9/19/06 Suddenly I heard a tapping, as of something gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door...well actually chamber wall....or was it the window.  Surely, there is something at my window lattice.  Let me see what then there at is?  And this mystery explore?  Hahahah, there were some pretty strange sounds about my house this morning when I was awakened.  A little scratching here and some bumping and banging there.  I didn't think much of it.  I got dressed and packed my stuff for work.  But when I went opened the door I saw the entire doorway was sealed off in plastic.  I checked the back door, and it too was covered over in plastic.  All the windows were covered as well.  I was trapped.  The house painters were getting an early start and had sealed me in.  I had to call to have them let me out, which was pretty funny.  I've never been trapped in my own home before.  I've been locked out a few times when I forgot my keys but the flip side of the experience is very different.  While I have most everything I need at home.  No being able to even peek outside to he outside work is very claustrophobic.  I could understand why they make fake windows in underground buildings.  While I never much cared for looking outside, not being able to is like a restriction on your mind.  So having a window or a lcd screen simulating a windows helps with that restriction.  Free your mind, Neo. 

5/31/06 I find I tend to say "good job" to people when they do something that they aren't so proud of.  I think originally it was meant as a joke to lighten the severity of accomplishment's negative nature.  But over time as I continue to use it and I think it has become a jaded sarcastic shield to bad news of any kind. So I theorize I could soften the sting of my statements by calling it more as it is, and say "mediocre job" or "med job" for short....though that sounds too much like working at a pharmacy.  So maybe "medium job".  But you really need that one syllable thing for it work well.  There is the possibility of just being more direct and saying "you suck" but that might not fit will in some context such as vacuuming and drinking with straws. Actually now, that I think about it I praise good things with "good job" too.  It's kinda a universal expression.  I don't think I'm going to solve this problem today.

4/28/06 Today the cafeteria served mashed potatoes, which I was really excited about.  I didn't like anything else they had, so I just got a big plate of mashed potatoes.  After the first bite though, I knew I was in trouble.  The mashed potatoes were made from some kind of weird red potato, and it tasted awful.  Normally mashed potatoes are one of my favorite dishes, so I kept picking at it hoping it would get better.  But there was no denying it just tasted awful.  Now it's a few hours later, and the plate of mashed potatoes still is sitting, still is sitting, perched upon my desk.  I just took a bite and now I have a new problem.  I can't tell if it is tasting bad because it just tasted bad before, or if it tastes extra bad because it has actually gone bad is now gonna make me sick if I eat more. 

4/11/06 I used to think if I won just a few hundred thousand somewhere I’d be set for life. But after taxes….maybe I better bump that up to a whole million. I guess it depends how much PS3 games are gonna cost.....

4/10/06 I'm so smart.  That's what I keep telling myself as I think I've found a way not to get butter all over my keyboard while I eat popcorn.  I usually have this problem that as I eat my popcorn, no matter how hard I try to lick my fingers clean, I get this yucky film over my keys for days to come.  So today, I have poured my bag of popcorn into a bowl and am drinking it directly from the bowl.  Look Mom, no hands!  Heh, yeah, I'm enjoying it now, and typing away without worry while I do so, but I have a feeling that when I get to the bottom of the bowl I'm gonna just use my fingers for the last few pieces without drinking up the unpopped seeds and I'll get my fingers messy anyways and then my keyboard, and there will have been no point to any of this.  Next time I think I will get some chopsticks.

While I was in the kitchen popping my corn, I noticed a plastic cup with a post-it on it.  The post-it said "Free".  So now this cup is sitting on my desk.  It's tall, and has a black top on it.  And despite numerous attempts, I can't figure out how to open it.  I've twisted and pulled and even whispered a few incantations, but it won't budge.  I'm starting to think it's one of those things like the Sword in the Stone, where he who draws the sword from the stone gets to keep it.  So if I can just open this cup, it will be mine.

7/29/05 I wonder if they have a show called "When Lunch Bags Attack".  I just had an encounter with a man eating lunch bag and was lucky to escape intact.  I'm at my desk here and I started to get a little hungry.  I was looked down at the floor where my lunch bag sits and thought, why not reach in for a snack.  I reached in and found nice treat, and tried to pull it out, but instead the lunch bag came to life and leaped off the floor, I presumed with the intention of biting my hand off.  In my bewilderment, I dangled my arm as far away from me as possible, trying to shake the creature free.  Finally, it relented and fell to the floor waiting for another victim.  I consider myself saved by my lucky jacket with velcro wrist straps.  Were it not for my jacket, my velcro sealed lunch bag might have taken my entire arm.

7/21/05 I got a filling in my wisdom tooth today.  Hopefully all my wisdom will stop leaking out now.  It's actually the second time he's put the filling in there.  First one fell out sometime, which I suppose means that I ate it.  Ironic, that due to the size of the tiny filling, it must not have been really filling when I ate it cause I didn't even notice it.  My dentist numbed me up for it this time, I guess cause it was bigger now.  As a result, I can't feel where my tough is.  I hope I'm not chewing on it.  I keep trying to stick it in the far other side of my mouth just to keep it safe, but then I lose track of it.  Maybe I should just make sure my teeth don't come together.  Say "Awwww".... is that how you spell "awwww" or is it "ahhhhhh"?  Maybe it depends on your accent. 

6/2/05 There's the guy here at work that is always tossing something up in the air as he walks around.  And every time he walks by my desk and turns he drops whatever he is tossing in the air onto the floor.  I guess that's why he went into software development instead of professional sports.

In other news I discovered how to play all my music on my computer in high speed and slow motion today.  I've been going through all my songs seeing how they sound as a techno paced song.  I must say it's starting to wear me out, but man what a rush.  I think I'm gonna be playing with this for many days to come.

5/31/05 You know what's kinda funny when you think about it, is cheese pizza.  Pretty much any pizza you get is gonna have cheese on it.  If you get a Pepperoni pizza you get pepperoni and cheese.  If you get a veggie pizza you get cheese and veggies.  Cheese is implied like the tomato sauce and the dough.  But then then when you get nothing on it at all, they call it a cheese pizza, when really it should be a nothing pizza or a plain pizza.  But I guess no one would pay for nothing.  So they try to make it sound like it has something and they call it a cheese pizza I guess. 

