Shoes and Grades

Well, I'm sitting at home right now in Vacaville, enjoying the "nothingness" in a way. Not having to get up early, not having to do homework, not having to go to work, not having to make dinner/food... it is pretty good, except for the chores here and there and running errands.

Shoes: I've wanted a pair of black DC shoes for a while now, mainly to form an outfit with black shirts, black shorts, jean shorts, and the sorts. Finally found a pair at the mall last night, and I'm sure they'll work perfectly with what I had in mind.

Grades for Fall 2005:

Well they came out, and the course breakdown are as follows:

EE 308: Dr. Corcoran is the shit, he is just straight up an awesome professor. Went into the final with a medium 90% something grade, and that final happened to be the last one we took. 5 pages/problems, and after studying the night before, it went decently I guess. It sucked because he didn't provide us with the node voltages that we're so used to seeing on our special problems and even quizzes... I guess that's fair, I mean it IS the final. Haha, I must remember to mention the fact that I had to ask Corcoran a question during the final, and while I was up there I noticed he was working on the answer key to the final... and my leering eyes was able to confirm/memorize some of the DC values for one of the problems, thus ensuring the correct answers for that section of the test... good ol' Prof Corcoran. Final Grade: A (3 units)

CPE 229: Well, not too much to say except that PicoBlaze sucked and this class was really a deja vu of CPE 219... there was 1 good midterm (in the 90%) and a bad one (in the upper 70%) and 3 perfect/almost-perfect quizzes. Went into the final with about a 86% in the class, so it was a longshot to begin with towards getting an A in the class. So much PicoBlazing on the final, I must've just bull-shitted my way around it. I mean, the stuff I knew how to do, I did real quick and with the help of my notes and even laptop. But come the PicoBlaze design problems, it was all over. Oh well, that's the end of that. Final Grade: B (3 units)

EE 328: Now this class, I guess it was mainly my fault I suppose. Almost perfection on the homework assignments (I mean, I had almost all the answers so there wasn't an excuse on that), but come the tests... holy geezes I couldn't make sense out of the material that I studied my ass off for and thought I knew. I got the second to the lowest score on the first test, and only average on the second exam. I went into the final with I think it was a 71% in the class. That class was fucking huge though... with some smart-ass fucking people in there, which drove the damn curve way up... but that's life (and what happens when a professor with good poly-ratings is teaching the class and he lets everyone add/crash his class). I thought I killed the final, but apparently everyone else did too... I got the average again on the final... 41/48 (which is surprising that the CLASS average was that too, I guess Depiero made it too easy, I mean shit even I did well on it). I ended up with a 79%... NO, it didn't yield a B-.... in Brian's words "the guy has no heart if he doesn't give you a B-" Final Grade: C+ (3 units)

PHIL 320: Oooh, time to go to town on this one. First of all, let me say that this course was a bad omen from day #1. I mean shit, I was debating on whether or not to even take the class due to the large work load and time obligation the other class/labs would require. I should've taken the fact that I SLEPT THROUGH and MISSED my first day of that class as a sign to drop it and not take it. But no, I decided to go ahead and keep the class to work further towards my minor. Dr. Lynch... or Joe as everyone calls him, was an alright lecturer I guess... from what I managed to stay away or pay attention for in that class. Here's the second note on this class... this class was at a VERY bad time. Tuesdays, by the time I get to that class, I'm fucking dead after all my labs. Thursdays, I just don't want to pay attention for 2 hours for my only class. There honestly was no motivation for Joe's class, he had no periodic assignments for us to turn in or ways to make sure we're keeping up with the material in class. All it came down to was whether or not you're able to do well on his multiple choice questions. I did EXACTLY the same on both midterms, 76% on both. I studied for the final pretty hard, but to no avail. Where to place the blame? On myself of course. I didn't do any of the readings out of the books past the 3rd chapter, and just studied solely off of the handouts he gave us (didn't even pay attention and take further notes in class after the first midterm). I guess I got the grade I deserved, and the amount of material that I have already forgotten by now reflects the grade I got. I guess I can't say that I've gotten A's in all my philosophy classes anymore (2 A's for the first 2 classes I took). Final Grade: C+ (4 units)

EE 348 Lab: This one was a no-brainer. Dr. Corcoran was the shit... I mean, Bryan and I went into the final with like a 98% in the class BEFORE the extra credit was added in. Granted that we never got our final circuit (the practical part of the final) to work altogether, we simulated it and went into his office hours to talk to him, and I suppose that was enough to get almost full credit. The final itself, haha... will be a secret between you (whoever you are) and me... by managing to get an early copy of the final, Brian and I (he didn't know I had it, I just said Chase told me what was on it because his section took it before ours) studied like 90% of what was on the final, and I wrote all the answers down on my notes, and the final couldn't have been easier. I love Corcoran, and I will make every effort to be his TA or grader next quarter (or in the future) and any upper division tech electives he might teach. Final Grade: A (1 unit)

CPE 269 Lab: This one was embarassing. 10 labs, and up to the 8th one I was following along with Michael and knew pretty much of what everything was going on. But come the PicoBlaze, I sat back and let the genius do his programming and I did the grunt work (wrote the majority of the lab reports). Michael and I pulled off 199/200 possible points on the 10 lab reports... we were like gods. BUT, come the day of the lab final, of which I studied really hard for and even made my own damn notes! I couldn't do shit.... that final was worth 100 points, and there were 1 word questions on the final that were worth like 5 points! I ended up with a pathetic 56/100 or something rediculous like that on the lab final. God damn, Bryan must've been like "wow... guess we now know who was carrying that lab group". How embarassing, it really wasn't like that at all, I'm really surprised at how shitty I did. Still, I guess he felt sorry for me, because my overall points yielded something like a 87% and Bryan must've given me sympathy (and good effort)... Final Grade: A- (1 unit)

EE 368 Lab: Dr. Nahvi is worthless, he will probably keel over and die soon, and I learned next to nothing from this lab except to make new friends (I made like 2) and work together with them as a collective whole, so that way once one person/group figures out something, everyone else will copy it. This lab was just shitty, and didn't compliment the class at all. Nevertheless, Brian told me what to study for the final, which had absolutely almost nothing (at least not the written part) to do with what we did in lab all quarter. I studied the bode plots, and I guess I did well enough on it and didn't screw up too much on the experimental part. Final Grade: A (1 unit)

Therefore, overall my GPA was to the extent of a 3.07 something. Not bad, and fell right in the middle of my projected range of a high of 3.3 to a low of 2.6. I will continue my ever elusive chase for that Dean's List... I will get you one day... one day....

What's left of this Christmas break:
- Mustafa's get together
- dinner with Jeana
- hang out with Anthony
- Christmas dinner at Tracy's
- Christmas presents!
- lots of video game playing

Enlightenment

... feels so good and rewarding. After spending 22 minutes on the phone with a fellow classmate, all that has to do with a bode plot problem resulting from a feedback system - converting from dB to base 10, reading the gains, the intercepts, solving for the feedback ratio (beta), break frequencies, and the overall closed loop feedback gain - makes complete sense. I WILL ace this part of the problem on the final tomorrow!

1 more left... just one final is all that stands between me and 3 weeks worth of freedom from academic obligations. I can do it... I know I can, because I have WINGS!

Brotha Petray Says:

"Procrastination is a lot like masturbation. Feels good till you realize you're fucking yourself."

Well I'm doing my best right now to avoid studying, mainly because my head hasn't been able to get it straight that I DO in fact have another final tomorrow... it's confusing because originally I didn't have one scheduled for tomorrow, but stupid Prof. Lynch had to change his "unofficial office hours" so that my original plan of taking that philosophy final on Thursday after the 308 one is kinda out of the question. THUS a part of my brain says "you need to study for your final tomorrow NOW so you have time tomorrow to study for the 308 one on Thursday" but another part of the brain is still like "oh what the hell, you have all day tomorrow to study for 308 and the philosophy can come in... somewhere... i don't know where but you can squeeze it in."

The landscaping people came this morning and poured rocks over 99% of the backyard, and layed down like 15 stepping stones to form a path from my door to the back door of Cynthia/Gary's house. Finally, when it rains now it won't be a giant mudhole in the backyard, and Apollo can't run as fast on these rocks so I can catch him when I want to get him into the house and he tries to run away from me, thinking it's a game or something when I have to go to school and he's making me late.... he's sleeping like a baby right now in front of his new favorite piece of furniture in the house: the heat lamp.

2 days and 2 tests left...

4 Days and Counting

Well, I've made it through this quarter thus far, and I have to say that the worst is definetly behind me. All of the "Monday Madness" (4 hours of class, 6 hours of work - 11AM to 11PM on campus), "Torturous Tuesdays" (7 hours of EE lab, 2 hours of philosophy lecture - 8AM to 7 PM on campus), and "Worn-out Wednesdays" (3 hours of EE lab, 4 hours of class - 8AM to 5PM) are all over and I will never again have to put myself through such a demanding schedule again in my life... I've often found myself wanting to collapse after those 3 days, but nevertheless - I've made it through 10 weeks of that hell and this is the final stretch.

