last night, for dinner, we walked about a minute from the hotel to an asian place called lemongrass. it was moderately expensive, i.e. i got a beef rendang for about $28 or so. it wasn't bad! it was a bit too gingery (i HATE ginger), but overall, it was tasty. the fried rice was too bland, and the rice they used was weird, but the wok-fried veggies were really good, and the rendang itself was pretty good. i lapped up the food in no time. i'm losing weight here. i've been on the third hole in my belt before the trip, but now i'm on the fourth hole.
this morning, we woke up hella early (i.e. 8:15am or so) and gathered in front of the hotel lobby at 9:45. the dublin city tour bus stopped here at this time only at the hotel to take us into town. first, we had breakfast at la pizza, although we didn't eat italian food. instead, we had irish breakfast (eggs, sausage, toast, bacon, mushrooms, and i passed on the black/white pudding and got extra sausage). then, we hopped on the bus. the tour guide announcer was pretty good, and we took it all around the georgian neighborhood. the houses were like an entire facade of a city block, and we learned about the history of the area.
then, we got off at the guinness storehouse, where we spent the next couple of hours. it was a self-guided tour, so it wasn't as good as the jameson distillery tour. the place itself was pretty cool, though. i wasn't as into it because i hate beer, and i think guinness tastes like bitter crap. the tour culminated in the top of the building, called the gravity bar, which offered a 360 degree view of the entire city. we got a free guinness, which was lighter and smoother and less bitter than the guinness in the states. i finished mine ok, but i still wouldn't drink it if i had to pay for one.
then, paul and leeya spent over $100 on guinness stuff. they had some cool clothes, and i would have bought some, but it was against my principles to endorse a drink that i don't like. i would have bought some jameson clothes, but paul said they didn't look cool. (we would have gone back there, as i didn't notice they carried jameson clothes.)
then, we finished the bus tour and stopped off at parnell square. we were *really* lucky, because when we got off, we bumped into the bus driver who was going to take us back to the hotel. he told us that the bus was going to take us back at *5pm* instead of 4pm, which we were originally told. *phew* we would have waited forever and wondered what the fuck happened.
so to kill time, we walked around the mcconnell street area and shopped a bit. i bought a gift for jay's baby (i hope they're not offended by it) and a jameson lighter. then, we grabbed a drink at a cafe with a cafe nazi. we used their toilets, so she said we ALL had to buy drinks. then, she wanted us all to pay together, so when i said i would pay for my water myself, she shook her head. bitch.
we walked back to parnell square at 5pm, and we waited half an hour for our bus to arrive. we started panicking and wondering where the fuck the bus was. finally, when it came, it was a sight for sore eyes. i needed to pee, and for the next 50 minutes on the bus ride, i was in agony. sitting on a vibrating bus needing to piss is no easy feat.
when we finally arrived, i couldn't make it back to my hotel room, so i took my leak in paul and leeya's room. it was ORGASMIC. felt so good. and now, i'm in their room blogging this.
today is halloween, and there were fireworks going off when we walked back to our hotel at the mall across the way. the radio in the bus said that there are a lot of kids who get injured by fireworks and from getting set on fire by candles and stuff. too bad. so yes, they celebrate halloween in ireland and the UK.
we are thinking about getting steak. there is some place near the movie theater that has a "buy one get one free" for around $32 or so. the problem is, there are three of us. so will we get FOUR steaks for $64? that is the question.
ok, off for a smoke.
so it took 50 minutes for the "night owl" room service people to make a fucking tuna sandwich. i ate at like 1am. poor paul got a horrible headache from the lingering cigarette fumes in his hotel room, so they opened up the windows in their room and hung out in the hotel lobby (with free wi-fi) until god knows when. meanwhile, leeya booked me a separate hotel room (we were going to all share one) during our stay in galway. i think it's a good idea; instead of cutting down costs, i think we'll all be happier to have our own privacy.
this morning, we got up and met at around 10am, and the new rooms weren't available until noon, so we drove about half a mile to the liffey valley shopping center and had breakfast. shit, stuff is really expensive here, way more expensive than in scotland. we had pre-made sandwiches at M&S (i had a BLT, which was actually pretty good, how can you go wrong with mayonnaise and bacon?) and a hazelnut latte (once again). we shopped a bit, and then went back to get paul and leeya a new smoke-free hotel room. they were happy.
then, we drove about 15 minutes into town. and... we hit the jameson factory! it was the ONLY destination on the ENTIRE trip that i said was a *must* visit place. it was actually pretty cool, too. the guy who we bought the tickets from was well-versed in american football; he was a packers fan, and i was impressed that he knew all about tony romo's broken finger.
the tour was very informative, as we went through like the 9 or so steps of making whiskey. i learned some stuff about what makes jameson special (like triple distillation, how it's different from the smoky flavor of scotch when the malt is created from barley, and how they use used barrels instead of new oak ones). eight volunteers did a taste tests of jameson vs. johnnie walker black vs. jack daniels as the tour guide told us the differences between each one. and of course, we all got free jameson.
there was a special reserve jameson that you could only buy at the gift store for about $70. i didn't buy it, but i did try a shot of it (neat, no ice) for $8. it was ok, but i wasn't head over heals with it.
afterwards, we had a meal, and i tried irish stew. it was damn fucking good. it was like a tasty soup with potatoes, carrots, and lamb. i shall get it again if i have the chance.
then, we walked around the old medieval part of town, visited dublin castle and the christ church (yes, that's what it's called), and then drove back at 5pm in rush hour traffic. there was a HUGE number of cars going to the mall, and we suspected that it may be for early showings of the 007 movie.
i'm blogging early because i have free internet for once on paul's computer. we'll have dinner later and maybe watch a movie. dublin isn't going to be cool as glasgow (as in the experience) because we're outside of the city this time, and it's not like i can just walk out and hit a pub and see the sights. bummer. i had high hopes for dublin, but with the location of the hotel, it's just not going to happen. let's see if galway will be different.
oh, and for hygiene reasons, i stopped sleeping naked. i'm afraid of catching some STD or nasty skin disease from rubbing my genitals on the sheets. paul and leeya had a minor face skin breakout early on in edinburgh, and they think it was from the sheets. so no way i am risking something on my schlong.
ok, see you later!
so this morning, we avoided the impending rain/sleet in glasgow and drove to edinburgh, where the weather report said it was dry. we arrived around noon, hungry, and parked in the old town a short distance away from the castle. we ate at an italian restaurant featured on the edinburgh tourist map, and it wasn't bad at all. i had the biggest (or, rather, the widest) calzone i've ever seen. i couldn't finish it. paul had a pizza, and leeya had an onion soup and some mussels which she said were delicious.
we spent the next three hours (we paid for 4 hours of parking for $15) walking around old town and new town and shopped. man, leeya can shop up a storm. unfortunately, paul doesn't like shopping, and he even prefers standing outside the store in the cold weather over staying inside the store, which i find a bit odd. does he hate shopping that much? i found a green t-shirt that i liked, but it came in at just under $50, so i balked at getting it. i don't have very many green clothes; i think i have two t-shirts of that color, and that's it.
at 4pm or so, we go back to the car and drove to edinburgh airport. we arrived just after 4:30 after taking a missed roundabout exit, and our flight was at 8:30. yup, we arrived SO early that check-in itself didn't start until 6:30. i checked my e-mail a few times, paying an arm and a leg at some internet kiosks. and i had my final two smokes in scotland.
waiting was a big pain in the ass, but i did have a jameson on the rocks while we waited. the flight was short and sweet for me (only 40 minutes), but apparently some some rude kid with ADD kept on kicking paul's seat from behind, causing him to hate the flight. poor paul. he is losing his voice, and he coughs up a long from time to time.
the drive to the hotel was interesting. we couldn't find the hotel in the gps, so we had to sort of wing it. before leaving, i went to the internet kiosk and looked up our hotel on the internet, but there was no address. it simply gave a name (something valley or other, dublin 22). odd. what the fuck, no street name or number? so i took down directions and stuff. then, at the car rental place, the guy told us general directions on how to get on the highway, and then he told us to look for signs, which it turns out there weren't any.
in the end, we lucked out, took the right turns, and saw the hotel from the freeway, and by some divine power leading us, we were able to get here. paul punched in the hotel as a point of interest, so hopefully we'll be able to get back to here in the future. we're not smack in the middle of downtown like we were in glasgow this time. fortunately, there is internet and a bar in the hotel, so i am set for the two most important things: blogging and whiskey.
ok. that's it for today. we're all tired. i'm hungry, too. it's 11:30pm, and i haven't eaten dinner yet. gonna order a tuna sandwich for $10 from room service.
oh, one observation: the traffic lights turn from red to yellow before they turn green. they flash yellow, and everybody goes on yellow. very different from the states.
this morning, i was supposed to get a wakeup call at 8:30, but it never came. the phone rang, and it was paul. it was almost 10am. shit. i got up, put on all my clothes (i slept naked again), rushed out for my smoke, came back up and took a dump, and headed out.
we walked to the department store (john something or other) and had breakfast. paul and i both ordered the "scottish breakfast" for $9, and it came with mushrooms, hash browns, sweet beans, a sausage, bacon, toast, and most interestingly, "black pudding." the black pudding looked like a black piece of burnt sausage patty, but it tasted pretty gross. i took two bites: one to taste it, and one to make sure i would never eat it again.
then we drove two hours to glencoe. at first, it was really annoying, because even though we were on a "highway," we had to slow down every 3 miles or so for a roundabout. i guess roundabouts are how they do exits here. but once we got to the countryside, exits were much more rare. parts of the road were very narrow.
and the countryside was beautiful. the car said the temperature dropped to as low as 1 degree celsius, which is in the mid 30's fahrenheit. that's fucking cold. but it was damn awesome. there were snow-capped mountains, and it did start snowing at one point. gorgeous valleys and rays of sunshine shown through the clouds. we stopped at least a dozen times to take pictures. hopefully some of my pictures turn out well. paul ran through his 2GB memory card in no time.
we stopped in the glencoe visitor center to warm up with a latte (for me) and a hot chocolate (for leeya, and she is totally addicted to those things, she has at least two a day). then we drove back, stopping some more for photo ops. yup, two more hours of driving, and this time in rush hour traffic in glasgow.
we freshened up in the hotel, and then went next door to waxy o'connor's for dinner. the menu didn't look too good to paul and leeya (although i was gonna get the irish stew), so we left. we were going to get thai food across the way from walkabout (where we went last night), but we spotted a kfc and went there instead. both paul and i wanted to get this spicy chicken panini sandwich, but they ran out. fuck. so we just got the usual american fare instead. the place was a sty; there was trash all over the floor.
after finishing up, i came here, and now i'm typing this. after i finish, we're going to use up our free drink coupons at waxy's and call it a night.
i am really happy we saw the country today. tomorrow, we're going to have breakfast, walk about a bit, eat a quick lunch, and head back to edinburgh. it's supposed to rain tomorrow in glasgow, but edinburgh will be spared, so that's why we're heading back there. and then, tomorrow night, we fly out of scotland to dublin, ireland. and thus begins our ireland journey. i don't know if i'll be able to blog tomorrow, so stay tuned.
oh, on the glasgow city bus tour yesterday, there was this semi-cute asian girl sitting behind paul. i really wanted to talk to her, but we were all listening to the tour info on headphones, so i didn't want to interrupt her. she was with her two parents. i am guessing she was chinese, as all of the asian tourists i have seen in scotland have been chinese, but i wouldn't have been surprised if she was korean. and when we got off at the museum, that was the end of my opportunity to talk to her. drat.
