2010.08.31 Tuesday

Woah. 8 months down, 4 to go. Two-thirds done with 2010.

Pretty active day at work. Then went straight into school. I'll be spending my Tuesday evenings attending a course in systems engineering. Both exciting and scary. It didn't take long for my school fears resurfaced.

At home, cleaned up around the house some. Still not totally used to 1 less person around. Vacuumed my room, plan on doing some more of the house later.

Watched The Colony. They had a pretty disgusting scene with cockroaches. Made me clean up my room some, but mostly gave me the shivers.

2010.08.30 Monday

Alright, a short week. Let's hope it doesn't expand.

Over the weekend, I posted a song I worked on way back in the winter of '09-'10. Here it is. Good? Bad? Indifferent?

So today is a pretty big day. Travis is all packed up to go to Seattle. Well technically he's been without furniture and a car for a few days now, but today he's catching his flight and taking his last few bags. I've known him for a handful of years now. I guess it's not a huge deal since he will come back to Austin in a year or so. What's even more weird is that we've lived together for a fair amount of time, but didn't really hang out that much.

It's going to be different.

After work, I ate a quick meal, then worked on the yard. The goes any energy I once had.

2010.08.29 Sunday

Late sleeping in.

Leftovers from Pei Wei for lunch. Watched some Smallville, then Kelc took a nap. Then we went over to her family's house to hang out. Went out to Flores for dinner.

Eventually went home, sat around for a bit. Then Kelc left to go back to Arlington, I finally did my laundry.

Things are pretty plain lately.

2010.08.28 Saturday

My dad's sister came in to town this weekend. Spent most of the day hanging out with them, catching up. Went out to County Line (the one that isn't as close). Lots of BBQ goodness, but also lots of coughing still.

Met up with some friends at night. Played some games on a huge TV, and started crashing. My body is just exhausted dealing with this coughing and grossness.

2010.08.27 Friday

Finished up things at work. What a long week.

Went to Pei Wei for dinner with Kelc. New fortune: Do not let great ambitions overshadow small success.

Watched some Smallville then bed early. Too exhausted.

2010.08.26 Thursday

Long day again. This week is wrapping up pretty...well.

Over the past year or so, I've collected a number of fortunes from fortune cookies. I figure I could write them on my blog as I get them, save them electronically instead of stuck on the wall. Here's what I have so far:

• Make Time For A Relaxing Vacation (At the Panda Express at the beginning of the Vegas trip)
• The Secret Of Vast Riches Begins With A Single Penny
• A Loved One Is Of The Utmost Importance At This Time
• Your Love Of Music Will Be An Important Part Of Your Life
• Live For Today - Remember Yesterday - Plan For Tomorrow
• There's No Point To Being Grown Up If You Can't Be Childish Sometimes
• Joyfulness Will Prolong Your Days
• Shopping Expeditions Should Prove All You'd Hoped For

Grabbed some Freebirds for dinner since I was at work late again. Watched TV and cleaned up my room.

2010.08.25 Wednesday - Half pipe design

Another long day at work. Is this healthy? It only takes 30 years to find out.

After work I ran by chik-fil-a for dinner, because I definitely did not feel like trying to cook something. Chicken nuggets, waffles fries, and buffalo sauce... WHAT?! NO BUFFALO SAUCE? Chik-fil-a, I am disappoint.

Watched South Park and Tosh.O. Also gave the kitchen a good scrub down. You can probably put things on the counter without getting week-old crumbs with it now. And there aren't globs of peanut butter waiting to contaminate the bottom of your drink. How long will that last? Let's place some bets.

I'm starting to watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report more often. Also having trouble making myself go to sleep before midnight.

---

Lately, I've been getting more interested in half-pipes and skateboarding. Sure, it may just be because the X-games happened, and then the Dew Tour, and gravity games. I really remember enjoying skateboarding, and being more capable of doing physical activity. Trips to the skatepark were thoroughly enjoyed, but there are too few nearby.

So I started thinking about how fun it would be to build a half-pipe. Not only would that a fun project in itself, but a convenient way to get back into skateboarding. I looked at plans online. Most are fine, but if you really wanted to design a half-pipe, the amount of information is rather limited. I decided I could use some math skills and produce some equations that might help other people in their quest to design their own half-pipe.

