Spying on the young, cool, and trendy

My sister came down from UCLA to visit yesterday. She's ten years younger than me, so she acts as my secret spy into what the cool kids are doing these days. Let's face it, 30 is too old for this technology game. i mean, come on, I don't IM my friends to see if they want to get dorm food like they do. I don't keep a live journal (though I guess that's what this is..) I don't even know about The FaceBook (This site won't let just anyone in there. i just tried to get on, but couldn't. its only within a few schools.) I guess that's OK, though. I doubt that anyone my age is really concerned with doing this... but her friends from Berkely and UCLA and UCSD were all doing it. Its basically a way of defining who your friends are. You put your picture up, and people can click a button which basically says "hey, that's my friend." then you confirm that you are in fact, someone's friend, and then you build up a social network. I guess you end up finding out that your friend John, also knows Mary and that's somehow cool. My sister has 65 friends on her list right now. An interesting experiment. (add comments, kris, If I'm getting it wrong) crap. I'm old. I do have an Instant Messenger account, though. Gotta have IM if you're gonna fake the funk like I do. I have an AIM account, which stands for Americaonline Instant Messenger. I combined all those to come up with the screename IMLAIM. I am lame, its true. Why try and hide it?

be-yoo-tiful

Congrats to my friend, Organically Digital who just purchased the be-yoo-tiful bike you see here. See, about two months ago, I showed up at his house with an air pump and some bike tools and brought his old bike back to life. We've been having great exercise, discussion, and buddy time on our weekly rides. He's been doing research to get a bike that is built to handle the rigors of mountain biking as a 6'4 240 pound dude. We finally hit paydirt yesterday after test riding like ten different bikes. The Jamis Dakar Sport. You may not know, but mountain bikes are a lot like underwear. You don't get to try them on, you just buy it based on a tiny little ride in a parking lot. Its not the same as getting out on a trail, bumping over rocks and dirt. You look at the package, and hope that what you've got is what you want. Here's hoping this bike never bunches up or rides up his butt...

Policia

I saw those flashing lights behind me and hoped for a minute it was someone else. Surely, that policeman isn't trying to pull me and my '89 Ford Escort over. I can barely break the speed limit when I'm going downhill, I'm sure I wasn't going too fast. I was still nervous when I pulled over, but not as nervous as I'd be if I was guilty. I pulled over, and waited. The officer reminded me that I had a bike rack on the back of my car and that the blanket I used to protect the trunk from scratches was covering the license plate. I drove away, relieved..no ticket. Kind of a dramatic start to my day. I'm going to follow it up with a round of house cleaning. I've paid rent twice, bought milk three times, but have never cleaned my bathtub. Today's the day to do fun stuff like that. I really should hang up some pictures on my walls. It looks bare in here and my sister has escaped from UCLA and will be coming down to visit this weekend.

Engrish.com

Not the only reason, but one of the reasons I liked staying in Taiwan for as long as I did was the effed up English. I remember a grumpy middle aged lady working at a noodle shop wearing a red hat with big white letters spelling out "Dickhead." The Engrish.com website is devoted to the way Japanese mangle the English language in packaging, t-shirts, bumper stickers and such. Good for a quiet snicker at work, but often gets me roaring with laughter. Here is a picture of a bloodmobile that hits me funny.

What's your pimp name?

Ever wanted to pimpafy your name? Now, thanks to PlayerAppreciate.com you can. My name? "Big Playah K. Gates." Be sure to call me that from now on, or I'll smack your ass inta next week. bitch. Today is a really cloudy, almost cold day in San Diego. Its still May, but the June Gloom is headed this way. I am up for my regular Friday bikeride, but today will need to wear a vest. I wonder what kind of pimp vest works best for mountain biking....

blogging about my blog (I am lame part 2)

Notes on a couple recent posts. First off, Chappelle show is no longer on Wednesday nights. I was bummed. I waited excitedly all day, only to be greeted with some "shorties watching shorties" BS. shucks.. The barfly post talked about honest beer commercials. My friend, Beyondezign sent me this link, a more truthful beer commercial. Kind of fun to revisit old posts. More navel gazing... the blog archive links work now. The comments feature is cool. I get emailed whatever you comment. Blogging is cool. I am still thinking of a professional blog in wiki format. a bliki that got started the other day but isn't much yet. enjoying this so much I'll have to join the local blogging community pretty soon.

