No Train. No Life!

Bad Bus Day

2012-02-05T18:22:00.000-08:00

I have a blog I've been keeping from posting because it was a ranting, cynical diatribe which may well be kept to myself and just venting and it didn't just have to do with that moron from the World-Herald. Nor was it his headline for a lame review of a former duo now a full band that read something along the lines of "More Instruments Gives Band a Fuller Sound." No shit, dumbshit shit, stupid-fuck! This isn't the Onion, you're a fucking pair professional...of sorts. Seems to me like you're coasting. May as well be, "Tuning Guitar Gives Cleaner, Consistent Sound."

Not even going to get into this week's selection.

Today, though, I thought I'd catch the bus being that a) it's still icy and slushy out there and b) I need to activate my bus pass this week or it will be deactivated. So I walked through the slush and ice and wait for the bus that says I can't use my student-issued bus pass on Sundays because the school's closed on Sundays. What if I was going to go study? What if I was going to meet a study group or go to a required exhibit? Even MCC's bus pass allowed Sundays.

So I left work early to be sure to catch the last bus of the day going my way. I get off by Bag N' Save to walk the path only to get there to realize (of course) it's not plowed. So I have to walked around through unplowed shit to get to unplowed sidewalks to meet the street to cross but cars are coming. I wait and the last car hits the puddle I'm next to and splashes me. The water actually gets my entire face. So only having gloves as the only absorbant material on, I wipe as much off. I get some water in my mouth and tastes like standing water. I get snow and scrub my face and lips and drink some coffee from my mug.

My throat's getting raw now. Gonna make some hummus and have some rosemay, olive oil lavash with it.

PS: I hope the Patriots don't win today. F- Brady.

Rock Lobster

2012-01-22T19:45:00.000-08:00

So the plan is to get those lobster gloves, since I've had several days of frozen fingers on the verge of losing them...but the weather's all nice coming up. Nice as in 30-40 degrees, so I'm not sure what to do. I should just get them just in case.

Two instances with almost gettin hit and me using arm gestures and nothing to throw. First is going east on Leavenworth pase Sheri's and a car pulls out of Avanza's to hit the interstate. Crosses over three lanes without even turning her head to check and I swerve around to go on the left part of the lane and turn back with arms up as in, "What the fuck?" She doesn't even notice that as she's turning the other way to make her way onto the interstate.

Second is going west on Leavenworth just past the Indian restaurant. It's dark, but I have my lights on, flashing. Car approaches Leavenworth, but as there are no cars around he doesn't even check for anything like pedestrians or a bicyclists. Rolling through the stop sign I'm watching his head the entire time so I already know what he's going to do and swerve out to miss getting hit and am about to pound the back of his car as he drives away and I flip him off. He seems to see me in his rearview as his head looks up and he slowly hits the brakes and I lift my arms up to say, "What the fuck!" He releases his brakes then presses it again as if hesitating to stop to see if he hit me or something? I stand up and start peddling faster to catch up and he drives away.

Not sure what to think about school except I don't like my anthropology teacher. She looks like that douche-bag friend of Brad's that I can't stand and she's way too animated and thinks she's funny in that Jeff Foxworthy type of deal. First day of class I sat in the front, but I couldn't take it so now I'm at the back of the room and now I have a laptop I can bring.

2012-01-15T20:03:00.000-08:00

Just got back from dinner at the Drover. Best steak in a while, aside from the one at Tsukiji Fish Market.

The portable DVD player we bought for Ayana in paying off tremendously. I almost froze my fingers off the other day, but we'll see if these liners work. I like the idea of the lobster gloves Jeff recommended, but we'll see. If the liners don't work, it may be worth the investment. I couldn't feel my fingers at all and took several minutes before it started thawing out. Still no snow. I hope I get to go through one snow this winter. I guess it's good for biking, though. Over a month not biking (except the mountain bike around the neighborhood in Kaimuki, which doesn't really count) feels really good to get back on and fuck these assholes.

Gotta go read about the earth in a college text book that informs me of stuff you learn in grade school like lattitude and longitude and the prime meridian. Then my new book who Ayana seems to think looks like Joe.

Guess Who's Black?

2012-01-09T20:55:00.000-08:00

Jhett and Ayana in Vegas.

Ayana and Grandpa at work before heading to our flight to Vegas.

Me and Pat after 16 years.

Last dinner with Grandma and the Lius.

Ayana after a night with my moms while Jeanne and I went out.

Me and Brian.

Right?

Punchbowl look out.

Grandpa Ohira's dug up headstone. We just missed the Obamas. Didn't get a chance to take pictures of the "Obama Ships" out in Kailua at their vacation home.

Gau Gee for New Years.

Our traditional New Year's bowl of Saimin.

Making the New Year's dumplings.

Ayana digging into Kalbi Beef short ribs.

Back home with a lot to write about but not now. Great trip with a lot of insight and stuff. I learned and appreciated a lot and it was great to see family and friends and friends starting families (sp?).

Good time in Vegas as well. Of course I gained weight due to less exercise even though I tried to stay active and tons of food. Looking for a restaurant to buy between Midtown and the Old Market to open a restaurant here in Omaha which will be the non-sushi part of Chad's ones in Vegas. Hopefully soon. Getting stuff together so when we do, we'll get it rolling quickly and right, which means another Vegas trip for training and stuff. Looking forward to that.

School started and feels good to be on my bike again. Free papers including the NY Times, 10 minute commute with heavy-as-fuck books...Need to look at the lockers in the gym and see if I can just rent one. I can't carry all this shit biking.

I realized one important thing on the trip to Hawaii. I put going to Zippy's on the list of things to do. I'm not sure why. The chili isn't that good and everything else on their menu sucks. Their saimin was one of the things I was looking forward to but there are so many ramen shops so fuck them. I'm not sure why they're so legion there...may have something to do with the fact that the radio stations never progressed after '94...except KSSK which all the offices and adults to retirees listen to. They were the only stations with newer hits.

2011-12-29T23:43:00.000-08:00

Ayana on acid.

Kermit on acid.

Gold Tooth

2011-12-28T22:48:00.000-08:00

Got me a gold tooth. So dental stuff done on this trip is a gold cap, implant, and cleaning and temporary filling on a tooth that needs an implant and root canal. The other tooth needs surgery to either to a root canal via the gum or extraction with an implant.

Supposed to tour the Waianae coast tomorrow with Uncle Dexter and Auntie Linda. Should be fun. I'm making a list of things to do before we leave and figuring out our return and getting stuff together on that Sunday for school on that Monday.

PBS is the only station with shows worth watching.

...the Supposed Free Clinic

2011-12-28T12:16:00.000-08:00

So the luck we had with the Christmas holiday is over. Not only is traffic back, but Ayana's fever increased throughout the weekend which left us with two choices: wait until today for the urgent care to get antibiotics or go to the emergency room for minimum of $300 and up...the $300 just being allowed into the ER. At times she got very bad that we were on the verge of grabbing her and heading out. Luckily she calmed down and we ended up taking yesterday morning and she's got a virus that "should" subside in a couple of days. Her cough is horrible and non-stop and was great while we were there.

She did give us a sample inhalant for free but didn't have the adapter and said we'd have to get a prescription for the adapter...a piece of plastic which costs $25. She called it in to Longs and said give it about an hour. So we head across the street to the Salvation Army. We slowly make our way to Longs and stand in the pharmacy pick-up line with one lady in front of us. We get called and we go up and they can't find out thing and finally do and say to go into the drop-off line, so we do. There is one person in front of us. We finally get called and they say they'll put it in and page us when it's ready. So we wait.

We walk around the store for a bit and grab some coffee for home. And wait. Then get Ayana a toy to mess with while we wait. After about 40 minutes, I'm getting pissed and wondering why it's taking so long for a piece of plastic. I decide to go ask and now both pick-up and drop-off lines are 6-10 people deep. Fuck this! We head to the front to just pay for the coffee and all lines are long and winding into the aisles. So I, of course, pick the wrong one.

There is one lady just finishing up getting rung up. Next lady had a big load, but not too bad, mostly canned goods. I have two 10 oz bags of coffee grounds; this shouldn't take long. The cashier proceeds to ring up the canned-goods lady at a rapid pace of one can every 5-10 seconds. I stand there looking like, "Are you fucking kidding me?" and getting all antsy and impatient. I start stating loudly how this place is ridiculous and people seem to be going out of their way to piss me off. Jeanne mentions that we should probably not go to post office today. Me, still being in said mood, says, rather loudly and pissed, "Why? They're not going to have the same retards here working over there!" When I go to get rung up he says nothing to me and doesn't look at me.

We leave and I'm still upset. I get home and call the pharmacy which makes me more made because I'm dealing with a stupid automated thing that ends up connecting me and then it disconnects. So I go through the process one more time and get someone and explain that we left. She says that they're busy because of the holiday weekend and all. I said it's dumb. 45 minutes for a piece of plastic. She says they have to sort of do it first-come-first-serve type of deal like they've got some orders in front of the others. I say again, "It's a piece of plastic! Protocol or not, it's there in a box already. Not too mention when we first got there, nobody was in line."

I understand there are different types of worlds out there and jobs that I don't understand and how simple things to us is completely different to the ones involved. I also am a huge advocate against people with little to no knowledge of things to argue against say an expert in Foreign Policy or one of the Joint Cheifs of Staff. But I'm also someone who has worked in customer service in the field of moving lines. I know that if I see something already done or a moment in which a person could be taken care of and moved along, it's done. A fucking piece of plastic in a box should've been moved along at the onset. It should've been, "Oh, this prescription, it's right here. Take it; it's fucking cluttering this pharmacy. We've got work to do," and we'd all be on our way.

Ayana stayed with my mom while Jeanne and I went to the post office to a huge line. I went at this time on the Thursday before Christmas and had three people ahead of me. We had to wait in line because we had an international package to send, so I stood in line while Jeanne did the manual postage thing. She started going and with robotic precision entered numbers and labeled them and stacked them without letting any time lag. As soon as she started some bitch walked up behind her on the phone waiting for Jeanne who overheard the conversation saying that "this lady's taking a long time." Personally, I would've said something and/or slowed down. There's a difference between taking a long time and having a lot to send. on top of which, had Jeanne seen her walk up she would've let her gone. I wouldn't. The one person I let would be with all the problems and we'd all be there longer.

I don't like the fact that there's a drive to the store. It'd be nice to have the choice to walk there. I've made a decision that once I get a new bike, I'm sending my current one here so I have a bike to use the next time we're here. It'd be nice to have it on this trip; I would've not just contemplated but done the Mililani to Kaimuki ride. It's not that hard; it's all relatively flat ground.

Have a crowning appointment today at 3:15pm. Gonna leave early to hit the beach ahead of time. Hopefully a cheerful blog.

Talked to Jeff yesterday; that was good.

Early X-Mas

2011-12-24T23:03:00.000-08:00

Hawaii gave me an early X-mas present by allowing me to experience little to no traffic. Went to the food court at the Pearl City Holiday Mart yesterday. Good stuff. It wasn't as busy or as full as it used to be, but still, how can you beat having Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and Japanese stuff in one place that's not a sit down restaurant? All good stuff, too.

We opted for Korean because it's hard to get good beef short ribs in Omaha. Those cuts are geared mostly towards prime rib roasts, so even beef ribs you get little to no meat and may as well just use it for stock. But here for $10 you get seared kal bi, beef short ribs, with a lot of meat on it.

I helped Aunty Linda and Uncle Dexter roll sushi today and found several things I'd been doing wrong with my sushi with the rice and rolling and picked up some good tips.

Mom's b-day today, stopped by the beach and lost my sunglasses. That's why I don't like paying more than a dollar. Luckily, too, the Goodwill I bought it from in Vegas had tons of those. Gonna pick up another when we go back there.

Hopefully there is nothing screwing up my financial aid and it goes through on the 2nd. I want to be able to go to Jelly's and look for stuff...if they have stuff. Gotta a bunch of eating left to do as well.

GD-it

2011-12-22T11:37:00.000-08:00

So just like I've hardly ever cut myself with a knife but from stupid things like dried beans on the side of a steam pan, egg shells in the sink, nubs on the ice cream freezers, I always break coffee carafes by tapping them on the side of the sink while washing them.

I've knocked them and dropped them into the sink and nothing. Small taps, though, happen to be in that right, soft spot. Fuck! Running low on cash I luckily (finally!) sold my trig book, but that won't come in until January when (hopefully) my student loan goes to my account. So I was more than happy to receive a card with $40 in it. Then I wash my frech press and small tap to the sink and crack.

I'm not spending more than $20.

Met up with Robert briefly yesterday in China Town. Wanted to check out China Town and his Kung Fu school. Good to see him and talk to him about Kung Fu, Jeet Kun Do, Dan Inosanto, Anthony Bourdain, and Kung Fu films. He's good to talk to about that, very informed and fun.

After that we went to the dentist to get more bad news about my bad mouth. Which leads (on the worst of three teeth) towards redoing a root canal which may solve the problem unless the crack is in the gum area which it most likely is. Or going through the gum and redoing and sealing the root canal by that way which is surgery and expensive and still, may solve the problem if the crack isn't in that area. Three (the more likely and we'll talk to the cosmetic dentist about) is that it needs to be extracted, which will solve the problem and get a fake tooth there (which would be temporary), and then when I get a real job I can see a specialist and finalize all this dumb shit.

Finally got to a Ramen shop which is legion in this place. Ramen shops, not this one in particular. I like that they can all survive on their own and be individual ones and not franchised. It's how it should be. L&L on the other hand I don't like. I'd like to do my thing back home before those guys do one. They expand all over and their motto is basically "Where next?" Literally, that's it.

F-them. It's like Tupac said, "Fuck the World" and "...my role model, it's in the brown bottle"...and "Brenda's got a baby."

Going to the Swap Meet today. Went to the Wat's the other night and saw Jeff's parents. Really great to see them, if only for a short time. Hopefully we'll get to again. We'll see how the next weeks turn out.

The other night at the Chuck BBQ was fun. I saw Kai pull up to the side as we did so I assumed that was Chuck's house to went to the end circle to turn around and saw some guys in a garage hanging out and thought it was a moke party. Turns out the moke is Daniel. Brian said, "You always wonder who the moke is going to be."

I kept making fun of Daniel all night. Like the whole time we're in high school we're making fun of Sherwood and Daniel was apparently taking notes. I couldn't stop laughing at him just looking at him.

2011-12-20T20:50:00.000-08:00

Had to pick up parents from the airport today in the afternoon, so I figured we'd go to Haleiwa. Didn't get shave ice, but went to Ali'i beach park. There was a sign up to expect delays because of a surf meet. Luckily it was this past weekend or the one coming up so the stands were up but no contest. The waves were there and a lot of surfers. We got to see kids going into the water to surf in waves I wouldn't go swimming in. I jumped in the shallow area but didn't swim because I didn't want to deal with the shore breaks and undertows.

Gonna just relax tonight and head to Chinatown tomorrow.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

2011-12-18T13:34:00.001-08:00

I got some cool anime bag for $5 because its zipper is gone, but I put a safety pin and it's good. Hope it's a cool show so I'm not a chump sporting some lame deal.

We stopped along Kam Hwy at a roadside grill that was broiling huli huli chicken and grilling huge garlic shrimp. As a plus, it's ride on the penninsula where Daniel and Mr. Miyagi pulled into the small village in "Okinawa."

Laie Point was nice. It's funny that in Sarah Marshall they're walking and he says, in exhaustion, how he's never sweated so much in his life. Unless they walked there from Turtle Bay, the walk from the parked cars to that point is like 10 feet. Waves were kicking and locals were blazing.

Went to Pearl Harbor today, more on that in a bit. Stopped at Jacks and John and Curing were working and got an unexpected comped meal. Good thing Chompers doesn't come here, he'd be back everyday expecting that free meal.

Relaxing at the parents' place before lunch with the Miyamotos and BBQ at Chuck's with Brian, Daniel, and Kai.

Getting lots of stuff crossed off our list and keeping busy and still looking forward to getting back to the beach. Still need to hit Haleiwa. Here's that dumb "Defend Hawaii" deal and another deal.

Stopped by Patrick Swayze beach aka Swanzy Beach Park. Didn't remember that there's little to no beach there, but nice shots.

hh;l;h

2011-12-16T01:59:00.000-08:00

Blogged earlier today:

Before taking my parents to the airport we hit the beach. We headed back and my mom called to ask if we could stop in Chinatown to pick up some leis that were an issue.

Luckily we were just passing Aloha Tower and moved to the right lane and turned into Chinatown. She called back and while on the phone I made a few twists and turns and saw a sign that read "Otto Cakes." I hadn't thought of him in years and approached the stop sign while still on the phone getting directions and the lei shop was right on that corner. So I turned back around and found a parking spot and went to Otto Cakes.

It's a tiny shop, really cute, simple, done well up in a professional DIY fashion. Then Otto came up and I said, "Hey dude. I'm not sure if you remember me, but we used to hang out about 10 years ago; I'm Brett."