One of the first unknowns that popped up in my designing was how to determine lengths related to the the transition part of the ramp. For those of you who are new to the terminology, the "transition" is the part of the ramp that is curved upward. The transition follows the circumference of a circle. For mini-ramps, the radius of the circle is greater than the height of the ramp. For bigger ramps, or vert ramps, they use an entire quarter of a circle (and sometimes go straight up from there. These equations are not useful for large ramps.

I was able to ask for some assistance from Habs to churn through some of these equations. First, let's take a look at the drawing of what parts of the circle we want:

Now let's churn through some equations:

Another look at how this all fits together:

Hope this is helpful to somebody out there. And I hope I can continue to produce some useful information to the inner-workings of half pipe design in the future.

2010.08.24 Tuesday

Woke up feeling better today. Oh wait, what's that sharp stabbing pain when you take deep breaths? Yeah good times.

Been a long time since I updated everybody about my music listening adventure. I hit the 1000 album mark a while back; probably should have held a party or done a happy dance.
Stats:
Started 02/02/2010
Album Count: 1060
Tracks Listened: 12264

Average Number of Tracks per Album: 11.569
Average Year Album was Released: 2000.078
Time Listened: 849hrs 18mins 58secs
Days Listened: 35.388 days
Digital Size of Music: ~92.7GB

Like yesterday, I didn't really spend my evening doing much. Watched TV (The Colony), looked up electronics, surfed interwebs.

It's weird how I can push through a work day, but when I get home I have no energy. Stupid sickness.

2010.08.23 Monday

Happy b-day bruddah.

This week is off to a good start. Long day. That means I don't have to work as long some other day in the week, or I could over achieve.

Didn't really do much in the evening. The coughing is getting more phlegm-y. Starting to feel a stabbing pain in one of my lungs when I breathe deeply. Guess I'll call it a night.

2010.08.22 Sunday

Woke up around 9am. Cool? Went back to sleep and just laid around. My body is quite exhausted from this weekened. Watched some of Terminator: Salvation with the guys and then headed back home.

At home, I tried hydrating myself and grabbing a small snack. Ever since I've gotten this drainage into my lungs, I've lost most of my appetite. Kelc came over and we watched a couple Smallvilles. We are halfway through the 5th season now. Just a few more seasons to go and we'll be caught up. Also just found out that the tenth season that's starting this fall is the final. Good to know that we timed this just about perfect to be able to wrap up the whole series right in time.

Tonight we had dinner plans with Habibi and family and friends. Benihana. Pretty much a tradition. There were a few things different, but mostly the same. I think they took out eggs from their fried rice because of the recalls going on. Cool. Fred generously paid for the entire meal and shared sake with everyone. Many thanks to Fred.

After dinner, Kelc and I met up at Paul's place. He has 7 kittens, all just a few weeks old. If anybody wants some let me know. Watched some of the tail end of Mad Men, then back home to sleep.

Super packed weekend. Good times.

2010.08.21 Saturday

Woke up pretty late, and cooked some bacon again. Mmmm.

We all had some breakfast and relaxed mostly. Everybody is pretty sore. Then Mark and Nadia went on their way back home.

Kelc and I watched S. Darko and took an afternoon nap. I think some of the lines on the cover to S. Darko are misleading.

Kelc's mom then met us out at the lakehouse. We cooked a chicken dinner and took care of business around the house. Took the jetski out for a mini joy ride again. Surprisingly, her mom has never driven the jetski on her own. This might have been her second time to ride.

Finshed things at the lakehouse, then drove home, got changed from lake mode to guys-night mode. Ray and Paul are ready to hang out. My phone practically died when making a phone call to meet up. A couple text messages after that and everything turned off. Not bad considering I took it off the charger Thursday morning. We went out and had some fun. Made up for lost time.

5am was quickly near so I crashed pretty hard after a late Taco C run.

2010.08.20 Friday

Woke up, cooked some bacon. Mmm. Somebody put the fan on high for the night, and my throat and lungs are pretty irritated this morning. Correlation? Maybe.

