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.