Not to mention that I've already managed through 3 out of the 7 finals I have to take... the 3 lab finals were taken during this last week of school - Deadweek. What are left are 4 finals:

CPE 229: Monday 10-1
EE 328: Tuesday 4-7
EE 308: Thursday 10-1
PHIL 320: Thursday 4-6

As I continue to waste time (procrastinating from studying right now), I can only dream of the rest and relaxation that is to come my way in the form of a 3 week break, in which will be filled with good food, chilling with friends (high school AND college buddies), and lots and lots of video/computer game playing.

I've realized that I'm a Facebook Addict... I need to check myself into a clinic or something.

I deal with it pretty well... or do I?

These past 2 weeks, I've acted relatively normal. I've laughed, complained, yelled, talked, and done everything that I've normally done in the way that I normally do it in. But the reality is, my life has changed in a pretty big way.

On Monday morning, 10/31, my cell phone woke me up. It was my mom, and immediately I knew something was wrong. My dad had died. I'm not going to tell you how he died, that's just for me and my family to know.

I will be flying out of San Francisco International Airport tomorrow, 11/10 at 4:10 PM on a direct flight for Taiwan, my birthtown and where he had died. I will return on 11/13 at 2:40 PM. Apollo will be staying with Aaron/Lisa in Monterey for these 4 days.

I've walked around these past 2 weeks, carried on as normal. How can someone possibly act normally, go through each day - after finding out that his/her biological father had just passed away - in a normal fashion?

There are 2 main reasons. I don't know which one is more dominant, but here they are. The first is because of my own ontological/philosophical views on life and death. The more I read, the more I take bits and pieces of what I deem true and add it to my own little collection. I've come to terms with death, and with all that I've compiled in my head I'm able to take a couple of steps back... sort of transcend my own physical being... and see that the world is not going to stop, there won't be a way to bring him back or change anything, and my college classes will continue to assign homeworks and tests... I need to move on. Moving on, pushing forward, but all the while still taking the time I need out to think over things, and get it straightened out in my head.

The second reason why I feel that I've been able to act the way that I have is because of the personal father-son relationship between him and I. Rather, the lack thereof. We weren't really that close, and have never gotten along too well. That was mainly because of the cultural differences... me growing up here in the States and him being of a traditional Asian culture decent. Aside from that, the last time I had seen him was during Will's high school graduation - roughly 1 year and 4 months. He hasn't provided financial income for about 2-3 years for our family now, and has moved back to Taiwan the summer I graduated high school and moved to SLO here for college (so he's been gone for about 3+ years now, from my brothers and mom even back home). In a way he wasn't there, and in a way I didn't have a father in some respects.

Nevertheless, there is always that last contact. The last time I heard his voice, was on the day of my birthday - October 3rd. He had left me a voicemail because I was in class, and didn't get reception on my phone. He had wished me happy birthday I think, and hoped that all was going well with me... and that he was thinking of me. I'm grateful for that, because this year, I will be the only one of his 3 sons to be getting that message. My brothers won't hear from him for their birthdays in November and December... or ever again.

I'm 22 years old, and I don't have a father anymore... only in memory and on pictures. My kids in the future won't ever get to see a grandfather, and my mom is now a widow. But life goes on... my mom and my dad NEVER got divorced (well, never got around to it... so I guess I can say that they'll never get divorced), and Mom won't have to tell me about how much she's worrying about what's going on with Dad and the headaches/problems that she has to deal with.

I take a few steps back... and look at the big picture. What I see, is a young man looking back up at me with eyes that tell me he knows that there are others who look down upon him, others who he can no longer see but can see him and will always be there looking down on him. He recognizes this fact, and his eyes all of a sudden also shows strengths and the will to go on.

Apollo's Post

Well, Dad won't let me actually step on the keyboard so I guess I'll have to telepathically tell him what to type for me here. He has been mean recently, he's always gone at school... but then it seems like for a couple of days he is usually home the entire day to play/nap with me. I can't do too much when he is gone, just sleep. Although sometimes he forgets and leaves things on his desk like those yummy napkins that he's wiped his mouth with or some pens - I love chewing the caps off of them (except that one time when I chewed and it started leaking red stuff onto the ground, that was a bit different). Oh and if I get REALLY lonely, I can always chew up the shoe laces of those 2 pairs of shoes, but I think I'm not supposed to do that because Dad yells at me when he comes home.


Then there's of course Dad's socks. I looooveeee them, but they're not always nice and smelly. When the socks come out of the dryer Dad usually puts them away immediately anyways, but they don't smell good. But if he forgets and leaves them in his laundry basket (which I can get into!) or on top of his shoes, they are mine! I am the caped sock bandit, as you can see... they are just so good to chew on until I am able to tear it up into tiny little pieces. It is also good to play tug-o-war too when I can get Dad to play with me... he sometimes just wants to sit there on his computer or just sleep when he comes home, he's boring sometimes. Doesn't he know that I've been waiting for him all day at home, bored, with nothing to do?


I like:
- to go on walks (when Dad says "walk" I know it's time to go!)
- not to go potty inside (unless Dad's been gone for a really long time and I can't hold it anymore)
- smelly socks
- smelly feet
- to chase cats because I'm small enough to catch them under cars
- to chew on Dad's sandals
- the smell of beer
- to chew on my bone that I stole from the 2 big neighbor dogs across the street
- to meet new people and play with them (I like everyone!)
- to wrestle with Dad and chew on his hands
- to eat dog biscuits/cookies (when Dad says "do you want a cookie?" I know it's time for a treat!)

"If covering the posters are the answer, there's a lot more work to be done"

First let me start off by saying that I am not a member of CP Salsa, nor do I know any of the 200+ members of that club. Heck, for a while there I thought the Salsa Club was a sub-division of the Nutrition Department. I normally try to straddle the fence regarding touchy issues such as censorship but the demands and the actions taken by the protestors against the provocative Salsa ads at long last forced me to elect a side.

I’m sure we’re all well aware of our 1st amendment rights, and for those who insisted on plastering the “Cal Poly Advisory” stickers all over the provocative parts of the Salsa posters, I have this to say to them: I hope you mass-produced those stickers. Those same individuals better be running up to those females here at Cal Poly who has donned a cleavage revealing top or a guy in a muscle shirt and completely envelop them with “Advisory” stickers. There is no difference between that course of action and what they have done recently. Only then will we truly see whether or not the students here at Poly will allow you to confiscate pieces of our rights.

Furthermore, if the advertisements are really as bad as Professor Lynn (or anyone else with enough disapproval to remove private property from the public halls) make them out to be, why don’t they just leave them up? If they claim that the ads posed by those such as Roberts showing cleavage is “blatantly offensive and degrading to women”, then one would think it would impose a very negative and undignified impression on the Salsa club as a whole – thus driving away potential club members, especially women. What better way is there to thwart CP Salsa than to let their own offensive ads self-destruct on themselves?

Those advisory stickers that were used to cover up the offensive bits of the posters quoted preserve the innocent… I think they should be followed by “uphold the censorship” or “remove our rights”.

(Appeared in the Mustang Daily's "Letters to the Editor" section of 10/12)

It was written by me in response to this article.

3 III Three

"Work hard, play (party) hard" apparently seems to be the motto for this quarter... at least for these first 3 weeks.

Friday was busy in itself... had to give an engineering lab tour to about 3 families, which lasted a bit longer than the ones in the past, which is peculiar being that a bunch of the labs are now condensed together in the new building next to the ATL, which is less walking, but we still took longer than the past. Then I had work that afternoon, where Paul came back to visit. Him and Robyn bowled a few games. After work and my last class, I went home and picked up Apollo to meet Amanda at the Poly track to jog. That night the guys had a poker game at the Oceaniare house, and I actually did pretty well... came out $28 or so after buying in with $10.

