Articles from: 2004

Over coffee yesterday, we were discussing what kind of animal we all were. Some people were snow leopards, some people were buffalo. Me? I was thought to be an armadillo.  Or a badger. Or a porcupine.  Some kind of small animal that burrows or chips away at stuff. That sounds about right for some reason. Another person thought I was a goat. With horns. Do all these things mean I’m defensive? I totally don’t think I’m defensive. I mean, I’m not defensive at all! If you think I’m defensive, you’re totally wrong. I mean, why would I be defensive? That’s totally ludicrous! Obviously, I’m not a very defensive person. Nor do I have spikes. I think maybe that might be accurate because all of those animals are relatively small and like to dig and stuff. Like they spend all their day digging and are somewhat diligent in that. I think I could be diligent in doing menial tasks like digging. As for the spikes, or the armor, or the horns — I know some people might take that to mean that I’m a defensive person, but I’m totally not defensive at all!

I decided to make congee. This was my second time trying to make congee. I tried to do it by the book, and even made my own chicken stock. Added the chicken, ginger, egg, salt, and mushrooms. This took over four hours to make (including the chicken stock). It turned out pretty bland. Since this is my second attempt, I thought I was experienced enough to make a whole batch of congee for all my meals this week. Now I have to eat bland congee for all my meals this week. Oh yeah I also burned the rice so it has that flavorful burned rice aftertaste.

At my new job, a satisfied client yesterday sent everyone at my company a big batch of Isabella’s Cookies.  This thing is like a small olympic discus. They’re quite good but after having one for lunch yesterday (still warm from the oven) I got a tummy ache. My stomach is getting weaker, I think, and I’ve been having trouble eating my omelets and mashed potatoes which probably accounts for 60% of my diet. I thought I was getting lactose intolerant, but I seem to be able to eat cottage cheese alright. Maybe it’s the fact I’ve been making all my meals for the week on Sunday and end up eating food which is already a few days old. Well, whatever the case, the monster cookie sure tasted good.

It took me a little while to decide to leave my old QA job. I liked the people, the job was pretty easy, and after all, I was playing games all day. Well, I was playing a game all day but during our regularly scheduled breaks we could always fit in a couple Halo games. Anyway, I said my goodbyes and while I was heading to my car, Abe aka “Dragga” aka “Ramboner” came out to say goodbye. We chatted a bit about my new job and stuff and we both got in our cars. I saw him drive a bit further down the parking lot, stop, and get out with something in his hand. He flagged me down as I was driving and gave me this cool Halo Warthog model, still new in its package.  I thought that was really cool and I didn’t really know what to say.

When someone offers that slightly raised open palm to one side, am I supposed to know which handshake to give? Is it the slap-wipe-and-punch combo? Or the thumbs crossed grab and shake (with optional light finger brushing)? Or the traditional firm shake with optional curled finger tug or finger tug and punch combo finish? I’ve had a few of those slap-punch combos but I was unsure whether it’s supposed to be a slap or a grab (and whether the thumbs should be crossed or not) so I’ve been doing a hesitant, in between variation of these to cover all the bases. And I keep forgetting that third punch and leave him hangin’. I never had to worry about this stuff in elementary school. Or even high school. I think I started shaking hands in college.

When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, “Did you sleep well?” I said, “No, I made a few mistakes.” – Steven Wright For those of you who have trouble getting up in the morning, I truly envy you. What is it that normal people do that enables them to sleep in? Or to not have to put foam plugs in their ears to fall asleep? Or to be able to fall asleep after getting up? The world of the normal sleeper truly baffles me because I haven’t been able to do any of these things lately.

Right after I got my eggs at the grocery store, I noticed there was a bag of Lays potato chips in my shopping cart. This was odd: I don’t eat potato chips usually. Someone must have put them in my cart. So I put them back on the shelf and went on my merry way, finished shopping and started unloading my stuff at the cashier. As I finished unloading, I realized that half the stuff wasn’t even mine. Where did all this stuff come from? Who would put a cantaloupe and all these radishes in my cart? Wait a sec . . . I reloaded everything back in the cart, went back to the produce section and found my original cart in its original spot with all my produce in it. I guess I grabbed a cart at some point that looked very similar to mine. But … wasn’t.

At work today, a fellow coworkers’s truck caught on fire, right after lunch time. The firefighters were called in and they ended up smashing the windows and hosing the fire down. By the time work got out, the truck was gone. It turns out an electrical short caused the fire. It was kinda sad. During lunch I usually go in my car, draw, and eat my sandwich, and yesterday I saw him in that same truck reading a book.

After I went to the bank today, I drove to a nearby park, which has a radio-controlled airplane field. It’s basically a flat grassy field with a mini airstrip and mini taxiways. It’s usually more busy on the weekends, of course, but there were a couple hobbyists around today, flying their tiny planes and jets. Some of them weren’t so tiny, like this F/A-18 model I saw today which looked almost as big as the pilot. The flight area is a little small, and these planes end up just doing an oval around the airfield with the occasional vertical loop. There’s an area you can see the planes up close, where the pilots fix their planes and attach the wings and propellers and whatnot. I don’t know if I really have any interest in flying one of these things but I still like to go to this place every now and then.

I just happened to be looking through my e-journal the other day, the one I kept during my early years in college. I wish I could paste a paragraph or two here that isn’t totally embarrassing but, unfortunately, it all reads something like this: I like this girl. I like that girl. I think she’s cute. I hope I’m not a dork around her. Blah blah Blah! I sorta wish I covered more topics in my journal other than girls, but alas, it’s all 35 pages of angst and misspellings. Oh well. I sorta wish now I kept a journal when I was in elementary school. I wonder what I would have written about. Hopefully it would have been less embarrassing.