Weekend Trip

Saturday I drove up to LA to visit a couple of my high school friends. Paul had the grand opening party for his Little Star Kids Furniture store that he and his wife have opened in Chino Hills. That was definitely the first time in my life I stood around drinking beer and champagne in a children's furniture store.
After Paul's party I drove to see Dave, who was in town for his mother's birthday. I joined his family for an elegant Sunday brunch at the Hilton in Huntington Beach. A great way to start the day, really.... trying to eat as much as possible. My namesake on the Lakers had a huge game 4 against the Rockets. Playing in a jersey from a second quarter scuffle he went on to score 30 points and 13 rebounds. The Lakers can close out on Wednesday. Sunday's game was great, the Lakers going into overtime, looking like a sure bet to lose, then playing remarkably and finishing with an 8-1 run.

I'm number one

Still avoiding the lit review rewrite. After watching a great mock commercial for the Jesus Christ Action figure at
Jesus Action Figure, I decided to google for the phrase bullplop. As it turns out, I'm the best source of bullplop on the whole internet. Way to go, me!

Nice to see that the original context of the Homer Simpson bullplop quote is described in the second post. Go ahead, google for Bullplop. You'll be glad you did. Proudly, Your #1 source for Bullplop

Tail Chasing

I spent a good three hours working myself around and around in circles over my literature review for Computer Supported Collaborative Work this morning. Then finally, by lunchtime, I managed to get my act together and have made progress on other things like doing some graphics for The County Department of Education. They need illustrations for their standards tests. So I got paid to work while at work today doing things like drawing buildings on a grid map, and making a copy of the liberty bell.

I still have two and a half hours left at work before time to go home... I've been up since 5:30, inexplicably, so the last hour or so should be fairly traumatic. I'm usually useless at that time of the day anyway and just pass the time by staring at the tread on my shoes or something riveting like that, but I'll probly try and keep working on the cursed lit review rewrite. Today I made my first Wiki Trails, and will be looking forward to riding down a mountain bike trail in their honor tomorrow. I hope my riding partner gets his shit together before I get there. If all goes well, the bikeride will trail into the Laker's third playoff game. This time...in Houston against the dreaded Rockets.

Home Shweet Home

I suppose its just a one bedroom apartment beneath San Diego's flight pattern, but I think my new place is just about the best place in the world to live. Today is my first blog entry from home. I actually have an internet connection at home, soon to be a wireless internet connection that will allow me to parade around the apartment using the internet wherever I choose. What a terrific idea! Tonight buggins (my sister) and my mom came over for dinner. They brought dinner with them, and there is still rotisserie chicken and bread in my fridge even though they've gone home for the night. Its funny, I was glad to see them. We all had dinner last night, too, since I wanted to watch the Lakers game at her house, and I seem to be seeing about as much of my family as I did when i lived with them. I think it will slow down eventually, but in a way having them officially come over and see where I put all the stuff makes it official. I now live here, and not somewhere else. Kind of a lame blogpost, I guess, but that's what I am happy to be writing about. A place to call my very own, airplanes or no, its a great place to live. Check this out: this morning I did something I saw one of the other locals doing when i went out for an exploratory trip to the beach. I got up a little before seven, started the coffee, got my bike shoes on, then filled up my cool star*ucks cup, and pedalled off to look at the waves while i drank my cup of coffee in the morning. I only wish I could have seen myself on a dual-suspension bike drinking coffee en route to the beach in the morning. Being a beach dude is going to be fun.

IML Rules!

Woke up this morning and rode my bike to the beach. spent my first night in the new place. I'm still swimming around in boxes, but the place is nice and I'm a happy happy dude. One quick thing to post today. My friend, Thien was actually working on a surprise for me using the pictures you see below. We were taking pictures for our ID cards at work, and I decided to take a few extra pictures. The photos posted below are not what we decided to use, but a funny pitstop along the way.