Well okay, then I thought about someone else explaining this to someone else, it doesn't sound so funny, more that it is just business tactics.  So maybe it's not funny when YOU think about it, but it is funny when I think about it.  How come that expression is not more popular.  "This is funny if I think about it."  After all, should you be more of an expert of what you think, yourself, as opposed to what someone else is going to think of something?  I think think it's funny that people presume to know what other people are going to think is funny when they think about it, now that I think about it. 

4/7/05 I was in the restroom yesterday, attending to business, and someone else entered after me. They had less business to attend to that I did and left before I did. But when they did so they turned off the lights, leaving me in the dark. Needless to say the restroom is a strange place to be in the dark. Well, today I was in the restroom again with another fella. That is to say we were in separate.....areas each attending to our own business. When I entered I knew he was in there already because I heard him making noises in there. Then once again, someone entered the restroom, and the guy I was in there with cleared his throat. And when the new comer was leaving, the other guy cleared his throat again. And that's when I figured out he was probably just trying to make sure he didn't get left in the dark, like I had the other day. Impressive strategies that get developed to avoid the darkness of ignorance.

3/24/05 When I entered the restroom today there was a father there with his little boy.  They were just finishing business, and when I passed them, the boy must have have turned around cause he said "Wow!  Look at that sink!"  At first I thought, how could he not have noticed this giant one sink for 5 people that lines the entire wall, but then I figured, he must have just been really "focussed" upon entering the room.  So anyways the kid went on to ask his dad, "so you come here every day?"  I find that it is so novel the things kids will ask.  I could not picture an adult going asking "So do you come here every day?"  Makes me think we should think about consulting kids when you need a fresh perspective on something.  We might be so amazing at this outside the box thinking that there might be a real demand for this.  One could start a whole consulting agency providing the child's perspective. 

3/22/05 My dad is donating his car, but the day before it was about to picked up we realized it has a pretty good car stereo in it.  So we looked up how to remove it online, and apparently the manufacturer of the car makes a special tool which you can buy for 20 or 30 bucks to slide in each side and release some clamps that hold the stereo in place.  Not having the time to wait fo such a device, I got two of those fake credit cards that I get in the junk mail all the time and cut them down this enough to fit down the sides of the stereo.  Latches released out out came the stereo.  Pretty neat, turning garbage into something useful, but I still am probably gonna hear my fair share of complaints that need to clean my room and through out all my "useless" junk.

3/7/05 Today I made a inventive discovery.  Top Ramen packages tell you to boil 2 cups of water and add the noodles and then cook for 3 minutes stirring occasionally.  But truth be told, none of that is necessary.  I just poored hot water on the noodles in a bowl and let it sit for a minute and then stired it up and voila good ramen.  I considered briefly that I could buy packs of Top Ramen for 10 cents each and then repackage them as Express Ramen with my own improved cooking instructions and sell them for 20 cents each.  I thought I was sitting on a gold mine, until I found myself later just opening up a package and eating it completely without water.  I then realized people will eat these things however way they want to regardless of instructions.  It's funny that while I never read instructions for an electranic gadget or computer software, I will read them when it comes to putting noodles in hot water.  Somehow it seems like the later should be the less complicated one of the two. 

I gotta give my props to noise cancelling headphones today.  I was wearing them to listen to a song and when the song ended I forgot to take them off.  Then when someone came to talk to me I took them off, and was startled to hear the room around me roar to life.  Such a novel idea to put on headphones just to listen to silence.  I get it though now. But I pity anyone that trying to call me on the phone while I'm enjoying the silence. 

2/18/05 I was in a room with a really low ceiling today.  There was a light in the ceiling with one of those crazy new super bright bulbs.  Now while it did illuminate everything very nicely.  I was kind of distrubed that when I stood to close to it, my head and particularly my hair got really hot.  Got me thinking as light bulb technology continues to refine itself, maybe they'll get hotter and hotter until they just burn through things like light sabers. But anyways as my hair was singing there, I thought about what might have happenned if I had some of those crazy gels or hairsprays in my hair.  Well that's one quick way to get a hair cut.

2/11/05 I was just walking down the hallway here at work and noticed my shoe lace was untied.  I crouched down to tie it and while I kneeling down on the thinnly carpetted floor, I heard a door open at the end of the hall and saw someone come out and walk towards me.  Something about being so low to the floor got me thinking of the uncoming encounter as a possible threat situation.  So I quickly sprung up and adanced towards him.  I also heard the sound of someone approaching behind me.  I was walking at a good pace, so I did not believe the person behind me to could overtake me.  When I was almost next to the guy that was in front of me, he suddenly whipped up his arm closest to me, swinging right by my head.  I did a little hop mid step as i passed behind him to turn in the air and see he was waving to the person that was following me.  Almost killed by someone waving hi?  Hmmm, I think they just were covering up for their failed attempt to ambush me.  Next time, we'll see who is the hunted and who is the prey.....

12/17/04 The other day I walked by a coworker, who without a word stuck his tongue out at me.  I feel I am fortunate to work with such a close team where verbal communication is not even needed at times.  Today that same coworker came by and teased me about my jack in the box antenae ball.  He said that because i left in the bag I was suffocating it. So cruel am I....

12/13/04 I just poured myself a glass of chocolate milk in great haste, and witnessed something I had not seen since i was a child.  There were big bubbles in the glass of milk. It was the same kind I used to see because I was barely strong enough to lift the whole gallon of milk to pour it, so it would all rush out really fast, making all these bubbles.  As I grew up i was able to hold it more steady and didn't see those same bubbles anymore, until just this moment. Anyone who says time travel isn't possible has been looking in the wrong places.

12/7/04 Okay, too often do I have a good thought for my journal and then forget to put it in, so I'm back tracking to cover all the memorable events of yesterday.  First of all, there's my attempts to learn how to use elevators.  I was on one floor and waiting for the elevator door to open and when it did I saw a friend in there, so I got in, but the elevator went down instead of up.  So I laughed it off, and stayedin the elevator as it continue back up to my floor, and I got out.  But then it wasn't my floor!  It was the floor I had just been on!  Grrrrrrrrrr...  so I had to get back in the elevator again and go up to my floor.  Then another time I went on an elevator going up when i wanted to go down, so I got a chance to peek at the top floor, but yes it would seem I need to be more cautious before entering elevators.