Saturday was a lazy day, until about 5 in the afternoon when I had to get ready to go to the Cal Poly football game. I met Dan, Kristin, their roommate Lacey and her friend Casey at the stadium, and we got seats plus t-shirts. We totally killed them, it was 30-6 when we decided to leave at about 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter. We went to Applebee's for dinner, and then off to the Oceanaire house again. We hung out for about 45 minutes - 1 hour before my group (Dan and the 2 girls) got tired and we decided to leave without the rest of the Oceanaire house. We headed off to Bull's first, where I finally had my very first Bull's Sweat. What's in it? I didn't/couldn't tell what the alcoholic part of it was, I think the last thing that went into it was 151, but the first 2 ingredients were Worcester Sauce and Tobasco Sauce. Um, yeah... needless to say, being the first 2 things into the double shot glass ended up being the last things down my throat after drinking it... and let me tell ya, that tobasco/worcester combination really burned and dryed up my throat for the rest of the night, and the 1/2 cup of beer didn't really do too much as a chaser. Oh yeah, Alex (AK) was there, and I ended up buying him the Sweat as well (his first one too). From Bull's we headed off across the street to Mission, where everyone else got a Tokyo Tea and I got an Adios Motherfucker. We chilled outside next to the heat lamps, and I eventually went inside and danced for a bit, and I even ran into Alaina and Val, and we all hung out/danced inside for a while before we left and headed off to Mother's. We were outside in line waiting to get into Mother's when James came and got us to go to Frog and Peach where the rest of the Oceanaire house was. We hung out there for a bit, until asian Chris convinced me to go to Mother's with him, where I paid the $5 cover and danced inside for a while before we went back to F&P, and Mike eventually picked us all up. We dropped off Phung and Chris (after stopping the car once to let Phung puke at the sidewalk), and then we went back to Oceanaire and I crashed on their couch for the night.

Party On...

So yesterday was Mike's birthday party. All of us got together and went to Applebee's for dinner... me, Dan, Erik (who was in town), Lisa, Jesus, James, Joe, Chris, James, and of course Mike. Afterwards we partied at their house, and let me tell ya... it was some good times. We played fuck the dealer once, there were some games of speed going on around the house, and yeah... people taking shots and just having a good time hanging out. People who showed up included Huy and Chris, friends of James', friends of Mike's, friends of Jaime's, Darien and Melissa, and more. Then promptly at about 11:30 we all packed into a few cars and headed downtown, where all hell broke loose when we went into Mother's. I killed an Adios Motherfucker by 1.) took a small taste 2.) took a sip 3.) chugged the bitch. Yeah that kinda screwed me over but I topped it off with a Red-headed Slut at Bull's. It turns out that they don't serve Bull's Sweat after 1 in the morning because people get too fucked up from it. We apparently went to Frog and Peach as well, but that's where it got fuzzy. Anyways, after we got dropped off at the Oceanaire house, Dan and I went back to Morro Bay where I promptly rolled over and passed out on his couch.

GW's Party

After the Engineering Ambassador Retreat, Joe/Mike/James and I all went to the bowling alley and played a few games. I did incredibly bad, but I blame it on the cosmic effects and the fact that I was on a lane to the right of the ball return.

Greg had called me earlier that afternoon to invite me to go to his place for a party, and while I was at the bowling alley Amanda asked if I was going to go, and I said only if she was going. She picked me up later at around 10, and we cruised over to the party. It was a pretty nice house, and they had plenty to drink, but NOT a lot of people, which was nice. It never got really crowded so it was pretty relaxed. Amanda and I felt like the oldest people there that night. We played Fuck the Dealer, and I ended up being the dealer at the very end who got fucked... rather, I fucked myself after forgetting that a "10" is higher than a "9"... and said it was lower. Then there was the Beer Pong tournament, and I drank most of Amanda's share of cups (we were on a team together). By that time I was getting pretty faded, and Amanda's b/f Evan showed up and eventually gave us a ride home that night. We hung out for the rest of that night after the Beer Pong and just had some more to drink and watched the conclusion of the tournament (won by Greg and Stephanie).

Good time with the McPhee's crew... I gotta hang out with Greg more, I mean we live so close to each other.

10 more weeks...

... until this quarter is over. Yeah, yeah, I'm counting down already. The first one was easy... actually I take that back, NO, it wasn't. Here it is anyways:

Classes:

EE 308 seems to be okay. Dr. Corcoran is a very nice guy, and the way he lectures is easy to follow and we haven't done anything too complex yet. The first special problem was EASY, and they're graded by ourselves... I should be getting 100% on all of them, especially once I get some old ones to look at. We've already had a quiz, of which I'm pretty sure I screwed up more than I should have. Anyways, the class should be okay, especially with no homework, or midterms. Just special problems, and quizzes (which is good because it makes me stay on top of things).

Lab for this class: Brian is my partner, and this lab hopefully we'll be able to cruise through. With the help of Mike's old prelabs/labs, it's just a matter of getting the circuits to work (which hopefully we'll be able to figure out) and making it through Corcoran's demos and quizzes that I think he's going to give.

CPE 229 with Bryan is going to be a tough one where I will need to put in extra effort. Although so far, everything seems to be review, of which I actually sorta remember. We haven't done too much yet with the VHDL or anything new in lecture yet. We shall see...

Lab for this class: I have a sophomore EE as my lab partner, and he seems to be a good choice. He managed to remember many things about the lab and how to run everything, so I lucked out. Hopefully what I'll be able to contribute, are the lab codes. Yup, the majority/grunt work will be from me. How? Because I have Huy's old 229 stuff... of which might be old. So let's pray that the labs that he had matches up with the ones that we'll be doing... (crosses fingers). I'll find out soon if they match.

EE 328 seems to be okay as well, as long as I manage to stay on top of it. Professor DePiro is a really funny guy... hmm, I wonder what homework I'm supposed to have done. They're supposed to be collected weekly, and I need to find an old source of homework for that as well from someone. The class as a whole doesn't seem incredibly hard (so far) and we'll have to give it some more time. The only thing that sucks about it is that it's at 4-5 in the afternoon, and it sucks the most on Fridays.

Lab for this class: My partner is Saied, and Nahvi is the teacher. This lab hopefully won't be bad, with the prelabs that I'm hoping to get from Mike, as well as turning in the lab write-ups in class so I won't have to worry about it after the 3 hours that we spend in there.

Philosphy 320 (Asian Philosophy) will be pretty cool I think. Dr. Lynch is hilarious, and provides these outlines that we can follow. The reading is... well, it's the reading. Seems like there is a lot, and there are questions we're supposed to answer at the end of each week's assigned readings. Hopefully they're pretty straight forward... I'm behind already, as I only bought the expensive ($70 and $50) books just last Thursday.

On top of all of this, the main reasons why I'm so far damn behind in some of these classes is because of fucking Engineering Ambassadorship. I mean, I want to do it and the Retreat that we went to Friday night and Saturday morning/afternoon was fun... but it just took up way too much time. As of right now, I have the 368 prelab to do, the software to install and get working for 269, whatever homework/reading I should be doing for 328, all of my catching up to do for 229 and practicing those problems, and all of the readings for the philosophy class. I should've accomplished a lot of that on Saturday and today, but obviously nothing got done on Saturday, and I did some stuff today (including finding those sources of old things) but I did a lot of chores around the house today. I guess it's time to buckle down, and get things done eh?

Freedom... GONE

Yup, it's the last day of summer. Starting tomorrow, I'll be burdened by the obligations of education. With things in the back of my head like the upcoming lab, the unfinished homework assignment, the midterms next Wednesday that I still have to study for, and the 5 chapters I have to catch up in reading. All of those things completely suck, and it will be one of the absolute hardest quarters I have yet to endure here at Cal Poly. 2 EE classes, 1 CPE class.... all 3 of them with labs. Yup, 3 labs, imma kill myself. Plus I enrolled in Asian Philosophy, which I hope will be fun and it's a good teacher, so let's just not waste my #1 registeration that I had this quarter. More updates to come later this week regarding how these classes will turn out.

So the summer's over, and I basically didn't do anything. The first 5 weeks involved SOME studying and reading for Anthropology, and when that was over, I lost the very little self-discipline that I had to begin with to study this summer, and Psychology class become a daydream class as I watched the minute hand on the clock tick every day and it finally ended. I got okay grades in both (B+ for Anthropology and B for Psychology).

Then there was work... definetly much easier than working at Leslie's, less standing, less angry customers, less of everything except relaxing. Less hours too, with most shifts being less than 6 hours each day, and I worked 5 days a week (if that at all). Didn't save much money at all this summer, basically because 1.) I'm not living at home, and 2.) the pay wasn't as good and I didn't work much hours at all. Oh well, at least it was relaxing.

Last but not least my 3rd most frequently performed activity this summer was play games. SoF2 went great, until 1/2 way through August anyways. Then the game died, and blah blah blah... long story. I'm now playing a game called Gunz: The Dual, and there's always the good ol' DoTA that I've been trying to get better at.

Overall, it was a very relaxing summer, filled with days of absolutely nothing and not even seeing the light of day (or stepping out of the house) until the duty of walking Apollo forced me off my ass and out the door. I've eaten like a pig, probably gained a good 5-10 pounds (we'll find out soon, when I visit the gym), and extremely unhealthy. I need to shape up, if not eating better/less, then I will tradeoff by going to the gym and working it off. Racketball, lifting, and running will hopefully be the plan, inbetween my heavy school load.

(Sigh).... I love it when I make these promises that I already know I won't/can't keep.

What a Vacation!!!

It wasn't exactly a vacation by definition, but it was the most fun I've had this entire summer yet. This is going to be a long post, but it was such a good time and full of good memories.