He looked at me, all straggily hair, messy beard, board shorts, and a lady and child. The gears were turning in his head as he began to register who I was and said, "Semper Fi!"

I totally forgot about that. We talked a bit and mention Cory (who I corrected was Tory and I have no contact with) and Sheri and mentioned his new band was playing a show Friday night and they were nominated for a Hoku (?) award. First punk rock band ever to be nominated. He also brought up the Pettyfords who had played shows recently but not in a bit. I mentioned that Jeremy lives next to my parents and is in Air Force Officers training to be back on December 20. He gave me a copy of one of their CD's. Cool.

WE ordered a cranberry cheesecake while he and Jeanne talked about their shops and the first thing he asked her was if she makes bacon ice cream. I didn't forget how great his cheesecakes were. His shop had an old, decorated by him register that's just as simple as it needs to be. He's still as awesome as ever and does it all himself not even with a mixer...all by a whisk. He handstamps each to-go container with his basic logo.

Talk about random run-ins. This is like how it is when I took acid or shrooms. I take it somewhere completely alone and away from anyone I know and head out and somehow I end up with and where everybody is. Or with people I haven't seen in years.

So that leads to me being at Longs in Kaimuki picking up bottled water and coffee for our stay at Uncle Dexter's. We're standing in line and I glance behind us and notice the dude in line and say, "Hey, Norm!"

He hesitantly looks at me and says, "Yeah," and then we go through the whole song and dance of the years gone by and ask about Jelly's since I hadn't seen them in several of the previous locations. He said there are two: one in town somewhere and the other by Cutter Ford Aiea.

There are Jellyfish approaching and the Obama ships out in Kailua awaiting the President's stay. I found where he's staying at, but I actually just want to take photos of the ships.

Went out to Makapu'u and hiked up to the lighthouse. Nice walk. I really wish I had my bike here, but luckily I have access to bikes, although they're mountain bikes.

We've got a Pearl Harbor visit and luncheon with the Miyamotos on Sunday afternoon and then a BBQ with Brian and Chuck folks that night. I need to call Mr. and Mrs. Wat to meet up and then Patryk.

Later that night:

Talked to Pat earlier. I haven't seen him since they played the Warped Tour which I think was in '98. Caught up and was just like old times. Gotta meet up with him later.

Forgot About This

2011-12-14T10:46:00.001-08:00

Been playing this game here and Vegas and finally got a good score. "Why is there only one T in your name?"

Try using the controller to write it while your daughter is pulling you to come with her in the other direction.

Senor Frogs

2011-12-14T09:55:00.001-08:00

Why does Hawaii have a Senor Frogs? I'm sure that Hawaii can have its own establishment with alcohol and party atmosphere. Everybody here is so eager to be like the mainland but don't want to become the mainland. At least their annual awards for restaurants don't have any franchise or chains. I wish Omaha could catch a hint.

Speaking of hints, I, of course, do not do any fast food normally; let alone on a trip, especially to a place with good food. In-N-Out is usually the exception, along with Jack in the Box. Jack in the Box is the only exception in Hawaii, because Omaha has none and I used to work at one and the one I worked at still employs my friends. Unfortunately, out of my hands (and money) we ate at a busy McDonald's and Burger King in Waikiki.

The McDonald's was because it was after two and the closest (cheapest) place closed until dinner and my grandma wanted to go to McDonald's. Next time we were waiting for Chad and Angela at their hotel and there was a Burger King across the street with no cheap places to eat around. So Burger King it was. But no more. That's why we have a schedule, right?

Ho, cuz!

2011-12-13T23:33:00.000-08:00

I found out what that dumb decal that everyone has means. Not the "Defend Hawaii" one but the one I thought was a hip way to spell Heki. It's He>i. That should hit Omaha soon.

I don't know how people can stand driving here. Driving is bad enough, dealing with parking lots is dumber. This week we'll be at Uncle Dexter's place so we shouldn't need to drive for that week. I'm probably gonna ride their bikes unless we go to the North Shore.

Went to meet up with Chad folks before they headed off yesterday and ate at Duke's. If we had money Chad said the buffet at the Kahala Hilton is worth it. It's $60 a person, but good prime rib w/ real au jus, lobster tails, racks of lamb, fresh juices...those alone would be worth the price. They got their kids' meals free as well, so it worked out better.

I left early for my dentist appointment near Ala Moana. Got there way early so debated hitting a lame coffee house or something when I realized the beach is right there. So I pulled into Ala Moana beach, on the Magic Island side and went for an early morning swim.

There were some people about, but not much. Three in the water, plus me. I got a half hour swim in and felt really good. After that I just swam under water a bunch and went to the appointment.

I headed to Kahala Mall only because I needed to get a charge reversed on Jeanne's card for $10 for something that she didn't order from (gulp!) Whole Foods. Doesn't matter where Whole Foods is, it's the same annoying clientele. It's appropriate to be at Kahala Mall, though, now affluent people can finally eat healthy. I hate going to malls anywhere and here is much stupider.

People in Hawaii need to all learn common sense and relearn to drive. I have to abandon all safe driving techniques because it just makes it more dangerous. How does that work, right? Well for one thing, say you're driving in traffic leaving a normal, safe following distance. Then you want to go into the lane next you, which has a lane next to them. You signal your turn signal ahead of time to regulate traffic and thus make your lane change legal and safe. But as soon as that space opens up the other lane's driver sees an opening and without looking they enter there. For no reason other than they saw an opening. So if you do your safe techniques, you lose your space and pontentially get into an accident.

Luckily for me, I think everyone's stupid and see their move ahead of time. But then it keeps me more focused on that than safe driving. Fuck these assholes.

Are there any records shops anymore? All the ones that were here either moved or are out of business.

Gotta get our itinerary ready for tomorrow for the rest of our visit to maximize our time here and see all we want to and everyone we want to...radio stations still suck here...good thing there's NPR and two CD's I brought since my mom's car doesn't have an Auxiliary plug and I forgot my tuner.

"Aloha Means Goodbye"

2011-12-12T10:12:00.000-08:00

This Primo's for Jeff.

We were advised to make an itinerary for the remainder of our trip so we can actually fit things in. It's been busy so far and lots more to do, which is good for making use of the time here. There's little to no down time, though. And while I enjoy that, it's tough on Jeanne and Ayana's not napping. I've been sort of good on my going to the beach every day.

The waves were up for the Pipeline Pro and had to skip Haleiwa because Ayana wasn't handling it too well. Need to head back to that.

My aunt gave us tickets for a bus ride through downtown to see the lights. It was on a double-decker bus which gave us some near misses with low tree branches (one of which hit my glasses) and low wires. We had extra time so it drove through Kahala in the residential area and then around Diamond Head.

We need to check out those noodle/ramen shops. They're legion here. It reminds me of those shots of downtown Tokyo where there are those cute, brightly lit noodle or sushi shops, some so small that there are only a few seats at the counter.

My parents leave Wednesday for Portland and we'll be staying in Kaimuki at the Grandma's place. There's lots of stuff to do right in that area and Aunt Linda and Uncle Dexter are taking us around...reef walk on the itinerary. There's a thrift store and pho shop and other things...like the comic shop that used to loan out Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes before Hawaii got the WB.

My cousins have bikes that they don't use, so I'm going to pump them up and ride around. If I lived back here I would not have a car. It's so bike accessible and I hate the traffic and drivers. I'm going to try and ride from Kaimuki to Mililani. They live up the hill in Kaimuki which will be fun to ride down.

Going to head to Waikiki today to hit the beach with Chad and Angela before they leave and come back and hang back a bit to list the remainder of our trip.

Dumb Show

2011-12-09T11:46:00.001-08:00

Watching a show called Sid the Science Kid. It's done by Henson studios but it has that Jim Henson's on the title. I don't think they should be allowed to do this. They should just put Henson's Sid the Science Kid, since this show is dumb like Barney and nowhere near what Jim would have done.

Gonna leave soon to go up the H3 (not sure why they're considered interstates) to Kaneohe and visit Grandpa and Grandma Kurihara's graves. Then take the long way back via the North Shore. The waves are supposed to be insane today so we'll see, and then stop at Matsumoto's and head to the lights tonight.

Hawaii Post

2011-12-08T22:58:00.001-08:00

I've had this post started and forgot to get back to it. But it was good to see Jeff and Margaret during the Thanksgiving break, though wish did more. I greatly enjoyed the bike ride to work and hanging out with Robert and Steve Micek.

Got to see part of the Muppets, but Ayana needed a nap. we've been getting good rides through traffic here to that soundtrack.

Vegas was good but short. Hawaii is good so far, but after this week should be more relaxing. It's been sort of non-stop and have several dentist appointments (which sucks) getting very important, very expensive things done (which is good).

I've also stuck to a new plan due to a ruined day yesterday. I'm not leaving anything plans vague. It's all going to be that we have to do this or be there at this time.

Hawaii is dumb. There's so much traffic but it's all because people don't know how to drive. I can't spend time listing things here, but the driving on shoulders to get ahead and the constant, unecessary lane changing to not get ahead are two things, along with learning to merge, which could stop much traffic. There are about five other things that are totally changeable. I can't even do my normal, safe leave a following distance or at a stand still leave an out, because some dumbshit pulls in partially. Any available space!

There's another dumb thing which I have to get a photo of. I first noticed it on a shirt in Vegas and am seeing it as decals here. It's picture of a semi-automatic rifle between the words "Defend Hawaii." There's too much to elaborate on that now, but I'm tired.

Ayana's totally loving the beach.

F-School

2011-11-22T20:40:00.000-08:00

So hopefully I figured this deal with UNO. To them it seemed as if I was dumb, but as I talked to the IT people I did everything right. They found an error on their part and everything they told me to do I had already done. So they had to manually change my password and let me get access to the UNO email account. I had my gmail account as the main one but it wasn't sending it there and all the information I kept asking for was told that it was emailed and I couldn't access it, nor were they helpful in navigating me. For instance, four times I had called and got disconnected and then given the direct number for the IT to which it took me back to the records department.

I'm also now banking on Amazon to sell this past quarter's books since one of them is apparently outdated, though another student sold her's yesterday for $70 to the same bookstore. The other thing is this GD looseleaf books which is all a scam. It's an effort to sell a brand new book with no resale value. The school uses it, but they don't buy it back because it's looseleaf. Why the fuck use it? The write up on it says it's for cheaper books ($130?) instead of the used price for the other edition for half that price with resale opportunities, but the high resale value is the other supposed advantage.

Yesterday was full of aggressive drivers. Not that I'm like most drivers and pedestrians, in that I look ahead to see any obstacles or dumbasses approaching, but I noticed a car coming out of a business driveway up ahead and I kept an eye and of course it pulls right in front of me but I was ready. I swerved and was about to punch the hood of the car but made eye contact and held her stare to let her know I was pissed and she's dumb and shook my head in disbelief and headed on. I had both my lights on the bike flashing and I saw her head the entire time from pulling forward and pulling into traffic and not once did it even look in my direction. I also think about being a minority (meaning bicyclist) that anything negative I do reflects on all bicyclists.

But fuck those Leavenworth Cafe clientele. Next pass through that they dismiss me I'm yelling something.

I'm also getting sick of those Spaghetti Works kitchen fucks. They all smoke around the dumpsters and when I take the trash out I say hey and they don't respond and just look at me. Fuck them. That's why I hate prison cooks. Nothing against line cooks, but fuck them. These guys are nothing more than sort-of-cook-to-order-cafeteria line cooks. The most on their menu that they have to watch is the pasta to be al dente and maybe the chicken breasts. Work in a real kitchen and maybe I could qualify your attitude. I'd cook those assholes under the table.

Try making your own sauce or, better yet, work at a place that serves steaks. We'll see how they handle a rush while trying to time the orders and cooking several steaks to the correct doneness.

Marquee Moon

2011-11-17T20:49:00.001-08:00

Yesterday's class was at the Zen Buddhist temple, so I rode my bike there. Super cold, but I didn't think it was so I didn't wear my face mask; though I should have. Anyway, on the way back I decided to take California up the hill near Robert's place. I hadn't tried it since I'd been conditioned as I am and been doing stances in Kung Fu so I've built my quads pretty sturdy. I approached it and it didn't look as intimidating as I rememebered. Then I got about halfway up and thought about walking the rest, but pursued. I don't like standing while riding, though I know it helps. So I just slowed down and worked my way up. It felt as if my tire was flat.

Today I did errands with Ayana. I finished all my stuff for classes and have one left on Monday, but nothing due. So it's just trying to get more hours before leaving and trying to pick up hours at Chad's restaurant. I hope I can pick up several shifts dishwashing.

Couple more weeks and I have several things to get and don't have to worry about getting that pull-up thing from Wal-Mart because my mom has one. I was going to buy it and then return it before we left.

Tonight was Dave Rozelle's art show at Ted & Wally's. I was eating and noticed a new pic and remembered that it was an art show. I was too busy getting into the Pringles and pickled peppers. His art show was "P" themed, so there was to be all P-flavored ice cream (the letter p). So all snacks were P-themed and since the p-flavors weren't thawed enough to serve, we changed the names to fit it. For instance, Dutch Chocolate became Polish Chocolate. Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookie Dough became Peanut Butter Chip Chocolate Cookie Dough. Blueberry Rhubard Pie became Pie de Blueberry y Rhubarb.

Ayana and I just sat on the floor near the food and just ate pickled peppers and Pringles and laughing while singing Sound of Music songs. Luckily, as well, Andrew was playing Marquee Moon over the sound system.

Why Bother?

2011-11-12T19:53:00.000-08:00

I was looking forward to the cold so as to weed out the weak bastards in the park that I'm now forced to go through and on the trail. I'm not sure what makes people not pay attention or stick to one straight path? For instance, someone will be walking in the middle of the path and as you approach you plan how to approach this. They start veering towards the left and you say, "Passing on your right!" They get startled and instictually jump to the right in front of you so you have to swerve on to the grass.

Or you yell, "PASSING ON YOUR LEFT!" And they don't hear until the third time when you're actually right behind them, and then you notice they've got earphones. I'm not against people wearing those things, but why would you wear them at too high of a volume so as not to be aware of what's going on around you? Of if you are, why not stay to the right so you'll be prepared?

The other thing (in my long list) is when they're walking anywhere, sometimes correctly on the far right. You approach and say, "Passing on your left!" They take it as, "Passing! Get on your left!"

My first riding on a path was as a kid. Not knowing the rules of paths I kept aware and alert. Next was in Los Angeles and I'd ride the beach path sometimes. I still had no clue as to path ettiquette, but as this is America, I stayed to the right. I first encounterd the, "Passing on your left!" phenomenon there and I understood it immediately. I'm not sure where this problem's coming from?

Dumb-Shits

2011-11-10T09:58:00.001-08:00

I was supposed to go to UNO with Megan today to drop off some stuff, but she couldn't go so I rode my bike there. I dropped my financial aid appeal stuff and then my immunization forms.

Apparently the immunization was wrong. I got it for rubella but it should have been for rubeola. I'm not sure how this happened because I gave the form the my doctor and he read it several times and apparently did the appropriate test. I mean, how would I know? I'm not a doctor.

So I have to go back to UNO tomorrow and pay $35 fucking dollars to have them do it. I also have to now call my doctor and figure out what the fuck and get my money back.

I'm a couple steps away from not even going to UNO at all. It's the same bullshit every time I have to deal with government-run stuff like living in LA all over again...although my current community college seems to somewhat be better...at least now that I've figured it out.

Occupy?

2011-11-09T09:27:00.001-08:00

Second day in a row I've gotten a free newspaper and second time it's just been left on top of the paper box in front of Crane Coffee. Although I'm sure that it could've been someone inside, I feel foolish to put money into the box when a paper's sitting right there in front of me. It'll be like that dumb-ass scout leader of mine who walked a quarter of a mile to set a good example to us to use the crosswalk rather than the 30 feet to cross the street. Yes it's jaywalking, but there were easily no cars and such to me it was just stupid and made me want to run across the street and back and jaywalk even more to show how inane of an act it was.

Yesterday I got out of the bus stop to transfer at 30th and Dodge. There was a white girl, all made up and in a coat with a sign stating that "anything helps." As I waited for the green to cross, I noticed her face and she smiled sort of and I started wondering about her status. Whether she was homeless or out of job and had looked but getting nothing. This occurred to me because she had all appendages and was able to stand and walk without any disabilities and had money to afford make-up and the ability to apply it.

As I'm thinking this I notice across the street in the bus stop alcove which makes no sense on its position as it's on the opposite side of a one-way street where the bus stop is for the bus going south. But it's made for the Dodge street bus going east, but it's not facing Dodge street, it's facing west so unless you sit in the opposite direction the seats are made for, you're not going to notice the bus you're waiting to catch. But there's this douche-bag guy with a shit-eating grin on his face and he's holding a video camera with earphones plugged from it to his ear. He's looking at me and smililng as if he knows me or recognizes me from somewhere. I catch his stare and he just keeps looking at me and I think of punching his face.