10/23/04 Been working in the SF office now for a little bit. Starting to adjust to life here. I take BART to work, and it is an interest change. I remember how a friend talked about how if you drove a great distance to work that it was making roads that kill squirrels and stuff, so I smile happily sitting on the train. Though I admit I had to dodge a partially flattened squirrel on the way to the BART station this morning.....

At work we have a small little room and disputes have slowly started to trickle in over the lighting and temperature of the room. Some like the room really dark (me and my vampire ways have no objections this), but I think the darkness was making some people sleepy, so to compensate, they blasted the air conditioner to keep awake. At some point I was imagining it must be like being a refrigerator when the door is closed. Heh, but I'm sure we will find peace and harmony eventually.

8/11/04 Today I went to Taco Bell and got my little combo meal thing.  When I looked at the cup they gave it is had a Mountain Dew logo on it, which struck me a little unusual that suddenly Mountain Dew would be featured on their cups.  I went over over to select my drink from the fountain and noticed there was a new flavor; Mountain Dew Baja Blast.  I looked down at my cup and sure enough it was promoting this new thing called Baja Blast.  Following the chain from the fountain to my cup, I looked out the window across the street, to a new restaurant which has just opened called Baja Fresh and I pictured the execs at Taco Bell conspiring with Mountain Dew to make the Baja Blast flavor so they could "blast" out at their new competitor Baja Fresh. After a pensive moment I went ahead and filled up half my cup with Baja Blast and tried to take a quick sip of it to see what it tasted like.  However instead of accomplishing my goal, I accidentally inhaled before I began sipping and got a cup full of freshly popped soda bubble gas which nearly killed me.  I recovered though and said, oh what the hell, and filled up the rest of my cup without tasting it first.  Later I found it tasted a lot like mouth wash, which was interesting, but I probably won't get it again.

5/10/04 There is a proper technique to eating a Twinkie. It requires a lot of skill and practice. You dunk the Twinkie in a cup of cold milk (low fat will work cause the Twinkie makes up for the fat content). Hold it there for approximately 2 seconds or a little more if you feel like living dangerously. Then lift it out and place you mouth underneath it without trying to turn the Twinkie upward. Then lower it into your mouth, but do not chew. Simply place it on your tongue and press it against the roof of your mouth and the Twinkie and all the milk it absorbed in its spongy cake will explode in your mouth creating a wonder taste sensation.
Note: if you try to turn the Twinkie upward it will fall apart into your cup of milk, and if you leave it in the milk too long it will disintegrate too and then you will need a spoon to eat it.

4/30/04 A coworker of mine showed me a coin from Norway and I found something very disturbing about it. You know how most coins when you look at them you can flip them vertically and see the head on the back also right side up? Well if you do that with a coin from Norway it comes out upside down.  I tried to think of why they did it that way instead.  Then I thought maybe when they started making coins they thought the world was flat, so their way of thinking was not to flip coins the same way we do here today.  But then then I countered that thought because I think Leif Ericson, that old famous viking who found America might have been from Norway, but then again just because he made it to America doesn't mean that he thought the world was round or that he had any influence on the currency being produced back home.

4/12/04 Today as I was driving to work, I caught site of a car that looked like my friend's car, and so I drove up along side him and sure it enough it was him and his wife!  They have this really unique bright orange car, so it really stands out.  It got me thinking though, how many times we every drive right by someone we know without knowing they are there.  It would be kinda neat if something could tell you that you are really close to someone you know at those random moments. 

Last Tuesday I went to my uncle's birthday dinner and heard the most insightful dating advice I've ever heard from one of my aunts.  She said that if you find a find someone you really like, you should do all the best things with them and also all the worst things with them, and then you will know if you too can really make it.  She said, sure go to Hawaii and do all the fun stuff, but also like sit in rush hour traffic for hours on a hot day with nothing to drink or do laundry together.  I've never heard some relationship wisdom from any of the elders in my family (though actually she's not that elder, just a few years older than me). 

Just now I had one of those magic moments.  A coworker mumbled to herself, asking outloud, "...now where is my inbox item?"  I stopped and just for the fun of it, I reached over her laptop and blindly pointed to a part of the screen.  The saw the shock in her face, and I look over her machine to where my finger was and it was indeed pointing to her new inbox item.  She kept asking how I did it.  Then she said it was kinda spooky.  Heh, great now i'm gonna be known for having strange mystical powers at the work place.  Can you put something like that on a resume?

I hear the expression "be right back" a lot of the time and it's abbreviation "brb".  I wonder if there could also be room for such an expression as "be left back".  If so, then "be right back" would be when the focus is on the return of the speaker, and "be left back" would be more focussed on that the individual is leaving but even though he has left he will be back at some point. 

Hmmm, well anyways this being said, I'd like to take the time to capture an expression of mine of related consequences.  People also use the expression "be back laters" written as "bbl" or "bbls".  I look at how that is spelled and I have to think "bubbles".  So to this day, when I am leaving, I'll often say "bubbles!"  Not to mention there is this cute image I have of a baby saying "bubbles" from some cartoon, I think it was the beginning of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?   "Bubbles!"

3/23/04 There is a new Will Smith movie coming out called IRobot, which reminded me of a story out of the Animatrix, where man turned on his robot servants because one robot through some circumastances kills a man. Very soon after seeing this trailer I had a related experience in a video game.  I was playing Socom II, where you can move around with a team of Navy Seals and you can use a microphone to give them orders like to follow you or to attack enemies. So on this one level I just ran right into a huge fire fight.  There were people shooting from every direction, so I swept around to the left and took out those bad guys and the circled back around behind the bad guys that were shooting at my computer controled Seal teammates.  I snuck directly behind one of them and took him out, and then as I watched him fall I saw my Seal team mate in front of me proceed to shoot and kill me. 

