'party' that we went to yesterday)

Strange changes

So I started my new job today. I must say it was an interesting experience.

For those of you who are not up to speed, allow me to fill you in on my life so far. When I started my old job 2 years ago my official job description included "Figure everything out." Yes, I'm serious. If it was new, I had to figure it out. If it was hard and no one else had time, I had to figure it out. If...well, you get the idea. I have, in my couple of years back, learned PLC code, SQL, VB.NET, ASP.NET, OPC protocols, ICONICS software, VBA, Excel, and 5 million other little things.

Cut to 2 years later, after all of this crazy stuff, I start at my next job. I went in today, turned in my forms and applications for benefits and insurance and then... I waited for like 20 minutes.

Thats right, I waited. 20 minutes later, I find myself finally walking towards my desk. Once I get to my desk, I waited for about 5 minutes and then I got my first assignment!!!

I had to read a chapter consisting of about 20 pages.

And then I waited.

All in all, it was a very good day. I am not really complaining about the waiting. It was just a much slower pace than I am used to.

It should be a lot of fun. Everyone was really nice and the company seems like a really nice company. We'll see how things go.

Left turn...

So, this is coming completely out of left field but I had to say something and what I want to say is very odd and requires some preface.

I am a video game nerd. I am not as big of one as I would like. I don't get the opportunity to do a lot of playing in my everyday life and I only make time to play for very important events (mostly a new Zelda game or Final Fantasy). But if I were to credit one, single video game for my love of the whole thing, it would have to be Final Fantasy 7 (just a second...I can feel my nerd status jumping up like 5 points, this might be a new level).

The whole game is amazing. The story that you are playing through is enveloping and intriguing. The characters are complex and real. Sometimes the game is a fantasy adventure that is more than anything that you imagined before and sometimes the game shows you scenes that are rooted in strong emotional circumstances that were some of the most powerful, amazing, depressing, uplifting, or shattering in your life. In short, the game is truly an amazing experience.

I am writing all of this because I have been listening to the soundtrack of the game recently (wait...there goes my nerd status jumping another 20 points). Not the orchestral version but the stuff taken directly from the game (this is a Playstation 1 game and a fairly early one at that). I must say that I am impressed. Music has a great ability to conjure emotions and memories in people in general but I didn't think that listening to the soundtrack from FF7 would be so...powerful. I hate to use that word because it might be viewed as silly but nothing else really fits. I had forgotten about all the crazy stuff that occurred in that game and how amazing it really was.

In the past 5 years I have played probably 30 video games or more. I have finished maybe 4. Strangely enough this soundtrack and the memories I have of playing this game make me want to play through it again. I have beaten this game 10 times at least. I have a game saved in a spot where I have conquered every enemy the game could throw at me. I am literally more powerful than any other creature on the face of the world map, and I want to play the game again from the beginning.

That is replay value my friends. That is a good game.

I would feel silly about saying all of this (and I kind of do) but I know for a fact that there are a few people that read this blog that know what I am talking about. I know that the scene where Aeris gets killed has made an impression on at least 2 people that I know so, I think that maybe I am not that weird (just pretty weird).

Back to your regularly scheduled lives...

News

Joe has accepted and offer for an associate programmer job at ANPAC. I thought that we should update everyone.

Oh, and I will be spending 7 weeks in California this upcoming semester. One of my clinicals is going to be in Woodland. Dates to follow...

Going Health Nuts, Wanna Come?

The other night, Joe mentioned that he was considering starting another blog. This one would track his progress throughout his quest to become a super fit and healthy Joe. Since I too have the same goal, I also thought that I would participate in the new blog. Then, we realized that we aren't the only ones that are working towards being fabulous new versions of ourselves.

It seems that in the past year or so, many of our friends and family members have started to jump on the healthy train. Therefore, Joe and I thought it might be fun to let anyone who is interested be added as an author on the other blog. Then, together we can all document our journeys to healthiness. So, if you are interested in sharing with the group your fitness/diet/mental health/physical health related progress, let me know. I will need the email address you use for blogger so that I can add you as an author.

Here is a link to the new site: Going Health Nuts

Evening Sidetrack Conversation

I am posting this for Joe, as he is busy looking into the price of server seeds. He would like to pose a question to the group:

If you had to karaoke, what song would you chose?

When I answered that I would not karaoke, Joe said that refusing to participate would result in chopped off limbs...so stay anonymous at peril to you precious body parts.