A few minutes later my bus comes and I get on and get a window seat. I noticed douche-bag had moved from the bus stop to a power box on the north end of the parking lot, using the box as a tri-pod facing the girl with the sign. The only thing I could get is these two people are working together. Not in a scam thing, but I'm figuring it's some social-statement thing that maybe stating how a white, pretty girl begging gets a different reaction and more handouts than a black, homeless person or something. I don't know. It makes no sense otherwise. I also don't like being filmed without my persmission or knowing which is illegal to do unless they blur me out and there were no signs posted as to note the filming.

If this is the case it's dumb. For a number of reasons, but one being that unless they get someone other than her to do the same thing in that area and have the same people go through and see the same people reacting or responding then it's not an accurate study.

Secondly, fuck off and get a life. You're just as worthless as the Occupy Omaha idiots.

Occupy is a good cause and it's bringing unwanted publicity to an area that has been somewhat untouchable, but it's stuff that's always been around. It's making waves now because more people are being directly affected by it and that's it. People always wait until it affects them before getting involved with anything.

But ours here is doing nothing. It's so small and pointless and non-effective. For instance they had their march in downtown on a Saturday morning. No one's there on Saturday mornings. The banks there are closed and it's a ghost town.

They had a handful of people who casually showed up to protest to people already aware of what the protest is and what it represents, so whether or not this group existed or not the whole of the Occupy movement would have the same impact nationally. They also talked about not leaving after the permit expired as a stand for their freedom of speech rights. So three got arrested as more of a part-of-the-deal with the Occupy protest, but here it was unnecessary. The city is working with them and the police were being nice and accomodating, but these ineffective protesters are taking stands and making statements that others on the actual Wall Street and other areas that are making an effective presence are doing.

That being said, I've got to get some work done. I'm not doing a Thanksgiving dinner this year, even though I don't like to call it that. It's not a Thanksgiving celebration just a get together on Thanksgiving, because I don't believe in Thanksgiving and I sound like Mr. Scorpio saying that. But school gets out on the 21st and that Thursday is Thanksgiving and the next Thursday we leave and I've got a lot to get done by then including finishing up this quarter, registering for Spring semester at UNO (hopefully), doing the layout and printing and collating my zine and packing.

Herman Caine II

2011-11-08T16:07:00.000-08:00

As glad as I am that Herman's getting hit now with these sexual harrassment allegations, which has toned down his pomp, I wish that it was his racist/bigoted remarks would have done the disservice to his image and not give him that boost that he got from it.

There was a newspaper in the parking lot today, had to leave my bike downtown yesterday as well since it was raining on my way back from school. Today I could have gotten it but didn't want to ride it back in a coat. Let's see what tomorrow bring us.

Herman Caine

2011-11-02T11:02:00.001-07:00

I wish it would snow 12" tonight. I don't know why people always bitch about the weather. I always say that I hate the wind and humidity, but the rest of the weather and the year is great. I love the diversity. All I hear in the summer is how hot, humid, and miserable it is. Now it's too cold and gripes about how it may snow.

Hermain Cain's recent stupid thing is saying that his political correctness isn't his problem because he knows he's not politically correct, because he didn't go to politically correct school. That may work for bar talk or backyard bar-b-ques, but you're running to be a world leader, moron.

I really hope he doesn't get the nomination. Not that there's any good choice in my opinion but he's the Republican embodiment of racsim and bigotry that they can't come out and say but because Herman's black they can get away from it.

Cowboys From Hell

2011-10-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

An said that Ayana had a fight with her dog over a bone. They were in the back yard and her dog was eating a bone and Ayana went up and grabbed it from him and ran away. Her dog chased her and grabbed it back and ran, so Ayana started crying and then went back and took it...and on and on.

Didn't end up riding my bike today but I had Pantera for the ride. Gonna have to wait until Sunday.

Joe the Plumber?

2011-10-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

Sitting in the library at school and finished a second draft of an essay I’ve been working on. I still have two parts left on my reflection paper due next week and then work on my Origins of Humanity assignment and readings.

I was getting coffee ready this morning and I heard the garbage truck outside. They usually come in the afternoon and even when the declaration was made in the summer time to pick up trash earlier due to a couple of workers dehydrating, they still didn’t come until 2 PM. So I usually take it out in the morning on my way to school.

But I looked outside and they were there and by the time I put on my shirt, they moved past. On my way to the bus stop, though, I noticed most of the trash was still there, so I went back and brought it out just in case. I’m not sure what is going on.

Joe the Plumber running for Congress? Are you kidding me? He says the people need representation and not just an “elite ruling class.” He’s running as a Republican, right? He’s against an “elite ruling class” and saying the people need representation and he’s running as a Republican. It just goes to show that he’s still a misinformed idiot. He’s running against a lady who’s running against Kucinich. Good luck, moron.

It’s funny how the current breed of Republicans always try to say they know what’s best for small businesses and portray themselves to be looking out for their best interest when they couldn’t give a crap. All their efforts really help only the corporations and if small business means franchises, then yeah, those assholes too. Any non-franchise business owners who are not selfish about their money and not helping out others and are actually informed don’t usually vote Republican. They are the ones who are affected by the legislations put through to help out the corporations.

I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the goals of this economic crisis was to put more mom-and-pops out of business and let the corporations, franchises, and corporate-pretending-to-be-mom-and-pops populate the cities and continue to have yet another generation of Americans grow up in an Anytown, USA.

Day Off #2

2011-10-25T21:23:00.001-07:00

I woke up to Mei-Mei with Bear and knew that once Ayana woke up and saw this, she'd be right there to swoop up Bear away fron Mei-Mei and hug him and she did not disappoint. I woke up this morning with a full day ahead of me, as is most days I take off of school and work it ends up being non-stop.

This morning consisted of me riding to Joe's and using his truck today. The main objective was picking up wood for customizing our office which has one desk now and we need three bookshelves, a desk and some shelves on my desk for storage. So on the way to the hardware store, I had some errands.

After waiting five full minutes for this lady to pull out of the only parking stall that was going to be available at Creighton Dental School (I almost left putting it off until Thursday), she took another three minutes pulling out. Even after she pulled out she stopped to do more shit on her phone. It took only three minutes to do my business there which was to authorize them to send my records to our family dentist in Hawaii, since he will work out a payment plan to help with my not having insurance.

Next, I stopped home to get the card from Jeanne, pick up shirts, ID's, wood inventory, and then our electrician that looks like David Cross portraying an electrician came.

First stop was the DMV to renew my license sans CDL, because I don't have an updated medical deal, nor the money. That was quick as there was hardly anyone there Tuesday morning at 10 am, except this black dude talking on his phone and kicking my chair.

I then drove around the corner to the tailor to drop a couple of shirts to be fitted as all my shirts are now too big. Then swooped around to pay my phone bill, pick up lunch from Alvarado's (which has great cheese), QT to get okay coffee and some protein, then to Home Depot to pick out wood and get a dude to cut it. I drew out how to cut it to make it easier, but still had to walk him through some. I hate knowing the process from last time, because I hate seeming as if I'm those guys who saw a show or something and now am an expert and will guide them through their job.

I came home and cleaned the garage for space for the wood and working, but also, it's been a mess since the garage sale and we're getting paid to store Joe's and Matt's cars for the winter.

I got the wood today with the intention of building the shelves on Saturday, but ended up not being able to study so started today. I first went to Lowe's for the screws and dropped off Joe's truck and rode back into 20 mph winds...while listening to Megadeth. After I put the shelves together and sanded them and sawed off the top 4"'s of the 2x4's, we ate dinner and Jeanne went to class.

Ayana and I played around and watched Animal Kingdom which she liked because they showed the giraffe and lions, which they were showing how the pride strategically surrounded and attacked the giraffe to kill it and it took an hour of trying, with the giraffe kicking the shit out of them, before they got him down. So that was it for that and got to reading and hanging with the cats.

At one point Ayana wanted me to take her shirt off so I did and next thing she was hanging with both hands on the bathroom doorknob. She wanted to take a bath. She we got that going and she kept looking at me at one point and I asked if she's all right, to which she looked rather sad and said no. She usually just says yes, no matter what, but apparently she knows what it means and wasn't feeling well. Then I saw two turds appear and she freaked out. So I pulled her out and wiped her and drained the tub, put her toys with the dishes, got the poop out, rinsed the tub, filled the tub up with bleach water, and Jeanne came home, so I started working on the assembly process of the shelves.

It's basically the same plan as the others, but I'm not a carpenter with the time or the tools necessary. Just the ability to get what we need. So Saturday will be a small three shelf in the corner for the modem, router, scanner, printer, etc, and then the desk which will be right in front of the window with two shelves above. Then we have space for two more shelves then a two-tiered shelf above my desk.

Lots of work with little time and money but there's a bunch we're trying to get through before we leave. Fortunately and unfortunately the weather's been nice so work's been busy, but the shop always could use the money and I could use the tips, and hopefully we'll get caught up before the trip...which I'm getting my stuff together...like my books.

Currently reading Gender Jihad, finished re-reading the Stranger to prepare me for reading l'entranger, Dishwaser was great, and for some reason Crime and Punishment is what I'm looking forward to as my main read in Hawaii.

No Dice

2011-10-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

I had a discussion with Matt at work today about =w= and how much I dislike them and he brought up the fact that Maladroit was an underrated album which, to be fair I'd never listened to. I've had an advance copy of the album, but had tired out of them and was quite annoyed of Rivers by then.

So we listened to it. I mentioned how lame of a drummer I thought Pat Wilson to be and we went back and forth on that for a while and came to the agreement that he's not the best drummer, but he was the best drummer for =w=. For instance, if Dave Lombardo of Slayer were drumming for =w= there'd be endless drum rolls and double-bass for simple songs like "Undone" or Rivers would have trouble tuning up with Dave doing his destroy-the-earth-and-deal-with-it-later style of drumming...still, Lars sucks. As far as a metal drummer goes, he sucks. He's so basic. I could drum Metallica songs when I first started drumming. The most intense drums he plays is on "The Shortest Straw" and he didn't even come up with it.

Anyway, on the way home in the stretch of Leavenworth that I hate and want to roll some heads with dumb ass drivers, almost to the top I got a casual, "ride of the sidewalk" as a car drove by. I loooked up to make eye-contact and the car pulled in front and there were two douche-bag kids, the passenger turned back to look at me and I put my hand out to say, "Bring it" and if there's anything to give you adrenaline enough to plow up a hill it's that and I almost got them at the light. I kept going over one-liners in my head to say like, "Aside from being illegal to ride on the sidewalks, which other ten reasons would you like me to explain to you?"

The one I think I'm going to use for situations where someone yells or says something to me and I catch them at the light is, "If you've got a problem with me, fucking hit me and we'll get the cops in on this and let them figure out what a dumbshit you are! I'm not afraid of you, you fucking dickfuck, so keep popping your mouth off and we'll see how much more late I can make you from getting home to sit your fat ass down for some TV."

I'm taking the take-no-prisoners approach to these assholes. Fuck them. I'll let them know that our city's trying really hard to register our city as a bike-friendly city, so they can bitch all they want and complain about bicyclists following the laws, but they're the ones that are going to be losing lanes and getting all their shit flown right back in their fat and/or dumb faces.

Do Nothing Day

2011-10-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

I rode into the wind today to Dragon Arts for my workout, but no one was there. TJ was there, but no one else. TJ told me he could take me to school, and although I wanted to ride I said okay and put my bike in his car and went to his house, so I didn't get a bike ride or a work out in.

While at his house I finished up my test and printed it to turn in and started my outline for next week's paper and presentation. One thing more about not riding to school is that I usually ride to Ted & Wally's, read the paper while drinking the coffee I brought while the pot of coffee is brewing, make my peanut butter-honey sandwich (pb&h for you assholes out there that need to save time and trying to be hip), refill my coffee mug for later and put in bag (since this is sealed and keeps for six hours), fill a 20 oz styrofoam cup with coffee and a shot of espresso, and head to the bus stop. Since my route was deterred, I had no lunch or coffee and didn't want to get stuck with Hazelnut coffee or the other crappy house blend my school's lame cafeteria serves. QT would've done great, but McDonald's was the only option and luckily there was a paper machine. So on top of not getting a bike ride or workout in, I have mediocre coffee and shitty lunch to go with it.

I did get my outline and notes done rather quickly so I got to the library and read the paper and then just went online for a while. After class I got a ride back from TJ to Hyvee where I got the ol' bait-and-switch on tortilla chips and leg-quarters and a little ride up the hill back home, made dinner and hummus but mostly ate the hummus w/ chips and hung out with Ayana and got a small workout in here.

An also showed me how to turn the flash off on my camera since I hadn't tried nor read the manual and the flash kept ruining my shots. I've never used a flash with my manual camera, so I'm not used to it ruining my shots. I also figured out that I can change the ISO settings, so that's awesome. If I can get this to work like a manual, it'll do the job nicely for me as I miss being able to take pictures, but also don't want to spend money on a manual...camera not the information booklet.

Franchise Madness

2011-10-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

First of all I didn't realize that they made a Land Before Time after the sixth one, but 11? Maybe more, I haven't checked. The eleventh one is called like "Invasion of the Tinysauruses" or something. And, yes, they are tiny dinosaurs and velociraptors make an appearance. This movie got the green light somehow.

It's been cold and windy here and while I like the cold, I don't like the wind. I also realized that I need to get better winter gear for travelling. It's been years since I've rode during the winter and the last time I just wore my coat and gloves, but that's when I lived in Midtown. I'm thinking I may need to invest in some actual bike gear...at least gloves and a jacket.

Andy worked at the shop on Sunday. He's been looking for a job and has been picking up shifts at the Antiquarium and we don't hire for the winter season, but I figured that he could at least pick up shifts when no one is available. Just so happens that situation arose Sunday and then Sunday night. Too bad it was a busy, messed up shift, so I wasn't able to train him and he just got thrown into it. It's good, though, since I don't hang out much, if he works there I'll at least be able to hang with him there.

Probably gonna skip class today so I can get some work done on my paper and finish up my test. I also need to design the shelves for the office. That's going to be a big job, but in small doses. I hope that this weekend is cold. I need the break at work.

May-may Returns

2011-10-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

This morning I fed the cats and got my food together and Jeanne was getting ready and May-May showed back up. She was all wet from the rain, but back nonetheless. The cats were relaxed about her showing up which is good and she seemed happy to be back as well. Ayana got a big smile on her face when she saw her.

Then Ayana did the thing she always does which is run around all happy and as soon as she runs into the kitchen and sees the babysitter she stops dead in her tracks, turns and runs back to me crying. I picked her up and An was asking her to come and Ayana screams, "NO!" and turns while An asks, "You want to go on a walk?"

Ayana immediately stops crying, smiles, turns (arms outstretched towards An) and says, "YES!"

So I rode to the school but LaoShi was not in today and is with this kids and Corey got his house so he's not sleeping at the school anymore, so I rode back home and studying from the office and driving to school.

May-may

2011-10-11T17:44:00.000-07:00

So our new cat we adopted so it wasn't put to sleep ran away during the night. We thought she'd be fine because she's nervy, but no dice. She hadn't mingled with the other cats yet, but Sunshine approached her through the gate and was non-confrontational only curious. So I'm not sure if she just jumped over the baby gate and found her way outside or what. At least she's chipped and has her shots.

Tonight Ayana was quiet and I went and she was looking into the room asking for May-may.

Earlier, she was feeding and had her finger-puppet and she held it up to Jeanne's breast to be fed and made sucking noises.

We got a new/used deep freezer that's twice the size of what already had that's always filled...this is awesome. Now I have more room for bulk meats and making stock and such.

We also are going to store Joe's car and maybe Matt Jones' one as well, for the winter. If so, that's an extra $120/mo, and we're acquiring a snow blower...

So we have some good things working out for the better for once and some stuff to get done before Hawaii. Need to set up classes for next semester, then after this quarter, send this quarter's transcript over to UNO. Get my new license and start packing. Good books to read and a bunch of essays I've been editing for the zine. I'm doing all that thie month and next month getting the artwork and layout together. Then it's off to the printer and send it on its way.

2011-10-10T11:24:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure of what to make of this weather, but I got my workout and normal bike ride in and am currently getting ready to drive to the Latin Museum for our class today.

I originally intended on riding but I'm not sure about whether it'll rain or not.

Ayana can't fully talk yet, but it's funny because recently she's been outcrying sorts of injustices to her in her speak. Like last night she was hitting Sunshine and grabbing his tail and squeezing and not letting go. So I put her on time out and she ran to the room and proceeded to tell Jeanne about what had happened. Same way I came into the room after my shower and she's crying and telling me that May-may won't play with her. It's cute and endearing.

Gotsta finish Boyz in the Hood tonight.

Of Courese I'm Gonna Say Something

2011-10-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

Just as a follow up to several posts about the Sunday deal. Not to sound greedy, but the tips made it all worth it today but when you go five hours straight without getting a break and not even a moment to breathe because you cannot comprehend the amount of idiocy you're dealing with, you need some sort of sanity...or reassurance.