Saturday

... morning I packed up and hit the road at 10 in the morning. Once I got directions from Aaon, I discovered a much quicker way to get to CSUMB from Salinas when traveling Northbound. Apollo and I arrived around 12:30, and Aaron, Lisa, and I drove to the pier and had lunch at this restaurant at the end of the pier. It was an okay lunch, but the fried calimari was really good. We ran around the bay for a bit before calling Bryan and having him meet us back at Aaron/Lisa's place. Aaron and Lisa has a little female mini-doxen puppy too, her name's Alba. She is quite the tiny thing, making Apollo look like such a big boy around her. We hung out and played a bunch of drinking games, took a break and rested, before we headed out downtown to the bars to beat the crowd in time to get back home to finish up the night. We went to a bar, which was really cool because there was a huge semi-outdoor area in the back with a large fire-pit, where we hung out and got drinks. I had myself a Tokyo Tea , a pint glas of MGD (which was on tap), followed by a nice shot of Jack Daniels complimentary of Bryan. We simply can't forget the horrific image burned into our head of that old woman getting down with her bad self on the dance floor... all alone. Uh. We then proceeded to visit Albertsons where I bought my hosts a bottle of Skyy Vodka and a couple of 2-liters of Coke. As we visited Albertsons, Lisa placed a call for 4 pizzas (our dinner) from Dominos which was going to meet us back at their house. We arrived home, promptly in time for our pizza and a bunch of Aaron/Lisa's friends to show up where they proceeded to drink, smoke, eat (they ate the rest of my 1/2 of pizza), and finally left. My pizza was eaten due to the fact that I was pretty tired and just decided to pass out on the "Squish". To top off the night, Bryan drove himself home after puking next to the front door.

Sunday

We all struggled out of bed finally around noon, and went out to Chili's for lunch. It was a mediocre meal, and afterwards I went and checked out Bryan's place, the suites on campus. It was pretty crowded and not too much room, but not a bad place nonetheless for what he pays. We all went back to Aaron/Lisa's where we watched Kung Fu Hustle, which turned out to be one of the best movies I've ever seen. I'm going to buy it eventually... it was that good. Bryan, Aaron, and I then proceeded to visit the commensary on campus (due to the fact that CSUMB used to be a military base and still houses a lot of military personelle) where we bought stuff to barbeque with. Bryan went home, Lisa worked on a group project, and Aaron and I made dinner. After the girls left, Aaron and Lisa taught me how to play a new game called Demons, and we turned in for the night.

Monday

Aaron had work this morning, so Lisa and I stayed home and watched Jerry Springer and Maury on TV until the afternoon (which wasn't that far considering how I finally slept in for once... voluntarily, unlike the drunken sleep due to alcohol). Bryan came over and Aaron brought home some Starbucks for us. We then proceeded to go out and play a game called Disc Golf.


They actually had a course built on CSUMB, all 18 holes, with these weird looking metal nets that were the "holes" if using an analogy similar to golf. We played the front 9, and it was pretty damn fun... Bryan had his own set of "Driver" and "Putter", and Aaron and I used a borrowed set (Aaron took the driver, I took the putter).

So before we even got started, we lost one of Bryan's "putters" onto the fucking roof of one of the buildings. It took us about 1/2 an hour, but we finally managed to create a crazy rod composed to 2 really long pieces of tree branches and a piece of PVC pipe, while standing on a tree stump, finally retrieved it.


We then made a trip to the Liquor store, where we bought some alcohol and some scratchers, then to Albertsons where we picked up stuff to barbeque for dinner, and MORE alcohol. We finally make it home in time to barbeque and listen to Lisa's study-group work on their presentation, but we entertained ourselves by playing Rummy and drinking Jager shots. Bryan eventually left, and everyone went to bed.


Tuesday

Everyone had school today, but Aaron and Lisa both decided to skip a couple. Aaron woke up early to do homework, and I just slept in and hung out/watched TV until the afternoon where I took another nap and played with the dogs. After Aaron and Bryan got done with class, we went off to play even more Disc Golf, bringing along some beers this time.

We drank some as we went along, and we even hung out in the "Beer Hall" for a while. Aaron kicked our butts, with Bryan being +5 and me being +10 if I recalled correctly. I used the putter for about all 18 holes, because I had no distance anyways and always hooked it.

When we first started playing Aaron got his disc stuck in the tree, of which we managed to get down by chucking rocks at it. However, Bryan lost the same putter he got stuck the day before, on the 18th hole to a tree... and it stayed there. For dinner, us 3 guys went out to a sushi place which turned out incredibly good, and finally came home to play some more Rummy as we awaited the arrival of Lisa home from school, before I finally said and made my goodbyes with Apollo after this fun filled weekend.

Things to Note:

• Why must things always come back to my mom?
• Once a fairy, ALWAYS a fairy.
• Bryan, you want to pick up your pieces of pepperoni with a microwave-able plate so you can eat them again?
• Aaron, don't stick the chopsticks straight up in your noodles like that.
• Fucking 3's.
• Get rid of Pocket Rockets.
• Don't step in Alba's deuce.
• Aaron, stop watering your lawn.
• Haley, I just want to arrrghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
• Apollo, with his natural born skills to sniff out and find weed.

Thank you guys, for being such gracious hosts to myself and Apollo and for such a great weekend.

Time to get away...

The summer's winding down... and I don't have much time left before the pain and suffering starts all over again. It's that same feeling you get every Sunday afternoon at around 4:30 PM, when the sun starts to set and you realize that the next day is going to be filled with school/work or other obligations. But that is life, and we must live it a day at a time. I will use what time I have left to get away, make something of my summer.

Tomorrow morning Apollo and I will embark on a short trip up North to visit Aaron/Lisa and Bryan at CSU Monteray Bay. It should be fun, and I'll definetly take some pictures to remember the trip by. Hopefully Apollo will be a good boy on this trip and that my car doesn't mess up for some reason or another on me.

So until I get back... probably Monday sometime, have a good weekend...

Last Post of August...

Well I might as well wrap some things up. It's definetly been a while since I posted, and there is a lot to cover (if I am able to remember it all). I'll just start writing things that pop into my head...

SoF2 / [iLe] Clan: The game is definetly pretty much dead. It all pretty much started with DrnkPimp's rage of using Alias finder to cross reference IPs and GUIDs, leading to the disintegration of the [uS] clan (much to everyone's happiness) but left many clans short of players, etc. The ladder will be gone soon, but oh well. Our record will hold at 8/4 (the most matches played by any team) at 3rd place. We did pretty damn well. Go team. Everyone's still pretty much around, just not nearly as much as before because school is starting for most of these guys that are seniors in high school, etc. We still hang out, but we'll see what happens. We're looking for a new game to play... but we will stay friends forever and Blade and Fluke better come visit next summer!

Keyboard: I fucking hate my keyboard. SoF2 has finally taken it's toll on it. The "A" and the "Space" key has collapsed, basically sticking in a way to the keyboard so that it feels like I'm just pushing against a stiff piece of plastic and it would almost immediately (more annoying than helpful) register the keystroke. I need to get a new one, along with maybe a webcam. Why do I need a webcam? I don't, but it's more of like a want that I've always considered because it would be cool for others to see me I suppose.

Visit: Mom and Leo visited this past weekend. We didn't do a whole much, more of just catching up. They arrived on Thursday night and hung out with me at work. Mom made lots of delicious foods while here, as well as filled up a large part of my fridge/freezer with pre-cooked foods and supplies. Friday we went out shopping... first we made a trip to the Atascadero Outlets, which turned out to be a complete waste of time and gas. We came back to SLO and went to Mervyn's where I got some new shirts and Mom and Leo both picked out some stuff too. Then we came home and watched 3/4 of Gone in Sixty Seconds. Saturday I was at work until the late afternoon, Mom and Leo came once again. We ate dinner while watching Collateral (second time for me), then we watched Pirates of the Carribean too after having a talk with Leo about college stuff and his senior year. They took off Sunday morning around 11. Mom got a speeding ticket on the way home as I found out yesterday.

School: Is over. I honestly stopped enjoying psychology class after about the 3rd week. It was interesting in the beginning but then it was just a stupid class to attend every morning from 9-10, Monday through Thursday. Boy I sure took my time on that final. I was the last person out of the classroom, that's after the previous person left the room about 10-15 minutes before me. We'll see how it turns out, but I have a bad feeling that I bombed the final, thus taking my 82% grade down the shitter and probably ending up with a C (if not worse) in the class. Damn, I screwed that up... note to self, never take classes in the summer again (unless it's the first 5 weeks).

Work: Has been the same. Working a little bit than before, averaging about 50 hours per paycheck. It still needs to be more, but I'm taking it easy at home and making up the difference in the secondary way anyways. Jeff is back, and we're just getting ready for WOW week and for school to start. I don't have to work because the place is closed from Saturday through next Tuesday.... which allows me to....