Went down to the dock(s) to get things ready for everybody. Over the past few days, the dock guy delivered the dock that was supposed to be there about 1.5 years ago. He moved things around, ran some new cables (like an idiot). At least we were able to get the boat and jetski in and out a lot easier.

Habs and Fred showed up, cooked up some lunch and relaxed. Soon after Mark and Nadia showed up. We cooked up some pizzas that I wasn't really hungry for, then headed down to the docks.

Did some kneeboarding, skiing, and wakeboarding. This is either the first or second time I had to drive for all the water sports stuff; I only remember driven for tubing and cruising before this. Took me a while, but I think I started to get the hang of it. We had to shift positions to get parts of the lake that weren't choppy water. Everybody had a go on the kneeboard, and for some reason Mark was getting tossed around on the water. It's so weird to describe it, but the water bounces you up, and then when you slam back down, the angle of the board pops you back up out of the water, causing more bouncing. I've had this happen a couple times, and nobody knows what to do for that. I figure going faster is only going to be more painful, so I tried slowing it down a bunch. Kelc tried skiing and wakeboarding, but didn't quite make it. Habibi tried some wakeboarding and took a nasty faceplant right before he was up. I have no idea how his contacts stayed in. Nadia tried kneeboarding and skiing, and was just completely natural with it. Every now and then we would all jump in the water to cool off. We made the mistake of not packing any drinks. Kelc and I also managed to lose our sunglasses before we even got on the boat. Took everybody back in to rest and rehydrate.

Habs and Fred left to be able to make other arrangements for their weekend of awesome. The rest of us took out the jetski for a quick ride. Vroom vroom.

Mark and Nadia planned out dinner quite well. They cooked all of us some excellent burgers. Super huge burgers to be exact. We wrapped up the night with some card games and wine. I think all of us will be sleeping well.

2010.08.19 Thursday

Wrapping up the work week. Thought it was going to be a pretty smooth day, but ended up staying super late to help wrap up stuff. But hey, at least that means a bigger paycheck right? Let's hope so.

Went to Applebees for a super late dinner. Hopped over to Walmart to pick up lakehouse supplies like food and drinks. Kelc and I didn't really think too hard about what food to bring.

Then the trek out to the lakehouse...at midnight.

2010.08.18 Wednesday

Isn't it great when people praise you at work? Soak is up because it is a occasion that doesn't happen often. Free lunch doesn't hurt also.

I spotted a used motorcycle on craigslist over the weekend at a price that I thought was impressive. Since then I've been in a limbo of whether or not I should buy it. *sigh* Big purchases are always tough for me. Ended up passing on this one. Maybe around winter time, when people don't really want to ride anymore, I'll find a good deal after taking the rider's course.

Went over to Kelc's to wash and wax her car. The thing looks completely different when taken care of properly.

Played some card games and had some Taco C.

2010.08.17 Tuesday

Another day. These things fly by so quickly now.

Got my hair cut after work at Too Hotties. Good deal.

For dinner, took Kelc over to Chuy's. Even on a Tuesday night there is a wait. How about that.

Kelc picked up some awesome plastic containers for me to organize electronic components in. Now I need to really think of things to do with all the parts I am acquiring.

Watched Smallville while sorting parts. Didn't take long to feel sleepy from the food.

2010.08.16 Monday

Back in the grind of things. Pretty quick feeling work day. Also forced myself to get at least some sort of workout.

Went home and started taking care of things I should have done days ago, like laundry and picking up crap around my room. Cooked some pasta for dinner.

By the time I was ready to go get a haircut, it was already too late. Instead I watched Smallville once Kelc arrived.

Didn't take long before I was tired.

2010.08.15 Sunday

Woke up super late today. Kitty needed lots of attention. My body is still exhausted from dealing with whatever is taking over.

Made myself get up (around 12:30) and Kelc and I went out to Plucker's for lunch. It's weird that I lack energy, yet I also lack appetite. After that, we walked around the mall some and bought some new swim trunks. I think buying out of season might be my new favorite method of shopping; back to school stuff--not on sale, summer clothing--on sale. Grabbed a quick snack at DQ.

Put those swimming trunks to good use and went to the neighborhood pool. Haven't been there in such a long time. Actually laid out a bit on some scorching pool furniture, working on my tan... out of season. I probably blinded a few of the kids there with my pasty white skin.