On top of getting several groups of people coming in intervals that don't allow you top do anything at all, the group that had about five minutes to figure things out that ended up being the start of the line to the door for the next five hours had to be the pacesetters for the morons. First off they all had five samples a piece. Now, even on a slow day, that would be ridiculous and just rude and annoying. Who needs to be told that samples should be what you're actually interested in getting but not quite sure or just something that grabs your attention or something...now especially with a line to the door, you don't ask for that many.

They also, of course (and this is 90% of the people on Sundays, all indecisive fuck-heads), need to be asked a dish or a cone and they always go for the cone no matter my attempts to steer them towards a dish because what happens next. So after a few moments of deciding which of those two they always go for a cone. The ones that go for a dish always switch as soon as you grab a dish and are about to place a scoop in. Then you ask each one of them (because they're so fucking clueless as to pay attention and make things work out easily) what of three types of cones they want. Try going through this for five hours straight. I know it's the job, but it excels on Sunday and people get mad at you.

We also do things in groups to make things more organized, accurate, and so a person that just wants one thing doesn't have to wait 10 minutes as people don't mind lines if it's moving. And people don't listen either. You say, "Hi, are you being helped?" And without responding to your question they go into their order or say something like no they're not and you then get into an unnecessary conversation of how anyone paying together is a group and if one person is already helping you then they'll finish the group up. We say it politely and they looked and act all pissed off. We've been doing this for years and whenever we end up having more than one person help a group, more often than not, the group is fucking dumb and one person orders the same thing from two employees because they cannot understand that when you're asked if you've been helped yet it doesn't mean what did you order. And then you start tallying things and people mix up what they ordered, things get rung up wrong or not at all or someone who said they were with the group isn't...it's our job; shut the fuck up and pay attention.

After an hour or so, I had to just stand aside for two minutes to breathe and relax so I didn't bash heads on the counter. I talked to Matt and pointed out that even if we had five people working today, it wouldn't have moved the line any more faster. He broke into his experience with the one lady he had to help in between freezing. Several attempts at explaining that the only flavors we have are the ones on the board,dish or cup fiasco, wants a cone - "the smallest one,"

"Which type of cone would you like?"

Blank stare.

"Which type of cone would you like?"

Blank stare.

"Which type of cone would you like?"

"The smallest one."

"They scoops are the same sizes, so you have to decide which cone you'd like. The sugar and cake cones are the regular ones and then we have the waffle cones."

This goes on for several more exchanges. She gets the waffle cone. Matt hands it to her and she says, "Is this the smallest one?"

Game Day part 2

2011-10-08T16:35:00.000-07:00

Find 10 things wrong or missing is this pic.

Another early day and another slow, somewhat disappointing day of sales. Overall we made a small bit o'money, but the weather was bad so the turnout was bad as well. Had we done this last week, I think we could've sold most if not all and especially the furniture. Oh well. I put some of the videos online, though.

This is Ayana doing her Ultimate Warrior rocking-the-ropes deal.

Mother-in-law brought over steaks and I had grilled and started smoking the teriyaki chicken but it wasn't ready when we had people there and most didn't think I was really wanting to sell food...so now we have food.

I hope tomorrow's slow. I like the tips we've been getting which make it worth it and surprising, really, since we deal with mostly the church crowd and I may have blogged this, but they are the most confused, annoying bunch of people that I just don't want to have to deal with. I get a bike ride in at least. I've been getting about 15 miles a day in and 20 when I go to school first to work out. And we've got spaghetti-pesto for tomorrow's lunch. I've come to realize that Billy Frog's isn't that great a burger. Not that I expected much but for some reason I used to think they were good.

Garage Sale? Or New Bigger Living Room Set Up?

2011-10-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

So day one of the garage sale and after two weeks of incredible sunny weather we're greeted with overcast and threats of rain and a high wind advisory. I'm glad I didn't ride to work, because the ride home would've been directly into the wind the entire way home. We woke up at six this morning after going to bed at one after having an entire straight day of doing stuff. I hope this is the last time we'll need to do a garage sale. I like that we have stuff to sell, as we need the money, and we've gotten donations as well, but we don't like buying stuff we don't need. There's a necessity to what we buy and we we're not consumers any more than we need to be. I thought about selling our flat screen TV (which was given to us) because we don't ever watch it. We've got free cable hooked up to it and we never watch it. All our money is spent on Ayana and her necessities, food, gas, bike, records, and books...which records and books may be the only luxuries we spend money on.

I'm going to be grilling stuff tomorrow to unofficially sell food at the garage sale in an attempt to make more money. We'll see how that goes.

I acquired two New York Times today for giving Ryan some hummus, although I'm not sure that I'll have time to read them all.

Lot of people in the Old Market today even with the weather, but then again tomorrow's game day so all these Ohio State people are there. The shelf above the sink at work gave way and all these gallons of green river syrup came crashing down while Donna washed her hands.

I heard Andy Berkeley had moved back and him and Chris Fischer moved in with each other at 34th and Jackson (which is weird since everyone now lives near the Old Market, but at least it's on my way home. I ran into Chris while riding past his work while he was getting off the other day. I got a call from Andy asking about work. We're cutting hours back so we'll see. It'd be nice to work with Andy.

Oh, just a note on a previous post about riding to work the other day starting with "Holy Wars" and arriving there to "Hangar 18." As much as I'd like to sound as if I'd ridden my bike six miles through two songs, I had the album on shuffle.

Jack-Ass.

2011-10-06T12:01:00.001-07:00

I wish I didn’t have to take this Intro to Computer Programming class. It’s been a long time since the last programming class which is why, but it feels like I’m slacking and not accomplishing anything since I’ve not learned anything new. I’d feel better if I retook my Trigonometry class. I need to brush up on it anyway and I didn’t do the last chapter, so I need to do that…hopefully I can sell my book…and the automatic pressure cooker.

2011-10-06T10:02:00.000-07:00

This wind has got to go. Every other day it seems I’m riding into non-stop 20 mph winds with gale-force gusts every so often. They’re strong enough to swerve me into traffic and annoying enough that if I’m reading a paper it only gusts when I’m trying to turn the page.

I always seem to be in situations where I’m around annoying people that need to be told that what they’re doing really needs to be tamed down or not do things. It’s annoying enough to be around people who always need to talk on cell phones, but to be on a bus with someone who is talking way too loud (where everyone on the bus is turning to look at said person) and using vast amounts of profanity (to a point where the bus driver finally tells her to turn it down). I don’t understand how people do not know how to gauge themselves. Like how people need to be told in lines when you’re trying to serve them to put their cell phones away and they look at you and respond in a way to say that you’re the one being rude. How dare you tell them to get off their phone. Then they go online and post things about how they were treated rather rudely at some establishment.

Seinfeld is one of the most popular TV show of all time. One of the most famous episode is the “Soup Nazi” one. It is a rather funny episode, but what most of the viewing audience fails to see is the importance of what he’s trying to establish which is an efficient line. It’s the same reason that food courts and vendors at festivals and such limit their choices and make items exact dollar amounts. It’s because people don’t find the need to figure things out while waiting in a line, nor do they make the effort to take money out or at least take their wallets out…or how lines at the security checkpoints at the airports seem to take forever because people act as if they’ve never been through a metal detector and x-ray thing before. There’s signs everywhere and places like the airport in Las Vegas have videos showing how to make their pass through it more efficient. Yet people wait until they’re there before they empty their pockets, take their belts off, take their laptops out, take their ID’s and tickets out…my pockets are empty I my belt is in my bag, even when I’m wearing pants that drastically need them. All I carry with me is my ID and ticket. It takes me five seconds to do the whole process of going through the detectors. And once I’m through it, I grab my stuff quickly and pull to the side to put my belt on, shoes on, laptop back in the bag, because I know people are coming through and I would cause a back up.

Which brings us to left turns. How long is it before people realize that left turns with no turn lane or signal, especially on a busy street, and especially during rush hour is stupid? I figured this out a long time ago and I avoid them as much as possible. I’m more than willing to turn right and use lights and maybe drive around a block to make traffic flow a little easier. People must love back ups.
I really don’t feel like being at school today. I don’t know what it is, but I’m just not feeling it. I can’t wait until this quarter is over and I can get registered for next semester, get financial aid taken care of, and start getting ready for our trip.

On another note, I picked up my camera yesterday and it’s pretty nice. It’s a lot smaller than I thought it’d be, but that’s good. I used it a little on my walk with Ayana yesterday. She’s pretty up on walks. She grabs her shoes and bring them to you and says, “Wah. Wah.” And if you’re watching TV she’ll get the remotes and turn them off and grab your hand and tug. She also does this thing where she’ll grab your hand and direct you to do stuff. Like while at the checkout line last week, she wanted a balloon. So she kept grabbing my hand off he wagon and pushing it up towards the balloon while saying, “peas. Peas.” She didn’t make a scene so I got it for her.

Wait For It...

2011-10-05T10:25:00.001-07:00

This nice weather needs to stop. I was walking up the Keystone trail and thinking how nice it would be if the creek was clean. It'd be so nice to be able to just go down the hill and take a swim. The transients weren't there. Then I was thinking about how I'd have to make a trail or something to get down but hope there weren't snakes along the way. As I walked under the Cass street bridge, something passed under and not looking I figured it was a black plastic bag. I looked down and it was a snake wriggling under me. I jumped up and yelped! really loudly. That's what I get for being a hippie and thinking about nature.

All that aside, we finally figured a financial situation that would work out so we actually can live paycheck to paycheck with a little money left over for the surprise expenses that always comes up or we could put it away if we need to. The stress level and tension faded away and it was a lot better last night. Even today I as worked out, rode to the Old Market, and headed to school I feel better.

I also got a confirmation from Best Buy that my camera is in and I can pick it up today. Too bad I've got school. Luckily, I threw a bunch of stuff in the crock pot, so dinner'll be ready.

I was running an hour early today, but that's good. The alarm went off at seven and I usually lay around for an hour before pulling myself out of bed, but Ayana was already up and all. So I got up and got ready and lounged a bit with her for breakfast. Then left to get my workout in. I got to the school and no cars there. I tried the door and it was locked. I looked at the time and it was 8:46...hour early. No problem, it's nice out so I bought a paper and took out my coffee and just hung out by the door.

Corey opened the door about a half hour later, so I got my quick workout (bench presses, chest presses, lat pulls, pull-ups) and rode downtown listening to Rust In Peace with the demos. "Holy Wars" sent me off and descendent into the Old Market to "Hangar 18."

So now I'm at the library and gotsta get some reading done. I'm about finished with my two books and have these to look forward to. I've already started read Palestine: Peace not Aparthied but have to finish it. I should read that one during the day so I can retain more.

I'm also compiling my list of stuff for the trip...It's always the best part for me to figure out what I'm going to read which will include the French stuff which I now have "Le Petit Prince from Andrew from work.

2011-10-04T08:44:00.000-07:00

I guess the last investment for the bikes is going to be lights. I’ve avoided these forever, but it’s illegal now to ride at night without them. I guess I’ll do it. Plus I got the Trek ready for Jeanne and attached the baby trailer thing to it and there’s no flag (although there’s supposed to) and last night I took Ayana for a short ride to test it out…so did Jeanne. It was still nice out but was getting dark.
I’m pretty sure that’ll be the last investment.
I got to Olympia to pick up the bike and the dude went to go wipe down the rims. While he did that Ayana pointed to the helmet on the counter that looked like mine and said something which sounded like helmet. She then wanted down, so I did and she walked directly to this Toy Story bike which was all dirty, apparently something they’re fixing up. She kept touching it and said, “Oh,” and then ran to the other room to the corner with the helmets and grabbed the one like she bought the last time. Apparently she remembered where we were. She picked up the helmet and tried to turn the lights on. Then she ran back and kept touching the bike. I guess me getting a helmet was good since she recognizes the pairing of it with the bike.

I hate when I print stuff to this printer in the library. People always go to check for their stuff and take all the printed papers out and ruffle through them to get theirs and just haphazardly place the rest on top of the printer. So you then have to sort through them and figure it out; which sucks if you have them printed to both sides, because now you have to go through them and put them in order. I always keep them all in order, find mine, and then I put them all back nicely...but that's just me.

This annoying kid I used to work with at Cali Taco got on my bus today and came and talked to me. He ended up going to jail for the drug charges he had from a couple of years ago and is now in a halfway house. He seemed normal now. That's good. He was super annoying at the job and hard to talk to and train because he was always high on oxys and wouldn't admit to it, though he could never stay focused and always cut you off because he knew everything...and wanted to change the place to a Michelin star establishment.

His girlfriend's pregnant now and he's moving back to Miami. Read that Anthony Bourdain chapter in Medium Rare about the rich eat differently than you and I and that's his area and doucebag culture. Everything's material possessions and money. Doesn't matter what, as long as it costs more than normal people pay. The money he spends in a day on useless stuff I could last half a year on...at least. He had three cars (although they only used one) and he kept buying flat screen TV's and laptops so he could have one in every room...only drank Dom Perignon ("Fuck Cristal," he says) and White Russians with Belvedere vodka. Not because he can taste the difference with premium vodka, but because it's more expensive.

Whatever...that's all behind me and I wish him well and it was good to talk to him for a bit while he's clean and able to hold a dialogue.

Gotta study some computer stuff for a while.

2011-10-03T11:51:00.001-07:00

At school. I dropped off the Trek bike at Olympia on Saturday and it's ready today. It didn't seem as bad as I thought it would be, just cleaned and tuned and the tires were a little out of true so hopefully it's not expensive. It's the last of the main expenses for the remainder of the year, but we still have a bunch to catch up financially.

I finally bought a camera. It's still on its way, but at least $30 cheaper than I wanted to pay so it's cool. It's been a while since I've wanted to get a camera since my manual one got stolen eight years ago. It took a lot of contemplation and evaluation and finally made a decision to get one...especially since we're going on vacation this year. I still sort of wish I had one while trucking...we have absolutely no pictures of this era.

We adopted a cat that was to be put to sleep due to over-crowding at the Humane Society. She's pretty cool and tolerates Ayana mostly, except when she gets overly excited or needs to sleep and she gets rough. Then the cat swipes at her and hisses. As long as Ayana doesn't get hurt, I think it's good that May-may (I think that's her name) wards her off so Ayana learns to be careful towards animals. Our current cats are way too easy on her so she doesn't understand.

Post Script

2011-09-29T17:11:00.000-07:00

I didn't think of it until Jeanne mentioned it, but hopefully the possum got out and the trash dudes didn't throw it away and crushed him.

Although at the end of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Casey Jones presumably killed the Shredder by crushing him in the trash compactor, but in The Secret of the Ooze he survived.

"At the Library"

2011-09-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

I was taking the trash to the curb this morning, so I looked in them to see whether or not to take both of them or one. The second one I checked (which had its lid tightly secured) had a possum in it. It looked up at me as if to say, “Hey Dude,” and went back to its business. I quickly put the lid back on and went in to tell Jeanne.

I looked at the trash can itself to see if it were the one with a crack on it. It was whole. I have no idea how it had gotten in except that it was next to the wood pile and maybe the other day when the lid had been off it had gotten in and had been living on trash for a couple of days.

I again checked to see that the lid was secured and that there were no holes and rolled it to the curb. Once there I opened the lid slightly and left. As I walked down the street I kept checking back but it hadn’t left yet. Hopefully the trash guys get a surprise.

I’ve been needing a massage for a while but not had $60 extra to do so. Since I’ve also had an extensive year of working out/toning out via Kung Fu/Tai-chi/bicycling I think it’s about time. Luckily we have several massage schools here that I can get it at $20/hr.

The Leavenworth bike lane deal apparently is approved and I’ve heard two sides to it. One being that the improvements and such are being done but it’s a ways away. The other is that it’s happening soon. Sooner the better…I’m tired of battling my way up that way with morons that can’t seem to realize that traffic isn’t that bad there and that I keep catching up to them at each red light and then passing them and that it’s their fault that they’re going to have to start losing lanes because of their ignorance and arrogance towards any other means of transportation other than driving.

That moron Herman Cain is all happy about his lead in the Florida straw polls. That’s guy’s such an idiot. I never knew much about him before this presidential candidacy, but the more I hear that guy talk the more I’m upset about that one time I ate at Godfather’s (mediocre) Pizza.

I’ve finished recently reading:

Playing Right Field: A Jew Grows in Greenwhich - Good book. I missed reading this guy's columns in MRR. It's funny how dismissive Americans - especially Christians - are about our dark past and how they think we're beyond all the racism, sexism, all that stuff and we're now infallible and we should never bring any of that stuff up again. This was a good read, great writing and stories, and shows how anti-Semetic people were and how hateful language and actions carry on through your kids who a lot of times don't understand the full extent of what it means, but know that it's hurtful and demeaning.

Also, made me remember how unfair it was growing up with the label of being a bad kid and how anyone's claim against me went unchallenged. Granted, a lot of times it was me, but there were lots of times I'd been unfairly victimized and my character was already deemed bad so therefore I was bad.