Visit CSUMB: and see Aaron and Bryan. We didn't get to celebrate Emerson's birthday at Great America so I said I would probably visit him before the summer ended, and this Labor Day weekend should be a good chance to do so. The plan is to either leave Friday or Saturday and stay at least a couple nights, one at Aaron's and one at Bryan's. I am probably going to bring Apollo along too because Aaron also has a doxen pup, Alba, and they have a backyard too. Besides, what would I do, leave Apollo here by himself for 2-3 days? More to come on this.

New Glasses: The frames that I ordered off Ebay have already come and I've already gone down to Urban Optics near Firestones to get my eyes checked out. My prescription got a bit worse, but not too much. Man, it is expensive, even when I have already purchased what would have cost over $200 for a pair of glasses frames. The lenses themself are way expensive, I think they jacked me on those... "oh the doctor says these are the ones you should get because they are thinner and will fit the frames." Psh, my ass. Plus it was $80 for the examination, so my total was $256 for the check-up, plus lens and having them put in the frame which I brough in. Geezes. But I'm highly anticipating my new "face" so I'll take some pictures for sure.

Car: Fucking pain in the ass, the battery issue is still pissing me off... I still don't know what to do about that, maybe get Erik to look at it first and give me advice on what I should be doing about it. I want to get my oil changed too, probably after I get back from the Monteray trip and before school starts. Plus I need to get tree sap remover stuff to get rid of the crap from that damn tree in the front yard, when I had parked underneath the tree, not knowing the mess it was going to make when I first moved in, back in June. Last but not least I have to wash the damn sucker, and maybe get some leather shining stuff to clean up the interior. Oh yeah the back windshield wiper seems to be come off at one edge for some reasons too. God it's full of problems, not to mention the broken retractable radio antenna. At least it's better than nothing.

Apollo: Same ol' same ol'. Walking him day and night, the backyard is really starting to piss me off in the sense that I can't let him out into the backyard to go to the bathroom by himself without worrying about him running away. Hopefully we'll get that taken care of soon, with the inclusion of that letter I wrote when I sent out the last rent check. I don't think I've been feeding him enough, but he can't get too fat. Annoying as hell of course, especially in the mornings... he won't ever let me sleep in. Always has to wake me up to let him out to go potty.

I think that's it... all I can think of/remember as of right now. School's around the corner, and that's going to suck. Well, more to come later.

xXx

... State of the Union was a pretty damn good movie. I just finished with it, and it really wasn't all that bad and it was full of pretty cool action with lots of guns which we all love. Nevertheless, it still had a lot of that "hero of story is superman and doesn't get shot ever". I mean, c'mon... stray bullets have to hit them sooner or later.

Psychology class was cancelled today... I got to work late because I fell back asleep after taking a nap and waking up to turn off the alarm and layed back down. Work was boring... same as always, but we took some pictures this time. I'm going to upload them I guess, along with some other things that I've taken. I had Burger King for dinner.

What a boring day, tomorrow's not going to be too much better... I have to fix my damn car battery connection, and we have the DeZ match tomorrow night. Other than that, I have to register at 7 in the morning (setting alarm now) and nothing else is planned. Boring....

........

That was what went through my head as I attempted to come up with a title for what I'm going to write today. I suppose writing about my settings at this very moment will do. Apollo is finally tired and asleep on my bed, I have to make sure I don't wake him up, otherwise it will be very difficult to get him back to bed. I'm playing one of my most favorite CDs of all times, Nirwana by Ayla. My keyboard is sticking, mainly the *space* and *a* keys. I really need a new one. I suppose we should just stop the dilly-dally-ing and get on with what needs to be said/typed.

Yesterday...

I took my 2nd psychology midterm. I didn't think I did any better on this one (well not MUCH better) on this one compared to the first one, but I received a 67/75 on this one, not too shabby for never having bought/read the book, missed a couple days of class, and only started studying the night before and that morning right before the test. Although I did have my "aid". Whatever, it's summer, I'm over it.

Then after the test I figured I should go grocery shopping, so I drove all the way down to Food 4 Less, got out of the car, and said to myself, "Okay, I got my keys, my cell phone, and.... SHIT." As my head races in fast motion back to my house here, with my backpack leaned against my kitchen counter, the front center pocket of the backpack held my wallet containing my monetary assets. It was a nice drive back to home, but I didn't want to leave against just to go shopping. Hung out around the house until it was time to go to work. Work was boring, and then after work I made the second trip of the day to Food 4 Less.

The Incidents

I had a full shopping cart of groceries, and perhaps it was fate that placed me in checkout isle number 1. I pull up, and started unloading my groceries. Little did I realize that after about 5 minutes and $90.83 later, I was about to change the lives of 2 people in a very brief, yet profound way. After I had placed every item onto the conveyor belt, a fellow Asian guy about my age was standing behind me, with 2 items in his hand. I thought about it for a second, and said to him, "Is that all you have? You can go ahead of me." He replied graciously, "Really? You don't mind? Thanks man, thanks." I carefully watched the checkout clerk finish ringing out the previous customer, and halted him as he reached for the first of my items and said, "Let him go ahead of me." Right before he left he thanked me again, to which I replied with a sincere, "No problem." and gave a smile.

All good things come with bad. Within these precious moments, the couple that was ahead of me had a problem... rather, the boyfriend did. Earlier as I was first entering the entrance of the store, I read the sign (which was not the first time I've seen it) that said:

"All members of a group will be required to show proof of age when purchasing alcohol."

Seems reasonable, I mean, I can recall the many times that Andrew's illegally bought alcohol for me and it makes sense for a store to be smart about it and have this policy. So the girl (of the couple in front of me) was asked by the clerk for ID. She seemed surprised, and said, "Oh shoot, I don't have it... they've never done this before." Then she replied that she had to go out to the car to get it. All seemed fine to my eavesdropping ears, when out of no where the b/f got real pissed off. I can only remember hearing him say, "This is BS, we're never shopping here again." I started thinking thoughts of, wtf is up with this guy? he must be having a bad day or something, geezes it's just showing ID for crying out loud, it makes sense so people underage aren't buying alcohol you dipshit. The guy continued to mouth off, as the clerk looked at me and I mouthed, "What a dick" to him, and he replied quietly with, "I've seen worse." I shook my head, and as the girl came back in and showed ID, the guy came up to pay. Then the clerk said to him, "I need to see your ID too," and then the guy really lost it. He was like, "What is this?! We can't even buy alcohol? Where is your supervisor, I demand to see your supervisor!" The clerk gave a hopeless look of "alright I guess" and picked up the phone and called for a supervisor. The lady with a nice smile quickly walked over, and asked what the problem was. The dick of a customer started his complaints, "What is this? Why do I have to show my ID 2 times to this guy... " blah blah blah. The lady explained that it was their policy, and the guy eventually just accepted it and they finished paying. But it didn't stop there. As they were walked away, I heard him say to his girl, "He better be glad I didn't slap him in the face."

That was it, I couldn't hold back. The whole time I had really wanted to let loose with what I felt because of all the times when I was forced to hold my tongue as an employee of a store and not talk back, and have always wanted OTHER customers to do the talking for me. What he said last was the final straw, as I quickly said in a voice loud enough for him to hear, "Hey man, you know it's posted at the front of the store that you're supposed to show ID." He turns around and says "Screw you! It's none of your damn business!" I was really fired up, of course I didn't show it, but inside I was burning... it would've probably gotten much worse, but the girl (even before this) had been saying to the guy, "It's okay, it's okay, lets just go to the car," and apologizing for him. This guy wasn't even that big, I could take him.

Why am I such a chicken. On the drive back home I imagined anything and everything I could've possibly said to that guy. Below is some of the things I had really wanted to say/do:

It's none of my business?! I'm making it my fucking business you prick! Someone like him is just working and doing his job, so he can pay his rent/tuition to get through college, so that he can get a good job and live a good life in the future, but dicks like you in this world have to give him a hard time and he has to put up with it so he doesn't lose his job?! If you're having a bad day, go take it out somewhere else, don't come in here and act like he's here to do everything you want, the law is the law, and if you don't like it then you can piss off and go live somewhere else. Who the fuck do you think you are?

*In an alternate universe* I then pull out my handgun (unloaded or loaded with blanks) as the guy attempts to approach me to cause physical harm. Stay the FUCK BACK. No one has to die today. (People are screaming in the background that I've got a gun.) He stops dead in his tracks. Take your groceries, go to your car, and go home. Think about what you've done today, and wonder why the hell didn't this kid pull the trigger on me. Think about why did you just almost get killed because of your attitude towards a complete stranger that is doing his job and obeying the law. Think about why God allowed me to allow you to live today. Get the fuck out of this store. He leaves the store, I put my gun away and tell people that it's unloaded, and I hurrily get my things, pay, loaded my car and went home.