Chappelle Show

Dave Chappelle has got to be the funniest man on television. From skits like the "Racial Draft" or his effed up Oscar the Grouch character that teaches the kids to sing "Fu*k It" and to give up on life, to his crackhead character, Tyrone, or my personal favorite, his parody of a white suburban family in the 50's named the Niggar Family... his comedy is right there on the edge. Its probly not for everyone, but those of you who get it know what a great thing it is to look forward to on a Wednesday night.

Dating Adventure #3124c

Last night I got stood up. I guess it wasn't really an official stand-up since I didn't go to the restaurant and wait for her... that's what sucks. tough to figgir out women sometimes. I had always thought she was cute. The most recent time I saw her, she actually stepped right up to me, and pushed her breasts up against my arm. The room wasn't crowded, she just wanted to get my attention, i thought. She pushed her boobs on my arm and stared into my eyes, even started touching my arm while we were talking. I thought it was pretty clear. So i asked her for her phone number, asked her out, and thought we were all set. Guess not. We never got back in touch, despite me leaving a bunch of messages on her machine. So for anyone who knows me, go ahead and email this bit@# at Erin@whatameanthingtopost.com

Bar Fly

Every so often I try to step back in time and go out and pretend I'm 22, and like meeting girls in bars. Last night my friend, Brian and I hit the Sunshine Factory in Ocean Beach. Fun to relive the early days, but I've been able to go into bars legally for nearly ten years. Somehow the magic has worn off. Drinking beers never quite resembles the commercials that promote it. I'd love to see a beer commercial where people slur their speech and get in unecessary fights, then relieve themselves in inappropriate places. That's what really happens. Where's the truth in advertising? It'd be great to have some sort of surgeon general's warning sticker on alcohol. Or maybe like it says on side mirrors on cars. "Warning, girls in this bar may not be as hot as they appear"

fRIDEday

For the last six weeks, Robin and I have been lucky enough to take off around 1 on Friday afternoon and go mountain bike riding. Its become the best part of the week. Even the week where I scared the shit out of myself by rolling right up on a rattlesnake laying across our trail, or this past week when we spent three hours visiting the bike shop, fixing flat tires, and trying to adjust brakes before riding only to go out and have both of our bikes break down on us our Friday rides are some of the best times of the week. Its getting out in the sun and getting healthy by riding down big hills, and switchbacks in San Diego's limitless trails. Most of the places where we ride were scorched by flames this past fall, so we ride past withered, blackened cactus on trails that occasionally turn into a patch of ash and soot. Combine the contrast of burnt trees and the fresh green plants growing in around them with the absence of city sounds and an endorphin rush that comes from zipping down a hill as fast as your courage will let you go, and you'll come down with a case of Bike Fever. It can be dangerous, though. My new favorite mtb website, Mountain Bike Bill shows this horrible crash I can't believe this guy walked away from that.

Drink N Think

Last night was a celebration of a good friend's birthday. One who is leaving to work a summer internship in Oklahoma then move to DC, so I guess it was a going away party, too. It was a good Edtechie crowd. My favorite professor had us over to his house, then we went to Sevilla, the home of this amazing garlic butter that would make even a steaming heap of bullplop taste like heaven. I just couldn't get enough of it. I smell like a great combination of garlic butter and what I drank last night (cap'n morgan before dinner, sangria through dinner, then makers mark at a club afterwards) no wonder I went home alone! All in all it was a terrific evening. This is the second week in a row we've gone out on Thursday night... its kind of like weekend eve. How terrific. Terrific for me, I've talked with one of my partners in crime from last night, who is too sick to go to the gym. guess its not terrific for him. Last night we discussed getting an informal group getting together monthly for an expression session like we had last night. Starting in June, the Drink N Think, coming to a pub near me... (so i can walk home afterwards)

I am Lame

Its been a long time since I've been able to blog. excuses are useless, but here's what happened between posts. the biggest reason for the lag was when my firewire drive started beeping. that's right. a hard drive that beeps. i ended up with my very own 60 gig iPod that played one tune. Honestly, I'd rather have had my whole system rather than sending the drive back to the manufacturer and saying goodbye to all my mail, music, and pictures. i had been smart enough to back up my files recently so I guess it could have been worse. After the firewire crash, i spent a lot of time working on my finals, submitting everything. The DVD for the Maritime Museum, the website for the nurses, and of course all the schoolwork. This past weekend was the first weekend since July where I didn't have any projects or homework to submit. it was so odd, I didn't know what to do. I ended up renting 4 movies and watching them all in a row. Like I said, i am lame.