there haven't been that many hot girls. i haven't seen any girls here that have made me do a double take. so far, the hottest girl has been olga kurylenko on the 007 movie billboard.
blogbarnacle: the hotel card specifically said that the minibar is free.
so! i have a story to tell, my first good story. read on for further details.
this morning, i got my wakeup call. oh, i slept naked. it felt GOOD. and i woke up with a raging boner, the usual morning wood. i woke up before the wakeup call, so i sat next to the phone, waiting for it to ring. except it didn't. suddenly, at 7:30, the television turned on. i freaked out. i thought it was like poltergeist or something. ah, so that was how the wakeup calls work here.
anyways, we had to move the car at 8am or pay a parking fee, but paul and leeya didn't have a shower curtain, so they couldn't take a shower, so i went down and paid $8 for 2 hours of time. while they took a shower, i went to the internet cafe for half an hour and then to starbucks for a hazelnut latte and a tuna sandwich.
eventually, we left before 10am and parked at the hotel's subsidized lot, the buchanan galleries shopping center. (it's still $17 a day!) we shopped there for a while, mainly at the H&M. i was inspired by their argyle sweaters that i decided one day at work i'm going to wear a dress shirt underneath a sweater with nice pants. ha! we ate at the food court at burger king; i had a "sweet chili" chicken sandwich which wasn't very good.
after that, we decided to take a touristy bus tour around the city. i was all for it because i wanted to learn about the history of glasgow and see parts of it that we wouldn't normally see. paul and leeya were up for it, so we walked back to the hotel, dropped off the stuff that they bought, and hopped on the bus at george square. we went around the east loop, and then on the west loop. in the middle of the west loop, we stopped at the kelvingrove museum and spent some time there. they had some art and stuffed dead animals.
then, we went back to the hotel around 4:30 or so.
so HERE is the story: on the tour bus, the announcer said that there was a great whiskey called "sheep dip." i was of course curious about it, so i asked him where to get it. he said there were few places that carried it, but he named a pub called "pot" something or other. when we got back to the hotel, i asked the receptionist about it, and she recognized it and said the pub was called "the pot still" and showed me where it was.
so while paul and leeya were resting, i walked to the pot still and went in. they had a WALL of whiskey. and they had sheep dip. i got one for $4. it was VERY good. then, as i was sipping it, this big, beefy scottish dude saw me and asked me what my name was. i said "dardy," and he said what was my *real* name. now, he was drunk OFF HIS ASS. he could barely focus his eyes on me, and he was wobbly as he stood. and mind you, the scottish accent is hard to understand, but he was slurring like hell.
he told me his name was "rocky," and later i learned his real name was "richard." he told me he had been to san francisco twice in january, and the weather was no good. i told him he needed to visit in the summer, and the weather would be great. it was really hard to understand him. then, he ordered me another sheep dip, and a drink for himself. however, the female bartender told him that she could no longer serve him because he was too drunk, and at this point, he got belligerent. he starting going "fucking this" and "fucking that."
his wife came in, and introduced herself as "carol." but then, rocky started belittling her, saying she had a "fat ass" and other scottish gibberish that made carol and the bartender embarrassed. it was pretty bad. then, rocky started blaming me for everything, pointing at me demonstratively. i was afraid he was going to punch me and beat the shit out of me or something. i started wondering if i should run out the door or something. eventually, rocky and carol left, but they even forgot some of their bags. i finished the second sheep dip and then gave the bartender $2 for her trouble. then i left.
*phew* crazy, huh? when i got back to the hotel, the receptionist asked me if i found the bar. i said yes, and then i asked her if the scottish have a drinking problem. i mean, it was only 5pm, and this rocky dude was completely wasted.
for dinner, we went to an australian bar called walkabout. it was ok. i got a tuna melt (my third tuna sandwich in 28 or so hours), and we got an appetizer plate with garlic bread, fried shrimp, kangaroo meat, and hot dogs. the hot dog was awesome, as i was missing american food. the kangaroo meat was gamey and very tough, but a lot like steak. after my two sheep dips, i didn't feel like drinking right then, so i just had water. the bathroom was gross, though; the urinal was just this big long stainless steel trough.
after dinner, we walked around, but everything was closed, so we just walked back. i took paul and leeya past the pot still and showed them where it almost went down. we also passed a store where all these online gamers played network computer games. i asked paul if he wanted to school some kids in _command and conquer_. and now i'm here.
ok, tomorrow, the plan is to get the car before 10am and drive to the scottish countryside. should be some good photo ops there. i only have space in my 128MB memory stick for 81 pictures, so i'm budgeting 27 pictures for scotland, 27 for ireland, and 27 for london. right now, i'm at 26 pictures, so i'm pushing it a little. we'll see.
ok, good night!
this morning, we got up earlier than usual (around 8am) and took the car, parked it, and walked to waverley bridge. from there, we took the tour bus again to edinburgh castle, which we missed yesterday due to high winds. we bought fastrack tickets which bypassed the line for around $20.
the castle was pretty cool, but a lot smaller than it seemed. or rather, maybe we didn't have access to the whole thing. leeya was really excited, and paul took a ton of pictures of her standing next to all sorts of canons and fortifications. there were a lot of exhibits and such. we stopped by briefly for snacks, where i had a whiskey (glenfiddich 12 year) and a latte. the guy told us that he wasn't supposed to serve us alcohol on a sunday before noon because it was a law, and that it was such because scotland had an alcohol problem. ah.
then, we toured around the castle some more, and stopped again for snacks when it started raining. the weather was off and on again rain. i had a tuna sandwich that was made yesterday, but for some reason, i had a mad craving for tuna. and i wanted a smoke really badly, but i didn't think that smoking was allowed in the castle.
after a few hours, we left, and we walked back to the car after stopping by M&S to change money and eat (i had a really nasty burger, where the bread was all crunchy and chewy at the same time). then, it was off to glasgow. the drive was about 45 miles or so, like san jose to san francisco, but there was nothing in between except countryside. paul was lulled to sleep by the highway, so we played some music. there was modern music in scotland on the radio, as expected, by the selection was a little odd.
we got to glasgow fine, thanks again to the godsend that is gps. the hotel was a four star hotel smack in the middle of town, and the first thing we noticed that glasgow was very modern.
my hotel room has free whiskey, cognac, and gin! and in fancy glass bottles no less! i think i'll ask for ice when i get back. (oh, i'm in an internet cafe typing this. $3 for half an hour. be thankful that i'm spending money updating you guys on my trip.) paul was getting sick, so he passed out, so instead of half an hour, which is what they told me, he slept for about two hours. it was ok, because bbc was televising the saints/chargers game. it was sooooo nice to see american culture on the television. (the mtv sweet sixteen shit did NOT count.)
at halftime, i called up leeya's room to see what was up, and we went out to eat. i suggested japanese food, and we walked two blocks to wagamama, this ramen house. it was ok ramen, but the BEST was this: duck and leek gyoza with cherry hoisin sauce. DELICIOUS. two of my favorite ingredients in one of my favorite form factors. awesome. the gyoza cost $9, but i didn't give a shit. when i paid, though, i realized afterwards that i was adding 25% to the subtotal. oops. that's including california sales tax. i won't be doing that anymore.
we walked to the movie theater afterwards, but there was nothing showing, so we took a long detour around the shopping center and performing arts center to george square, where there was this huge lit up fancy building, and more impressive, a block-wide billboard featuring _quantum of solace_, the new 007 movie. leeya told me that was olga kurylenko, the new bond girl from _hitman_ the movie. she's sort of hot. and i've seen her boobs. nice.
these two scottish cities are very clean. there is very little litter here compared to the states, so i've been very careful to not throw my cigarette butts on the ground after i'm done with them.
glasgow is very young and hip. and like i said, very modern. unlike edinburgh, there are no castles or old buildings. i wonder what we'll do here for the next two full days. maybe a lot of shopping, i predict. leeya is one mad shopper. i hope paul feels better. we have to get up early tomorrow to move the car, but paul is 0-2 in terms of saying he'll get up early and following through on that.
all right. hopefully i'll write tomorrow. this internet cafe is only two blocks away from my fancy hotel. maybe i'll drink by myself when i get home tonight. it depends on whether i get ice. or maybe i'll try drinking the whiskey straight. oh, and they gave us two drink coupons to use at the connecting bar, waxy o'connors. i used one of them on a bushmills on the rocks, but then i saw behind it there was a 12-year jameson. shit. wasted coupon. they give really small amounts of liquor here per drink. they actually measure out 25ml of alcohol in a shot glass and pour it out, unlike in the states where they are usually more generous with their pours.
oh, and my fish and chips didn't have skin on it, i think.
ok, good night! time to check my cowboys score. i bet they lost.
we woke up a bit earlier and tried the bus system. we took bus #17 (i think, there are so many buses in this city) to princes street. then, we walked to waverley bridge and paid $25 or so to hop on the city tour bus, you know, one of those double-decker buses that takes you all around town. unfortunately, it was raining, and *very* windy, so we didn't get to sit on the second floor in the open area.
our first stop was the castle, the main attraction, but unfortunately, it was so windy that they closed it. :( so we shopped and had lunch at a cafe right outside the entrance.
i had haggis. yup, i ordered a "scottish breakfast" (two eggs, two sausages, two bacon, two toast, and two fried tomatoes which never showed up, and haggis), and a bowl of country vegetable soup. haggis (look it up on wikipedia) looked like a big lump of shit with tiny little white maggots. it tasted like liver, sort of. not my cup of tea. leeya said it was like pate, and she kind of liked it. i ate like 7 bites, took a picture of it, and left most of it on the plate.
when we left, this HUGE gust of wind almost knocked paul down. i mean, paul is a big guy, and it took him *off his feet*. he even dropped his umbrella. crazy shit, man.
we took the bus to this big exploratorium place, got off, realized it was mainly for kids (and expensive to go in), and then hopped off the next bus, and took it all around the loop. i fell asleep. then, paul wanted to go to the ocean terminal, so we took bus #34 to the northern edge of edinburgh. there was a mall there, so we shopped. leeya bought some stuff. (oh, she bought a cute cow cookie jar earlier, i don't know how she's going to bring it back.)
prices here are the same as the US. i mean, a nice tag watch costs around 1,800 pounds. that is, until you realize it is in POUNDS. so basically, everything costs 1.7X what it does in the states. for example, a mcchicken sandwich costs 99 pence here. same price, see? except 1.7X.
after the ocean terminal, we took bus #22 to princes street, then bus #8 back to the apartment. for dinner, we got pizza hut delivery, ordering online. pretty convenient. the pizza we got was this extremely spicy sausage one that must have used tabasco instead of marinara sauce. i'm impressed the scottish can handle this kind of heat. we also got a tray of pasta, bbq chicken wings, and a 2-liter bottle of soda. all for around $40. there was talk of going to a pub afterwards, but we all fell asleep afterwards. i really need to be more proactive about going to pubs, as whiskey drinking is one of the main activities i want to do here.
oh, there was a "scotch whiskey experience" outside of edinburgh castle. i wanted to go, but it was going to take one hour, and of course, it cost money. i felt guilty making paul and leeya go through it with me, when they're not into whiskey. but i really want to learn more about whiskey. hm. i think the jameson factory tour will be good enough in dublin.
they don't censor movies here. they showed _lethal weapon 2_ last night, and after i came back from a smoke, they showed the boob scene with patsy kensit with no censoring. cool.