True Lines

California made news last fall when we elected our second actor-governor. Our current governor actually came to my mother's house during the early stages of his campaign. I have a great picture of Arnold at the front door with my mother standing there in disbelief, shocked that the former Mr. Universe would be holding her hand and explaining the benefits of prop 59. My sister Katie had her picture taken with him, too. I'll post those great pictures sometime, but I've got a pretty good one for today. As Katie started studying for her Driver's permit I realized that Arnold is in the DMV handbook. I don't find it odd that he was elected governor, but I do think its pretty weird to see him on the first page of a DMV handbook. I can't help but imagine him reading the message. Disappointingly there is no point where he says anything at all about a hummer.

Do they still sacrifice Virgins?

So my dating life is getting back into full swing, actually, scratch that, I'm about as far from swinging as possible. I didn't go out with anyone for like a year after Kelley and I broke up. I broke up with her the day before Valentines day 2003 (classy, i know) and then went out only once between that and Valentines Day 2004. My 2004 valentine and I hit it off really well, and I was really into her as we started dating. She's a cute, blonde hair, blue eyed, kindergarten teacher. Exactly the kind of girl i like except for the fact that she's saving herself for marriage. We dated for a few weeks, and eventually I came to realize that it isn't just about the lovin' I wasn't getting, we have a radically different moral code. I don't understand people who feel a connection and want to take a relationship to the next level, but won't. I don't really believe in doing things half-ass, if you like someone, go for it. Try and make it work. Push on and see where it leads, wondering and hoping are not good substitutes for trying. Still, I enjoyed the time I spent with her. I just knew there was too much space between us for any kind of future together. Dating the kindergarten teacher got my confidence and dating skills back into action, so I promptly asked out another girl i met recently who is like six foot one, works for apple, and seems really hot. She is a former graphic designer, from new york. Surfs, drives a jeep and is funny... all things I like about her. Then I find out that she's 29 and still a virgin. Not waiting for marriage, but unwilling to get involved in any way below the belt. I hate to sound like an ass, but good personality or not, I'm not interested in dating either of the only two virgins over the age of 21 in southern California. I leave each date more frustrated than I was before I went on it. Just with less money. Can these ladies just smell the desperation in the air that surrounds me? Can they tell I'm pretty much a born-again virgin myself? Is it inappropriate to start asking girls if they are virgins before I ask for their phone numbers? Why? Why? Why?

Bike Fever

A beautiful day in San Diego. I have a hot date with a six foot one surf betty who works at Apple. Will probably warm up for my date with a beautiful singletrack that is rumored to run behind Mission Trails, then pick her up, have some burritos, poke our heads around the new place, then head off to see a movie. As soon as my friend Robin finishes working, this will be a truly GoodFriday, and we'll be out biking around. Sick to death of working on a website for nurses.

Score!

I'm Oh-ficially moving down to the beach. I was approved for the apartment by the beach and will be picking up the keys this upcoming Monday. That gives me a whopping three days to get ready to move and start dropping my stuff off in my new "crib." Not since I was a baby have I been so excited to use that word. I have a new website from Z57, for anyone interested, here is a sample. I'll be happily cold calling real estate agents some time next weekend. Paying rent is a pressure I have been happy to avoid for the last year and a half. In a way I think its made me lazy. I'm looking at a lot of pb and J sandwiches over the next month until I'm up and running, but you know what? I don't care. I'm thrilled to be back among the land of those who don't live with parents... a housewarming party is sure to follow.

I'm A-movin on up..

I'm proud to say that today I put down a 500 dollar deposit on a new apartment for myself down by the beach. I'm waiting until Friday to hear whether or not I passed the credit check and hopefully will be living down by the beach sometime after Tuesday. It is a little more than I want to pay, but its a little nicer than I was expecting, too. Look out real estate world, here I come! I'll be peddling Z57 websites in the mornings in no time. The rest of today was spent with my Uber exciting class project where I get to develop a DVD-rom exhibit for the Maritime Museum. Today we had an actor come in and read portions of the travel journals kept by the passengers and crew who made the 4 month voyage from England to New Zealand back in the 1870's. Fascinating stuff, really. The work I'm putting in now will be above and beyond the call of duty for the class that requires me to work at an internship, but there is a good chance that there will be a second contract for videowork done with an old steamer they have named the Medea. Overall, my life is becoming more and more like the Jefferson's theme song. I'm a-movin on up, I'm finally getting a piece of the pie. I'm not there yet, though. My beans still burn on the grill.