I couldn't believe it.  My artificial intelligence teammate actually killed me!  It's a mistake that you could see another person making, who just careless shoots everything, but this was the computer!  They were supposed to be precise.  And their reaction time should be much faster than a person's would be.  But then I realized accidents will happen.  Even if a robot it programmed not to harm people in any way and they follow that program without question, there is still the possibility of random circumstances causing a machine to accidently harm a person.  It does not mean that all robots are going to turn against us and start killing us, as the movies often portray, but it just means that sometimes these things will happen.  We should be aware of that and not react out of fear, judging the fate of all robots together.  Funny, isn't it?  That a game which similates modern warfare, actually led me to being against warefare (with robots) by making me concious of events that led needlessly to war and ultimately the near excitction of mankind in so many movies at the hands of their own robots. And they say kids don't learn anything from video games!

2/25/04 I play a lot of video games where the hero runs around and gets tired or hurt, but then when he gets a bottle of something or some food, he's magically restored to full health and stamina. I think I subconsciously buy into that idea when I drink Gatorade or an Energy Sobe, that it's somehow magically revitalizing me. So much so in fact, that I just now refilled such a bottle with water, and when I drink from the bottle I still feel recharged with this magic power.

2/5/04 Today I found myself pondering, as I have often done in the past, on the relationship between physics and drinking a beverage.  In particular the variants in the experience when an accelerated force is applied to you.  Traditionally, I have noticed this in the car, and I highly recommend trying this if you have occasion to.  Get a drink (non-alcoholic) ready to be consume then press gas pedal down and feel the drink just flow into your mouth.  It's quite exciting how the wonderful taste of the drink fills every taste bud in your mouth in such a rapid amount of time, yet at the same time it seems so effortless.  You don't have to tilt the cup up to make it slide down, you don't have to suck it out of the cup either, it just comes.  I recommend doing this as the driver rather than as a passenger, cause you can vary your acceleration accordingly to maximize the intake, while still not being so much that it's all over your face and sometimes then the windshield.

I had a new experience of this nature in the elevator today.  I was drinking from a Sobe bottles as the elevator started to lift me upward.  It was only a brief moment, but it does sort of capture the effect of the car acceleration effect (in a much safer environment).

1/7/04 Dilemma, I usually like to not get so much ice with my drink, because ice is just water, and I want to get as much drink as I can for my buck.  But now I have found a conflicting methodology (not the obvious one that the drink needs to be cold, cause that can be achieved with very little ice).  I find I finish the drink too fast and now at the end of my meal i have nothing.  But when I have too much ice, even if I finish my drink early, the ice continues melting, such that at some later point I still have more to drink.

But it's so cold these days, it would be foolish to add more ice.  The worst part about a cold drink on a cold day to me is not drinking it; it's holding the cold cup. So my partial solution is also a counter intuitive one. Usually you'd want to keep your drink until you sit down and start eating to match the drink and food ratio correctly.  But if you resist that, you can drink a significantly amount of your drink before, enough to make the top of the cup grippable, without feeling the icy waters on the other side of the paper cup.  Plus it gets you to start consuming something fast and easy, vs reaching into a bag and trying to handle some part of your food and probably getting it all over the place in transit.  So this helps in getting more ice with your drink and still making it handleable, but it contributes to the main problem of not having enough to drink when you are eating. So your hand will not shiver, but surely you will find yourself sipping small amounts of melted ice as you eat.  Which is somewhat pitiful.

Perhaps a balance between each of these techniques can be attained.  But if not, I'll either have to get up and get another drink, or sit an be thirsty. 

11/25/03 I have a bag of these Nerds candies here at my desk. Half of them are grape and half are strawberry. But each time I randomly pull one out, it's always strawberry.  Four times in a row!  I suspect it is a glitch in the matrix.  On the other had it could be the four boxes of Nerds I just ate that is getting to my brain.  How can you trust your own mind when sugar is involved?

11/24/03 I ran into something of a puzzle today.  I warn you now though, this mystery is not for the faint of heart and it delves into the mysteries of the men's restroom which some might say should remain secret.  For children under 13, parental guidance is suggested.  That having been said, I will say something has been disappearing and reappearing in the men's restroom here at work, and I cannot begin to fathom why.  They have these plastic contraptions in each of the men's urinals to hold a solid white discs of "pleasant" smelling stuff.  I thought this was a strange attempt to make the bathroom smell nicer but didn't think much of it until, yes, one day the plastic contraption disappeared, leaving only that little circular bar of smelly stuff in the urinal. 

Some time later the plastic encasing was back.  And then a day or so later it disappeared again.  This has been happening on and off, and it has now prompted my curious attention.  My first reaction was that it broke and needed to be fixed.  But considering the frequency of it's disappearance, that seems unlikely.  Even further, I don't believe any man in this building could relieve himself with such force, so as to damage this contraption.  The complete disappearance of the thing makes me rule out accidental knocking out or displacing of the thing.  So someone must be purposefully removing it.  But what vandal would take the take and effort to keep stealing the casing for a urinal scent refresher and also at the same time take the effort to remove the refresher and leave that behind in the urinal.  This doesn't seem likely either.  So I'm gonna have to leave this case open for now.

11/17/03 On TV the other day I saw a home decorator who didn't use a single pattern on any of the floors or cabinets. No flowers, no tiles of different designs, no natural wood patterns even, just plain white everywhere. So what's the big deal, you might ask. It's just an all white house. Well this all white house had the most intricate and evolving patterns of all.

He used light to give pattern and design to his building. Carefully positions windows, and light fixtures to cast shadows intricate designs along the floors and walls. And as, such a big source of light is the sun, the patterns in the house change over the course of the day, so the house doesn't quite look the same as the day progresses.

So the next time you see me making shapes in my mashed potatoes or sculpting my vanilla ice cream, you'll know what I'm thinking. That you can make something from apparently nothing, and that something can evolve and change and become more than you might have accomplished through more traditional means.