Went back to Kelc's house where somehow we had the idea of racing pizza. We got into an arguement about which pizza would arrive to the house fastest, and then other family members were also curious. Let the great pizza race commence. In all fairness, Kelc's phone order to Papa Johns took the shortest amount of time because she called directly and had them on file. My order through Mr. Gatti's had to go through a *sigh* automated phone system, which directed me to the Austin area Mr. Gatti's (our neighborhood is technically in Austin), so after attempting to place that order I was redirected to another location where they took my order, and up-sold me to a better deal (medium 1 topping delivered would come out to 14.something whereas a large 3 topping would be 9.99 plus a few bucks for delivery charge). Kelc's mom's call took a medium amount of time because she decided to pay over the phone by means of credit card and had to give all the information.

To put the information more simply:

Goal: Order one medium one-topping pizza for delivery.

Kelc's Results:
Pizza Brand: Papa John's

Pizza Size: Medium

Pizza Topping: Cheese

Call Time: ~2 minutes
Delivery Time: 29 minutes
Delivery Distance: 4.2 miles

Taste: Best, eaten fastest

Cost: $12.76

Andy's Results:
Pizza Brand: Mr. Gattis

Pizza Size: Large

Pizza Topping: Double Pepperoni

Call time: ~5 minutes
Delivery Time: 32 minutes

Delivery Distance: 5.1 miles

Taste: Good if you wanted meat, 2nd most eaten

Cost: $12.98

Kelc's Mom's Results:

Pizza Brand: Domino's

Pizza Size: Medium

Pizza Topping: Extra Cheese (to meet the minimum order allowable)

Call time: ~4 minutes

Delivery Time: 37 minutes

Delivery Distance: 7.4 miles

Taste: Good if you like cheese, least eaten

Cost: $13.25

So what does this all boil down to? Everything really depends on what is closest to you, and what your tastes are. Also, having a place that knows where you are and you are a regular customer will likely make the process much smoother. It seems to me that the variances aren't really that drastic. Also, going with specials can save you a pretty penny (like getting all that meat and a "larger" pizza for less). Thoughts? Comments? Questions?

Went home and watched a smallville. Felt tired and tried to sleep, but was quite restless. I wonder if that has something to do with all the pizza I just ate.

2010.08.14 Saturday

Earlier this week, my family requested an evening to spend together to discuss some future vacation possibilities (kinda awesome to already be planning the next major getaway). So I went to spend the day with my family, ended up having an awesome steak dinner with grilled corn, baked potato, salad, and cheesecake for dessert. Just what the sick boy needs, right?

We have some weeks picked out, pseudo plans made, but mostly nothing set in stone yet. That's how we roll. I fell asleep in the rocking chair when the discussions died down a bit. When I came to, my brother was watching Date Night on dvd. It's weird seeing how blurry regular dvd is. My vision is so spoiled.

Left to go pick up Kelc from her house. Ended up falling asleep on her couch. Yep. Only just getting to evening time and I'm already tapped out for the day.

Sorry Ray, I said we should hang out, my body did not comply.

Kelc watched some movie then pushed me into bed.

2010.08.13 Friday

Ooo spooky. Friday the 13th. I always think about this for a bit, then after working on something for a few minutes I totally forget about it. I think the last time there was a Friday the 13th, I had quite a bad day. Let's hope that doesn't happen again. I do however have a dental appointment coming up soon *angry face*.

The day went pretty smoothly and quickly. It actually doesn't even feel like a Friday honestly. That's partially from being sick and partially from the recent vacation.

After work, I was requested to pick up Kelc and her family from the airport. Their vacation was coming to an end as well. On the way home, they missed mexican food so much that we had to stop by Taco C. Did my best to listen to everybody while my mind was clouded over, and my throat was clogging. I really just wanted to go home and sleep, so I turned down opportunities to hang out to do just that.

2010.08.12 Thursday

Back to the grind. Whopping 4 hours of sleep.

By mid day, something didn't seem right. Went to the bathroom at work and looked at my throat. Whoa buddy, my tonsils are swollen and the back of my throat is kinda bloody looking. Fannnnntastic.