ok, well it's sunday morning here. paul might have a cold, and we're going to try to visit the castle again. (our tour bus passes can be used for 24 hours.) we're headed to glasgow today. i'm going to miss this apartment; we're in hotels from here on out. i don't know how much i can blog from now on, since access to this computer might be limited. but i'll try!
i went to bed last night at midnight, and luckily i didn't have much trouble falling asleep. however, i woke up at 5:30am, and i felt refreshed. i forced myself to sleep until 9:30, and then i felt like shit.
we waited for paul to wake up from his comatose state, and then we headed out. he wanted to drive, so we did that. before he got up, i went downstairs to talk to reception, and she told me about bus routes and walking to the center of edinburgh. it would take about 15 minutes she said. but still, paul wanted to drive.
it took us a while to find parking. (thank fucking goodness for gps, that's all i can say.) we paid about $11 for 3 hours of parking. the first thing was to find a sim card for one of paul's old unlocked phones so we had a cell phone to use in an emergency. that cost us $30. then, we went to a department store to exchange money. i exchanged an extra $300 at about $1.73 per pound.
we ate at the department store (i think i was called marks and spencer, or M&S), just some sandwiches and drinks, and then we headed off. it was raining outside, so paul and leeya bought some cheap umbrellas. luckily, i brought mine. it rained off and on the entire afternoon. we decided not to hit edinburgh castle today and instead take a bus tour tomorrow and go there as one of its stops. so instead, we just walked up and down princes street and george street. we also hit a small mall, where leeya bought a small bottle of whiskey with a soccer ball in it. (she has a small fetish for small bottles of alcohol even though she doesn't drink.)
we went back to the car around 2pm, and paul wanted to drive somewhere else. it was raining. he played with the idea of going to the zoo, but then, he suggested the modern art museum. so we went, and it was decent. they at least had a picasso, a mondrian, a lichtenstein (sp?), and some warhols. i love modern art. we also had a coffee break in the cafe there. getting there and back was quite an adventure, though. like i say, thank goodness for gps.
driving on the left side of the road has been quite interesting. we haven't turned in the wrong side yet, but crossing the street, we have looked at the worng side a few times. but right now, i'm getting the hang of looking to the right side first. i just hope i switch back when i come home to the states.
after we got back, we just chilled for the afternoon by watching _my super sweet sixteen_ on european MTV. these girls are fucking spoiled rotten, and it pissed me off to no end. what makes these bitches entitled to spending so much money to celebrate their birthdays? one girl even got a $100,000 car. ridiculous. it just made me mad.
i went across the street to the gas station to get a dr. pepper for $2, and it just tasted different. first of all, it's bottled by coke, then it contains sugar, not high fructose corn syrup, third, it doesn't have the label "contains 23 flavors," so all in all, it just doesn't have that distinct taste. oh well.
for dinner, we headed down broughton road to find the thai restaurant we drove by last night, but i was wrong, and it was actually on broughton STREET. how fucking annoying. we walked about 0.7 miles before realizing we went the wrong way, so we doubled back and eventually found it. the food was decent, but the dinner cost us about $80. the price in pounds here in the UK looks right, but then you multiply everything by 1.7 and then realize that it's ridiculously expensive. at least it's not as bad as italy.
we went to the omni afterwards and thought about watching a $14 movie (_burn after reading_), but backed off and walked home. then, we watched some tv (an uncensored version of _lethal weapon_), and then i bought some medicine for leeya, who's coming down for something. after that, i headed to the local pub to drink by myself. no one would talk to me, so i had my "whiskey of the day" (glenfiddich) all alone, bought some pringles (which are smaller than those in the states), some more dr pepper, and now i'm here typing away.
there's this sexy ad with keira knightley all naked, her hand covering up her breasts and a piece of fabric covering up her vadge area. i think it's for chanel or something. it's all over the place. i like it. keira's hot.
when i was walking out to the pub, i saw three teenagers yell at a cop car, saying they would "cut them up," and then they threw a heavy brick across the street at our apartment complex. fucking hooligans.
ok. it's 11:30pm now. i best have my last nightly cigarette and get ready for bed. we're going to get up a little early tomorrow and get on that touristy bus.
well, it took me about 20+ hours to get from door to door (my place to our apartment in edinburgh). crazy, huh?
john picked me up at my place a little before 3:30pm, and that was for a 7:30 flight. yup. four hours early. i checked in my luggage, paid $109 for an economy plus right window seat (otherwise i would have sat in the middle in economy, no good for my tourette's), and had another smoke by bumming off a light from a nice family sitting outside on the same flight.
then, i just waited. i had a whiskey (jameson on the rocks), walked around a duty free store, and then another whiskey as well as a carnitas quesadilla at andale. by then, i was buzzing, and then paul and leeya finally showed up. (oh, before john picked me up, i tried a guinness from the states. i didn't like it, but at least i could compare it to the stuff i'll try it out in the UK.)
before the flight, leeya got some udon at a japanese place, and i got some water and took 0.25x2mg of xanax and 100mg of seroquel. by the time i got on the plane, i was woozy already, and we took a long time to finally take off. i promptly passed out. for the next 8.5 hours, i woke up because of random reasons (sore ass, sore tailbone), but at least i slept most of the way through. i woke up for the last hour or so, and then we landed in london heathrow.
then, we had a HUGELY long layover. paul and leeya had to get their bags, as they weren't checked in through to edinburgh, as mine were. it didn't take them long to do that, so we had a 3.5+ hour layover. and THEN, our plane was delayed by an hour. the flight itself was uneventful besides some turbulence that made the women beside me grasp for the chair in front of her.
that first cigarette available to me was the best smoke EVER.
we rented a car, and without paul's GPS with european maps, we would have been fucked. we drove for about 20 minutes to our apartment, dropped off our luggage, and then hit a pub. they didn't serve food at night, so paul just got a guinness (i had a sip, it was nice), and i had a glenfiddich (scotch) on the rocks.
the bartender told us where to get food, so we drove there and got takeaway (british word for takeout) fish and chips, etc. leeya got chicken and chips, and paul got a deep fried cheeseburger. the ketchup was all funky, like sweet and sour sauce, and it was by far the most disgusting fish and chips i have ever had. paul swore to never have fish and chips until i take them to harry ramsden's in london. i agree.
so that's it for today. tomorrow we'll do some sightseeing. it's dready and cold and windy here in edinburgh; hopefully the weather will cooperate tomorrow. ok, i'm off to a shower and to bed. we'll see if i can fall asleep.
hey darling pups. i don't have much time to write today. i gotta go to valley fair to find new shoes, and then i'm off to safeway to buy some stuff (plastic bags, vitamins, and my haldol medication). i need to pack most of my stuff tonight, too. and then i'm off to dinner at 10pm with grace, john, and the rest of their volleyball team. and of course, i'll be watching _fringe_ from 9 to 10.
i'm wrapping up stuff at work. i talked to my boss, and i told him that even though i'm technically off tomorrow, i'll come in for a few hours. he said that i shouldn't bother, and i should relax and take it easy. he really takes care of me. but i told him that i wanted to make sure that everything is in good shape before i leave. there's a bug in the graphics unit right now, and i'm worried that the two guys who are taking it over (well, they really are the owners of it, and i'm just helping them) won't be able to handle it. ah, guilt on my end. i just can't let go!
one guy who got laid off at his new company who used to work here interviewed back here last week, or so i heard. i hope he comes back. i liked him a lot. and we could use his help, too, as he used to work on a block that's undergoing a lot of changes right now. we'll see if it happens.
i just checked the weather for edinburgh, our first stop, and for the *ENTIRE* duration of our stay there (until 10/29), it'll be 50 degrees there and raining. FUCK. that's going to be miserable. maybe i should buy a compact umbrella at the mall as well, huh? i'll be bringing my latex rubber raincoat, but maybe an umbrella will come in useful as well. *ponder*
i am really not looking forward to the flight. it's just over 10 hours. i'm going to drug myself up with some seroquel and xanax, which will hopefully knock me out. i did that for the flight out to hawaii last year for mikeT's wedding, and it worked. i was flying coach that time, too. i just don't know if it will knock me out for long enough. we're basically flying the red-eye, so hopefully i'll be tired enough that i'll get a normal night-time-length amount of sleep anyway.
i think i'll miss my porn a lot while i'm away. when my mom left after staying with me for three weeks, the first thing i did after i dropped her off at the airport was bust out some of the stuff. it was great, like seeing a good friend.
my cousin tells me that haggis is disgusting. (her bf is scottish.) she hasn't had it yet, but she says her bf is going to force it upon her one of these days. hm. that doesn't sound appetizing. but she did tell me that the scottish eat deep fried snickers, as in the candy bar. that at least sounds like something i could eat. still, i wonder if i'll gain weight or lose weight. something tells me that when i step on the scale for the first time when i get back, i'll be surprised one way or another.
ok, i gotta go. i have a lot of stuff to do tonight. i *might* blog tomorrow; it depends on how much work i have to do in the few hours that i'm at the office. bye!
so my presentation went fine without a hitch. i haven't talked so much in a meeting or presented something in a long time. i got a compliment on my document, too! :) public speaking has not been a strength of mine; i was at my best (if you could call it that) in high school, when i gave speeches (both prepared and impromptu) for academic decathlon. but that was by far my weakest discipline out of the 10, when i got sub-600 (out of 1,000) at nationals my junior year. my coaches realized it was my achilles heel, so they wanted me to join the toastmasters for my senior year. i balked at it, but it worked hard my senior year, and i raised my score to 800+ at state that year. but ever since then, my public speaking skills have diminished. but today, it was ok. *phew*
do you guys pronounce it "preh-sentation" or "pree-sentation?"
so i have only a few more items to check off before i go. i need to run one more test and send out a few more e-mails, and then i'm all set. *yay*
as far as other things, i sent in my voting documents today, along with my november rent check. i'm getting a massage at 6pm, and tomorrow i'm going to the new puma store at valley fair to check out new shoes. the two main pairs of shoes i wear these days (puma avanti's and silver steve madden rascals) are old, dirty, worn out and ratty, so i desperately need a pair of everyday wear shoes. i'm hoping the puma store has some cool shit.
paul told me today on IM that the fanciest top he's bringing is a polo shirt. hm. i wonder if that means that we won't be going to gordon ramsey's restaurant in london. will we be able to get in? i kind of want to go (at william's urging), but if we can't dress up for it, we'll probably not be able to get in. plus, it's expensive, i know, but i am curious about his cooking. and, william said that if there's one restaurant where we might spot him cooking at, it's this one. i would like to see him; he's like a celebrity!
has anyone eaten haggis before? it's a scottish dish, like a fat sausage made of all these raunchy ingredients. jay forwarded me the wikipedia entry to haggis, and he really wants me to try it out. i am not so sure about it. i like sausage, but i don't know if it will taste good. i have the same reservations about it like i did for vegemite. (vegemite is nasty, but i've been curious about it for years. *cue the men at work song*) we'll see if i order it when we're in scotland.
i had lunch with alan today at miyake. good old miyake. i'm glad i didn't order the california rolls (even though they're nice and big there) because that would have been too much. i had 18 pieces of sushi: 8 chelsea rolls, 8 poki deluxe, and 2 unagi. the prices really went up there. the chelsea rolls used to be only $3.95 years ago, and now they're $6.25. that's over 50% up! but, they're still tasty. yes, palo also is a bit far from sunnyvale for lunch, but alan was in redwood city, so PA was a nice middle ground.