I know I've done at least 2 good things and made the lives of 2 people better. First the guy who I let go in front of me, because in a world that I'd like to live in, that's what I would do. Second was the clerk guy, named Jerry. A typical college guy (most likely) that has the common decency to go out and get a job to support or help support himself has to put up with crap from people like that in this world. I did and said something because that's what I would wish for more than anything else in the world if I was in Jerry's position that someone else would do for me. I'm sure both of those guys thought about what I had done that day, either immediately following or later on that day, about how this guy at Food 4 Less today did something that they wished would have been done, and it had been done and happened.

Today...

I don't even know where to start. My head is just filled with so many things, yet at the same time I'm trying to forget it all. It doesn't feel like it did when I first realized what had happened earlier this afternoon, but I'm just trying to move on. Gosh I wish I could write exactly what happened, but people see and read these blogs. I'll try something new today, because at least I would be able to read it myself and make sense out of it I guess.

I had left a I******* B****** Win*** open with a F***B*** page of **** most of the day. When I got home, I decided to r****she it. Oh wait, it says that it was u****ed 8/11... that's today! I scroll down, and in the i*****ts section it says i* a r*******ip with ____________ . My heart raced... no, it couldn't be, could it? But indeed it was true. **** had a */* at this point in time. I knew things had been going too well, I mean I had talked about it with Amanda at work and with Kara, all excited about it and everything. I had spent who knows how much time in my head, thinking about the p******al things that ** could ** if we **** **** *** on a ****. I couldn't help it, my ***** felt like the may numerous times I had felt in the past. I had to tell someone, so I texted Kara and she came on this afternoon, and I spilled the beans to her for over an hour. We came to the conclusion that at least I hadn't w***** too much **** on **** yet and that it was better for me to **** *** sonner rather than ***** when ** had al****y g**e *** once or a ****** t***s. I couldn't believe I said this myself, but it really needs to go in my profile:

Kara: Life sucks sometimes.
Me: ha, sometimes? more often than not for me, but we have no choice but to live it... and whether or not we live it in fear or looking back on those things that suck in life, or if we live it looking forward to the few good things in life among the many bad ones, is a choice we all have to make ourselves.

And so I believe I've made my choice. Move on, look forward to those things that are yet to come. I've hit many bumps in the road in the past, and this has/is definitely one of those bigger ones that give your stomach that sinking feeling that we all hate, and sends us down a spiral of mini depression mood... at least this all happens to me. So we'll move on. I've taken **** o** my b**** l*** because like I said to Kara, it's not that I don't **** ** her f*****, it's just that it p***s me when I *** h** s*** on. All I have left is to look forward to those few good things in life, like this one coming up on Sunday when I get to go to Great America with Bryan for his birthday and see Aaron as well. It should be a fun day filled with roller coasters, expensive theme park food, taking stupid pictures and making dumb videos, and just hanging out with the guys before I have to drive all the way home again.

Life is full of choices... it's hard to make the choice sometimes, and it's especially hard to try and figure out which ones are the right ones. But DAMN IT, make one.

Weekend Update

... so this weekend was kind of boring. Saturday morning I hung around the house until it was time to go to work at noon, of which was immediately followed by 2 big reservations with little 4-6 year olds running around at the birthday parties until 2:30 when I kicked them out, and came home for a few hours. 5:30 I went back to work (technically 6) and worked for the rest of the night with Amanda. We talked for a long time, played DDR together (that was a bad idea, it got her really hyper), taught her how to bowl (even worse idea, after she got a strike she wouldn't calm down), and then people FINALLY started to come in around 8:30 and stayed busy until we closed at 11. I went and bought dinner (first meal of the day) came home, did nothing, and went to bed.

Today I woke up, did nothing all day, watched X-Games for a bit, played Sof2 and more Sof2 and then cooked dinner, watched TV and took a quick nap, then played more Sof2, walked Apollo and then talked to Mom for 70 minutes.

Shit... psychology midterm coming up on Tuesday. That's gonna suck, but oh well, I don't really care about that class and I'll probably end up with a C or something... I blame it all on the summer and being lazy and how I'm not supposed to really be studying because it's summer. I've got to register for classes on Friday, we'll see what I can get... it's going to be a really hard quarter, so I might not even work at all and will just have to tough it out and not play as much video games, and study in the library and concentrate.

Let's hope this next upcoming week is promising, at least there is high potential... because we'll start with hopefully at least going out once, and then Sunday we'll be going to Great America for Bryan's b-day and seeing Aaron too.

5 in a row

... must be some kind of a record. I've blogged 5 days in a row now, and tonight's was actually kind of FORCED because I didn't want to stop the streak.

This water diet sucks. I've given up carbonated, sugar-filled sodas as the beverage that I have with my meals. They are now bottles of water that has been run through the Brita filter attached to my kitchen sink and filled in old Sobe bottles. With this diet, all I have left to do is get my ass up and exercise.

But the real reason for tonight's post:

I finally got up off of my hands, and acted like a man and not a boy. And let me tell you, it turned out pretty well. It started at 11:36 PM, and we exchanged good nights and "call you next week" at 12:23 AM. It was such a weird feeling though, because she was just that easy to talk to. I didn't feel myself struggling to come up with conversation things because she was talking to me as much as I was trying to talk to her. Nevertheless, many similarities were discovered and shared, mostly regarding alcohol and our summers. Well, we'll let this weekend go by us, as she's leaving town and I'm working my sinister six days-in-a-row at work.

Next week..... next week.

BlehBlehBleh!!!

... was the sound that my 9mm Walther pistol made as I fired round after round after round. Dan and Jesus and I went to the indoor shooting range today. It was my very first time firing a weapon, and I've got to say it's everything I wanted it to be, except it was much more difficult than it may seem. It also reminded me I really need to get new prescriptions and a pair of new glasses. That needs to be at the top of the "need to buy" list. Anyways, the things I learned today entailed:

• loading the clip
• the gun itself: safety (if there is one), the clip release, cocking the chamber (locking it and releasing it, and also that it loads a round into the chamber), the hammer (if there is one), the sights
• the shooting stance
• how to grip the gun properly
• breathing (didn't see this play into effect too much, just don't fire while taking a breath because you move around so much)
• pulling the trigger (this was the BIGGEST and HARDEST factor that contributed to my accuracy... err... inaccuracy, of which I learned with the last 5 rounds and finally learned how to AIM.)

It was so much fun, only thing that sucked was that I learned the basics today and didn't get to work on my accuracy. I guess one step at a time right? I also got to fire another 90mm that Dan used as well as Jesus' .45 which had a much bigger kick. Also... it was expensive! The ammo was what cost the most, and the range fee was close to ten bucks (but I had the coupon so that was free), then there was the price of the pistols and targets and earmuff rentals. It cost about $30 for 1 1/2 hours of shooting. I'm going to go again, and next time bring my camera with FRESH batteries (not DEAD ones, as were the ones I loaded into the camera right before I left).

Before I write my next post I just had a thought... do people actually read my blogs? I think some people do, I've had a couple of instances where someone I would be talking to would bring up something, and I'd ask, "how did you know that?" or "where did you hear that from?" and they would say, much to my surprise, I read it on your blog dude. Hmm... this blog used to be quite personal with things I wouldn't want others to read and only for my own purposes of diary-keeping so that I capture the mood at the time and don't lose priceless memories/stories. So these days, I have to make things vague to the point where these stories still trigger those memories, but with a sense of generalization where if the people who they are referring to reads it they won't recognize (at least not directly) that it is them I'm writing about... while at the same time those closest to me (that I share these stories with because I trust them) as well as myself will recognize the exact details simply from our memories being jogged by the vague paragraphs. The reasoning behind it is because there is an active link in my AIM profile that links here (and I'm online about 15-17 hours a day, with or without an away message....) as well as a direct link from my facebook page. This is going to be hard to have to "generalize" and be vague about it, but I'm going to try...

So I had been waiting for a couple days... it had only been since I think Monday or Sunday night, so it was still early. I had kinda already gave up, but I woke up late this morning and jumped in the shower. I hopped out, logged onto my computer, and MSN Messenger comes up, and "ding" I have 1 new message. I quickly looked as I tried to jump into my shorts... it was from _________ ! I thought I was dreaming, and hoped for the best as I calmed my ass down, sat down and put on some music (same song I'm listening to right now) and opened the e-mail in high anticipation. I read each word carefully, make sure I got the meaning that was written just right and my eyes didn't play any tricks on me to misinterpret anything. It was definetly filled with content that I had wanted to hear, and the thing that stood out the most is how enthusiastic it was, kind of "hey! thanks for writing and saying hi, how are you doing?" type of thing. It was definetly not TOO short, nor was it lengthy. I think I've analyzed the shit out of it and to death by now, but I can only wait to talk to Kara to get some expertise on this, haha. I don't even know what my next move is going to be.... or when... or how. It was definetly the highlight of my day though.