11/13/03 I was chatting with my friend today and she said "happiness is when you are happy about yourself...that way you can be happy with others".  Most noble wisdom.  I observed this in the car today when a driver ahead of me suddenly came to a complete stop in the fast track lane.  She was looking all over the place, and then after a few moments changed lanes to the left to get out of the fast track lane.  Initially I was totally shocked by the sudden exhibition of cluelessness.  I felt myself starting to get worked up about how the driver had so rudely interrupted my pleasant drive to work with this unthinkable act.  But then, I didn't.  I couldn't.  I was compelled to think of the person's perspective. 

She saw a wide open lane and got into thinking she would just pay her money and go through, but then to her astonishment there was person in the booth to take her money.  So thought something was seriously wrong perhaps, like the attendant had fallen ill and they hadn't closed the lane yet.  And all these signs everywhere that said "FastTrack Only" must have been pretty confusing.  So she turn her time and careful chose another lane to go through.  How could I get mad at her for that?  So I went back to being a good mood, bouncing along with my new cd of music. 

11/12/03 There is a game I play a lot called Diablo 2, and in this game you find items that are rare and valuable.  Often times I find more items that my character can hold by himself.  So I use a technique of hiding some of these items which I want to keep in different places of the town.  Then I leave the game and come back as a different character who has space to hold the items.  This concept of hiding things I want to have at another time has followed me to the real world with mixed results.

At my work place has many storage cabinets all over that are empty and unused.  Sometimes when I am walking around I might be carrying something such as papers I just printed or perhaps a drink, and then I realize I need to go somewhere and that having those papers or the drink would be an inconvenience to me.  So I just stash them in the nearest cabinet or up high somewhere that no one ever looks and then come back for it later.  Perhaps this shows how at home I really feel at work.  Well I've done this at stores too.  At best buy there were these free demo discs that they give out, but only one per customer.  So to ensure there would still be some left I hid them behind other merchandise on the shelf, and sure enough the next time I came to the store, they were still there.  At ToysRUs I was doing this deal of spending $100 dollars and getting a free stuffed animal multiple times.  I first picked up all the items I wanted and then hid some while I bought the first hundred dollars worth of stuff, and then returned only hours later, to find that they had already put away my hidden items.  They must really be watching you like a hawk in that store, now I know never to try to pull off some kind of scam at a casino, they are watching....somewhere. 

Anyways I thought of the movie, Amelie, where a girl find a hidden box in the wall of her apartment and then goes about trying to find the previous owner of the box.  I find great novelty in the idea of hiding items in different places of the world, with the thought of either returning one day to find them, or the novelty that someone else might find the hidden treasure and what delight that might bring them.  I hope if I ever stumble upon someone else's hidden treasure that I might recognize it as such, and experience the thrill that should come along with finding such.

11/10/03 It's night time now, and boy has it gotten cold.  Must be an end of the year thing.  But anyways, I picked up the mail and it was really cold outside so I run into the house.  Then when I was inside, I didn't want to open the mail, cause the envelopes were cold to touch.  I'm probably one of the only people in the world who has waited for their mail to heat up before opening it. 

I've been looking at the online sites for traffics schools and lots of them have sections for returning students.  Wonder if I will get a volume discount as a repeat customer someday.

11/5/03 I was just thinking about things can see everything.  Spirits, ghosts, gods, aliens, I'm not saying I think any of these things in particular exist, but if they did and they had the ability to see everywhere what would that be like for them.  Would they mainly watch like dressing rooms or other places people like not to be seen?  If they can see anywhere would be also stand to reason that they could see through clothes and not care observe people as they change out of them?  Or maybe they could see through our clothes, but our bodies underneath our clothes are really dark (cause they are in the shade of our clothes). 

Beyond just wondering if one can be seen or not, I considering that there are a lot of people in this world.  So what would it take for me a single person to get noticed doing anything?  Would I have to stand up and say "Hi people that can see everywhere! I know you're watching! Look at me!  Look at me!"?  Or would I always just blend into the masses like a needle in a haystack?

11/2/03 Sometimes I miss freeway exits.  In fact it happens enough that I just had a dream about missing a freeway exit.  I normally just take the very next exit and try to double back.  But now, given enough time to think about it maybe that is not always the best course of action.  The "next exit" could be a really minor street sometimes with no way to get back on the highway going the opposite direction, so you end up driving all over the place on city streets trying to go parallel to the highway to find a way back.  It is also sometimes the case that the next exit is a major highway, which could mean you are stuck going in that direction for a pretty long time.  Maybe it is best to just stay on the highway you are on, until you see an exit which looks like it has a way for you to turn around.  I'm going to try this out for a while and see how it goes.  Hopefully it will at least improve my dreams.

10/29/03 I am so mad, well okay not really really mad, just pretty mad, well as mad as I get.  Pizza hut wronged me today.  A few months ago my friend bought a coupon book with coupons to all kinds of things and he gave me all the fast food coupons because he knows of my affinity for fast food.  So I've been getting great deals at Jack in the Box, Burger King, Carl's Jr, Wendy's, McDonalds and Taco Bell.  Truly delightful.  But today I went to Pizza Hut and they said they would not take the coupon.  So I asked if they knew of a Pizza Hut that did take Pizza Hut coupons, and they said no Pizza Hut anywhere would take the coupon.  I was stunned.  That just seems so wrong.  I resisted the urge to make a scene as there were children present, heh.... and just went to Taco Bell for a Mexican Pizza instead.  I called up my friend and told him he should get his money back for the coupon book, or sue them and pizza hut for emotional damages.  I'm sure he'll get right on that.....  hahahah.

Recently I've been having a lot of trouble with my cell phone. Calls are getting dropped all the time, and sometimes I can't make outgoing calls.  My phone says "Not Allowed" on it, which really freaks me out.  I mean, I understand when it says "No Signal" cause that just means I don't have good reception where I am.  Fine, I can deal with that.  But for my phone to tell me I am not allowed to make a phone call.  I just think, "Why not?!?! Is it against some strange AT&T Wireless rules to make a phone call at that time?"  But again I hold in my rage, and blame it all on the solar flares.  Yeah that's it.... 

Oh I remembered another funny thing from the traffic court yesterday.  One guy rescheduled an appearance to show proof of registration for this Friday (Halloween) and the judge warned him not to come to court dressed in a costume or he might get arrested.  He further digressed into contemplating with his bailiff and court recorder if they should all dress up.  The judge was thinking about the old fashioned robes with a large staff, but then dismissed the idea, because Fridays were small claims court cases, and they rarely have a sense of humor.  Yeah, traffic court is where all the fun is for sure.