Like Hell - I've got a lot against Ben Weasel, but sometimes he makes a good point - like in this book. It's in his nature (and somewhat mine) to be argumentative, but in his case it's more often hypocritical and not just to make a point but he goes against everything all the time and it's all just what fits it. There are many examples I wrote down from "Weasel Radio" but Larry Livermore gave an example of Ben's ranting for the Tea Party antics and anti-government spending and whatnot and Larry explaining that Mrs. Weasel's government job and the health insurance it provides is exactly what Ben's rallying against. Then Ben banned Larry from his Twitter account saying that Larry couldn't get political without being personal. Then the Republican Governor got voted in and did what the Tea Party supporters had been rallying for and then Mrs. Weasel's job and benefits were being threatened and then Ben's all up in arms about that...that's just like most Americans. Until it affects them, no one gives a fuck.

This book, however, sums up a lot of what he is and why and, to a point, his some what hypocritical nature - SOMEWHAT. I could see crowd-baiting and such for fun or just playing on the political idiocy of punks, but in real life when it actually affects people and his character it's not the act it's his personality and integrity now.

The New Jim Crow - This is a good book, but hardly anything new, but it gives you some good examples for arguments. She knocks Obama for things in Audacity of Hope and in his campaign for the presidency and his current presidency and administration, but in that same book she references, he explained what she's saying he didn't. He gives a well laid out example about that guy in Chicago who owns a restaurant in an area that he's a big property owner and gives felons a new start at life and job opportunities.

But just like her book needed to prove a point which I feel is why she took that approach, it's the same reason that he does what he does in office and why he needs to do that until he gets re-elected. He can do a lot now, but he won't get re-elected and a lot has to do with the stupidity and easily-led mentality of our country. If he stood up more for Muslims the dumb argument of whether or not he's a Muslim (like it matters) comes up distracting from real issues...and on and on.

But also for people who say he's not strong enough and tough enough, he's tackling taxes and Israel, two things that are election killers. How is that not tough?

Girls to the Front - All right read. There are some aspects of Riot Grrrl that I could've done without. I know this book is for them, but to me it watered down the agnst and aggression that I like about the Riot Grrrl movement. It was a great read, though, especially the Omaha part only because the unmentioned boyfriend was Chris Murray.

Despite Everything - Always a good read. This one I just pick up every now and then and read portions. After reading Cometbus #54? In China with Green Day (which was a great one), it's great to see the then writings from the first Green Day tour to when they made it big along with Larry Livermore's accounts on that as well. Even Ben Weasel's articles about major labels, it makes it dumb why bands would want to go to one. Also why 1,000,000 units sold on a major label is considered a failure.

Punk is a Four-Letter Word - Ben Weasel columns from the MRR-era I read, but now it's in the context of where I'm at now, and it's great. Great stories about work and about being backstage at the Aragon Theatre when Jawbreaker opened for Nirvana with Mudhoney.

I think there may have been another book in there. Current reads are:

The Bible by Karen Armstrong. A biography of the Bible which explains how the New and Old Testaments were put together and how and why and why it can't be taken literally, how they were changed over years and writers, how during translations words were changed and context and original meanings changed the overall affect of the messages that are taken way wrong now...then this lady at the bus stop asked what I was reading and asked what church I go to and I told her I don't go to any church and she asked why not. I told her that I'm a good person and not judgmental nor imposing of my beliefs on anyone or anyone's lifestyle. She tells me that it's not enough to just be good you need to worship and blah, blah, blah.

She was a perfect example of what I see wrong with religious people. It's not for you to tell people how to worship or anything. What you do is up to you. That's it. As long as no one gets injured, oppressed, and you don't impose your beliefs on anyone, this world would be better. That's the core of most religions, especially the world's three biggest ones - it's plain and simply written in the current versions of them all...yet the fundamentalists see beyond those...or the abrigationists.

Journey Into American - Everybody should be reading this book. Basically it's the journey across America from a Muslim perspective but doesn't just talk to Muslims and go to Mosques. It's every aspect of America from immigrants, Muslims, Mormons, Nation of Islam, reformists, The head of the KKK and his daughter, etc. It's asking people of their thoughts of the Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, and what it means to be American. Greatly written, very intropective, and well balanced.

I'm trying to get through the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trilogy. I'm on "the Secret of the Ooze," and it's great. I don't know anything about the third one so I'm excited.

"Fuck Facebook"

2011-09-25T17:43:00.001-07:00

Right on, James Taylor from Funny People.

I heard the other day that fucking Zuckerburg guy made some new features on Facebook so people can now waste more time than they already did on that piece of shit social network that I use once in a while.

I just went on there to respond to a message, like how I only use Facebook like email, not really (although sometimes I do, but I'm never on the site for more than five minutes every so often) engaging in mindless bullshit. I see all these status updates on the side and not only is it distracting, but makes me lose faith in people. I'm assuming that's what Twitter's like....

"I'm at lunch with moron."

"[blank] has been tagged in a photo with moron having lunch."

"About to eat dinner."

"Placed plate on table."

"Table has been tagged in photo."

"Just made coffee. Looks like a good pot."

"Fuck you you dumbfucks!"

I'm currently watching the posts for the lunch update. It must be some boring lunch and lunch companion and shitty food if they can't fucking just enjoy themselves without having to keep posting everything. Who the fuck cares that much about your life?!!!! Why go to lunch with anyone? Why not stay at home and eat lunch with your fucking Facebook friends.

I don't know if it's worth having Facebook anymore. I don't like talking on the phone and I like to keep updated, but I don't like devoting my whole life to it. I hate having to keep justifying it with myself.

Lincoln

2011-09-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

Here in the public library. Jeanne and Ayana are at the Children's Museum, but I've got an assignment and test to do. I went to the coffee shop and took a look around and got my stuff to go and came here.

I happened to find the only table next to an outlet.

Yesterday at the shop next door some dude got caught snapping a picture under the skirt of a woman bending over. Donna called him out on it and the lady's husband was about to beat him, but was held back while the cops were called.

Gonna read today's paper and study.

In Today's News...

2011-09-22T08:57:00.001-07:00

Few pages in to today's paper and I already hate the world. Good day so far. Nice weather, get to the store to get provisions and wait long with two people in two different lines, but I didn't even have to wait long for either bus and got two cupw of coffee in me with another in my travel mug.

So Troy Davis did get executed. I am anti-death penalty, but all that aside I don't know why people are so eager to kill people or have them die as a proportional response. Especially when there's ANY doubt, let alone several or more along with questionable evidence, as in the case of the West Memphis Three.

Even if you are for the death penalty, how is killing someone who you think is the suspect with horrible or questionable evidence? How does that make you feel better? Is it just the fact that someone has to die and it doesn't matter who? Scapegoat?

If Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu, amongst many other figures including some Congressmen are asking for clemency, I think there should be some international law that allows it for who they are, what they've done, and what they represent.

The other thing was the trial and sentencing of three kids in a murder here in Omaha last year. They wanted to rob a pizza guy so they ordered pizzas, lured, robbed, and stabbed this guy. One kid went along with them, curious to see it played out and didn't go into the apartment where the assault took place. Yet when the victim came out bloodied, he did nothing. Didn't help or call for help.

His response to why was, "He was just a pizza delivery guy."

You know, it's this type of labelling that society's placed on people, especially in blue collared jobs that is so detrimental to our shitty existence. People who look to them as low people who can get a better life if they only applied themselves. I was deemed sucessful when I worked in an office even though I got paid less than I do now and with most demeaning and demanding tasks. I have more freedom and respect now and I'm able to make decisions based on what's best for the current situation and things get done.

People like Clarence Thomas is one of those who think that if people don't like their menial jobs they should do something about that. The mentality that he struggled and got through it and succeeded so what's the other people's problems. Not everyone is the same or get the same breaks, and that mentality is unfair and potentially dangerous, especially for a Supreme Court Justice.

On top of which, there was a post before on where I work about the employees' attitudes as being short and rude and that, "I guess I'd be miserable too if I were 30 years old scooping ice cream." First off, who are you to judge and make prejudiced opinions? Secondly, the job is great and if you deal with people how we do and get the barrage of fucking idiots you have to deal with, especially with your attitude, you're the part of the job that's unbearable, asshole!

Some people can only get these so-called "menial jobs," while other like them, and we need them in this Functionalist Society. It shouldn't be in anyone's place to judge them. You have more freedom here than in an office job, though that's not to generalize and knock white collars, because there are some office situations that are good and worthwhile.

To me success is enjoying what you're doing while being able to still do what you like and not be oppressed and demeaned. Yes, there are aspects of every job that you hate, but it's the people and employers that make all the difference. We need to stop putting labels on people and judging them all for what they do, especially when you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

Yet Again.

2011-09-21T17:33:00.000-07:00

Late last night, after a manic search for my tire levers, I fixed the flat on my front tire. As I turned onto my street on Monday my tire slid and it was losing air. At least I made it home, right?

So today after my workout I'm heading to the Old Market and as I approach 20th street I veer to the left lane and while doing so the front wheel slides a bit. I look down and it's looking a little down. I stop and feel it and it's still full but with a lot of resistance.

I end up walking the rest of the way, cash my check which already is low because I'm not only going to get a new tube, but may as well get a new tire since this one's old and getting tons of mileage and I need one better suited for urban Omaha.

After class I caught the bus back to the Old Market and walked it to Greenstreet. My back tire, which was purchased in June, is already looking like it'll be going soon so I end up getting two new, supposedly, good tires and $109 later, I'm riding home.

I took a different route, more hilly and longer hills, but less traffic. Not sure about replacing my normal route, but I'm not letting the Leavenworth traffic get the best of me, so no dice there.

I mentioned not making it the meeting last week and was told 75 bicyclists showed up. Nice. Hopefully I make it to more of these decision making meetings with the city and fuck people!

There was a dude at the shop picking up a bike he purchased earlier and was pretty cool and asked about shirts that said, "I'm Biking" or "On A Bike MF." I passed his house on the way home. As I rode Hamilton through Dundee his had just gotten home and was showing his wife his bike. We exchanged heys and I battled 72nd and Cass Street traffic.

Let's hope my bike's investments are through for this year.

One More Thing...Further Down the Road.

2011-09-20T11:09:00.000-07:00

iPod - Public Enemy - Apocalypse 91 - the Enemy Strikes Black

I was getting excited with the cold weather heading in, so I can ride my bike without the hassle of dealing with these morons on the paths. I read a comment from a World-Herald article about bicyclists which a motorist said, with what I believe to be a dumbass remark that he was driving through Elmwood park and surprisingly saw a bicyclist riding on the path and remarked what a miracle it was that he wasn't on the road.

First off, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but it's not really a bicyclists versus motorist issue, because both sides need to show respect and awareness for one another. But motorists have an advantage which is that almost anyone who drives a vehicle has at least a base-level knowledge of driving rules, such as you drive on the road and a few other things. Any idiot can get on a bike, but only avid bicyclists have a general knowledge of bicycling.

That being said, fuck off. I don't think any motorist can say anything about bicyclists until they've ridden a bike around Omaha for a week. Try riding through Elmwood Park. It's the reason I avoid it. People and bicyclists alike don't understand the path and just fucking take up the whole path no matter how many bicyclists have to call out that they're passing, even five in a row and they still don't come to reality that, "Hmmmm, maybe we should get out of the way or at least look back to see if anyone else is coming." It's easier to ride the street or walk your bike through.

People can barely walk with common sense, let alone ride a bike - and definitely not driving. As much as I'd like to promote alternative ways of transportation and making this city more bike-friendly, I don't want to increase the amount of people riding. One of they reasons I like bicycling is to get away from pedestrians and motorists. The last thing I need is nowhere to go. Yes, pedestrians! Friday rush hour, try biking through downtown, especially past the Orpheum with a good production going on. People don't look!!! I'm yelling and weaving through dumb-motherfuckers. And outside of Leavenworth Cafe, I'm keeping up with 35 mph traffic, yet, they feel that they can just cruise in front of me, so I have to swerve.

So I was looking forward to the colder weather to weed out these weak fuckers and give me some peace of mind. In LA, the beach has two paths - bicyclists and pedestrians, and pedestrians still stroll into the bike path and almost get hit and get upset at the bicyclists.

"Weekend at Bernie's 3"?

2011-09-17T13:51:00.001-07:00

So much for Chris Stolls' lifelong ambition for his "Weekend at Bernie's 3" script...or so I thought before checking out this article. Unfortunately, aside from these two guys looking like a made-for-TV version about the making of "Weekend at Bernie's," I was disappointed.

Aside from them showing up at their friend's place and finding him dead, they didn't really live up to the movie. They went around town to party but left him in the car.

Entertaining Guy

2011-09-15T18:19:00.000-07:00

At least this guy was entertaining at the bus stop this morning. He's one of those guys with no inner monologue and can't stop talking. He was in a way trying to sell us weed, but not. So he's talking and a car stops at the light and while he's talking to us he turns and says in the direction of the lady in the car, "Hey, don't go to work. Come over here and let's fuck."

Then back to us. While he's going on and on about everything I notice a lady going the wrong way on this one way street and point it out to this guy. It's an older white lady and she pulls over and puts her hands over her face and looks flustered and distraught. He starts yelling at her and motioning her to turn around and I can only imagine this is making her feel very uncomfortable and without looking around he steps off onto the street towards her. There's several vehicles approaching, one of them being a semi and he puts his hands up towards them and keeps walking towards her. He gets in the middle of the road and still holding his hands to keep cars from coming, motions and allows the lady to u-turn and go.

Then he walks back to us and says, "There's wings on my back. There's wings on my back, but there's a devil on my shoulders, too."

I say, "Well, it'll even you out."

"Gotta do nice things every once in a while."

"Yeah. Otherwise you become an asshole."

"Like the other day. There's this lady, she always buys way more groceries than she can carry. So I tell her, 'This is going to sound weird, but get in the cart.' And she looks at me and I pick her up in there and roll her..."

Honk. A van pulling into the Burger King drive thru honks and him and he is all of a sudden there at their window talking and apparently knows them and then I hear him saying, "A number one."

He turns back to us and says, "I was nice to her the other day and now I'm getting a free meal." Turns back to the van and says he'll meet them at the other end and starts walking as the bus pulls up.

Ongoing Asian Thing Part 38?

2011-09-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

So on the bus ride home, I'm reading the paper and have my earphones in my ears. I'm not listening to anything, but I do this to not have to talk to anyone. This black dude with a cane comes on and sits across from me. I'm still reading the paper. He asks if I'm from Japan. I say no, as I'm not, but say that I am Japanese, but I'm from Hawaii. Back to the paper.

"How long you live in the Midwest, you in the services?"

"Nope. Going to school right now." Back to the paper.

"For computers?"

Nope. Still reading the paper.

"Engineering?"

Nope. "Going for teaching." No way I'm saying for Math, although I'm surprised he didn't ask that one. Back to the paper.

"You do that Shaolin thing." I do, but not in the way he's suggesting and not getting in that conversation with him.

Nope. Back to paper.

"What is that, Chinese?"

Not looking up, "yup."

"You know there's some monks in Iowa."

"Really," still reading the paper.

"They bought some land and their over there. i talked to them once."

"Cool." Still reading the paper.

This goes on for a while and then he goes quiet. One stop before mine he gets up to get off and says, "Maybe I'll see you again. konichiwa."

Fuck you asshole! I don't know why people don't feel that talking to me like that and asking me questions based on stereotypes is like me sitting next to him and asking him how was his fried chicken lunch. Or is he too cracked out to eat. And how it feels to grow up without a father and a crackwhore, welfare mother.

All right, maybe that's extreme, but it would be like me sitting next to him and asking what he thinks of football and L'il Wayne.

I'm also talking in perfect English and I'm not dressed in anyway like I'm a Japanese immigrant.

Version 2.0

2011-09-13T11:52:00.001-07:00

I remembered what it was that I hate about computer classes, especially programming ones: People talking about computers and hardware like it's a muscle car or something.

Then there's that lady that doesn't stop talking about Macs-versus-PC's and blah, blah, blah....

Now they're talking about math problems we had for an assignment and how different variations of this and that...

...our pets heads are falling off.

Stupid People

2011-09-11T17:10:00.001-07:00

Maybe it's just me, but I'd think that most people don't like lines. I'm rather efficient with how I handle lines like limiting choices, serving people in groups or getting someone who knows what they'd like, steering them in a direction thus minimizing their undecisiveness, etc. People just seem to not understand how things can work better. But then again, these are the same morons who try to drive all fast and what they think is effective and efficient but they're the ones causing the backups and whatever.

Anyway, it's part of the thing with people who wait till the last moment possible to pull out their wallet while holding their ice cream or like today.

Line to the door and I'm freezing ice cream so I have to jump back and forth. Like I said, I can usually move through customers pretty well then I get this family. First their asking questions. No problem there. They ask about the banana split. I tell them it comes with three scoops or their choice and three toppings - at which point I point to the menu in front of them and show them the syrups and candies and nuts - of their choice, with whipped cream and cherries. Sounds good to them.