i need to stop smoking in my car. the flying ashes are burning holes in my clothes, most notably my beautiful track jackets. i noticed another burn mark in my carolina blue puma track jacket, and it made me sad. i also got oyster sauce all over that jacket during dim sum. god, i'm such a slob.
this morning, there was this instant in time when i woke up, stretched, and felt refreshed. and right then, my alarm went off. it was like clockwork. of course, it was 9:30am, so i didn't want to go to work that early, so i went back to sleep. but it was like a poetic moment.
i think i have receding gums or something. the past two meals, i've had ice water, and my top two front teeth have gotten all jangly and "nerve-y." it's very uncomfortable. i hope it's not a problem that needs a dentist's attention.
i got a bottle of guinness from nelson the other night. i'm going to drink it before i leave so i can compare it with the stuff in ireland. i don't like beer at all, but people say that it's wonderful there. so i'll give it a try. i hear they serve it at room temperature, though, and that sounds gross to me. we'll see.
i wonder if i'll get sick of whiskey while i'm in the UK. i plan on having it every night, since i won't be driving at all. it *better* be good. i'm not a scotch person, but rather an irish whiskey person. so i'll drink up while i'm in ireland. jameson and bushmills alll the way, baby!
i wonder what the porn is like there. porn laws are different in every country. in japan, it's pretty strict, and last i saw, they pixelate all the good stuff. i wonder what it's like to work for the censorship industry in japan. i mean, you get to see all the uncensored material, as you manipulate the pixel circle and process the videos. do you get turned on? does it get old, as you get numb to all the porn that you see every day? do you make secret copies of the porn and sell it on the black market? i remember when i lived in kyoto, there was this little shack on one of the big street selling shady stuff; i rarely ever saw anybody shopping there, though.
i will try my best to blog from the UK. paul's bringing his laptop, and i'll try to find some internet cafe's and stuff. i plan on writing down on paper what we do every day so i don't forget. remember when i went to italy/spain, i did blog from time to time. and this time, i'm going to try to take more pictures, although i have completely forgotten how to post up pictures in that table format that i used to use.
ok, time to take care of some stuff before i leave for my massage. can't wait!
didn't do a whole lot this weekend, until sunday rolled around. friday night, no one was available to have dinner, so i grabbed some taco bell and watched tv. *sniff* i really wanted to hang out with people, seeing as this was my last weekend before the trip.
saturday, i had lunch with mikeC and nelson at pho nam. then, we stood outside, thinking of stuff to do, but we couldn't come up with anything. nelson wanted to watch _W_, but we were lukewarm on the idea. i am curious to see it, but my burn isn't that strong. so i dropped off nelson at his place and went home to vote.
yup, i went through all the propositions and voted yes on only a few of them. (of course, no on 8.) i read the impartial summaries of the props and the arguments for and against, and it took quite a while to get through them. i did not, however, vote for the judges and city councilmen because i didn't feel like i knew them well enough to make a fair judgment.
i also watched stanford lose to UCLA. it really sucked. we were up 20-16, and UCLA scored a touchdown with 10 seconds left to go up 23-20. *RAAR* that pretty much ruined our bowl chances. now we have to beat washington state (who lost 0-69 to USC, wow!), and beat either USC, oregon, or cal, which will be a tall order for us. we have a good running game, but we can't pass worth shit. in the first half of the game, we only passed for *fourteen* yards. that's pathetic.
after voting and the game, i watched the first half of the #1 texas vs. #11 missouri game. i expected a tight contest, but at the end of the half, texas was up 35-3, with mizzou kicking a field goal at the very end of the half to get on the board. it was ridiculous how good texas was. colt mccoy completed *90%* of his passes! he'll probably win the heisman.
then, it was off to (the new) dusita (my suggestion, as i was craving the spicy crispy catfish) with mikeC and nelson. there was a HUGE indian birthday party there, with a party of like 40 people. as a result, the kitchen rushed our ordered and burned our pad see ew. too bad. the food was still decent, but nelson said that the red duck curry was a bit off. oh well. if we go next time, and there's a huge party like that, we'll leave.
after that, we went back to nelson's place and watched mike play some madden '08 (he threw 6 interceptions) and some tomb raider, and then we went home.
sunday, we had dim sum with mikeC, nelson, grace, john, jimmy and sabrina. it was tasty shit. i got there first and ordered a whole bunch of stuff on my own. then, i headed off to adam's house, where he was supposed to loan me his power converters for the UK plugs, but he finally remembered that he loaned them to someone else. we finished watching the raiders/jets game, and then i went to fry's to buy some cheap converters.
then, i went back to adam's place, and we carpooled to gombei #3 for dinner. i got the beef yakiniku don (not on the menu, after i learned that they ran out of curry), which was ok, but i asked for "medium", and they made the beef medium rare. adam and rae didn't like their food very much, so they said they'll take me to yuki sushi next time we meet up.
i went home, and i met up with peter at tartini for some yogurt. peter showed off his new puma jacket, and i thought it suited him; it wasn't flashy, but it was asymmetrical, which i really liked. he told me there was a puma store at valley fair, so i think i'm going to hit that and try to find some new europe (and general purpose) shoes. my shoes are getting old and dirty.
i got home just in time to see the tampa bay rays celebrating, so i knew the red sox lost. shit. stanford, my cowboys (in a stunning blowout), and my red sox all lost. what a shitty weekend for my teams. i'm most concerned about my cowboys, though. losing 14-34 to the rams? i am fucking disgusted. i don't want to talk about it.
ok, well, anyways, i gotta head off soon. meeting up with alan for lunch in palo alto at miyake. chelsea and poki deluxe rolls!
my last two meals were very satisfying. last night, i met up with paul and leeya at southland. i wanted thai (craving that spicy crispy catfish from dusita), but paul suggested southland, and i didn't mind. i got the combination fried rice, which was huge, and at first i had intentions of only eating half of it. however, i devoured the entire thing without a second thought. it was delicious. and today, i met up with the usual ex-T-company gang at our usual choi's, and it was grand as well. the luscious potatoes! i ate so much that i got a korean food coma, which is very rare. i passed out for half an hour in my cube after i got back.
i was still very productive today at the office, though. S and i (or, rather, just me, with S watching me type) made some major headway in modifying the verification environment to support his new block. it took an hour and a half to modify the files, and after he changed a simple test, it passed! i was very happy. so all my work has paid off, and i think i can go on my vacation after i do my knowledge transfer presentation next monday. yippee!
so my friend cindy works for orbit baby, the maker of expensive strollers and baby carriages. they were prominently featured on last night's episode of _the office_. i just asked her if orbit paid to be on the show, and she said no. pretty cool. dwight is hilarious; he's my favorite character on the show. one of cindy's friends and her husband are the founders of orbit, and i met her once at one of cindy's parties. pretty cool stuff, although i think the stuff is a bit out of the reach for ordinary consumers, in terms of the price tag.
does airborne really work? i wonder if i should get some before my flight next wednesday.
i am disappointed to see that _max payne_ only got like 20% on rotten tomatoes. i'm not sure i want to see it now. i guess i shouldn't have gotten my expectations up, as this is a movie based on a video game. but the previews just look really cool! how come video game movies are so bad, but comic book movies can be so good?
i got a message today (on the dating site) from a super-liberal vegetarian girl. i didn't have that much of a problem with those things, but then i saw that she was a lesbian. i was like, "what's the point?"
the cute glasses girl at work wore different frames today. these specs were rimless. i've decided that i'm not that big of a fan of rimless glasses; i think that rims are good because they frame the eyes, which is the whole point to the aesthetic function of them. i almost ran into the girl when i turned a blind corner on my way to the elevator. what if i had bumped into her, and said, "excuse me, G?" we've never met, but i might have let it slip out that i know her name! *phew*
my cousin S says that i'll gain a lot of weight in the UK. really? what kind of food do they eat there? hearty stuff, like steak and potatoes? fish and chips? the way i figure, food will be so expensive that i'll lose weight. at least, that's the hope, that i'll naturally lose weight from eating so little. that's how it was when i lived in japan for six months. one of my parents' regrets is letting me go to japan, because they said that i was forever changed, i.e. i came back a bag of bones. but the yen was 80 to the dollar back then, (RIDICULOUS, that endaka) and it was just too expensive to be full.
i'm not sure i can program my VCR to tape shows one or two weeks in advance. hm. i'll have to check. i was fiddling around with it last night to tape _the office_ (and _kath and kim_, which i'll talk about later), and when i got to next week on the date select, i wouldn't go there. hm. what to do? i don't want to miss any of my shows! i know i can download them, but i've never done it before. and i can watch them online, but my my computer's old and slow, and i don't like watching stuff on my computer.
ok, _kath and kim_. i watched this because i really like selma blair. she has this bitchy, pouty look that i just adore. i saw that this was on last night, so i watched it. it was pretty bad. is it supposed to be a comedy? i didn't smile once, let alone laugh. i mean, i don't know if it was the writing or the acting or the cinematography, but the whole show just seemed to be extremely subpar. even selma couldn't save it. ugh. too bad. i wouldn't be surprised if it gets cancelled, and i'm not even going to try to tape it when i'm on vacation.
ah, the weekend is here. my final one. i'm gonna try to have dim sum one last time before i go. and yogurt, too.
so today, our company had a raffle. the charity was to "the family giving tree," and for every $5 you gave, you got one raffle ticket. i ran out of checks (they didn't take cash), so during lunch, i actually went home to get a new checkbook. i gave $100, and the guy miscounted and actually gave me 21 raffle tickets. overall, the company raised over $3500, and there were over a dozen prizes (mostly televisions and some digital cameras), so i had a decent chance of winning something.
so during our monthly ice cream social, the prize drawing began. whoever's name was called got to go pick out their prize, so the big 40+" HDTV's went first, obviously. then, it was over, and i didn't win anything. but then, one of the guys noticed that the two shitty standard definition tube tv's (one of them without a remote control even) weren't taken, so the final two names were called. i was the first one. UGH. who the fuck wants an ancient tv? but i took it anyway, and then i found out one of my coworkers' televisions was broken (he couldn't get anything above channel 36), so i just gave it to him. damn. i really wanted to get a nice flat panel for my bedroom. oh well.
i'm stoked about my progress at work today. i worked on my presentation for next monday, some knowledge transfer on how to write tests and do some verification stuff before i leave for the UK, and then, C and i resolved a hanging C-model issue, and we got one of the graphics tests (which i wrote) to pass. i let out a hearty yell when we compared the results and they matched. so i'm happy.
there's something about mcdonald's southern style chicken sandwich that makes me feel ill after eating it. i think it's the buttery bun; they must add something in the bread that gives it its smooth and creamy texture, and it makes me a wee bit nauseated. i had that and a mcchicken sandwich today after coming back from home to get my checkbook. the mcchicken was actually better, even though it only cost $1. it's the generous helping of mayonnaise that they put in it. so yums.
paul and i are going to pack really light for the UK. we're probably going to bring a few shirts and just rotate. we met up for pearl tea last night, and leeya was saying how she wants to bring like 9 outfits (and like 4 pairs of jeans) for an 18-day trip. wowzers. there was talk about doing laundry, and i immediately blurted out how we could all do a huge load together. paul then, without hesitation, said he would *not* be down for that. and then i realized the gravity of mixing one's underwear with someone else and rescinded my comment. i guess that's a big no-no, huh? hehe.
why does mccain blink so much? he looks truly stupefied sometimes.