BLEHBLEHBLEH.

www.calpolysingles.com

... Wow I've really hit a new low. I didn't really realize how lonely, bored, and depressed I've gotten until after I spent roughly an hour, writing profiles and other personal info and uploading 2 pictures for this stupid singles page. (sigh) I guess I'm just looking/waiting that much for something/someone to come along. These summer nights are just going to waste...

Work work work, school school school. The cycle doesn't ever seem to want to end. The only thing that gets me up in the morning is... well, Apollo's annoying barks to get outside to go to the bathroom, and then him destroying my right or left hand with his incessent chewing in an attempt to get my attention to play with/entertain him. Damn you!

I slept in today, I guess that was because I stayed up last night doing absolutely nothing on my computer. I ditched psych class, played sof2, then went to work, came home and took Apollo to the park, came home and made dinner, then played more soft2 and wasted the night away doing nothing while wandering aimlessly on the internet.

Fucking Vegas trip is going to be expensive, as I talked with Dan about all the money we would be spending and such. I really need to start saving. www.pimpnho.com I have so much shit to spend money on, but the bills just continue to keep coming. Rent, clan server/TS, telephone bill, TV/internet bill, food bill, plus other expenditures such as dog stuff, and other fast food/movies stuff. I can't even save any cash. Just gave mom $200 for fucking insurance too. Christ... I really can't seem to keep up and I have so much stuff I need to buy. New glasses (and get new perscriptions and lens on top of that), stuff for the house, new keyboard, laptop, car stuff, fucking everything. I really need to just work more and spend less.

I cleaned my shoes today at work and can finally wear them again. Brian (Mealy) also stopped by today and that just gave me a reality check of how much it's going to SUCK when school starts in the fall. Man I won't be ready for it at all... after barely pulling through Winter and Spring quarter doing minimum work and this summer filled with laziness, I am going to go through hell with 2 EE classes and 1 CPE class, ALL with LABS. Fuck....

Where is Kara?

I'm broke

...temporarily anyways. Mom just got my envelope of checks and cash, and Adam just sent out my 2 security deposits from long ago. I got no cash on me, and my savings account and checking is near empty. My Visa card is in the hole by about $30, and my American Express has been in the hole for a long time now, since a while back but it'll be cleared up soon. Wait, check that. It won't be... because...

I bought the airplane ticket for the September Vegas trip today. Booked that flight for 8/2 and return on 8/5. Damn ticket cost me $250+... but according to Erik, driving there and renting a car will cost around $170, so the cost to benefit efficiency is much more in the favor of flying, and they already did it, so wtf... I will too. I need to start saving money. This trip is going to turn out to be expensive, I will need to get Erik to buy some of that stuff for me, he's got a job, hehe.

Pistols range on Wednesday! I will have to remember to bring my camera so Dan can take some sweet pictures of me with a real firearm in my hands, seeing if all of these years of playing light gun games (Duck Hunt, Virtual Cop, Time Crisis, Point Blank, etc) will pay off. Not to mention being able to attach virtual reality to real-life stimulation of the recoil of the gun. It will be sweet!

Movies I've watched in the past week and a half:
- Die Another Day
- Ocean's 12
- After the Sunset
- Assault on Precinct 13

Apollo ate my last cheesy gordita crunch when I ran out to buy a slurpee today. BAD DOG! I need to get myself to the Midstate Fair before it ends, maybe I'll go... Friday morning? Fuck, I'm working everyday this week until I get Sunday off.

I'm on a roll, that's 2 posts in 2 days. Also, WTF is up with this blogger using that big and gay font as the default font when I post? I have to manually switch it to Times... bitches.

Parking Tickets/Violations

... suck ass. The inspiration for today's post came after reading AJ's rommmate's blog regarding the "no parking on ninth and sherman on the first thursday of every month april-november between the hours of 8AM - 5PM." Well, at exactly 10:30 AM of July 30th (Friday) I was cited by officer # 67645 Padilla, for: "Violation #11: Curb/Wrong Way" for a total penalty of $20.

,,!,, (that's a middle finger up yours SLO Parking)

Fuck you. I live in a fucking dead-end of a street (almost like a court) without a fucking turnaround at the end, and my car is low to the fucking ground. I'm not going to fucking turn around or back into my parking spot every damn time I come home. Fuck off...

Well I haven't posted for a long time, because I've been way too lazy to do so and it is really hard to be able to get the "right" conditions to 1.) allow me to post and 2.) give me the motivation. Mostly it is because of number 1, because every damn time I want to post, Apollo is annoying the fuck out of me and I end up playing with him on my bed until I feel so tired I just turn the lights off and go to bed. Other distractions get in the way as well, such as Ban IMing me late at night and distracts me, or I'm simply too busy. I mean, no one reads this blog and it's only for my own personal bookkeeping right???

Either way. Since the last post, some things have gone on... Anthropology class is over. I wonder what I got in that class, probably ended up with a B or B+. Psychology is still going. 4 days a week at 9 in the freaking morning. Work at the bowling alley is the same, actually that's a lie. It hasn't been the same. It's been a cluster-fuck of kids from the Church Camp, Upward Bound, Summer Advising, SLO high school kids, and other assortments of kids visiting Cal Poly. Busy as hell, but whatever, it keeps me busy. I finally started back bowing, but my finger just isn't what it used to be. It's weird, it gets really sore after bowling (like right now) but doesn't seem to be in the extreme pain that it used to be in, but it does still hurt when agitated. Hopefully I'm working my way back.

I'm going to Vegas! Come the beginning of September, it's a trip down to The Strip for the annual Pimps 'n Hoes party! This is going to fucking rock my socks off. Erik was the person who asked if I wanted to go with his friends from work who is setting most of it up. Adam here in town will also be going with us as well, other than that I don't know any of the other people yet. Hopefully it shouldn't cost me too much money, and I will get fucking drunk off my ass, SEE lots of T&A, maybe win some money (or just not lose too much), eat at the buffets there, and just have my "summer adventure" to tell. Seems like 2005 is the year to go to Vegas, I know so many people who will be making a trip down this year, plus MTV's "Summer at the Strip" motto which I guess implies they're hanging out there or something dumb.

I seriously think I've been trading my time that I've been spending on running the clan with the amount of time that I ever talk to Kara anymore. I sure do miss her, but the clan is like a band of brothers for me. Scope, Blade, Homicide, Ruin, Ban... all my good buddies and people that we laugh our fucking asses off looking at awesome flash videos online, chatting over AIM or talking on TS, and just kicking the shit out of people in scrims or dicking around in our server. Man these are some good times with the boys, this game is the shit, and so is our team!

I'm supposed to be getting a Raptor hard drive from Erik's asian friend who's got the underground hookups, this will hopefully make a nice boot harddrive and expand my storage space to allow the 120 gig drive to be fully dedicated as a slave and archive of stuff for me.

Mutha fucking car battery. Don't even want to get into that shit... but here's the short version. It died on the Saturday Erik came to down, then like a ghost and out of no where comes back alive. Runs fine for 2 days, and dies on me after I get out of class on Monday... Dan gave me a jump, and I drove it to Napa Auto Parts where I change out the frigging battery on my own after purchasing a $65 battery. How fast are those stupid things supposed to wear out anyways? Well, we'll find out with this new one.

I'm still waiting for 2 e-mails to come back to me. Long story, but I'm lonely.

I like watching movies.

Sorry for going AWOL (Absent Without Leave)

Buckle up kids, this is going to be a LONG post.

I'm going to time myself, starting..... NOW (2:54 PM). I'm going to attempt to write everything and anything that has happened in my 1 month (exactly) absence. Lets do this.

House: I am now finally located at my (hopefully long term) new residence of 1214 George Street here in SLO (93401). Moving in was a pain in the ass of course, but with the help of Chris' truck, my big furniture wasn't too hard. That stupid fridge was a long story... I finally ended up getting Chris' grandparent's backup fridge, which took us roughly 1 hour to get inside the friggin door. Kitchen area is small, the stove requires a barbeque lighter to start the flame each time, the oven won't fit my pizza plate, bathroom sink is way small, I almost kill myself each time getting out of the shower (deadly first step, 1 foot drop), backyard is a mess with a big hole for Apollo to run out through the side of the house into the front yard and go strolling around the neighborhood. The house's biggest problem is probably ventilation/heat. Around 1:30 to 7:30 each day, the house is like an oven. The trick is pretty much to just keep as much of the cool air inside as possible for as long as possible, and then finally all of a sudden opening EVERYTHING and turn my fan on high. (obviously no A/C for you people who are scratching your head and going, why doesn't he turn on the air?) Other than that, it is pretty much a good size for myself. Oh yeah, I don't have a front door. My front door is the garage door of 1218 George Street, lol. But I do get my own mailbox, haha. I have my own Cable internet line through Charter, but I think that deal is only good for 3 months until it jumps from under $30 a month, to over $50. I got illegal cable from Mr. Cable guy who came out to install my cable internet (for a mere, one time charge of $15).