So yeah, pretty much coming down with some type of sickness. It is, in a way, pretty funny because I remember thinking before the Vegas trip that statistically speaking, a lot of people get sick either on vacation, or upon returning from vacation. It has something to do with being in new environments, and changing up daily routines and weakening the body's immune system. Cool. Also interesting to think that my mind just thought I was going to get sick, so it made myself get sick. Woah.

Played a bit of Ace combat, and managed to chomp through some food that was very painful to swallow. I can defintely feel the sickness reaching my brain now. You know that cloudy mind feeling? Makes me want to sleep. So I took a nap, then couldn't sleep when I really wanted to.

2010.08.11 Wednesday - Vegas

Woke up today with some extra time before we needed to check out of the hotel. Ate some breakfast stuff, watched tv, showered, packed, relaxed. Check out took even longer than check-in. What happens during check-out and check-in? I have no idea, but it takes too long.

Grabbed a cab to In-N-Out. Best thing of the west. If you don't like it, you can geeeeeeeeeeet ouuuuut.

After a filling lunch, we went casino hopping to all the places we had been avoiding thus far. Aria, Bellagio, Ceasar's Palace (not the real one).

The group stopped to grab a bite at a little cafeteria, then trekked on back to Encore. We had too much time to kill and no desire to gamble anymore, so we left for the airport early.

Unfortunately, our plane arrived at the airport late. Meaning we had plenty of time to kill at the airport... sitting next to a bunch of slot machines. I waited in a huge line for overpriced subway sandwich.

*forgot to mention* Jason Dick (morning show for 101x) just happened to be in Vegas at the same time as us. Habs attempted to organize a meetup, but we all had our own stuff going on. Well, surprise...he was on the same flight home as us. Chatted up a bit.

Taylor picked us up. Big thanks to Taylor for taking care of the house, the plants, and the ride. And now with this time change, I couldn't get to sleep until 3am.

Gambling Stats

Daily Net:

Sunday up $56.56

Monday down $201.00

Tuesday down $154.00

Wednesday up $39.00

Running Total:

Sunday up $56.56

Monday down $144.44

Tuesday down $298.44

Wednesday down $259.44

2010.08.10 Tuesday - Vegas

Woke up really late from being out so late. Caught up on lots of good sleep. For breakfast/breffix/lunch, Justin and I went over to Strip Burger, not too far away from that food court place we went the first day. The prices weren't that terrible, and the food was really good. I was just unable to finish everything.

We then walked around the strip some, picked up some souvenir stuff, checked things out.

More gambling.

Then we went to the pool again. This time I was unable to find seating in the shade, so I only read one of the shorter short stories in my book and went back up to the room to put on aloe-vera preemptively.

Wasted time in the room watching tv and just goofing around. Considering how fast I can lose money elsewhere, this was a pretty good investment strategy.

The gang prepped a bit and headed to "downtown". They have some cheaper casinos and just a different atmosphere in this part of vegas. I started off doing well on craps, then somehow lost a chunk of change here or there. Spent a good portion of the rest of the night watching people play blackjack. I personally don't like playing blackjack; never that good at just knowing what to do.

Lots of time spent walking around and wearing myself out. Everybody was pretty tapped out, and caught a cab home. Even though I was pretty tired, I had a hard time sleeping this night. So I watched some Daily Show and Colbert Report.

2010.08.09 Monday - Vegas

Slept in pretty late. The black-out curtains are pretty fantastic and terrible at the same time. For breakfast, a banana and goldfish... then ate at the Drugstore at Wynn. Probably too much food, but whatever.

I'll put together a chart on the last day to track my gambling. I'll just say that today was definitely not a good day for me. Losses in slots and craps.

Best way to cut losses is to stop playing, so we did just that. Went out to the pool to catch some rays. Or if you are me and abnormally sensitive to UV rays, you sit in some shade. I was able to get in a good chunk of reading.

For dinner, we hit up a sushi place that is inside Encore. Tried some yellow tail courtesy of Habs, and at first it was pretty good, no joke. The flavors weren't terribly strong, the texture was fine, the temperature was a tad cold to my liking. A few moments later, the ugly side of fish flavor showed its face. There is just something about that fishy taste that gets to me. Makes me a sad panda. I ordered edamame and teriyaki chicken.