i looked through mikeT's pictures of his viist to rome today. it brought me back to my visit there four years ago. one thing that seemed very different, though, was his culinary experience. i went with a group of 9 people, so we were forced to go to big touristy restaurants. he went with his wife, so it seems they got to go to small cafe's and stuff, with much higher quality of food. that's cool, sucks for me. i wish i ate better during my italy trip, although my two best experiences there did involve a wonderful tuna and tomato panini sandwich/cappuccino and a nice eggplant pizza/coke, and both including a nice dose of solitude.
one of the questions he posed in his captions was about the pantheon. this is a big ancient building with a big round hole in the roof. his question was about what happens when it rains. the answer is that in the floor of the pantheon, there are these small 1-centimeter holes scattered about that will drain the water. man, that's true engineering and problem solving, isn't it?
i am trying to figure out how many cigarettes i need to bring to the UK. i brought a carton on my italy/spain trip, but i think i smoke more now than i did back then. maybe i'll be so relaxed than i'll smoke less, or maybe i'll smoke more for the exact same reason. it could go either way. plus, this dude at kevin's wedding told me that at irish pubs, you're supposed to give cigarettes to everybody, and they'll give you some in return. that might affect how many i have, too. (plus, he told me to come prepared with some bar songs to sing, and the only two that i can come up with are "american pie" and "piano man", but i don't know all the words to either.)
what i meant to say in yesterday's post was that a lot of married couples don't have sex at all *during* their marriage. this is out of ignorance about sex, conservatism about sexuality, etc. it's really sad, actually. i heard one indian woman tried to get pregnant by having her husband masturate, and then scooping up his spunk into her vadge. crazy, huh?
for some reason, most of the cans of dr pepper here at the company have a lot of dirt or gunk in the ridge on top of the can. so i have to go and sift through all the cans when i go get one. it's really annoying. i guess i could wash them, but i'm too lazy. *RAAR* the other drinks that i get (V8, orange juice) seem to be fine. what's up with that?
ok. time to go for a smoke and reply to amyH on facebook.
i got my vote-by-mail packet yesterday. there's a lot of stuff that i'm ignorant about: most of the propositions, city council members, judges, etc. i'm going to read up on the propositions this weekend, but as far as the smaller elections, i'm probably going to abstain.
i went to D's cube today and talked about prop 8 (the gay marriage ban). his cubicle neighbor heard us talking and busted out two pro-prop 8 fliers, one of them written half in chinese and half in english. i had no idea this guy was so anti-gay marriage. i read some of the arguments; there was the usual stuff like "gay marriage is bad for the kids because they need a mother and a father." and other stuff was a bit out there, like, "gay marriage promotes deterioration of morals." hm. really? one curious one was, "being gay has not been demonstrated as being biological, so it is a choice. hence, there is no notion of 'rights.'" very interesting debate there.
anyways, this coworker felt really strongly about supporting prop 8, so i didn't want to make a fuss about how i was definitely going to vote against it. i am by no means going to take marriage away from anybody. and that's how D feels, too, as he told me later on in the day. so i'm glad D feels this way, too. anyways, i better do my homework on the other props this weekend and mail my votes in early next week before i leave for the UK.
is the ireland-england war still going on? i have to say, i haven't been keeping up on that conflict. my dad told me that there has been some violence in england going on lately, so i hope nothing horrible happens to us while we're there. *knocks on wood*
i met up with grace, john, etc. after their volleyball game at the boardwalk last night. i had already had dinner (a small one) at the company, but i ate again, and i wanted to hang out with them. i had been to the boardwalk (in los altos) once before, and for some reason, i remembered the food being really good. i got the same things (reuben and spicy curly fries), but they just didn't taste as good as i remembered. maybe it's because i wasn't as hungry, as last time, i waited until 10pm to eat, and this time, i had already eaten dinner. oh well. it was still good seeing them.
mikeT forwarded me a link on how this tv show (_the ex-list_) has created a new holiday tomorrow, "ex-day," where you're supposed to reconnect with your ex's. how curious. funny thing, i just had a really intense dream last night about k1. we had a little freshman dorm reunion (in present day), and then, we were cornered by our RA's and asked how we truly felt about each other. k1 said that she missed me every day, and i said the same thing. it was really emotional. of course, in reality, it's completely wishful thinking on my part, as she's wrapped up in her marriage (and child, as i am guessing), as well as her hectic schedule and celebrity. to be honest, i don't think about her that much, either, but the rare times when i do, i do miss her, though.
in a rare occasion, i found a girl who cut her hair short(er) and didn't look as good. she looked more natural with longer hair, and her new hair (sort of like when elliot from _scrubs_ went through that manic haircutting mascara phase) makes it look forced. bummer. those who know me that i am the champion of short hair, unlike most men. oh well. i guess she is the exception that proves the rule.
my nose will not stop running. isn't it amazing how it can produce a seemingly infinite amount of snot? i mean, how does the body keep making it? you would think that at some point, it would just run out of raw materials needed to create mucus. i mean, it's an absolute physical limitation, right? for example, if you weigh 150 pounds, your nose canNOT produce more than 150 pounds of boogers, as an upper bound. so there *has* to be a limit. and yet, my nose keeps running. the sides of my nostrils and upper lip are pink and red and peeling from all the wiping. they fucking hurt when i touch them.
_fringe_ is getting super-hokey. i mean, in last night's episode, walter bishop "programmed" pigeons (by mildly electrocuting them with a tesla coil) to hone in on a guy's personal electrical field. uh... right. i mean, it's interesting, but i guess you really need a leap of faith to not laugh at the underlying "science." i guess it's called "fringe" for a reason!
how well do newly married virgins' wedding nights go? i mean, if they're having sex for the first time, i would imagine them to be a couple of things; first, excited, because they're doing it for the first time. and second, a little nervous and apprehensive, for the same reason. do they know where everything goes? are they worried about performance? what are their expectations like? what if the girl feels pain (hymen, anyone)? do they have birth control taken care of? all these questions. i read somewhere that a ridiculous percentage of couples never even have sex during their marriage because of issues of conservatism, ignorance, etc. better to have test runs (and tons of them) before that night, that's what i say.
my friend was telling me about his poker night last friday, and he almost got a royal flush! that's pretty sweet. he had an ace, king, queen, and jack of diamonds, and he got a 10 of hearts on the river. ah, one card away. with wild cards, i got a royal flush once. it was pretty sweet. i do think that poker is overexposed right now, though. last night, i went to bed at midnight, and instead of sportscenter, espn was replaying some wsop show. luckily, i was still able to fall asleep with it on.
ok. can you tell i'm bored? i'm posting this an hour early. i finished writing and debugging a test today, so my work for today is done. tomorrow, i'll start writing a presentation to deliver as part of my knowledge transfer while i'm gone on vacation.
i'm much better today, thank you very much. for lunch and dinner yesterday, i went to safeway and got their pre-made chicken noodle soup. it was pretty good! i also got a coldbuster smoothie with immunity boost from jamba juice and some jack in the box for dinner as well. this morning, the general weakness and the muscle aches had disappeared, and right now, i just have some sniffles left. hopefully tomorrow, i'll be fully recovered. at least i was able to sleep decently last night.
yeah, my dad likes to speak his mind. i guess i do take after him. he gets into trouble sometimes, to my mom's dismay. his problem with my brother getting married was about him being young and not having a job or income. he and my mom got married early, too, so he had experience with that, enduring hardships with being poor and having to support a family. anyways, i hope the best for my brother and his new wife.
i'm really distraught over my beloved dallas cowboys. romo is out for a month, and so is pacman and one of our running backs (felix jones). our punter is out for the season, and things are just getting worse and worse. we might miss the playoffs this season with all these injuries, being in a tough NFC east division with the giants and redskins. ugh. i'll be very sad if that happens. we'll see.
what's really weird about being sick is that cigarettes taste funny. i could tell this morning that i was still a bit under the weather because they still had a funny taste. however, i just had one a few minutes ago, and they were normal, so i think i really am on the mend. :)
i had a dream about a pregnant couple having sex. no, i wasn't watching them secretly or anything, but they were just talking about their nightly bedroom escapades. the girl was really pregnant. that got me thinking: are pregnant women horny? do pregnant couples still have sex? is it comfortable, jarring to the baby? having to carry a huge load on the woman's stomach limits the number of positions, doesn't it? my guess is that missionary would be ruled out after the girl's belly gets too big. maybe doggy style would be best? and cowgirl would be really tiring for the woman, and like i said, jarring for the fetus? all these questions!
how did elizabeth banks get to be in such high demand in hollywood? for those of you who don't know her, she is probably best known as kim briggs, j.d.'s kid's mom in _scrubs_. when i went to see _nick and norah_ last week, she was in THREE previews. of course, the one i want the most is the one where she and seth rogen make a porn movie. but yeah, i had no idea that she was doing so many movies, after a modest career in television.
my nostrils are totally raw from wiping. i think the skin has completely peeled off, and they hurt when i touch them. *sobs* same thing with my upper lip. the problem is, i don't have regular tissue at the office, so i'm using the napkins from fast food joints that i've accumulated over the years. these things aren't exactly soft and gentle.
i am dreading getting jet lag when i go to the UK and when i come back. mikeT is still suffering from the effects of his trip to italy, and it's been a week since he got back. my mom and dad arrived in taiwan earlier today, and they went to bed at 1am and got up two hours later. jet lag is crazy shit. remember last year when i got back from taiwan, i was getting up at 7:30am and stuff, which is WAY early for me. i forget flying which direction is the worst, east or west.
i wonder if i'll get porn withdrawal on my vacation. do they have smutty tv in hotels in the UK? or is that a rhetorical question? they must, right? don't they have adult channels everywhere? i remember i paid 1,000 yen for a few hours of porn in my hotel room when i went to japan back in 2001, and boy, it was nice to see some of that stuff after like two weeks without it. i even kept it on when i went to bed; that was a very interesting experience, trying to fall asleep amidst all the moans and groans of people romping on the telly. (i eventually got annoyed and turned it off.)
so far, none of the kids in my family's generation is going out with a chinese person. they're all dating or married to: a scottish guy, hispanic girl, korean girl, hapa guy, etc. i wonder what the parents think. i think i'm the only one who really wants to marry a chinese counterpart.
anyways, my vacation is coming in one week. i'm almost there. i can taste it. and i am EXCITED. i've got quite a bit of work to do before then, though, so i hope i can finish. i can tell my boss is a little nervous letting me go, but i hope nothing catastrophic happens while i'm gone. *crossed fingers*
ok. 6pm smoke time.
i'm sick. :( but i will update you on this weekend.
friday morning, i got up at 5am. it was dark outside. i went to the airport, and i checked in my baggage and got through security in about 45 minutes. it wasn't bad at all. so i got a tall hazelnut latte at starbucks. i went straight to the counter, and the lady was like, "uh, do you SEE the huge line behind you?" i was very embarrassed.
anyways, i was really bored sitting around for my 7:30 flight, and when it finally hit 7:00, i called up jack and wished him a happy birthday.
the flight was uneventful, my parents picked me up. i took a little nap when i got to my uncle's house, and we went to sam woo's for lunch and got a ton of food. i passed out, and then my brother took me, my cousin james, my mom and i to yogurtland. my mom and james (who's from dallas, i guess yogurt hasn't hit dallas yet) had never had this yogurt before.
for dinner, 12 of us went to mimi's cafe (my dad's choice). 4 of us were my brother's fiance's side, and 8 of us were from my family's side. we outnumbered them, and i wonder if they felt intimidated. i got the meatloaf stroganoff, which was very good, but i was still stuffed from sam woo's. i wanted to order alcohol, but being in the presence of devout christians who didn't drink, i waited until the fiance's uncle ordered wine until i ordered a sparkling wine/strawberry lemonade mix.
i went to bed early, as i was very tired, and i slept in the living room sofa with sportscenter turned on. it wasn't very comfortable, and my mom kept coming down to tell me to turn the tv off. needless to say, i didn't get very good sleep, which i think made my immune system weak.
saturday was the big wedding day. we got up at 8:30, and my mom and aunt went to get their hair done. i put on my suit, and we went to palos verdes estates to take pictures at the library. then, it was off to to my aunt's house for a catered lunch, rest, hang out, and then off to the church for the wedding.
the wedding wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. my church friend had told me it would be very uncomfortable and seclutionist, but it was just a few sermons, hymns, testimonies and stuff. one of my brother's friends actually cried during his testimony.