Let me also say that at this point they've been in the line and waiting for about five to seven minutes. So they take this opportunity to start deciding what flavors we have and to taste some. This is now about three minutes into this ordeal. I can usually run through a group or at least two people by now. They finally decide on the flavors. I should also point out that once they said they wanted this I told them again it comes with three flavors and I then went to get the banana and cut it and put it in the boat and came back and then they started asking about the flavors.

So I get to scooping and while I'm doing that I ask them what three topppings they'd like. I get the scoops on and look up. They're trying to figure out where the toppings are - even though I had pointed to them earlier. We're now six minutes into this order. They finally decide and I get it together. I start handing it to them and they're all happy and I ask if there's anything else. Nope. So I take his card and walk to the register. They do want something else.

I ask what it is they'd like to add on and it's an iced coffee. Would you like some cream with that. The lady walked away so we don't know and she finally comes back and says yes. So I charge them for it and he signs for it. Then she asks to get a small bag of popcorn. No, the large one. So I have to run the credit card again. This is now 10 minutes into this order. I should mention that there is a line to the door. And this is for a husband/wife team and their kid and it's taken this long. That's either going to be one stupid kid or a pretty awesome one who realize what dumb shits his parents are.

2011-09-10T13:44:00.000-07:00

Getting some grilling done, though I wish I had a bigger grill. It's going to take a long time since I'm using the Weber. Once the beef is done I'll have an easier time doing the featherbones.

There's this guy in one of my classes that looks like this dude getting served by Grover, with a little bit of George Jefferson thrown in.

BBQ

2011-09-09T18:27:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I have a day off with little studying to do. I got TaiChi/Quigong in the morning after my workout and I hope I can somehow get beef fat from Cornell I was supposed to pick up last week.

I bought some featherbones to smoke and they didn't have briskets so I got a shoulder, so Cornell told me he has beef fat from a rib roast which I can top it with while smoking, which is the main thing for a brisket is the fat cap. The shoulder is just as good a tough cut.

I brought those in today and realized I had a bunch of chicken thighs, so I'm also going to teriyaki those and figure something out for order of grilling. I have a Weber so I'm limited with my space for grilling and smoking so I have to time things right and in the right order.

I have close to 40 lbs of meat to grill and smoke.

2011-09-09T12:32:00.001-07:00

Priscilla is a dork.

Economy

2011-09-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

Great speech tonight. He's right. We need something fast acting, we can't just wait 14 months. It's good to see the Republicans only cheering for the part about giving veterans jobs and not having them come back to fight for a job, because they can't seem to not care for the troops. They can, however - or at least seem not to care about, seem like complete asses when it comes to education or the common people.

I hope people wake up in this next election and realize that if you vote Republican and you're not rich, you're an idiot and all those naysayers about limited government especially for social programs shouldn't get FEMA help and the old people shouldn't get Medicare and Medicaide and their Social Security checks. That's all the same thing with people helping people and the government setting up the program for it.

What happened to a nation who takes care of others. This has been a long time coming with how will there be people to support other businesses when they keep shipping jobs overseas and shutting down small businesses and idealistically giving corporations money and tax breaks will create jobs - we tried and it didn't work, so let's move on to the next thing.

Letting It Go

2011-09-08T10:21:00.000-07:00

Got to school and now in the library. I hate that they have bad coffee here and if I want to just get hot water for tea I have to ask. They should just have the brewer out in the condiment area with the hot pots, so I can just go get water as I need it. May as well since trendsetter Starbuck have those instant ones now and every thing's now single serve, just like in the old movies about the future.

I forgot to mention that the other day Ayana had her first dental appointment. This is not to be sentimental type of post (although she didn't like it and had a cavity already), but it's about the parking. The parking lot at Creighton's dental school is very packed and tight and fills up quickly. I keep missing parking spots and finally find one except that there's this huge red truck parked crooked blocking a bit of the tight open space.

After driving around several times almost getting hit by people taking blind turns at 80 mph I start getting pissed and say that I want to put a note on that truck telling that moron that's he's a dumbshit motherfucker.

I end up parking in that space leaving next to no space between the cars and I get out. As I'm about to take my bike out of the truck this guy with a kid and carrying a baby in a carrier thing walks to the truck, looks at the situation then to me and says, "How am I going to get in there?"

I look at him like sternly and hold his stare and angrily say, "I don't know. You're the one who parked crooked!"

I get back in and pull out and he puts the baby in and I pull back in. I already hate people, but truck drivers are always aggresive idiots or just stupid idiots.

People are stupid in parking lots as well. Like at work there's a stall next to the patio seating across from the other spaces. I parked there once to go in and grab something and it is a parking space with a sign stating so. Priscilla came out to talk to me and my sister. This dumbass gets in his car and attempts to pull out several times just pulling straight back. Never turning his wheels even the slightest. I say to him, "You've got like six feet left, dude."

Then he says that I need to move my car. I say, "You've got like six feet left, just turn your wheel."

He looks at me with a look that says, "Can't you see I'm a dumb-fuck?"

So I say really loudly, "Priscilla, watch out. I have to move because this idiot here can't maneuver his car."

He's driving like a Toyota or something. I'm in a Buick Century which is twice the size of his car. I pull forward into a now open space, tighter than his, reverse out in less than five seconds and beat him in pulling out of his huge stall.

What a moron. People don't know how to use their cars in this day and age? He was in scrubs, too. Which proves my other generalization that professionals are dumb in real life situations.

I don't know why people don't realize that there's an angle you can use with your car to pull straight back so as to maximize your space and give you a better turning area, especially with a big car. I learned this even before driving semis.

That's enough of that. Got to get some reading done before class.

The buses must have cut down on runs or something because I've been waiting much longer for them. I'm trying to find a bike route to school, but as of now I ride to work and leave my bike there and catch one bus to school and then back home.

Got to remember to get garbanzo beans on the way home. I need to also stop by the Antiquarium. I saw Chris Fischer walking there the other day as I headed home and remembered there was this video/cassette bag for Charlie McAlister Unread release which I think was $5, which I want to pick up.

I've got a bunch of stuff almost ready for my zine. Just a little bit more bits and pieces then I just need to work on the layout. Need to finish before we leave to Hawaii so I can leave some along the way and back.

Penny

2011-09-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

After class yesterday I caught the bus back to Ted & Wally's to get my bike. Joe was there talking to Penny, an older lady who we always talked to when she came in. Always great to talk to her.

She had beaten her cancer and quit smoking. She told us about holiday feasts with the Le Sole Mio family (which I'd like to go to), to her life in radio and singing.

She grew up in Montana and got a job at a radio station there in a building with no bathroom. So she had to borrow a car to a friend's house or work her way to the farm next door, which she had to battle the gaggle of aggresive geese. Her father finally gave her brother money to get her a car which had no radio or a/c.

She ended up singing in big bands and groups and toured the country by herself to apparently meet up with the musicians.

She worked at KFAB here in town and sang at the Paxton and other places in the Big Band Circuit.

Her friend also did that as well and she wrote music and put it away. Eventually, 50 years later, she dug them out and gave it to someone to arrange it for a big band and released a CD and performed it in Lincoln to a 500+ crowd. It's in today's paper that (gulp!) Rainbow Rowell wrote, but I'm keeping it and would like to purchase that CD.

Back in School

2011-09-07T10:55:00.001-07:00

In the library printing stuff. Went down to get my check and cash it. On the way there I passed La Buvette and Chris Engles was there. I stopped to say hey and Brenden came out. Finally get to talk to him after a couple of years. He'd seen Ayana as an infant but now she's all walking around.

Talked for a bit. Him and Pearl were in Daytona and ran into Verna, Brad's wife, and hung out with them. How random. Like to see them more often.

He got me a coffee and went on my way, and now I'm here and I got a new bus pass. The other one got deactivated somehow. Had to pay yesterday.

2011-09-06T12:03:00.000-07:00

"Am I going to be okay in this class? I'm Mac certified but I know nothing about PC's. NOTHING!"

Skewl!

2011-09-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

In my Intro to Computer Programming. Long time since I've done any of this. Teacher's name is Tom Tucker. Isn't that the news guy from "Family Guy"?

Family Fun Day

2011-09-04T19:33:00.000-07:00

What a nice ride today. I almost came back for a light sweater. The temperature was nice, but the ride was hectic. Too many riders and walkers and I can't stand dealing with them.

Got to work and wrote and read. Today there was the art-car deal, but also it's Sunday so there's a lot of families. The problem with that is everyone is dumb. They all want to taste every flavor, don't listen, don't move the line, fifty people in their group and they all stand there clogging up the place. You ask if they could slide down (which by observation you'd do that anyway), and they look at you as if you asked to punch their face.

One group of three who had the remaining ten feet of counter-space looked at me dumb, and stepped one step over. What a dumb shit.

Fruity Dyno-Bytes

2011-09-03T18:33:00.001-07:00

We bought Fruity Dyno-Bytes today which is store-brand Fruity Pebbles.

Oh yeah, Jonah is in town. He stopped in today.

Megabus offers round trip from Omaha to Chicago for $40.

I usually wipe Ayana's nose with my fingers and today her nose was running and she grabbed my hand and wiped her nose with it.

Since I'm not going to UNO until January, I've got yet another New York Times hook up.

Power Bar's Toffee Chocolate Chip is GD awesome.

Game Day

2011-09-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

Last night and this morning we had some crazy thunderstorms. It was drizzling a little when we were getting ready for work and we had woken up an hour later than we wanted to. I kept debating whether or not to ride to work and ended up not; though I later wish I did, but was happy anyway since we woke up later I would've not had time to read the paper and write.

Along with the rainy weather, it's game day in Nebraska which equals bad day for the economy unless you own a bar showing the game or around Memorial Stadium. All the stores broadcast the game as well in case you're that desperate for the play-by-play, yet dumb enough to not get your shopping done ahead of time.

What's worse than all this is having to go to the grocery store pre-game and have to deal with all these morons. It's a very irritating phenomena with this dumb-ass Huskers-mania. Every likes them and even ones who I never would expect to be fans I ask, "You're a Huskers fan?"

To which the reply is, "I'm from Nebraska." That's not a good enough answer for me. That's dumb if that's the only reason you love anything. No thoughts for yourself? I'm a Republican because my family's Republican. I'm a Nazi, because my family's Nazis. We're not allowed to think for ourselves and have our own opinions. But I'm also a cynical ass who can't just enjoy things, so maybe I'm wrong.

So I got to see Drea and Shane and their kids today. I haven't seen their newest addition and I haven't seen Shane in years, so it was good to see them all and actually talk to them. We're hoping to have some time soon to get together.

I hope we're able to have another child. I think it'd be fun and I think Ayana would love to have one and would be a great older sister and have someone to not be bored with around us.

I finished reading Girls to the Front (good read, though exposed too much of the behind the scenes play-by-play that took away from the power of the movement, at least in my eyes. Had scenes from Omaha and Jeanne knew some of them and one I knew from stories about a certain someone from both Bill Hoover and Drew. This person was only mentioned as "the boyfriend"),Audacity of Hope (second time reading this. I last read it leading up to the 2008 election and figured I'd do it again. All his critics should read this. They criticize and question his life and views and it's all here pre-presidential aspirations), The New Jim Crow (which is all right but there's a lot of biased things in here to fit her views. Even criticizes Obama for things which were discussed in his book which was referenced and said references explained what she was criticizing him about).

Current reads: Journey into America by (Admiral) Akbar Ahmed, Play Right Field by George Tabb.

Want to read Dick Cheney's memoir but will not pay for it. I'll check the library.

We got this Roku thing which allows us to stream Netflix on our TV. We don't watch TV, but this has the BBC and alJazeera. Both good and better at giving our news than America is. It's not all about us and how ethnocentric we are and oblivious to other cultures and religions. How can they see than all this anti-Islamic rhetoric and actions are on par with the KKK and such? Replace Muslim with Jew, Black, Jap, or any other minority name and it's all hate. It doesn't make sense.

There's all this stuff about the 9-11 memorial service and how they aren't letting this clergy dude say a prayer or something. They are saying that it's not a religious ceremony it's a memorial one. If they let a Catholic do a prayer, they'll also have to let ann Imam, a Rabbi, then each other religious sect. Of course that's followed by a bunch of anti-Islamic rhetoric.

If anything good can come out of 9-11 can it be that we can see the dangers of what an us-versus-them mentality can cause. How non-tolerance, ignorance, political disguised as religious fundamentalism, hatred and all that can be so destructive and divisive? We should use it to put all those behind us and move forward and not let those actions affect how we treat others, which should be with peace, love, respect, and equality.

Minority Report

2011-09-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

I just got back home from a doctor's appointment. First I went to Scooter's across the street and locked my bike up between cars on a light pole because there's nothing else to chain it to. They also didn't have newspapers so I had to then walk across the street to the gas station. What type of coffee house doesn't sell newspapers?

After my appointment I rode back and near the trail I cut through the QT parking lot since that intersection is horrible biking through. The lot is busy so I slow to a crawl and hug the far left of the parking lot. There's a UPS truck so I crawl by and the UPS guy bolts out of the door with boxes and we collide. I said sorry and kept crawling forward and he kept walking.

There was a truck of landscapers that were staring at me. Fuck them. I shouldn't even have said sorry. It wasn't my fault. Who bolts out without looking what's there, especially in a busy parking lot? It's the same reason why riding on the sidewalk is illegal and dangerous.

It's always about how the majority is affected by the minority, though. It's always been that way in history. Like in the 90's with the riots and it wasn't a healthy dialogue to get a solution, it was just how were black people and their image and actions affecting white people. It would've been a great turning point for ignorance on all sides and bring an issue to the surface and work it out. But it doesn't work that way. It's dumb! Let's just keep to ourselves and keep the problem going.

People need to understand, too, that it's not an us-versus-them thing with bicyclists and drivers. Both sides need to respect each other. But you also can't make generalizations, especially based on ignorance and one-instances. Also realize that anyone who drives has at least a base knowledge of driving laws like lanes, traffic lights, not driving on sidewalks, etc. Bicyclists are anyone who rides a bike, which only avid cyclists or smart people know the laws. Any idiot can walk into a Wal-Mart and buy a bike - or a thrift store. It doesn't give them the applicable rules or common sense.

I meant to post pics from that Motley Crue/Poison show, but maybe later.

Bill Hoover's art show's tonight. Should be fun.

Yeah, right!

2011-08-21T18:46:00.000-07:00

On the way home today I stopped at a traffic light at which there was a police car going in the perpendicular direction. She got the green and slowed and said something to me. I pulled out my earphones and asked what she said. She said I need to ride on the sidewalk if I'm not wearing a helmet. I looked at her weird and said, "Really?"

She drove off. I rode the sidewalk until she was well on her way and jumped back on the street. I knew there was no law about this, but didn't want to risk a ticket. So I got home and looked online and then the DMV website and nothing. It says only that if there is a bike path or lane that you're required to use those.

If she said that as a safety concern, she shouldn't be telling me to ride the sidewalk which would not only be more dangerous to me and pedestrians, but would also make drivers even more angry and dumb about bicyclists. I would agree with a law enforcing bike helmets over two separate laws about riding on sidewalks.

First off, it's illegal to ride on the sidewalk. That out of the way, the rest just doesn't make sense. It's dangerous to pedestrians and patrons coming out of shops, bars, and restaurants. It's dangerous for the biker approaching intersections because cars aren't paying attention to anyone on sidewalks let alone riding on the shoulder. Safety says to maintain your lane in driving and bicycling - weaving in and out of parked cars or sidewalk gaps and driveways are dangerous.

I could go on and on, but I don't want to get ticketed for this. Besides, I've rode by tons of cops who've said nothing. I'm more aware riding than drivers are driving. I checked a World-Herald post about bicyclists and should've not read the comments but I did. Throughout it one driver said something about seeing a bicyclist ride through a stop sign and said, "And drivers are the dangerous ones?"

Yes, you are. You generalize everything on one instance? On top of which, that argument would hold if no drivers ever did that and other dumb illegal, highly dangerous things like when I'm holding a steady speed yesterday and a truck speeds up to turn right, three feet in front of me. You couldn't wait three seconds, asshole?! I always want to kick their car when they do that. Maybe I should, but I need to represent bicyclists. Besides, all bicyclists aren't smart. Ride the trails, they're a lot of dumb, morons.

Saturday

2011-06-04T15:57:00.000-07:00

Good day. Got up earlier than expected and got a bowl of oatmeal and a mug o'coffee in and headed to class. Headley showed up and had a good one. I started doing the set which starts with Part the Horse's Mane, into Stork Cools Wing, into Brush Knee something. Good leg work out.

Got home and read yesterday's paper and went for a bike ride and did my French lesson at College of Saint Mary's softball bleachers. Rode back and mowed while listening to Exile on Main Street.

Just ate dinner and going to read a bit and then wind down. I do not think I'm going to do much of a workout tonight.

Very Busy Good Week.

2011-06-02T08:55:00.001-07:00

As busy as it's been in the past months or longer, I do appreciate a day where I can just sit at home and read the papers and a book and write a bunch. On the other hand, I hate being idle and non-productive. More than a day of that makes me feel dumb for throwing it away. Even waking up later makes me feel that way. There's so much to do.