More gambling, more consuming of beverages, then a night out on the town.

2010.08.08 Sunday - Vegas

*yawn* what time is it? oh... 5:30am. Fantastic. I didn't get but like 3 hours of sleep last night. Too excited. Before I forget, happy birthday Kelc. Packed up our crap, prepped the house, rolled on out. Arrived at the airport pretty much at the perfect time.

Arrived at the Encore pretty early. Almost too early. We had to wait to get checked in. I guess they get enough business that management at the Encore doesn't feel like optimizing the check-in process, so it takes each room around 7 minutes to check in. Dropped off our bags with the bag boys and adventured out onto the Strip... still early Sunday morning.

Even though it was on the early side, the sun managed to heat up the air quite well already. Feels like a hair dryer for your whole body. Ate at a cafeteria at the top floor of some building that has a space-ship looking thing outside. I had Panda Express, may or may not have been a good choice. Seems like they served reheated leftovers, but the magical lights they use at the counter make the food look amazing prior to purchase.

Jumped on a craps table at the Wynn, lost 75. What a great start.

T-dub got the phone call, our rooms are ready. Damn, amazing rooms and views. The curtains and lights are controlled by these little boxes. All the lights fade in and out to be more gentle on the eyes. The bedding is fantastically comfortable. The alarm clock has an ipod dock. They have a big flat panel tv that swivels around. The bathroom is huge and well designed. If I were remodeling a bathroom, I would take a few tips from this.

For dinner, we got a bit dressed up and ate at Switch. The walls... switch. No seriously, the walls and ceiling change about every 30 minutes, just to keep things fresh. Pretty cool. Oh and the steak was huge and fantastic.

Gambled some more, a bit more successful this time. Made 56 cents at penny slots and a chunk of money at craps.

Long day, sleep needed.

2010.08.07 Saturday

Woke up, played a bit of Ace Combat. I spent so much time on Hard difficulty that bumping up to Expert feels a lot different.

Got the stuff together, and performed an oil change on my car. I did my best to keep oil from getting everywhere, but of course wind gusts out of nowhere shoot little drops over everything. Wind gusts only happen underneath my car somehow. I'm getting this down pretty well now, soon I'll be pro.

Also, quick glance at other fluid levels in the car, seems like everything is alright for now. I'll probably take it to a service center to get an evaluation, and I can take it to discount tire co to get tires rotated. For the most part, Discount Tire Co is a good business in my book. Also, Autozone. Have no idea how they are still making profits.

Had some leftovers for lunch. Spent the day contemplating what else I need for the trip. I spent some time putting music on my mp3 player, organizing some files, and playing Ace Combat again. I finally managed to finish S class on Expert Difficulty. Just need to do Ace difficulty (only a couple of levels to do). Made a quick run to HEB for some small items, and to the bank for some cash. I am going to Vegas after all.

Made myself a steak for dinner. Turned out medium well, and tasty with all kinds of seasoning. Ate a banana with what is left of my strawberries. Yum.

Tv, goofing around, packing, and trying to sleep.

2010.08.06 Friday

Today definitely felt like a Saturday. Kelc came over sometime late last night, watched a Smallville then fell asleep.

Woke up today and mostly took it easy. For lunch we went over to Freebirds. Watched some more Smallville and played Ace Combat and Tomb Raider.

As we played some Guitar Hero World Tour, I packed up my junk for vegas. I was able to fit into the second largest bag, pretty proud of that. Also, I'm packed a day in advance, which is unheard of for me. Took a nice afternoon nap, but the house was getting to like 80 degrees upstairs so it wasn't exactly comfortable. Woke up and had a jam session. Taylor and Habibi joined in later. We wrote out some good stuff.

Then Kelc and I went to dinner at Chili's. After that I got Kelc to drive around the parking lots with standard transmission. She didn't stall once.

Home, smallville, sleep.

2010.08.05 Thursday

Ah, last day of the work week. Surprisingly all is quiet on the work front. Almost too quiet... Yeah I think a lot of people are gone or are sleeping.

Went to Zen for lunch. Dynamite chicken goes in, dynamite doo doo comes out. Love it.