Car: I finally have one. It took fucking 21 1/2 years before I finally got my own car, but it is pretty much everything I could've asked for. '99 Mitsubishi Eclipse - turbo engine, automatic, power everything, moonroof, leather seats, 2 door, racing wheels, nice deck. It needs to be washed. I calculated the milage it gets per gallon, and broke it down to around 36/gal for freeway, 16.5/gal for city. Weird huh? I love it, no more wasting time for the damn bus (FUCK YOU SLO TRANSIT), and I can leave anytime I want.

Dog: He's adjusted to the house pretty good I think. I don't like him jumped directly on and off of my bed, it is probably bad for his back. I have spent much more time walking him, AT LEAST once a day but more likely 2. It is a pretty quick trip around the neighborhood, which is filled with a lot of dog owners by the way. There is a little field area where he can round around, but I don't like it because it has thorns and prickly brushes. There is also a trainstation close to this neighborhood, which is kinda cool... hasn't bothered me at night yet. I don't know why but Apollo really has been a night owl recently who won't shut up. The previous 4-5 days, around 10PM to 1AM he would start barking at me for attention, and is really bad because Cynthia is next door and I don't want to wake her up. I don't know how to solve it, maybe it's time to ask Dr. Hallock and take Apollo in for a checkup anyways. Should I get him neutered? Dunno. We went to All Star Pets yesterday to get him a doggy tag, and I guess we really should make another appointment with Dr. Hallock because I could also pick up a new "rabies vaccine" tag for him, seeing as how he chewed up the last one. He has been doing good at home, not chewing up anything while I'm at work or school, and not going anywhere in the house... I suppose he really is indeed potty trained by this point. I think his "night owl" activity has a lot to do with the fact that he sleeps so much in the afternoon, or rather, passes out due to the heat... and so he's so rested for the night time. I don't know how exactly to relieve him of his energy, just play with him more I guess.

School: Here is the grade breakdown for the classes:
EE 335: I want to post what actually happened during that final (with Mike mooching off of me) but it will jeopardize me so I won't. Lets just say I have a very bad memory and needed assistance... a lot of it. Apparently it was enough to yield a good grade in that class, better than I expected. Grade Received: B (4 units)

ASTRO 302: I studied for the final a good amount, and the test was actually pretty fair (I almost wrote, fairly fair, which sounds weird). I knew some questions very well, the last question (regarding what our research article was about) was obviously really weird and pretty much a "gimme"/"free points" for me because of my sand experiment, not exactly an article. A couple I left blank, but I suppose a lot of people had trouble with those problems too. Grade Received: B- (3 units)

EE 314: Studied hard for this one too, seeing as how I wasn't doing very hot in our group of friends (Rod was #1, then Mike, then Huy, then me, then Gary). I went into the final with slightly lower than the class average or about the same. I wonder how the T/F part went, as it was a very big portion. Thank god for the homework problems and good friends telling you what was on the test (they took it first in another section). Ended up killing about 3 of the problems, as they were almost exactly alike homework problems and had the damn things right in front of me. So yeah, not exactly the subject I want to concentrate on... bye bye communications. Grade Recieved: B- (3 units)

PHIL 316: Now THIS was a fun story. So I did the take home essay, some of the questions were really easy to do with notes in front of me (and I took good notes in class, the kind of stuff she wanted to see/hear). However a couple were really weird, so I had to ask Aaron (philosophy major that was in my group) for help and we chopped it up on the phone, and got enough material to make stuff up. Dr. Fab was really a nice lady, and I just had to tell her that over an e-mail, and I think she genuinely appreciated it. She really deserved it. And I felt that I deserved an A (my response to that question on the final). So out comes the grades (before they were posted on my.calpoly) in our in-boxes. The grades were organized by last 4 of our social security numbers, and so I immediately scroll to the bottom (because that's where I usually lied, with "S" as the 1st letter in my last name). So I see "2974" and trace my eyes over to the grade.... B?!?!?! I look at the grades, no one got lower than a B!!!! How did I get the lowest grade in the class? I went into the final with an A! Depression hits me, as I ponder what exactly it was that I wrote on the final that screwed it up that bad. All of a sudden, as I scan the list some more... wait a minute, who is this "2794" person? (long pause) THAT'S ME!!! Apparently someone in that philosophy 316 class has exactly the same last 4 social security numbers as me, except the middle two numbers are swapped. Grade Received: A (4 units)

Not a bad quarter. Slightly above a 3.0 GPA, it was like 3.102 or something. My overall GPA here at Poly is holding solid at 3.0, which is a B average. Pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Summer quarter is here now, with no breaks. Taking 2 classes, Anthropology 201 and Psychology 201. Both GE's, but I think I'll end up getting B's in both of them. Too much work goes into getting an A, so we'll see what happens... I haven't even bought the textbook for psych yet. Anthropology will be done in the 5 week course (2 weeks left) and Psych is a regular 10 week course, but it sucks because Psych is 4 days a week and at 9 in the freaking morning everyday. Oh well, at least it gets me out of bed.

Work: I'm not getting enough hours, and I really should be putting those boring hours to better use, such as studying and reading for those 2 classes. Not enough hours = not enough money, so I need to make it up in "other" ways. I guess I'm doing okay.

Lifestyle: Well, food wise, I'm eating like a freaking pig and someone doing an experiment for the fast food industry. I've eaten out so many fucking times it is impossible, I've eaten at almost all the fast food places around here. My first excuse was because of the stupid fridge issue... that damn old one didn't work, so I had no where to put my food (had I had any) or if I had gone out and done grocery shopping. And then this second run was because of the busy-ness (and once again lack of food). I went grocery shopping at Food 4 Less and did my regular $80-$100 run of food, but this time a lot of it went to household things... toilet paper, laundry detergent, steak knife, and that kind of stuff. I didn't even get a lot of food to cook with. No pork chops, no finger/microwave foods, no junk food. It really surprised me how I was able to spend $90 on nothing at all.

I haven't been able to sleep in really late at all, I think mainly because of the amount of light that gets into my place, and the fact that Apollo doesn't seem to want to sleep past 7:30-ish in the morning and will wake me up... even before my alarm clock goes off at 7:40-ish. I really need to just start eating less, and more healthy... but I don't have any motivation or anyone here to force me to, plus it costs a lot to be healthy and the time it takes to make the stuff, as opposed to a $6 or $7 meal that is quick. I just need to be much more conscious of myself and what I do to my body I guess, and have self control.

The house is pretty much set-up, but I still have stuff to put on the walls, like some pictures and my whiteboard. Also I need to get an extension cord (3 pronged one) for my microwave. Other than that, most of it is just getting used to the place.

Computer/Gaming: Okay, my speakers (actually more likely my sound card) is really fucking pissing me off. I thought it was the speakers to being with, but now that I moved into the new place, i'm not using the Logitech speakers anymore, only the Subwoofer and control panel. The speakers I'm using are Yamaha ones that were part of the entertainment center from back home, very high quality ones. Now, the hissing noise is even more and annoying as fuck... I can't turn my speakers on too high, otherwise it's hisssssssssssssssssssssssssss like crazy. I also have had some virus problems and worms apparently on my computer, I solved I think one or two of the issues now, but I still feel like I should go through a reformat, it's about that time of the year. It's just that I'll lose a lot of programs that I don't have the installs for anymorek, like MatLab and PSPICE. I just kinda want a videocard so I don't have to deal with this stupid hissing sound... but I want a laptop even more. That's going to be like a $800 purchase by itself... but we'll see, maybe do some financing or something.

Well, other than that there's not too much else. My middle finger is still jacked up a bit, but much better than before. I've already gone through 100 tablets of Ibuprofen (25 doses of 4 tabs at a time) and I'm about to start my second container, hopefully those anti-imflammatory enzymes will kick in.

AJ and Mustafa are on a roadtrip, and they finally decided to stop off and see me after 3 years out of high school. Better late than never right? Anyways, so I was walking Apollo on the soccer field when AJ calls me, and it was him and Mustafa on their way down here to SLO. So they stayed here the night, after some dinner and visiting Drew, who lives extremely close to Poly (down Hathaway). Funny notes:

- hot dog that squirts milk onto chocolates
- Japanese game at Drew's house
- hollahollaholla let me hollaatya hollaholla
- Wu-tang clan, ain't nobody to fuck wit
- Mustafa: Park there, face the wrong way, it's okay. AJ: No, I can do it, let me show you how good of a driverSCRATCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I am. All 3 of us in AJ's rental car: laughing our asses off for a minute
- Glen: Is that Jenny over there? Hey Jenny, over here! (points at Mustafa and AJ) oops, my bad, lol.

Damn this post took a long time, inbetween dealing with my fucking viruses/wurms on my computer and Chimaira's hacking problems, so many distractions. I'll do my best to post more from now on.... (end time, 5:08 PM)