10/28/03 I made my mandatory court appearance for my 85 mph speeding ticket today.  I went there kinda nervous about what they'd do with me, but actually ended up having a pretty good time.  First we got in a line to say that we were there.  Then we sat around waiting for the court to commence, and just hanging around the hallways I got to hear lots of funny stories of how people got their tickets.  I got some old oreos from my car left over from my trip to Tahoe, and just hung out with the other unfortunates exchanging sob stories.  I was stressed out too much actually, cause I knew I deserved a good ticket for all the speeding I've done.  I was just hoping they wouldn't throw me in jail or something for reckless driving. 

They turned out to be really overbooked so the judge was offering reduced fines and traffic school to encourage people to plea guilty and setting up trial dates.  Most people did go for it.  In fact, one chinese woman yelled out with joy "YES!" when asked if she wanted to take traffic school, much to the amusement of the court.  The judge was a real character.  One woman said she got the ticket on her first day after moving to the area.  The judge said he had a couple things to tell her, first of them was "welcome" which brought a roar of laughter from the court.  One guy said he'd spent the morning at the DMV getting his license and registration problems resolved.  To which the judge replied, "that should be punishment enough".  Yeah it was fun bonding with my fellow violators.  They were people from all walks of life; business men, carpenters, young, old, men, women.  To that end I have to credit the law with being nondescriminatory....if that's a word.  There were a fair number of speeders there, but most of them were there for not having a license or registration or insurance, and a couple of U-turns in a business district.

I learned some stuff too.  CHP doesn't use radar.  They just match your speed then look at their speedometer.  However local city law enforcement does use radar, so still gotta watch of for them.  Also there is some kind of new detection method just coming out.  I need to do some research into what that is all about. 

My coworker said I should make a movie about traffic court.  I think it would be most entertaining, but I think I'd probably get arrested for it. 

A while back I was crawling through traffic approaching the bay bridge.  I went through the fast track toll booth and the device beeped with it usual indication that the tool had been paid from my account.  Then the car in front of me stopped moving, forcing me to stop as well.  My imagination took over and I pictured with horror what it would be like to suddenly start hearing my fast track device beeping over and over while I was stuck inside the toll booth, charging me over and over for the toll.  By the time I got through I could be billed hundreds of dollars.  Luckily it seems the designers of the system worried about this problem too, and did something to make it not happen, though I'd feel better if I knew what they did.  Heh.

I rode in a beetle convertible the other day.  That was fun!  I had my hands up in the air like riding a roller coaster.  It feels so free.  One very odd feature of the car was that it came with a little mini vase and a slot to place the vase, so you could put a flower in your car.  That just seems strange, but does add to the value of having a thermometer built into the car too.  You don't wanna cook your flowers.

9/18/03 Today at Jack in the Box I witnessed something novel.  It was like time traveling only not.  I was there, and these two kids, probably in 5th grade or so, were there buying food in front of me.  The boy was paying for the girl and they were carefully reviewing all the options on the menu and comparing to the amount of money they had to spend.  One of them got a large drink and the other got a normal drink.  After they filled their drinks they went to get their lids.  Each of the lids reside in a compartment with a label reflecting the size.  There was normal, large, and quencher.  The boy did as I had once done and tried to the large lid with their large drink, only to find that the large lid is what is used on the normal drink and that he needed the biggest one (the quencher) to cover his drink.  And I believe he felt the same rush of feeling that he had received a drink bigger than he had paid for (a large).  Oh yeah, and "quencher" is a rare enough word to read that he called it the queen size lid, but that's beside the point.

I marveled at how just the perception of getting more than you paid for could be so exciting.  So much so that I no longer found the incompatibility of drink size and lid size names to be not a mistake, but rather a clever marketing scheme to get customers to feel better about their drinks.  Only Jack knows for sure.  But yeah it was like time traveling, both in thinking of being a little kid again and looking at Jack in the Box with the eyes and views I had then, but also time traveling ahead to more recent times when I realized this whole lid scheme.

In other news I got the last of the Jack football antennae balls in Redwood City.  Not sure if I will seek them out in another city or just wait for the next promotion.  Oh, speaking of promotions, I went to Best Buy again today.  See for the past two days the Sony "Playstation Patrol" truck has been parked in the Best Buy parking lot giving out free stuff.  Yesterday I got a hat (for buying a game with a five dollar off coupon they gave me).  Today they gave me a couple key chains, a magazine, and I used another coupon they gave me to buy another game to get yet another hat.  Gosh I like free stuff!  Now if only the hat at been quencher size.....

9/11/03 So for lunch today, I made my usual trek to Jack in the Box and got another free antennae ball, but that is not what was interesting.  One of the things which marked today as different from any other Jack in the Box day, was that neither I nor the cashier had any small dollar bills.  So upon purchasing my meal with a 20 dollar bill, I relieved a handful of quarters in return.  No had there been a video arcade near by I would have been delighted, but as it stands I had a whole long of coins jiggling in my pocket with every step.  There was further excitement when upon viewing each of the coins I found one of those special state quarters for Vermont, which features someone with a scarf collecting buckets of something from trees (perhaps syrup or rubber or both).  This prompted me to review all of the state quarters in my possession and I found the one for New York, giving me a warm sense of patriotic pride for how we as a country have overcome the tragedies of a previous september 11th.  I also so one for New Hampshire.  This quarter was from the year 2000 and was fairly worn already, and I couldn't make out the image it had on it, but I did see the words on it "LIVE FREE OR DIE".  This struck me as something rather strong to find on a piece of government issued currency.  It's more like what I would expect to find on a skateboard or some kind of sports drink.