Saturday was kind of like that and then we ended up going to Jeanne's mom's place. Which was fun. Sunday was good. Jeff and Margaret was in town so I met up with them and hung out. It's always good to see them and actually great for my own self-being. It makes me appreciate what I have and Jeff has a way of reminding me what I have to offer and look forward to. He gives me the perspective and release that just builds up inside of me because I let it and don't see any way else.

So it was good to spend a day with them and just relax and have some good times. Margaret's family is all good and fun as well. They are all very welcoming and good people. I also got an eggplant plant, fennel, leeks, and cherry tomatoes for good measure and also in case I don't produce much or anything in my haphazardly arranged and developed garden.

We check out the pedestrian bridge and the Missouri in its flood state and then drove to the casino to check out where they're at. Still bringing in the gamblers.

Monday was more good times. We drove through Council Bluffs which is always interesting. We went up to Fairmount park for a picnic with the Waughs and others. Good stuff, good food, good conversations.

Jeff and Margaret'll be back in a week or so. Looking forward to that. We then headed home to relax a bit before heading back out to the mom's for dinner with Charlie and Maria. I like these because it's relaxing and the mom always has an appetizer spread out with good stuff...such as real guacamole with Trader Joe's vegetable chips, spanikopita, brie, crackers, salmon, smoked some other fish, sesame sticks, spring mix, cherry tomatoes, almonds, grapefruit mimosas (non-alcoholic)...and I keep eating the entire time.

Ayana was being protective of "her" toys and everything Cecilia went for she grabbed, so we kept giving Cecilia more so Ayana would grab them and have her entire arms full and kept dropping things but kept going so as to protect her toys from being played with. Their relationship progressed well through the evening even amounting to a huge in the hallway as we left. Ayana's forward momentum toppled them over and Cecilia's head hit the trimming on the post. That night, I stayed awake watching huge gusts that sounded like a tornado and the maple tree's huge limbs were swaying five or more feet and I thought it would bust down and crash through the roofs. I finally fell asleep and awoke to clear skies, sunny, and gd cool. Great day for a hippie to go out and think poetic thoughts about nature.

Tuesday I had a bunch of errands to do. While running through my French lessons and my Cypress Hill/Ice Cube (same era and affiliation) drive-mix bumping, I made several trips to Home Depot to pick up plywood and 2x4's for the other book shelf. I got back home and was really nice out so I measured out and cut the 2x4's to length and put together the shelves. All the while I grilled the teriyaki chicken I've had marinating for a week and dry-rubbed the last two pieces of steaks.

After all this I loaded up the old book shelves, some food, and dropped ice cream to John and Sherri (this seasons last Thin Mints batch) and the shelves and food to Megan at her new place. I met her roommmate John who's super cool. Gotta hang with him. He built a mini-ramp in the basement and is an independent contractor. I want to consult with him and if time help him on jobs.

Yesterday we moved all the books from the current shelves, moved those shelves to the garage and I put together the shelves. It would've been done quickly but our drill is a residential one and left out all winter so the battery is weak. I did what I could and set it to charge while we went to meet the family at the Durham for the Pulitzer Prize photo exhibit. It's all pretty depressing stuff. A lot of death, destruction, and a side profile of a young Phil Anselmo with a snake...lot of pot smoking in that dude's future.

We wanted to go eat and Rick's boatyard was a suggestion, which I wanted to do to look at the river and I've never eaten there. I suggested somewhere with a good salad bar and we weighed our options and went to Ruby Tuesday's. I know. I'm making a point to try the other good places popping up but I really wanted a salad bar and somewhere sit down but quick since the kids were getting ripe.

Today I'm at the library reading the paper and gonna hit the Sunday Times and go home, relax and go to Maria's parents' place in Ponca Hills. Charlie brought his bike so if time permits, I want to hit the roads and bike paths. Again, good food there.

2011-05-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

Two things that I've recently realized I hate, especially having a kid are documentaries and most DVD's. Documentaries I like but one thing I've come to accept. As much as I like to learn about things and no matter the intentions, the people who need to be affected by the documentaries won't ever watch it or will be critical against it and nothing happens. Two, having a child, I like to have things on where I don't have to pay attention to all the time. Almost all documentaries use words. Not just here and there but sometimes several paragraphs all throughout the film. If I wanted to read about it, I'd get the book or read articles about it. And it's not that I don't like to read. I read a lot and I watch a lot of foreign films. But when I do, I sit and watch or read knowing I'm getting into that.

The other thing are the DVD menus. Why do they get all fucking fancy? Get to the point. There's no award for "best DVD menu" or anything of the like. And people buy DVD's because of the film or what's included in the menu not how fucking animated and clever the menu is. Especially with kid who's fussy and you're trying to get them calm so you can get dinner together, I don't want to sit through a fucking Oompah-Loompah walking to pour chocolate to turn into the menu selection. I feel like smashing it.

Dumb Newspaper

2011-05-28T15:11:00.001-07:00

Right now is probably the most interesting, important events going on that are seemingly so important as to take the current state of the entire world with what is going on with the governments in the Middle East. From Libya, Russia's involvement in that, Egypt's borders, Syria, Palestine's situation and them requesting entrance into the UN, Israel's state of being surrounded by newly and forming Arab governments, which directly involve Iran, Russia, the US and Great Britain and more. Added to that, you have Mladic's arrest and his being sent to the Hague to face war-crimes charges. The war in Iraq. The state of Pakistan post-bin-Ladin's capture and their questionable alliance with the US...

What's on the front page of our paper?! The valedictorian of Marian high school and Creighton Prep and how they're dating and their courtship, how they asked each other to prom, and their future. How pathetic! "He's real good at solving Rubic cubes so I put a 'p' on one side, 'r' and the other..." ON THE FRONT PAGE!!!! This should've been on the front page of community events or something. Not the front page of the headlines!

On top of that they've got that dumb-ass "Breaking Brad" section with humor that's worse than Larry the Cable Guy and this guy gets paid to do his not funny at all lampooning of news stories. Whose idea was this? People got fired from that paper the other year because of budget cuts. It makes me cringe everytime I think of fans from all over the nation coming for the College World Series and they read our paper and see that type of Journalism and Omaha's the biggest city in the state. This would make me even want to just read the USA Today as a news source. Luckily Cubby's sells the New York Times...and the Wall Street Journal.

Buy-Nothing Day

2011-05-28T14:57:00.001-07:00

Even though I never submitted myself to the Black Friday ridiculousness, I even more so hated this dumb day. The reason being is the same as this other "Don't-buy-gas-day" or whatever it was. I was told this and had not read or heard of it but as a somewhat protest to the oil industry there was a national day not to buy gas.

It's yet another attempt to do something outrageous with no real impact or solutions. Not buying gas one day just gives them the money either the day before when you top off so as not to buy gas the next day or fill up the day after because you forgot to before and wanted to "stick to your guns," or whatever dumb "hell yeah" slogan you want to adhere to and feel good about.

If you really want to affect them, go a month or more without driving, with real intentions of utilizing public transportation or self-transportation in the future. That way you can lose all that weight and get more sense flowing through your brain. Walk to the grocery store with your dumb-ass, trendy green bag to buy your food for a day or two at a time.

I read an article about this couple from Toronto who are keeping their baby's sex a secret. I can't believe all the attention they're getting for this stupid un-spoken publicity stunt. Which is all it is, on top of being annoying. It's to possibly allow it to grow without limitations and hopefully turn this world into a non-sexed based society within its generation. That's also dumb. No matter if a million people did this, it will NEVER happen. It's just dumb, New Age, far to the left type of mentality that gets really annoying. You know, too, that everytime they get asked about the baby's sex they go through their whole song-and-dance about why they are keeping it a secret...I want to meet them and ask them that so when they start into it I just walk away.

2011-05-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

I guess it was a good thing I didn't scrounge up enough money to try and go to the Foo Fighters concert, as the only major drawing point was they were playing with Motorhead. Motorhead didn't show up; only their drummer. Lemmy and crew were stuck in Dallas due to storms.

I don't like anyone the World-Herald has for music reviewer. This guy has no real journalistic integrity or knowledge nor anything interesting to offer musically. It seems as if he was picked because based on the staff there he probably had the biggest iTunes library. For instance, heading towards SXSW he listed the acts he was looking forward to seeing and one of them being Dave Dondero. I like Dave, but the fact that this writer supposedly lives in Omaha, Dave's played here a million times. Within months of moving here in 2003 I had seen him play. I think he even played a benefit thing here last year I think.

Anyway, he talked about the Foo Fighters and that they played "Ace of Spades," which I bet the only way he knew the title was because Dave probably mentioned it before they played and he scribbled it on his notepad. Bravo to the Motorhead fans who, I liked to think, refused to go see the show as a result of Motorhead now playing and were trying to sell their tickets.

I'm about halfway through the Foo Fighters' new album and so far there's one tolerable song. But like the rest of their songs, it's about 2 minutes too long. the others sound the same as before with a lot of misuse of awesome, break-neck riffs that had tremendous potential. Their current single is horrible. This album was talked about by Dave as being their best and I'm sure he believes it, but with all the rest of the crap that's out there, it's drawing from not much.

I could say that from what's out there in the mainstream media, yeah, it's a departure. But I'm personally sick of music altogether. Grinderman's been one of the only exciting new band. I think a lot of bands have potential but verse, chorus verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus, outro shouldn't be adhered to so much.

It's a wonder that the moneymakers seem to be reunion tours. But like cover songs becoming so overdone that songs from only a few years back are being covered, all these bands that never had much impact above high schoolers from a few years back are having reunions. Stop it! Stop being unimpressive and uninspirational. All the bands that matter carry on through time and create new musical projects that are good (Tommy Lee aside).

That being said, I'm looking forward to the Motley Crue/Poison/New York Dolls concert. I hope to see Guided by Voices. And I'm bummed about missing Primus Saturday.

The Sweet

2011-05-22T08:33:00.000-07:00

About to take my final for my computer class. Reading A Moveable Feast and listening the Sweet - Hit Singles A's and B's.

I cannot wait to finish this quarter up so I can enjoy the nice days we've been having. I have to go to UNO this week which will be a nice bike ride. My computer's been dumb and had to restore it, but my anti-virus deal isn't fully working.

Why are people so addicted to apps? It's because of marketing. I've never seen (or noticed) people reacting with such frenzy to have ALL technological inventions no matter how inane they may be.

GPS ideally are a good idea, but I've navigated around the country in cars and a semi-truck via maps and logic. Sure, some places get hard such as downtown areas in big cities or places in the northeast, but it's nothing good common sense can cure. It's just another useless distraction.

When I first moved to Los Angeles I had a job mystery shopping all throughout the Valley, Glendale/Pasadena area and up the coast to and from Paso Robles, not too mention going to San Francisco several times. I did all those via a Thomas Guide (map book), no problem. You get cross streets, check for one ways, what streets are before your turn, different landmarks to ease that situation, two ways of approach in case you miss the turn, or check out the layout to see how to back track in case you miss the turn. It seems like a lot but it's not. It's everything I take in when viewing a map.

Some other logical things are avoiding left turns, especially if there's no turn lane. If it's a busy street, whether legal or not, it's not a good idea. New Jersey seems to be the only place that realized that people are dumb and, at least on the Pennsylvania border side, they have those u-turn/left turn loopy things.

If there's anything these GD-GPS things are good for is the advance notice they give you like "left turn - one mile ahead" will teach people what they should know well in advance, plan your driving route. I don't go anywhere without knowing where it is, what side of the street it is, etc. Or at least I try. Sometimes you cannot avoid heading into that situation. But I'm still not going to stop or slow in a 35-50 mph street to make a sudden left turn. I'll keep going and turn around. And I'm not going to drive 15 mph in said situation to not miss it.

I wish I could take a test with the OPD to pass all the driving safety courses and legally authorize me to pull over, ticket, and/or tell people how dumb they are or why what they did makes no sense at all and then slash their tires and leave.

One last thing, there's a main road here called Sorensen Parkway. It's 40 mph and when turning south on 72nd it's 40 mph. There's a huge shopping plaza to the right that spans about a half mile. There's a two lane left turn there. Three times in the past week I was in the left turn lane so when I get on 72nd I can stay in the left lane for the several miles I have to drive to avoid the stopping and going with people turning into driveways and other streets. Basically to safely regulate traffic. So upon turning onto 72nd, the cars (ALL WITH NO TURN SIGNALS!) slow to about five mph to turn into the first driveway into the shopping center.

Not only is that dumb, dangerous, and knowing that you are making a right turn upon turning onto 72nd you should've been in the right turning lane to start with as that goes with common logic of driving, but this shopping plaza's a half mile long at least. You have four or five other driveways to safely do this.

MAHA Festival.

2011-05-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

One more addition makes in more probable for us to go and that would be the addition of J Mascis. The one band I would suggest (and did) they get that would bring many and would set in stone us purchasing tickets would be Grinderman. Although any of these bands I would much rather see in a closed venue, I would love to see Nick Cave at least once in my life time.

GD apps

2011-05-17T08:05:00.000-07:00

The city of San Francisco spent time and money to creat an app to show available parking spaces. The reason was said that people looking and vying for spaces was a main cause of traffic in the downtown area.

First off, when people are told not to text while driving and people don't know how to talk on their phones while driving, why would a phone app make them drive even better or make them aware of what's going on around them. Secondly, why wouldn't they promote their really great public transportation system instead of spending money on a useless app? Doesn't the city get money from busfare and the BART?

It seems the recurring theme with people, not just in official positions, but in general, to think of new ideas that make no sense or don't work rather than critically think about solutions especially with things that already exist. Just like the car that can parallel park itself. Parallel parking's not that hard. Car's that tell you when you're driving too close to the car in front of you. You should keep a good, legal following distance anyway. If you need a computer to tell you you're too close, you don't deserve to drive.

Funny stuff...

2011-05-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

I just read an old post from an old blog:

"blah, blah, blah
So I read in the paper yesterday that Avril Lavigne and Derek Whibley are getting married. Are you kidding me? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. They're going to have the dumbest kids. I fucking hate that stupid three foot tall, squishy-faced oompah-loompah mother fucker. You know what's awesome, though? I'll bet somewhere down the line, one or the other will come up with some fucking stupid idea that, "Hey, we should start a band together." Yeah, that's just what we need, two no talent fucking assholes writing more bad songs.

I'll bet all the mall punks and all the workers at Hot Topic are super excited.
posted by brett at 2:30 PM 0 comments"

It's just funny because of their recent divorce and my post on that.

Yes

2011-05-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

So this is actually including December but in a situation that would work directly into January. I had just finished reading Medium Raw and since I would be in Oklahoma for a while, I brought some comfort books and Jeanne sent me one for my birthday:

A Cook's Tour, the Nasty Bits, and A Preferred Blur.

And I was reading Les Halles Cookbook and A Tuscan in the Kitchen.

By the way...

2011-05-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

I've had ideas to take a piece of a puzzle at thrift stores and/or tear out pages of books there. I've never done it but it was always a fun thought. So in January I read Of Mice and Men which was bought used a while back from some bookstore via Amazon. Anyway, the last page was torn out. Or pages? George had just shot Lennie and simultaneously the mob was approaching then...

I guess it was a sort of cool way to end it. Does that count as finishing a book?

Speaking of count, Clerks played at the Dundee the other week. The Reader did a brief of it in the events portion of their issue and they, for some reason, mentioned the budget of the movie and blah, blah, blah...

Not only is that fact so overdone and boring, it was never relevant. It's a dialogue-based movie. It could've just as well been an audio book. If it were an action movie or something done for that budget, yeah, impressive. If he spent anymore than that it would've been pointless. Personally, $27,000 is much I think for that movie. They were all one-shots and he didn't have to pay much for set or actors...and production. Good movie, but the focus is always on the wrong thing.

Glengarry Glen Ross was pure dialogue as well, but I bet that budget flew through the roof because of the cast.

2011 Reading List

2011-05-16T13:16:00.000-07:00

I need somewhere to keep track of this. Do text books count?

Down and Out in Paris and London

Kung Fu: History, Philosophy, & Techniques

Kitchen Confidential (third time reading this one)

A Farwell to Arms

A Dull Roar

America: Our Next Chapter

The Franklin Cover-up

Bone In The Throat

For some reason I think I'm missing one.

Currently reading:
Palestine: Peace, Not Aparthied

the Jungle

A Moveable Feast

Hawaii

2011-05-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

I guess the Maha festival is only $30 and we can bring Ayana so we probably will go. Looking forward to seeing Guided by Voices even if it's outdoors. Primus is playing at the Waiting Room outside as well.

I don't like going to the mall for a plethora of reasons. Anthony Bourdain,along with his praise for Vietnamese food and with his travels which usually start in the market places, gave his solution for fast food in America. It's to get rid of those fastfood things in the mall food courts and replace them with vendors of International persuasions to serve fresh, cheap, good-tasting, healthy food. I was just thinking in places I'd like to go and things I'd like to do and thought of Ala Moana shopping center. It's a tolerable place to visit, but I was thinking about their food court and how it is sort of like that.