BUT. my brother introduced my parents, and somehow my dad took the microphone. he started off by saying how he didn't approve of the marriage. and then, he said how he wasn't "in the lord." it was horrible. i buried my head in my hands and blacked out. i kept on waiting for a "but..." but there was none. i peeked out at the audience, and they weren't really smiling. this was the unexpected horror moment of the wedding. the speech didn't really end on a happy note, and i don't remember parts of it (because i blacked out), and i think we'll have to go to the video for evidence. anyways, it was pretty bad.
my mom then spoke, and she was like, "i consecrate this marriage to jesus," which got a lot of "amen"'s and stuff.
then, it was time for dinner. the bride's family got enough food for like 200+ people, but over 300 showed up, so by the time i got there, there was nothing left. i think i hate a few leaves of salad and some onions swimming in sauce. the family was really embarrassed about that.
then, we left, and my cousin dave took me to my college buddy alex's house to crash. (yes, i said goodbye to my mom and dad and brother. sad.) i needed a drink, so i got drunk off of like 4 shots of whiskey's on a pretty empty stomach. we chatted, and then i went to bed. it was really cold in his bedroom, which is where i caught my cold. i started sniffling in the early morning.
i woke up at 7:30, and alex took me to the airport at 8 for a 10:20am flight. security was fine, and i got another tall hazelnut latte. i landed, got a coldbuster smoothie at jamba juice, watched some football and got prepared for my high school best friend's kevin's wedding. i wore the same suit.
kevin's wedding was at the mountain terrace in woodside. very nice beautiful location. once i got there, one of the ushers was roy, one of my high school friends. and then i saw ted, the other high school friend who attended. i was so glad to see them. we caught up; both of them are successful doctors (roy a neurologist; i told him i had tourette's, and ted a dermatologist).
the ceremony was my first jewish ceremony, and it was very interesting. the bread thing, the wine thing, the candle thing, the "mazel tov!" glass breaking. the wife is muslim, so they're going to have a muslim ceremony in pakistan in december, i think.
at one point, they read letters to each other about how they love each other. it was really touching. they really are in love with each other so much. awww. :) kevin did a little hop backwards when he said, "at one point, i though forever would be too long to love someone, but with you, now it will be too short." so CUTE!
after the ceremony, i mingled a bit, had two black labels on the rocks, and talked to the parents a bit, etc. we had a family style dinner with tri-tip, spicy salmon, spinach, etc. soon after, though, i had to leave because my cold was really catching on. so i drove home, got ready for bed, and just went to sleep.
i had a really awful time last night. i don't think i slept very much. i kept blowing my nose. i took nyquil, but it didn't help much. oh well. let's hope i get over this soon.
but anyways, it was an interesting time with the two weddings. very different ceremonies. i'm just tired from all the travelling; it really takes a toll on you.
i don't like killing ants and snails. it makes me sad when i accidentally step on one; i think about the fact that they'll never be in existence for the rest of eternity. death and its finality, you know. however, i have no qualms about killing spiders or those little flying insects that seep into your house. i don't know why there is a difference in thinking. maybe it's because spiders are menacing in my mind, and i'm afraid of them, so i'm making myself more comfortable (thus selfishness) by killing them. and those flying things are just fucking annoying. but ants, i like. (that is, until i get an infestation of them, and then i'll have to get an exterminator to wage mass genocide on them. no remorse there.)
so i had this really weird dream last night where i was in some strange jungle gym olympics. i was at the bottom of a structure, and these kids were holding me down, and i had to escape them. then, i climbed up, got stuck, and then mikeT placed a little rubber ball above me. i got up, reached the ball, and put it into a little metal basket. then, a judge came out, examined the ball, measured it, and ruled that i won 9 points, putting me at 107 points overall. and thus i won the olympics. weird, huh? the best part of it, though, is that by winning the olympics, i got to go to an oasis concert and meet noel gallagher. random!
i got a drunk facebook message from a friend last night. it was cute. i love drunken messages. i've sent out a few before, and i love all the typos and random capital letters. i need to get drunk one of these nights and send a few of those out myself. of course, i wonder if i'll let something slip out and make a fool out of myself. i hope i don't alienate any of my friends by doing so.
so my car's fixed. *phew* that means i don't have to drive the rental to the airport and leave it there over the weekend. my dad flew in from taiwan this morning, and i called him to make sure he was ok. he has a GPS, and i'll be bringing mine, too, so we're all set as far as navigation systems go. to tell you the truth, i'm really not looking forward to this weekend. it's going to be really tiring, and even though i'll get going to two weddings, they won't be as social as it would seem. i'll be with family (and no alcohol) during the first, and i'll only know a few people during the second. sigh.
last night, after dinner, D and i saw _nick and norah's infinite playlist_. even though ebert only gave it two stars (and i read his review) and said it was bad (i think "ambling" is the term he used), i liked it. it was a cute story about their first night together in NYC. but damn, nick's ex tris was one ugly bitch. at first i thought she was played by one of the olsen twins, which tells you about how nasty she was. and her bitchiness and character both made her even worse in my eyes. i like michael cera; he has an easiness about him that makes you like his character. the movie is a bit slow, i admit, but i think it makes for a very comfortable journey. but where did they find a used yugo (remember those cars?)?
i got up early this morning (around 8:30am) to check in online to my flight. i got #A46. not bad. unfortunately, i couldn't go back to sleep, so i just went to work. hopefully this will make me tired tonight, so i can fall asleep early and not be a zombie when i get up at 5am tomorrow morning. ugh. i'll be bored at the airport. that's not an hour when i can call my friends to chat. i wonder if i have any east coast friends who i can call.
what the hell is happening to the stock market? WTF? i am losing tens of thousands of dollars every week! fuck. good thing the bulk of my savings is in an ING account, accruing interest and not tanking in the market. dude. this is horrible. i feel bad for those people who are looking to retire. *sobs*
i had jun pad poo for lunch today. it was damn good, and i finished it in about five minutes. so fucking good. of course, it's like 95% carbs, so after i got back, i passed out for a good 40 minutes. what was life like before i discovered thai food? i can't imagine. i think of all the cuisines out there, i like thai the best. maybe japanese is a very close second. neither are too greasy, nor too heavy (unless, of course you eat an entire plate of the poo), but i think thai has more flavor. gotta love the spice.
i need new everyday shoes. my two pairs of steve madden rascals (the green ones and the silver ones) are dying on me. i've had them for maybe 5 years now, and the wear and tear of everyday use is getting to them. hm. what to get? i also need to figure out what one pair of shoes is going to be my UK shoes. so far, my beige pair of adidas nortons is leading the pack. i need to ask leeya if we're going to go clubbing, because then i need to pack an entire set of clubbing clothes (plus shoes), which will be uncool. i want to pack light so i have the opportunity to buy some stuff there and bring it back. i was thinking about buying some whiskey there, too, but i doubt i'll do that. btw, nelson recently got a pair of white/green puma's that are pretty cool. i'm glad to see that somebody else likes green shoes.
ok, i gotta leave soon and pick up my car before they close at 6pm.
stupid car. i dropped it off today, thinking i was only getting a routine $40 service, but then i get a call later on in the morning, telling me that the engine mount was leaking oil, and that some support beam was busted. the total cost of repairs? just over $1K. FUCK. this car is breaking down on me. remember that the window broke a few months ago, and then i had to pay $900 for insurance last month. that's a lot of money i've spent on my car in the past few months.
i got a (free) loaner car after lunch, this dinky underpowered civic. the problem is, i didn't fetch my garage door opener from my car, so getting in and out of my garage will be a painful process. i hope my car gets fixed tomorrow or else i'll have to take the loaner to the airport over the weekend and all that. shit. and to think of it, i'll have to go get my GPS (my dad will need it in LA) from my car, too. *fingers crossed*
an old friend of mine from junior high and high school (katie) found me on facebook today. i was very happy. she was one of my better female friends, even though we didn't talk that much or were best buds or anything like that. i just had a fondness for her, although it wasn't like i wanted to go out with her or anything. hehe, the problem, though, is that she is a duke basketball fan, and you should know how i feel about duke by now. this year, stanford hired a duke assistant coach, and we lost our top recruit to duke. the trump that i have over that school is that stanford is undefeated head-to-head. HA! so there!
this morning, one of the apps guys came into my cube to discuss something, and he did a VERY weird pose. he stood there, put his right leg high up on my counter, and cupped his crotch with one of his hands. odd, huh? it was like he really needed to scratch his balls or something. but right in front of me! wow!
google phrase of the day:
fucking girls feet in their sleep real
wow. how exactly do you do that? like i said, i've seen an advertisement for foot fetishists where a girl takes her feet and strokes a guy's schlong. this can't be very pleasurable from a purely physical standpoint. so i'm guessing that it's 99% mental, as to what gets the guy off. i mean, i like pretty feet just as much as any normal guy, and photogenic feet are important to me, but they don't sexually arouse me. i wonder how it feels to be a foot fetishist. speaking of that, one year i gave alan a book entitled _footsucker_ for his birthday. i doubt he's read it.
i sent off my vote-by-mail application today. i hope i get the ballot before i leave for vacation. i need to bone up on all the california local and state propositions; it's a lot of reading! worst case, i'll abstain from voting in the ones that i don't understand. i can do that, right?
i watched the second presidential debate last night. mccain was pissing me off. he kept repeatedly saying that he "reached across the aisle." every time he said that, i wanted to puke a little more. eventually, i turned the debate off in disgust. there's something about mccain's mannerisms and diction that really annoys the hell out of me. i think it's because he uses phrases over and over again, like "my friends," "maverick" (well, palin certain used that one a lot), and of course, "across the aisle."
my friend stef got married in the hamptons over the weekend. i found this out on facebook. she told me of her engagement a long time ago, and that her wedding was going to be "small," so i took the hint that i was going to be invited. should i send her a wedding gift? i found her wedding site and registry online, and there are a few items that haven't been bought yet. is it rude to send a gift to a wedding that you didn't get invited to?
one of my coworkers disappeared. apparently, last friday, the HR lady and some IT guys stormed into his cube, and he packed up and left. i don't know what happened. i was friends with him, so i'm sort of alarmed, worried, and sad. he never sent out a goodbye e-mail, so i'm suspecting there was some foul play, like he was fired or something. i hope he's ok.
my flight from san jose airport on friday is 7:30am. how early should i get there? i am checking in a bag, and i am also parking in long term parking. is the friday morning airport crowd horrible? remember that the last time i went on a thursday morning, i got there an hour early and missed my flight, how traumatic. and i really don't want that to happen again, because i'll be separated from my baggage, and i don't want to risk losing my suit for the wedding.