I've noticed thus far much of my reflections found here revolve around food or driving.  Only fitting then that my next though is about both.  It is about driving back to work from lunch.  I was casually eating a fry every here and there out of the bag as I started out, and well a remarkable thing happened.  Well okay the thing itself was not remarkable, but the fact that it happened every single time possible.  See, I was driving back and at every intersection I came to with a traffic light, the light turned red just for me.  It was amazing.  Lights that I had never stopped at before were red today.  And all I could think about was how lucky I was.  No that is not sarcasm.  I really felt lucky to get those stop lights.  Because due to my recent ventures in gambling, I realized that if I go through stoplights a good number of times, some of the times it will be red and some of the times it will be green.  Oh yes and of course sometimes yellow, but let's put that aside for now.  So if inevitably some of my encounters with a traffic light will be reds, I thought it was most fortuitous that I used up so many of my red encounters today when I had a bag of fresh french fries sitting next to me, and no pressing need to get to my destination in an urgent fashion.  My logic was that by taking my reds then at a time that was not an inconvenience to me, then when I was in a hurry at some other time, my chances of getting a green would be that much higher, because I had already had my quota of reds.  Okay, I admit there is a certain degree of madness to this conclusion, but it was enough to keep my smiling through each of the many stoplight on my merry way today.

9/8/03 A lot has been happening in the world.  There are two new kinds of Cheezits. One is Sour Cream and Onion, and the other is Chili Cheese.  While the variety is something nice, neither is as good as White Cheddar.

I had my first real taste of gambling this weekend.  I went to Tahoe for my cousin's birthday festivities.  Despite being really scared of being so addicted to it I lose every cent I have....I had a good time and even came out on top a hundred bucks.  I know it's probably just an evil scheme of the casino trying to lure beginners back so they can make tons more money later....kinda like investing in the naive.  Another thing that stuck my attention at the casino was the freshly cut grass out front with a good couple dozen pine cones dropped all over it.  It had an eiry feeling about it.  It was almost as if the pine cones were placed there on purpose after the grass had been cut, and I picture what if other places did stuff like that...like a freshly cut grass area at Vegas with dried up cactus here and there...or maybe the grass in Hawaii having coconuts scattered about. 

Football season started this weekend.  I normally wouldn't be that excited about it, but I'm trying my hand at Fantasy Football this season.  With Fantasy Baseball I found that having players on your make believe team, enhanced your interest and enjoyment in an ordinarilly somewhat boring sport to follow.  So while I never paid much attention to football before, maybe this Fantasy game will also spark new interest in the game.  In baseball I had suprise heros such as Coco Crisp to lead my leam to above average standing.  In football I'm calling upon the likes of Rambo and Fuamatu-Ma'afala.  Players in football just have really cool names.  I've also got Kato Serwanga, Siddeeq Shabazz, Osi Umenyiora, and Kailee Wong.  There's just something really cool about having a team of players whose names you can't even pronounce.  Some guys I picked up because their names imply they would be good football players, like Frank Strong and Julian Battle.  And I even found two guys that combined form my name!  Ian Gold and Martin Chase have already gotten me an interception for the season.  May their luck continue to follow me through the season.

Well I'm really thirsty.  I'm gonna take a trip to the vending machine.  Funny after seeing all those slot machines at the casino, I now see buying my soda as a gamble in itself....since sometimes it doesn't give me a soda, and sometimes it gives me two.  I hope I win today.

(minutes later)

I lost!  Well kind off... I always walk to a specific vending machine in the building because it had Mountain Dew and Orange Soda and it's the only machine in the building that had them.  Well today that machine had a note on it saying that the dollar bill reader thing was broken so I checked and I had enough change to get the soda still.  I put my money in and looked all the soda buttons and none of them were Mountain Dew or Orange Soda anymore!  In horror I got my money back from the machine and went to every vending machine in the building only to find that all the machines now mostly just colas and sprites!  How sad....I will need to make inquiries later.

8/25/03 In baseball if a pitcher throws the all and hits the batter the batter gets a free base.  I think it's kinda weird then when the pitcher then starts throwing at the guy when he's on first base.  I know it's supposed to be to hold the runner close to the base.  But on the other hand it's like, he's hit him once already, does he really need to try to do it again?

I went to Jack in the Box today because it had been just way too long since I'd been there.  Much to my delight they had free Jack antenae balls when you bought a large combo.  That made me really happy, though I got way more fries than I could possibly eat.  The drink I got was a extra super duper large too!  I think the guy messed up there, but that's more joy for me.  So during this journey I was discussing an idea, of installing lights or a sign of some kind on every car which you could set your current state of mind in.  Like if you were in a real hurry and were going to be actively passing people when you'd have like a red flag or light on your car, but if you were just driving and kinda trancing out in automatic pilot it would have a blue flag or something.  The more hightech version of this would just be some sort of holographic display that showed up in your windshield highlighting cars and the status of each driver.  Maybe even some history could appear as well, like how many accidents that driver had been in or relevant info that would shape how closely you would drive to that person.  Destination might be cool for those long road trips where you just want to find someone to pace with on your journey.  Hmmm, I think the internet has gotten me used to having information at your fingertips.  Could it be a peek at the future? 

7/14/03 My fascination with our soda machine here continues.  In the past I have noticed that whenever I buy a soda from the machine, the refrigeration motors and stuff inside some to life I presume to make sure that the next soda to be dispense will be as most excellently chilled as the one before.  But today I walked in and the machine was already humming away.  This could have been because someone else had bought a soda before me.  In any event I went at bought my soda and the machine went silent after giving me my drink.  I can find no reasonable explanation for why buying a soda would make the machine cease it's refrigeration duties.  I'm sure this will haunt me for the rest of the day.

This past weekend I got a chance to train with Zero Gravity, the martial arts stunt team that makes a lot of really cool movies.  It was great to meet the actors and get some instruction from them.  They were all really nice and just cool guys!  At one point I got to practice fight choreography, but the only other person that wanted to do it too was this girl that was a couple feet shorter than me.  Everyone else wanted to learn to do more tricks.  Well, height doesn't really matter that much I guess cause the guy that was helping us out, Tony Chu, is always fighting guys a lot taller than him in the movies and it looks rad!  Heh....  so it was fun working out a fight combination of punches and kicks, I haven't done that in a while. 

