man, i haven't seen paul in ages, it seems. he's been slaving away at his new startup, and whenever i call him up, he's like, "yeah, i'll be at the office for a long while" or something like that. i really hope all the hard work he's been putting in pays off. i wish that i had his dedication.
so i had my architecture review meeting today, and i'm all set to start coding. i'm actually sort of excited. it's pretty rare these days to get a brand new block of RTL to design. this one is not that difficult, but it does have its little quirks and nuances. design is one of the funner things that i get to do at my job, and like i said, it's pretty rare at my company, since most of what we do is integration and block tweaks.
i just took a long, stringy dump. it felt like a little burst of diarrhea, but when i looked back, it was like a very long strand of thin green sausage. *claps* for once, i had solid poo! when i flushed, the strands clumped together, and it made a nice skidmark in the toilet. now, at home, i would have been upset about it, but skidmarks are fine at work, since i'm not the one cleaning it up.
man, i am not looking forward to the next few weeks of _american idol_. five hours spread over three nights. that's a lot of AI. and a lot of memorizing to do. believe it or not, but i can still tell you the bottom 12 of both the girls and boys of last year's season. i recited them from memory to elise after the taiko concert this past friday, and she was pretty impressed. haha! funny thing, though, because i can't list out the top 12's order of the vote off. but the bottom 12 is firmly implanted in my brain. yes, first AND last names too.
so my coworker D went to alexander's steakhouse last friday. he was very pleased with his meal. i told him to get the white truffle oil french fries, and he really liked them. it was the day after valentine's day, and he went with a guy friend of his, so the wait staff thought that they were a gay couple. ha! he made the mistake of not ordering tap water, and he said "still water," so he got charged $10 for it. and since he didn't want to get charged for more of the stuff, he got very thirsty. oops.
so i'm not sure how to feel about the mavericks' jason kidd trade. i really like devin harris, and i thought he was the future point guard of the team. kidd's getting old (he's about to turn 35), and his shooting percentage this season is the worst of his career. hm. i hope it works out for the best, but i'm not holding my breath. we shall see, i guess. i'm very curious to see how the mavericks do from now on.
i'm not sure if sleeping with the tv on is good for me. REM cycles are good sleep, right? is it possible to have them if the television's still on? lately, i've been waking up at 4am to find that i haven't turned the tv off, so maybe that means that i'm not getting in good sleep until after that. maybe that's why i've been so tired lately. *ponder*
btw, my real name is "dardy." "dardi!" is just a silly play on my name, as if i were an excited italian guy or something. i just thought it was cute. my friends call me all sorts of variants, like "dards," "dard," etc. it all depends on how long ago you knew me.
i wonder how good my hearing would be if i didn't have earwax. i remember that feeling of clarity when a doctor extracts that final piece of wax from my ear canal, and everything is to clear and crisp. it's like being born again, aurally speaking. maybe i should schedule a physical (with an ear cleaning session bundled in) soon. the other day, i shook my head a bit, and i felt a crunching sound in my left canal, and a thick chunk of wax fell out. man, i love playing with that stuff.
two things i have never eaten are my own ear wax and smegma.
i don't get it. if porn shows condoms as an example of practicing safe sex, then why do they show the guy blowing his wad in the girl's mouth? doesn't that defeat the purpose?
so in the bay area, channel 104.9 is back. that's good news. because now there are two alternative radio stations again. the only problem is that i have 8 radio stations that i listen to, but only 6 presets. so i wind up having to manually tune to two of them while i'm driving, and that might get a little dangerous.
why is it so offensive to call someone while taking a dump? i mean, sometimes, you're sitting there, and you get bored. taking a shit and having a conversation having nothing to do with each other, that's how i see it. the only snag there is that it's hard to wipe and put your pants back on while on the phone. did you know that i've had an entire meal (with a tray on my lap) while taking a shit? it was during my sophomore year in college; i got my food, and suddenly, i just *had* to go #2, so i rushed to the bathroom with my meal. and while i was going, i just wound up eating the entire thing in the stall.
ok, sorry to gross you out. personally, i don't think it's disgusting at all, though. but i'm gonna take off now. bye!
friday night, i met up with some taiko peeps at gombei. (unfortunately, carol couldn't make it.) ah, chicken katsu curry! we had a fantastic meal, and then we headed to dinkelspiel for the concert. on ensemble put on a great show, and it was great seeing some old faces again, especially emi and gwen.
man, i wore my yellow vest, hoping for some of you guys to come say hi, but nobody took up the offer. *sniff* oh well. there was a reception afterwards, and i spent a good part of it talking to amy, who called me up at 2am east coast time. i helped the group pack up afterwards, and i got home around 1am. they rebroadcast the celebrity basketball game, and terrell owens dunked and won the MVP. nice.
saturday, i got up late, grabbed some jack in the box, and watched the stanford vs. arizona basketball game. it was very nervewracking. we won by one single point. !! jack texted me with "goddam ulcers." haha! yeah, i was shitting bricks, especially during the last minute, when brook lopez made free throws to put us up by 1. then, chase budinger got blocked by robin lopez to seal the deal. man, what a game.
i putzed around the house a bit, and then i went over to grace's house to meet up with john and mikeC to watch a bit of the all-star festivities. we watched the skills competition, and i was going to watch the slam dunk contest, but then jay called me up asking for dinner company. john and mike wanted to stay and watch the slam dunk event, but i was hungry, so i left.
i met jay and margaret at 99 chicken, which i recommended to them a while back. it was good stuff. then, we went to the AMC saratoga to watch _there will be blood_. man, that was a long movie (way over 2 hours). and it wasn't very good, either. i mean, it was an interesting study of daniel day lewis's character, but aside from that, it was just boring. the movie started at 10:05, and we got out just before 1am. another late night for me.
sunday, i met up with jack and his family at stanford. when his son anthony saw me, he yelled out "dardy su-su!" (uncle dardy) and ran towards me, arms outstretched. i beamed and picked him up. ah, the love of a child. it felt great. we had a quick lunch at the tree house, and i bought a t-shirt that said "stanford" in chinese characters. cool! we saw some bikers at the tour of california race (the prologue was a time trial that ended at the oval), and then walked halfway around lake lagunita. it was very nostalgic. of all places in the bay area, stanford still feels most like home. *bliss*
afterwards, i went home and rested for a bit, and then i went to grace's house to meet up with john. we watched part of the all-star game and then grabbed sushi at kazoo. their spicy tuna roll was not spicy at all, to my disappointment. then, we went back, and nelson came over. we tried to grab some gelato, but the place was closed. rats. we tried watching the end of the all-star game, but it finished recording earlier. so we watched some _fight quest_ shows: the savate and hapkido episodes.
monday, nelson, mikeC and i went to pho kim long for lunch. their #24 is now their #27. it is an awesome dish. you must try it. after dropping off mikeC at his house, we met up with john to do some hiking at the los gatos trail. nelson brought along his 300mm lens, and he took pictures of flowers and birds. we walked a good 3 miles or so. after that, i took john to his volleyball game, drove nelson back home, grabbed a carnitas quesadilla from la bamba, and went home to chill for the rest of the weekend.
overall, it was a good 3-day break. the weather was pretty good, but now it's raining. i guess it just couldn't last.