my haircut wasn't so good. the back part is all poofy. it didn't look so bad afterwards, but this morning, it really mushroomed out. the girl was new (she was a transfer from the supercuts in valley fair mall), and she was actually sort of cute. i think she was latina, and her name was sally. the thing that she did differently was that she thinned out my hair. she kept on telling me that i had a lot of hair, and it was thick, etc. i think thinning out my hair was a bad idea, because now there are a lot of short hairs that will stick out no matter what i do. ugh. i hope i don't look horrible in my brother's wedding photos.
ok. 6pm smoke time. i'm trying to get in touch with cindyW for dinner. jennie's on a plane right now headed for thailand, so she's out for the month.
i think i'm going to snack more at work these days. why? because they have funyuns now! i LOVE funyuns. they are my favorite american snack. i think they're tied as my favorite overall with wasabi flavored shrimp chips. i can either both incessantly. i've already had two bags of funyuns this afternoon, and if i had more change (i'm out of coins, and i only have a $20 bill in my wallet), i'd get more. yum fucking yum.
i got hit in the face with a basketball today. so my jaw is out of alignment, and it hurts like hell to open and close my mouth. i hate it when this happens. ouch! i was very cross with my performance today; i didn't score a single point in two games, so i left after that. i'm not going to play on thursday because i don't want to get injured before my trip to LA for my brother's wedding. i usually skip basketball like this before trips. so no headache today, and that's a good thing.
jennie leaves for thailand tomorrow. she gets back while i'm in the UK, so i won't see her for a whole month. i'm going to miss hanging out with her. we've been hanging out more frequently these days, grabbing yogurt or dinner every once in a while, and i've gotten used to that. oh well. we'll resume our meetings once i get back, i hope.
i had an ingrown hair in my right areola, and i was scratching at it earlier today. i scratched so hard that i ripped open a little hole in one area. ugh. i hope it doesn't sting when i take a shower today. i did get the ingrown hair to poke out, but it's coming out just a little; i hope i can tweeze it out when i get home tonight, or else it's going to bug the hell out of me. i can't stand stubborn hair follicles that i can't get out. they're so annoying!
i'm finally getting a haircut today. i was planning on getting one last week so i could give it some time for the hair shock to subside, but i just never got around to doing so. i hope i look ok at my brother's wedding this saturday. i haven't gelled my hair in over a year, and i don't really feel like packing hair gel in my luggage. maybe my cousins will have some in LA, and i can use it when i'm there. i don't want to look like a slob in the wedding pictures, but i'm too lazy to do anything about it.
today's google phrase of the day:
exercises for a bigger penishead
ha! are there really ways you can enlarge the helmet? that would be nice for some men, because i've seen some schlongheads that are downright miniscule. it's like their shafts taper off into a little point. my head is a decent size; it's slightly thicker than the shaft and looks rather normal. but of course, the question goes to the ladies: does it matter? does it feel good when a guy penetrates and the head is of a good size? i mean, the girth of the bulb goes into the feeling upon initial insertion, so it should matter, right?
i heard/read somewhere that the ridge at the back end of a guy's head evolved because it's supposed to scoop out another guy's spunk during sex. something about furthering a man's own species and not some other guy's. i don't know if this really works, but i found it to be an interesting theory. ah, darwin.
during basketball today, i was about to leave, and i saw S coming in with a big grin on his face. he told me that he got laid off. i asked him why he was so happy, and he said it was because he didn't have to work anymore for a while and could go to india to chill out. i dunno, he seemed to be taking it very well. i am very risk averse, and when i got laid off back in 2001, i was sort of freaking out. i guess i'm the type of guy who needs to know where his next paycheck is coming from. (it took me 6 weeks to find my next job.) anyways, i know four ex-coworkers who were at S's company, and all of them were working in the division that got axed. i really hope they'll be ok and can find work soon.
jay called me over the weekend and told me that he was trying to get an animal shelter to take in kobe, the vicious maltese that he and margaret own. this is the same dog that bit me on the toe and hobbled me for three weeks. i guess with the newborn baby and their respective parents coming into town visiting, they don't want any incidents. i feel bad for everybody (including the dog) involved. i mean, it's not the dog's fault that he was abused by his previous owner and is now a fucked up evil dog. sigh. animal cruelty is just bad for everyone. i think there's a good chance that this dog will be euthanized. *frown*
i am seriously starting to think about getting a new iMac. i came home last night to see my screensaver frozen and all this junk text on my screen. it was a kernel crash. i had to power down/power on my computer. i don't mind spending the money, because frankly, my computer is like 7 years old, and it's definitely time to upgrade. i just don't want to go through the hassle of transferring over my files. i have porn on my computer, too. will the macGenius see them? maybe i should rename them to innocuous names. or i could copy them off and transfer them back on. problem is, my akira watase video is 925MB, and that doesn't fit on on CD-ROM. i'd have to waste one DVD just for that. hm.
ok, time to get that haircut. i wonder what i should do for dinner. *ponder*
it just hit me that while i'm in the UK, i'll be missing out on two and a half weeks of my television shows (not to mention football). what will i do? i can set my VCR to tape some of them, but two of my shows (_gossip girl_ and _how i met your mother_) overlap. hm. i'm stressing a little over this. being the OCD sufferer that i am, i hate discontinuity in my life. hm. this is the problem with taking a vacation during the tv season and not during the summer.
my mom told me that friday night, i have to share a room with one of my cousins (J) when i go to sleep. ugh. i haven't shared a room with anyone for years, and i wonder if i'll be comfortable with that. the past two times i've stayed with my uncle in cerritos, i've slept in a room with a tv, so i've still been able to fall asleep to sportscenter. this time will be the first time in a long while that i won't be able to do that. i wonder how long it'll take for me to fall asleep. maybe i should bring some of my knockout pills. my cousin better not snore!
i've never had a wet dream before. does it feel good? i mean, you're having an orgasm, so i would expect it to feel pleasurable. does it accompany a sex dream, or is it solely a purely physical response? hm. so many questions! i mean, i wake up with morning wood all the time, but never have i blown my wad in my sleep. in some ways, i'm sort of glad, because since i sleep naked, i'd get my spunk all over my sheets and blankets, and it would be a pain to wash the blankets. but i am definitely curious.
today's google phrase of the day:
dream about giving "myself a blowjob"
i have dreamt about that many times. i guess i'm really flexible in my dream world, because i can't get close to that in real life. it feels realistic when i do it, too, meaning it doesn't feel that great because i can't get my tongue underneath my lower ridge. but it's still quite a feeling, because i can control how it feels. overall, though, it's nothing that spectacular, since it's sort of like tickling yourself; you can anticipate what you're going to feel. i read that in real life, the statistics are like 1 in 10 or something as far as men who can actually fellate themselves. they must have huge dongs and really limber backs and necks. but the question is: do they come in their own mouths?
so i found out that only two of my high school friends will be at kevin's wedding: roy and ted. taylor isn't going to make it. that means that of the hundreds of people attending (kevin's a really popular guy), i will know three people there. (well, i will also know kev's parents and sister, too.) ugh. i will be wallflowering like a madman. i hope kevin puts me with roy and ted so i will at least have some familiar people to talk to.
my left achilles tendon is really sore and tight when i wake up in the morning. grace suggested that maybe my left foot is flexed all funny when i sleep. hm. what, do i point my toes all night long? i doubt it. but it worries me. one of my friends tore her achilles on a routine lunge during badminton. i hope that doesn't happen to me. i really need to be careful these next two and half weeks during basketball, that i don't injure myself and wind up an invalid and unable to go on vacation. i'm seriously considering not playing until after i come back from my trip. my rule is usually no basketball at least a week before a vacation.
i've been trying to recycle more paper at the house. however, when i get booklets (like crate and barrel catalogs), i just throw them into the recycling bin directly. am i supposed to remove the staples first?
i am pretty disgusted at design within reach these days. i got their latest catalog, and their starck eros/S chair, which i bought for $270 or so years ago, is now selling for $700. holy shit! that is just fucking ridiculous. $700 for a plastic chair? yes, it's sort of cool and pretty, but the price is just outrageous. and you just know that people are willing to shell out money for that, because dwr's prices must be what the market can bear. man, what people will pay for "artistic" furniture these days. what a scam!
i'm shifting in my seat from right to left right now, trying to get rid of this itch in my sphincter. if i had just taken a shower, i'd have no qualms whatsoever scratching my asshole. but i don't want to get shit remnants on my fingers. we're so lucky that we have an asscrack, or else we'd leave skidmarks all over the place.
damn. i gotta remind myself to look into voting using an absentee ballot. i think today's the first day to apply. i have all these california propositions to look into. the only one that i know about is the gay marriage ban, which of course i'm going to vote against.
ok, time for a smoke. not sure if i'm going to eat dinner at the office tonight. it's something like basil chicken. not a big fan of basil.
friday night was a bust. nobody was around for dinner, so i just went to tapex and got a yogurt green tea with pearls and an order of pepper crispy chicken. i went home and watched the red sox/angels game, which was pretty good, with the red sox winning.
saturday, i dropped off my jeans on castro to get patched, and i got the same meal at tapex. alan called me soon after i finished eating, so i joined him and ting at valley fair and shopped for a few hours. banana republic had a good sale going on, so i bought a $79 blue diagonally striped buttondown for $45. i didn't need it at all, but i just felt like taking advantage of the sale. alan bought some soft pajama pants, and ting later got a pair of jeans at ann taylor. we ate some food at the food court (i just got a minibon at cinnabon), and then we parted.
i went home, took a little nap to a college football game, and then watched some more football. i met up with some folks at st. john's for half-off burgers (i got the "beg for mercy," which wasn't spicy at all), and then mikeC and i went to duke of edinburgh in anticipation of meeting up with john and grace for john's birthday pre-celebration.
i had already had a bushmills at st. john's, and i ordered a black bush on the rocks, and mikeC a guinness. by the time john and grace got there, there were four huge shots of sauza tequila with lime and salt waiting for them. the tequila was surprisingly smooth, which was great. i ordered some potato skins as well.
later on, paul, leeya and nelson joined us, so we moved tables, and john ordered a 16-year bushmills. i decided to try a single malt laphroaig 10-year, which was a huge mistake. this whiskey was some truly nasty shit. it smelled disgusting, and it tasted even worse, like some fermented moldy chinese medicine. but i ordered it, so i finished it. john then ordered a long island iced tea, and that got him buzzed. we left around midnight.
sunday, on john's real birthday, we had a celebratory dim sum outing at dynasty. we ate a lot, and then, we hit up tartini for some yogurt. i only got a little bit, but with my usual dosage of infinite mochi, so the mochi to yogurt ratio was too high. the reason why i got just a tiny bit of yogurt was because right after, i went to sweet corner (mel's place) for her photography show, which she was hosting. these were photographs of "life in the bay area," which captured various moments of landmark images representing this area. my favorite was a shot thought a fence of a guy buying a bart ticket. and of course, i got yogurt with mochi again.
i went home, and like most people who went to dim sum, took a long nap. when i woke up, i checked the cowboys score, and we barely beat the bengals. and romo through another interception. damn, we aren't playing solid football.
around 6pm, i talked to amyH for the first time on the phone, and we talked for like an hour. i was a really good conversation, and i enjoyed it a lot. i hope we can become phone friends in addition to facebook correspondents. she sounded different from when i knew her back in the day; she talks faster now, and maybe it's because she lives in NYC now.
for dinner, six of us met up at southland, and five of us for beef noodle soup. ha! then, we went to ten ren, got drinks, and disbanded. i went home, saw the red sox lose game three in 12 innings (ugh), and caught up on all the football news of the day. and that was it for the weekend.