At home, goofed around for a bit to let the sun set some so I could cut the yard. I did different cutting patterns than everybody else to help reshape the growth. I also hacked away at the overgrowth in the front flowerbed, and the grass overtaking the bricks near the trash bins.

Went in, took a shower. After that, made myself a semi-nutritious, mostly delicious dinner. Blended up some orange juice, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and ice for a high-anti-oxidant smoothie. Tastes excellent post-workout, or any strenuous activity. Also had pita chips and hummus with pan fried asparagus. Where's the meat? Not tonight.

2010.08.04 Wednesday

Bee bop. Hump day.

I feel like I say this too much, but work went by without much trouble. Not much to elaborate on there.

Went home after work. Surprise, caterpillars are eating my plants. A lot. They eat the top half of my jalapeno plant. *mad face* I ended up cutting them off with a heated knife. Die.

Had a kickball game. The last game of the season. We did alright... with 7 people. *sigh* We actually lost, but I'm glad we still had a 7v7 game rater than just both forfeiting. Heads held high...

Home, eat, sleep.

2010.08.03 Tuesday

Oh hey it's Tuesday.

Work went by without much incident.

Post work, enjoyed some spaghetti and sauce made by my grandma, transported back to Austin by my mom.

After that, went over to Ross to check out some luggage. Kelc wandered off...typical. Then we went to Kohl's and I picked out a set. Starting to get pretty excited about traveling.

Went to Sonic for a late night snack, then watched a Smallville that wasn't very good.

Zzzz

2010.08.02 Monday

I had a few crazy dreams last night. Very intense, and had my heart beating pretty hard. I only remember one, so I guess that's what I'll explain.

I guess I was imagining myself in my teenage years, back when a good chunk of my neighborhood was empty lots with houses that were under construction. It was nighttime, and all was lit by streetlights. I was in a group of about 5 or 6, having a good old time just wandering around. Out of nowhere a pack of three douche bags comes and tries to ruin our fun night of exploration. Well, not sure what exactly happened next, or where this idea even came from, but one of the female group members I was with sorta casted a spell or did some type of witchcraft and one of the douches was dissolved into nothingness. But soon after, the girl said something about banishing him in such a way that the spirits, who just happened to be lingering in that area, were mad at us for doing that, and they might retaliate. Well the other two douches ran off after seeing one of their friends disintegrate into thin air. My group decided to try running off as well after hearing that the spirits were angry with what we did. Not too long after wandering around, the two douches return, eyes glowing with spiritized fury. Yeah the spirits have taken over the bodies of the douches and made them even more problematic than they should be. I don't know about any of you, but whenever I'm in a dream and trying to run, it's like I'm suddenly stuck in molasses and can't for the life of me go any faster. So to make up for the fact that I'm running in slow motion, my mind makes up the idea that I'm running in a deep swamp area, and somehow I now have an assault rifle. I eventually start heading to hide behind some bush in this swamp area, then the camera pans back to the douches that are following me, still filled with rage, but now dressed in some type of camo that works well in the swampy area, especially at night. I happened to pull some trickery while the camera was not focused on me. The guys are creeping along through the deep swampy waters, going towards a bush that is moving and creating ripples in the water. Obviously is looks like I'm doing a terrible job behind the bush. In reality, I wrapped a string through some branches and from a few meters away I was tugging on it to lure these guys to the bush. Then just as I was about to beat these possessed humans, I wake up with my heart racing. I think it was about 4am. Time to do some breathing exercises and meditation.

Work went by pretty smoothly. Didn't get a chance to go to the gym or really eat a full lunch, just a microwave meal.

Arrived home later than usual because I left work later and traffic fun. Tried out the cool near-new Peavey Reno 400 amp that I received as a generous hand-me-down from my Aunt. It used to be my Uncle's amp and he would hook up his acoustic electric to it. Just plugged in Hab's piano to it to see if it works. YEP. This thing gets pretty loud, though with the piano hooked up it seems like there was some noise in the lines.