I wonder if people in Hawaii realize how good they've got it on those levels? We should all take a hint from that. So many good cultures and not enough people go there until it's on TV. And on several sides of that TV spectrum, I have a problem with based on first hand experience...more on that some other time.

2011-05-11T18:22:00.000-07:00

I missed seeing Guided by Voices in Iowa a month back, but I just noticed that they are playing the Maha festival here. Good deal...We can bring Ayana but it's a festival. As much as I'd like to see them with this line up, I'll have to see who else is playing because I don't want to pay that much to just see them and a bunch of crap bands. It'd be nice if they were headlining so they can play longer.

I noticed that we have the Onion down at Ted & Wally's. I'm not sure what I think about that. I liked the Onion but for what they do, they're getting carried away. First was that bad movie, though the audio book was all right. Now they have a show on IFC!?

People just read the headlines. That's all that's funny. I never take the time to read them except the short snippets. The only time I read the actual whole thing I think I was at a Greyhound station in Denver and that was the only thing I had to read. Which was the first time in years that I realized they had ads for local stuff.

Which brings me to the next thing that they asks Joe to advertise with them. First off, they're twice as much as the well-establihed Reader. Secondly, the demographic in Omaha is not going to get the Onion. The ones that will already come to the shop. Also,visitors are more likely to pick up the Reader. I wonder if it's some money-bags dude here that read a copy and figures it'll do well. All the hipsters like it. They'll just go online.

Had to miss Jonathan Richman on Cinco de Mayo. Couldn't get a babysitter that late. Too many good shows coming up.

2011-05-03T09:27:00.001-07:00

One good thing about this Osama thing, though, is that it takes (or should) away from all that unnecessary hoopla about that pointless, non-event the royal wedding.

2011-05-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

I have been slacking in writing my personal journal and staying away from Facebook more than I used to. School is all right and Dragon Arts is good. I need to put more time into that training.

I've been getting a lot of stretching done and need to hit the hamstrings and butterfly harder. I've beeen holding those for about five minues a piece and hopefully within a few weeks I'll be able to do splits and then get my full, proper stretching done for my workouts.

My back is getting better but not all the way.

I listened and read a little bit of the Osama deal yesterday. Enough to inform me about what happened and some people's opinions but stayed away from all news sources. It just makes me upset to hear people's thoughts on things. "I hoped it said Obama but it was Osama." Really?! Your ignorant loyalty to corporate news media makes you hate opposition that much that you wish they were dead? Isn't that Nazi type of mentality?

The whole birth certificate thing was always dumb to me and can't believe it went so far. People's ignorance to Constitutional rights is dumb as well. Even if he was born outside of the US, his mom being a citizen would have still made him a citizen, so what's the argument. Either way he's legit.

I finished building the book shelf and need to start on two others but lack the cash to do so. I registered for next quarter and find out today about my last math test. It was more reasonable than the last one. I like math and am majoring in it for Secondary education but the teacher tests us on things well beyond what we're learning in class. I appreciate being able to critically think about functions and other type of equations but when you're taught them at the text book level and nothing above that,and you do the homework twice and the chapter review and tests, and then you take the test and get a 70%?

I left two answers blank and I never do that. I can at least work my way through it somehow but when you're presented problems in a way you've never even touched, nor had any idea where to look for that, it's bad. I asked if he could give us more homework that would help us to think on the level of what we get tested on and he refused. He even said he doesn't like the level of difficulty of the text book we're using but if that's the case, we need to change that and learn from something along the lines of testing standards.

Drinking black coffee and gonna read some of A Dull Roar and finish my English assignment. I also need to transplant my plants.

Is this thing on?

2011-03-29T08:03:00.000-07:00

Any aspiring comedians will need to pick up a copy of Sum 41's new album "Screaming Bloody Murder." First of all, I never knew that Sum 41 basically themed their albums; which as clever as you might think that is, have you heard their music or lyrics?

Singer/songwriter/Poet Laureate Derek Whibley digs deep to express his feelings of his divorce from anothr talented gem Avril Lavigne. "Take the pictures off the wall/ Erase the thoughts, forget them all." Have a drink, dork!

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

2011-02-06T16:02:00.000-08:00

I really hate Super Bowl commercials more than regular ones because regular ones always try to be funny and they're not. Super Bowl ones try way harder. One came up and it was the Rock with a stupid looking goatee. Then Paul Walker and I thought, "No fucking way." Then, Vin Diesel.

Should we just let the terrorist win?

In keeping with my current trend...

2010-11-15T21:42:00.000-08:00

I was really looking forward to tonight's Monday Night Football for a number of reasons. I was thoroughly impressed. I hate blowouts, but even in the first quarter it kept itself interesting. Then it wasn't a blowout but I liked it.

Michael Vick is great. I think he may be my favorite quarterback at the moment. If anything, I like a quarterback who runs when he needs to. That's what upset me about quarterbacks like Brett Favre. Vick ran in two touchdowns tonight.

He knows what he's doing and is unstoppable.

The team picked up on that vibe as well.

A lot has been going on recently one of them being me quitting California Tacos. I just got sick of trying to get things done and not being able to. I was given a copy of Kitchen Confidential recently and it pulled it all together what my frustration was ans made me see clearly that I need to leave. I've tried to no avail to get the place where it needs to and if they want to struggle to get orders out during lunch in 30 minutes that's fine, we'll lose customers through that downfall.

Business had slowed down and when we get busy we can't do it.

I'm tired of not being able to do my job and being paid little to be a manager and end up being not a manager but an employee with good ideas that don't go through because upper-management doesn't do anything to get it going.

I saw my old boss yesterday driving the bus. He still owes me just over $5,000 and now I won't be riding the bus that I like riding. I'm not confrontational unless necessary but I have to be in the moment.

We're going to Spearfish for my daughter's birthday and I'm excited. Without being cliche, I do love my daughter and she's brilliant as all and funny as hell. I'm not sure if all kids do this but she was looking at a pair of pants today and standing the whole time. She wasn't aware of it and when she became aware she fell. Like Wiley Coyote running off the cliff.

I made a customer cuss me out last week by being professional and making him feel like the dumbass he is at the same time. He called saying that he ordered nachos and never got cheese with it. What it came down to was him generalizing us with other Tex-Mex places and blamed us for not knowing he was a new customer and should have walked him through the menu.

I told him if he asked we would've but we're not mind readers. I told him if he looked at our menu that under our nacho list our first thing is chips and salsa and if you want another dip like cheese or guacamole you ask for it. He proceeded to say that that's our downfall for not keeping standards (long story on that one, too) and I said, "If you want a pepperoni pizza, you can't call a pizza place and say, 'I want a pizza.' You have to say, 'I want a pepperoni pizza.'"

He then said, "Fuck you! Fuck your fucking taco, California Tacos..."

We won't be missing him. We tried to rectify it and told him that next time he's in we'll comp him the chips and cheese but we don't give money back (especially to people who think we've made a mistake). If we did this based on people's misconception of us being represented by Taco Bell we'd close down.

2010-01-31T21:39:00.001-08:00

I know but don't know why I keep watching stuff like this...Like Larry the Cable Guy's Comedy Central special.

I just got word that Rick's mom is giving him four tickets to the Nickelback/Puddle of Mudd concert here.

Like Rick said to his mom, "Yeah. That'd be a fun thing to go to."

2010-01-09T20:42:00.000-08:00

I've not purposely been avoiding shows, but more that I don't have money and am trying not to drink...but Jake and Kyle stopped by my work last night and we hung out and, as usual, they were fun and funny as hell.

Anyway, I mentioned Justin's friends Vampire Hands-who came down last year and we hung out and they were amazing-and Jake mentioned, not only are they coming back here, but Nate Nelson's playing in a band playing Television's Marquee Moon at which point I nearly came in my pants.

There's next to no way I want to miss this show and can't wait.

Save us from Magneto

Oh, and the Rock is hosting Monday Night Raw with Mike Tyson this Monday and it's alluding to me having to get Wrestlemania based on the tickets.

Agghhhhhh!!!!!....now give me some candy!

2009-12-21T22:20:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure that date on the photo is wrong, but I don't have the money or the technology or just the desire to take the effort to fix it on the camera.

Me mums came in yesterday and as luck would have it I have today and tomorrow off. Currently watching Fiddler On The Roof and going to do something.

I gave myself a new project. I've been jumping around from book to book and figured that I'll force myself to read something to keep me focused. I read through 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die and there are a handful that we have and a handful that I've read and a handful that I've been wanting to read and this will give me a great opportunity.

As the way 1996 goes, I'll finally finish Infinite Jest. I figure that I'll go through our bookshelves and take out the ones we have and put all the ones in the book on one shelf. I think this will be fun.

I just noticed that there is a 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die which would be fun as well.

Sunshine is nestled next to me on the couch and I'm staring a a picture of me my mom brought of my, I think, 7th grade picture and I look like I was really into License to Drive.

It's supposed to get pretty bad as far as weather goes in the next couple of days and I forgot to pick up salt which I'll do tomorrow as well as filing my financial aid and getting Ayana on our insurance.

Other than that, listened to the Beach Boys, Bill Bryson audio book, and Public image Ltd.

The day I was born "How Deep Is Your Love" was the number one song. I think that should've been a good sign...maybe I took it the wrong way. I should listen to that before I crash tonight.

"Drinking Black Coffee...Stare At the Wall"

2009-12-14T11:15:00.000-08:00

Slowly getting stuff done today. I called to set an appointment with an academic advisor and the lady asked when I'm looking to see one. I say, "Tomorrow's great if possible. Otherwise, I'll have to set one up another day for the late afternoon or early evening."

"I've got some tomorrow. One at noon..."

"That's good."

She then goes on getting my info and who I'm meeting with and before our conversation ends I read back the info that she's given me just to verify that we have exchanged correct info. I learned to do this because I lived in LA and it's a good thing because she said that, "Oh, no. It's not for tomorrow. It's for Wednesday."

Listening to Captain Beefheart's Ice Cream For Crow and drinking black coffee.

2009-12-13T20:29:00.000-08:00

Watching "Eastbound and Down" again and taking notes on life from it.

I was watching Ayana today and realized that she looks like baby Smurf. Her face is round and she's got that button nose. I'll get a pic.

I need to set an appointment with my academic advisor this week.

I started to read The Jungle but wasn't feeling it and decided I need a break and just have some easy reading so I started reading the Journals of Lewis And Clark which I've been wanting to read for a while and since we stopped by the Lakota museum on the way back, Jeanne's mom bought it for me. Also I couldn't find the Stand so I started reading Christine and so far both are enjoyable.

I haven't been to the gym in three weeks and am looking forward to going back. I feel sluggish and like I've gained forty pounds.

My mom comes in next week for a week and I'm real excited about that, especially since she's the first one from my family to come visit here. Jeff and Margaret will be back then as well. Haven't really talked to anyone since being back.

Listened to Fugazi, The Fall, David Cross, and the Letter People today.

Anastasia is a dumb movie.

Ayana

2009-12-07T18:17:00.000-08:00

Today Jeanne gave birth to Ayana. Long day but cool.

2009-12-05T09:51:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning for Jeanne to get her antibiotic thing changed then drove up to Terry Peak which is a few miles south of Deadwood which is a ski area. It was snowing and early so I drove a bit cautious and got near the last stretch near Terry Peak but stopped since the roads weren't plowed yet.

We got out and walked a bit but was freezing and needed to pee and weren't any covered area so headed back and by the time we hit the interstate it was sunny and clear.

We stopped by Wal-Mart for no other reason than to walk in a heated place. I waited for Jeanne outside of the bathroom and looked at their sign of how much money they donated this year to the community and different charities and thought that it's weird how they'll spend all that money on things they can write off but nothing on increasing employee wages and benefits. Seems to me that if you want to help communities, having employees who get paid well will contribute way more to the local economy.

Anyway, we needed to buy water since the grocery store is all out.

Picked out some DVD's from the library here at the bed and breakfast. If I get a chance I wanted to go get some audio CD's from the main library here for the trip back home.

Hopefully Jeanne gives birth soon so we can do something.

2009-12-02T10:48:00.000-08:00

With us being here for two weeks I planned on getting a lot of stuff done. One being the review stuff for school and the other is writing several things and reading several books I've been eagerly awaiting and trying to finally finish Infinite Jest.

This will be the third attempt at such a task, but I think that I'm in the right evironment to do so. With the amount of footnotes for it and needed to use two bookmarks, I've not really been in a situation where I could comfortably read through it and several attempts have gotten me to about page 125. And not that the book is boring, far from it, but it's just a hard read - in a physical sense.

Going to a thrift store today and maybe check out a record shop. I haven't checked to see that they have one, but it's a college town, so, uh,....probably not.

I wish I could find a Border's or something, only to be able to get a New York Times. I'm stuck right now with the Rapid City Journal which cost me $.75 and is a joke. The crossword puzzle is the only thing great in it and that was done too quickly and effortlessly.

Be back in a bit.

Due Date

2009-12-01T20:30:00.000-08:00

Today is the due date for Ayana and the way it's going, I'm pretty certain today is not the day. Jeanne had some mild contractions during the night, but nothing to be concerned about and it hadn't shown up today at all.

Here is the cottage we're staying at here in Spearfish, SD and is right next to the main house. It's quite relaxing here and we have two bedrooms, a living room, and our own kitchen and bathroom. I like this place; it's very relaxing and feels like we're in Italy in the country...in this But I'm a Cheerleader country-side cottage deal.

I left my headband deal at home so I (luckily?) packed my ski-mask. It was 57 degrees yesterday and today it was flurrying and windy and cold and I walked to the convenient store to get a paper and people were looking at me wierd and after a few minutes I realized I had my ski-mask on my head and quickly took it off and put it in my pocket. South Dakota is hunting country and I'm glad it worked out the way it did.

Peace outs for now.

Last Stop Tokyo

2009-11-28T19:45:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow we head off for South Dakota for the baby. We're stopping in Corn Palace capital of the world, Mitchell, SD. Per advice from Justin, we should check out a Taco John's in South Dakota as they are pretty high class sort of deal up there. Not need-to-make-a-reservation type status, but they're pretty well kept and fancy and even have their own newsletter.

He said he once toured through there and the band he was with played in South Dakota and loves Taco John's and mailed them info and asked to sponsor the show and they did. The fliers and stuff had Taco John's logo and stuff and they went to some office and got coupons for a bunch of free stuff, so they're aces in my book.

Jeff and Margaret came over the other night and also stopped by work today. It was way too busy as a result of yet another airing of us on "Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives."

But anyhow, I'm mostly packed, I bought (via Rick Philbin) "East Bound and Down" for $10 at Best Buy and am highly stoked. I'm still loading up the iPod and making a playlist for the road. ESPN Madison, the Fall, the Birthday Party, N.W.A., Guided by Voices, some other spoken word and comedy are going to be in heavy rotation and of course, the Friends album by the Beach Boys.

Speaking of rotation, after bad coffee last week at brunch, we stopped at Crane Coffee on the way back and the barista said him and his co-worker were taking a poll and asked if I liked the Beach Boys. I looked at Jeanne and said, "Man, you couldn't have found a better source for you cause than this dude here." I went into the whole thing on the best era, how most people who don't like the Beach Boys are talking about the car/surf songs (though still good) they are tired of hearing those and not being able to understand the musical greatness of it all, and even if the "Who's better, the Beach Boys or the Beatles?" argument comes up, the Beatles were so inspired by Brian Wilson's writing that they started developing their music writing and became competative contemporaries and if "Smile" came out when it should've, "Sgt. Peppers" wouldn't have been as sucessful or impactful as it was.

Then he looked at me and closed the window...no, he was pleasantly happy with the results...I think.

We're both excited about the whole birth and hope everything goes well and...Funny People is a great movie.

cynical asshole!

2009-10-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

Because I keep up with the news and stuff and being who I am I'm just angry all the time and full of hatred and contempt with humanity.

As a result, I stopped reading the newspaper and pretty much stayed away from any news source to keep my sanity level at a tolerable level...

...then I read the news and hear about things like this gangrape deal and I lose all faith in humanity and want to die!!!! It's a good thing we live in a Christian society.

I haven't been eager to see a movie with Ewan McGregor in it until I saw the preview of The Men Who Stare At Goats.

Customer Service

2009-10-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

Got a call today:

Me: California Tacos!

Person: I came in 15 minutes ago and got two beef tacos which were supposed to be chicken tacos.

Me: I'm sorry about that. Are you nearby, can you come back for them?

Person: (sarcastic and arrogantly) Are you going to pay for my gas?

Me: (Getting annoyed and beginning to be sarcastic back) Some people do come back for their food.

Person: Some people get the orders right.

Me: (Getting annoyed and trying to get off before I say something bad but sounding obviously annoyed) You know what, just give me your name and I'll write it down and come back in and we'll comp you.

Person: Uh, Joe King...

Me: Fuck! (Hang up) Rick?! Where's Rick?! (starting to laugh my ass off)

Rick comes out from behind the basement door laughing.

Why are there two Ben Stiller movies on?

"It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" is on next.