i have a short week coming up. i'm going to LA on friday morning (7:30am flight, i think, ouch!) for my brother's wedding. i'm not looking forward to this weekend, with two weddings in two days. the main thing i'm excited about is seeing my family, especially my dad. and also catching up with some high school friends at kevin's wedding on sunday; i know that roy and ted will be there.
last night, i met up with jennie at valley fair. she was doing some shopping, so i just went along with her and provided some input. first, we went to cathy jean, and she got some shiny (i picked the shiny vs. matte) 4" heels. she was a very nice sexy height with those shoes on. true, four inches is a bit ridiculous, but she said she was fine with them, so she got them as an impulse buy.
another store we stopped in was victoria's secret. i was a bit hesitant, as i had never gone in there before, but i took it in as an experience. she got a bra (i picked out a lacey one for her) and four panties. at one point, she asked me to get her a pair of panties while she went to look at some other stuff, so i felt a bit sheepish and dirty flipping through women's undergarments. i swear i was the only guy in the store. oh well.
i haven't been shopping with a girl for ages. i think it's a good thing, because i have lost track of women's fashion and all that. i don't know what's hot and what's in and out and stuff. k1 and k2 were true fashion mavens, so learned a lot by going to the mall with them, which was fairly frequent, especially with k2.
jennie and i also went to the sunglass hut on our last stop. she took a look at some huge glasses (are these in now? the big look?) that cost over $300 (gucci and dior). she had her hair up, and i must say, she looked really good with her hair like that. i've said before that i like short hair on girls, and i should add to that the hair up look (the cute girl at work also does that a lot). i have this fetish for being able to see the back the neck. it's just really sexy, like maybe it's because i can nibble on it. and when jennie had her hair up, you could see her whole face, she's got a nice one. she complained that she had a small head, but i don't know why she says that.
my jason witten jersey came in today! i excitedly ripped the box open, unfolded the jersey, and immediately went to J (another true cowboys fan) and showed it to him. the jersey is fucking beautiful, and the two stars and witten's patch are sewn on, not silkscreen on. so the quality is good, as expected for a $90 jersey. i wonder what's the difference then between this one and the $224 one. who can afford the authentic ones? sheesh.
today, six of us ex-T coworkers got together at choi's for lunch. it was great seeing C (who was sporting an obama button) again; i hadn't seen him in over 5 years at least. he's retired now, and when i saw him walking through the door, i burst to my feet, walked over to him, and shook his hand and patted him on the back. as for a reference, C recommended that i try "red breast" irish whiskey when i hit ireland. i'll have to remember that. and damn, choi's potatoes are so tasty.
after getting home from the mall last night, i watched the last hour or so of the VP debate (PBS rebroadcast). i was surprised (rather, disappointed) to see that palin didn't fuck up. i was hoping for an implosion of sorts. of course, she didn't answer some questions directly, and she had this "gosh darn golly gee" attitude that seemed sort of hokey, but overall, i must say that she didn't seem like a true idiot. biden definitely seemed to be more knowledgeable, though, and his experience really shined through.
dinner at work last night was really good, for once. they served bacon mashed potatoes and beef stew. i LOVE beef stew. i actually went back for seconds, if you can believe it. usually company food is pretty bad, but i lapped that shit up like there was no tomorrow. i'm still waiting for them to serve wellington again; ever since _hell's kitchen_, i've been wanting to eat some type of wellington. is there a restaurant in the bay area that has it?
ann, stuff i get at southland is: combination fried rice, ground pork over rice, pork chop over rice, and beef noodle soup. nothing they serve there is that spectacular, though, so don't get your hopes up. i like their deep fried bread, (yin sih juan); they serve it with sweet condensed milk.
ok, i'm tired of writing. it's friday, and i want to go home. i don't have any real plans, except for maybe stopping by an art show at mel's yogurt place (yes, random). cowboys vs. cincinnati this weekend. i wonder what chad ocho cinco will do if he scores a touchdown. he says he'll "kiss the star." hm.
so far, so good. no basketball headache yet, despite the fact that i played extra-long, until past 2pm. i had D on my team today, and boy, he's really fast and has an amazing vertical. i wish i had his athleticism. i made one sweet move where i faked out my defender, drove past him and made a nice finger roll into the basket, but that was about it as far as positive plays. oh, and i had a block or two, which are really rare for me.
i really want to see the VP debate tonight just to watch sarah palin fuck up, but i might be hanging out with jennie after work. hopefully PBS will rebroadcast it like they did for the presidential debate. did you know that our national debt is up to 10 TRILLION dollars? holy fuck. i thought during the clinton administration, he passed a measure to eliminate the debt in like 10-15 years. what the hell happened to that? i can't believe we owe that much money. a billion is a lot, but ten thousand times that amount? i can't even fathom that number.
i want my jason witten jersey already! according to the USPS tracking info, it arrived in sunnyvale yesterday. hm. i checked downstairs, and it hasn't arrived yet. i want to bust it out and flaunt it proudly. it's gonna be beautiful. *swoon*
i am the evangelist for irish whiskey. these past two days, i have told two people to try it. i hope they do, and i hope they like it, so they can start drinking it regularly. i didn't preach jameson (the brand i'm loyal to), though; instead, i told them to get bushmills on the rocks. i have to admit that bushmills tastes better than jameson head to head. but damn, that 18 year jameson was pretty fucking smooth. i wonder how much a bottle of that stuff costs. if i can fit a bottle of that stuff in my luggage, i would buy some when i'm in ireland. the only problem is that i'd have to carry it around with me during the UK trip. (i think ireland is the second stop among the three places we're visiting.)
sometimes it amazes me how women can wear skimpy bikini tops or bras that show off parts of their breasts. it's sort of like me wearing underwear that shows off a part of my shaft. is that a reasonable analogy? i mean, i would never do such a thing. yet, women flaunt the sides and tops of their chests all the time. *slurps* i mean, i'm not complaining at all here. i adore cleavage and boobs and all that. i am quite mesmerized by it, to tell you the truth. i want to rub my face in it and motorboat up and down in it. but it's just pretty daring, if you think about it.
a few months ago, at the fremont frozo's, i saw this girl with the biggest live breasts (not in magazines or porn) i have ever seen. i swear, each one of them was like a small watermelon in size. true, she was way overweight, so that had a big reason to do with it, but still, they were gigantic. i don't know where this woman can shop to find bras that would fit her. it was quite ridiculous. i wonder if her back hurts trying to support such gargantuan mounds.
the baseball playoffs are here. this is probably the only time where i am slightly interested in the sport. i am rooting for the cubs in the NL and the red sox in the AL. and that's about it. poor cubs, they haven't won a world series in 100 years (their last win was in 1908, i think). and since i lived in boston, i root for the red sox. aside from that, i don't really follow baseball. i do like barry zito, though. even though he did really shittily this year, i think he's one good looking man. and his windup is pretty cool, too.
i wonder how mikeT and christi are doing in italy right now. mmm... eggplant pizza. italian coffee. real (hazelnut) gelato. they're only spending a week there, but i think that's a good amount of time given they're only hitting three spots. (they added florence to their hit list in addition to rome and cinque terre.) i wonder if mike will try to sneak a shot of michelangelo's david; they don't allow pictures of him, but i bet he'll go for it anyway, hehe.
i wonder if that _infinite playlist_ movie will be any good. i like michael cera, and teen movies in general. i guess they make me feel young. i wonder who i can drag to see it with me.
ok. 6pm. smoke time. and i gotta see if jennie's up for hanging out tonight.
hey people. with the potential dropping of my module modifications, i am way more relaxed now. it's not to say that i don't have anything to do at work, because today i spent all afternoon debugging some mysterious stuff (which had a silly resolution). but i'm back to doing my usual firefighting, and not preoccupied with changing a nasty design that's not my own. i am rather enjoying my work right now.
is there something big going on next week on television? some of my tv shows (like _gossip girl_ and i think _fringe_) aren't airing new episodes next week, and i'm wondering why. the latter show was only ok; i thought "the observer" character was mildly interesting, but the plot didn't advance very much, and the beacon object's purpose was very murky and left me wanting more.
i had another half of an apple fritter today. however, i learned my lesson from last week, and i only a fraction of it this morning to avoid the sugar crash in the AM, and then i snacked on it gradually during the afternoon. it was a good exercise in restraint. i fucking love apple fritters. on subsequent wednesdays, i'm going to try to get to the office earlier to secure more of these.
there's no good tv on tonight. if i don't wind up eating dinner with friends, i may watch _knight rider_ just because there's nothing else to watch. and then, i'll watch the finale of _america's got talent_ just to see who won. but honestly, nobody on this show is good enough (by far) to deserve a million $ and a show in vegas.
so a friend of mine told me that she bought the book _vox_. that makes me happy. i am the world ambassador of that book. i can't count the number of women i've given/suggested that book to. to recap, the book is an entire phone sex conversation, and it's fantastic. the best response when i gave that book to a girl was when k3 asked me, "will it make me wet?" :)
today, we went to lunch to celebrate D getting his US citizenship. i had heard that it takes years to get one, but he obtained his in several months. i felt bad for him because he was originally a taiwanese citizen, but he couldn't go back because they would draft him into the army. so he was basically stuck in the US and couldn't leave the country. (he had an expired taiwanese passport.) but now, he can get his US passport and go to his long-awaited vacation; he wants to go to some island somewhere and relax on the beach. and he deserves it, too, because he works really hard. so i'm happy for him.
i know silicon valley turnover is very high (like 2 years? or less?), but there's something to be said about staying at a company for a while. i've been here for four years, and it's amazing how much knowledge i've accumulated. it's not something i can really put down on paper, because a lot of it is almost subconscious or instinctual. like, if there's a problem, sometimes i just get a hunch on how to solve it, and a lot of times i'm right. honestly, they should pay me a lot more than they do. i heard a rumor that one guy with sole (important) knowledge threatened to leave, and they paid him a *shitload* more money to stay. i wonder if i have the balls to do that. i know i'm underpaid here, especially since the company didn't give raises this year because of the bad economy. well, at least i have a job.
why do celebrities look so bad in police mugshots? i mean, they look downright horrendous. did you see the one of heather locklear taken recently? she looked like she had been beaten with an ugly stick. they must rough them up a bit and put them in the worst possible lighting. hm. well, i guess i can understand because my company badge picture is pretty bad. but not as bad as some of the mugshots i've seen of some famous people. is makeup really that important?
i don't like girls who use makeup. i guess some girls require it, but i've been lucky to be with girls who didn't need it. natural beauty, i guess you could call it. and good complexion. it sucks to kiss a girl on her cheek and wind up with a mouthful of powder and foundation. ick. *spits* i mean, if we're going to a black tie affair, yeah, i guess the girl can put on some makeup, and the cool thing about girls with natural beauty is that they can look even better with it on. k1 was the prime example of that.
and in addition to makeup, i abhor perfume (and cologne for men). that stuff makes me gag. natural smells turn me on. (well, not all natural smells... for example armpit stench. eww!) but stuff like freshly washed hair without strongly scented shampoos are the best. i can't stand walking through department stores' perfume stands. btw, do they lace that stuff with pheremones? they must not, because that stuff has never attracted me. do pheremones even work? i read a website about that stuff once, and they claimed that they do attract men and women. i'd be curious to try that stuff out, but the shit is terribly expensive.
ok. off to my 6pm smoke. and amyH finally wrote me on facebook!