Helped Habs with his Kawasaki Ninja. This time around, draining and flushing the coolant, and replacing the fluid. Not too different than an oil change, and not terribly complicated. None of this maintenance stuff really seems as intimidating as it used to. The only part that is scary is having to trust yourself that you did something correct because you are could be betting your life on it. So yeah that sounds scary, but think about how any maintenance shop has to deal with a lot of cars in one day. I feel like they have just as much of a chance of messing something up too. There are two main advantages they have over the average person: 1. they have plenty of tools, and 2. they have service manuals.

After we finished up as much of the coolant process as we could, I went back to playing around with that amp. The DIY pedal with that amp sounds tons better than that small amp I have. It also gets pretty crazy loud and has some interesting EQ adjustments. Maybe I should post a review about it since there is very little information online about it.

Grabbed a quick bite to eat, then ran off to a bunch of stores to check out luggage prices. JCpenney, Kohls, Ross, and Tuesday Morning. Well Tuesday Morning was already closed when I got there, but I got to see what everybody else has. Turns out that buying piece by piece, you'll probably get slightly better luggage, but it will cost a lot more. Or you can get 3-4-5-6-7 piece sets for roughly the price of 2 or 3 individual pieces. Also, if you buy a set, things will match (how cute). I can't decide what's most important for luggage.

Went home and Kelc arrived shortly thereafter. Grabbed a quick snack, watched a Smallville and then promptly fell asleep.

2010.08.01 Sunday

Wow. Freaking August already.

Woke up and goofed around for a tad. I think I ate my first plain banana ever. I've never liked the taste or texture of bananas before, but now they don't seem so bad. Actually quite a convenient fruit compared to others. At some point my dad texted me (that's right, my dad is actually technologically competent, however my mom is still working on that), saying there is an amp that I should be picking up. Called him up, ended up spending the day over there helping out with things.

We had to move a bunch of furniture around to access some walls for painting. Also had to paint. Took a lunch break over at Mesa Rosa. It's been way too long since I've been there.

All in all, a pretty relaxing day. The end of x-games was this evening, but don't spoil anything for me. I still have a couple days to catch up on.

2010.07.31 Saturday

Well today is a throw-away. I woke up at 7am when my body sobered up. I'm really weird in that sense: I wake up right as I'm sober. It's both a blessing and a curse. It's a good opportunity for me to get water and try to curb the effects of the upcoming hangover, but it sucks when you really just want to sleep as long as possible.

Yeah I drank some water and hopped back in bed, then maybe 1.5 hrs later my head is pounding and killing me. This is terrible. Try sipping on water while also trying not to puke from how much this sucks. On the plus side though, while trying to go back and sleep this off, I had some crazy cool dreams. I tried giving myself some background noise to sleep to, so I turned on the tv and slept some. Somehow my cable box tuned itself to the CW, where some very weird movie was playing... which ended up creeping into the already weird dreams.

Eventually put on my sunglasses and got out of bed. Grabbed some orange juice and picked up things around the house. I totally forgot that beer pong was happening in the garage. At some point, guitar hero / rock band was brought out and played. Lots of mopping and cleaning ahead.

Grabbed some Quiznos for dinner. Haven't had that in a while, and I think I remember why now. Their sandwiches are just more expensive for no reason. I paid about 7 bucks for just a sandwich. Their bread also changed, and not for the better. Quiznos, I am disappoint.

Watched a bunch of recorded x-games. I love it except for a few events that seemed to drag on forever. I wish these sports were generally more accepted. I also want to build a half-pipe now.

2010.07.30 Friday

Work is again pretty busy and hectic, but at the same time not rushed. I guess you could say it's just more involved. I get caught up in things, and everybody has their own schedule, so sometimes I miss lunch. Today, as you will read, is probably not a good day to skip out on meals.

After work, I was planning on taking a nap. This did not happen. I've been pushing a rather consistent schedule of <6hrs per night. Instead, I ran some errands and got things around the house ready for the craziness that was about to happen.

We tapped the keg around 8pm to get things into the ready state. That also means I was about 2 beers in before people started showing up. Whoops. I remember some keg stands, some shots here and there, skateboarding, lots of great friends.

One thing I need to remember: Once you start falling asleep, you need to either dedicate to sleep or wake up. If you try to stay in this limbo, the world starts spinning and your body just starts feeling disgusting. So I had to purge a little. :-( Then I definitely went to sleep.