7/6/03 Lately I've found myself drifting further away from my online life.  I mean I'm someone that was serious into everything that one could do online.  I gamed online.  I shopped online.  I chatted online....met new people....conversed with old people....okay not old like they were grandparents now or anything but people I've known a long time, well you know what I mean.  I maintain two fantasy baseball teams.  I do a lot of my work online.  I've played with buying and selling play stocks online.  I have maintain two webpages that communicate who I am and what I've been doing to anyone that cares to stop by and look. I've spent fair ammounts of time looking at other people's webpages and looking at profiles for people....learning what they are like in great detail without every speaking a word to their face.  Life online is intoxicating.  It's constant input....either from a friend popping online or a game you're playing with a stranger.  Someone is always there.  And thus you are never alone.

So recently I've felt myself pulling away from this online life.  Visiting things you can do in the real world.  It's kind of a strange feeling after all this time.  I described it to a friend saying it is like sitting at a bus stop on a hot summer day. You notice the cool breeze from the wind. You see all kinds of people walking by.  There is a feeling that you know you know something is coming, some big event or activity. But for long moments of time, nothing requiring your input or reaction may happen.  You can sit undisturbed, alone, just feeling the world go by.  It's also like putting things on pause, so you can notice things that you wouldn't normally see.  You see a leave blowing down the sidewalk with a plastic bag.  You see ants crawling along a crack in the concrete.  You see the people who are close to you and how great it is that they are there in your life.

6/26/03 Today I realized that a double quarter pounder with cheese is actually a half pounder with cheese.  I went to the local junior college to sign up for a class yesterday.  It's a class that I've been attending for two weeks, but could not register for before it started because a bunch of people has already filled up the class.  Then of course, many of those people dropped out of the class after the first day and then there were then open spots for me, but I could not register then either.  The registration system simply said "FAILED" in its attempt to register.  I called in by phone to try to add the class and the system there said I had to come in person to register.  So turns out yesterday was the last day to register so I went in person to work this thing out, my teacher even gave me his personal cell number that they could call to confirm that he did have spaces open in the class and that he wanted me in....but no, the admins there wanted a form to be signed by him which he could not do because he would not be coming to campus for that or the following day.  My friend who is in the class thought that they should want to get all the money they could get from people and let me in, but I am getting the feeling that there is some other agenda on their minds.  Maybe it's like that movie Major League where the owner tried to create conditions so that no one would attend, and then she could move the entire team to a more desireable location.  Will my school be moving?  Or was it just the case that I fought the system and the system won.  What we all take from that victory....may be viewed as less that victorious, but that will make what comes next all the more glorious.  Marked for F 3: Trying to Sign Up For Classes.  Coming soon to a theater near.... FAILED.

6/17/03 Sitting in my room late at night, I had all of the lights off in the room so there was total darkness except the light that came fromt the three monitors that sit on my desk.  Two of the monitors are really crisp and bright LCD screens and the other is a big old tube monitor.  Through out the night I kept seeing little mothlike bugs flying and banging against the screen on the dimmer old tube monitor, and was puzzled that the bug would be attracted to the dimmer of the 3 screens.   Like, if moths are attracted to the flame....then they light the light and would then go to the brightest light, right?  But then I realized, what if it's not the light of the flame that the moth is attracted to.  I put my hand on the old monitor and then my other hand on one for of the LCD monitors.  Then I understood.  The old monitor generates a lot more heat than the new LCD monitors do, so perhaps it was the heat that the bug was flying to.  I'm not sure how much of the heat the bug gets by bouncing his head off the glass repeatedly, but then again, I am not a bug.

6/16/03 This morning I was driving through San Francisco and came across three bright yellow taxi cabs.  They were driving moderately aggressively using slower lanes to overtake slow cars in the fast lane.  I tagged along with their convery and then mixed in with them, by going left to pass a car they passed on the right, that sort of thing.  They were fun to drive with cause they seemed to be driving like a team.  I lost them around the airport, but there I saw an even more amazing thing.  A BART train passed over me for the first time over there.  I guess they just openned the BART connection going there over the weekend.  Pretty neat to see it in action. 

6/15/03 Today there was a cat in my backyard.  Is this unusual?  No, actually lots of cats go through our yard all the time.  But what was unusual was that I could actually walk up pretty close to this cat and it wouldn't run away immediately.  My friend and I approached it in the tennis court after playing some basketball.  (Yes, we play basketball in a tennis court)  The cat ran when we got too close, back and forth in the court, but then it just sat down.  So we kneels and watched it.  Then I slower got closer and closer, until it let me pet it.  It was quite a ground breaking experience after over a decade of just seeing cats run away whenever they saw or heard you. 

5/31/03 It's Saturday and I'm here at work...one of the rare occassions they need us to work on Saturdays.  Everyone has finished their work, but I'm a little bit slow.....well I find lots more problems that are probably insignificant in the big picture.  So people have left and I'm here alone.  It's nice, I kind of think better when everyone is gone, but anyways, I went to get a drink of water and coming out of the kitchen was a man with really large knives in each of his hands.  He smiled quite personably and said hello and we walked by each other. 

The moment it happenned I was caught of guard, cause I thought everyone was gone and I didn't know who the guy was.  A few moments after was walking past me I felt a little nervous realizing that a strange man had suddenly appeared very close to me holding very large and very dangerous knives.  If that man's intentions had been....ill tempered, my chances of survival would not have been that great.  Well, I'll be happy for the rest of today that the word he spoke was hello....rather than good-bye.

5/28/03 I remember there was a time when I had gotten soup for lunch, and I took a chance on some soup that I wasn't really sure about (it had vegetables).  The soup was, well, lets say healthy tasting, so I used the crackers that came with it, to bring enjoyment to the soup.  That was good for a bit, but then there were no more crackers and still lots of soup left.  This was a moment of great turmoil and distress. 

Since that day, I'm gotten soup many times always choosing soups I had great confidence in.  This soups have such exquisite taste that I don't even use the crackers and I just put them aside.  As you might expect, now I have a massive collection of crackers.  And today I wondered, is it better to have good soup and too many crackers, or is it better to have yucky soup and not enough crackers.  One favors effieciency, while the other favors luxery.  At this point in my life I think the stack of crackers brings a smile to my face.  Maybe when I grow up one day, that will change.  That is....if I grow up.

5/12/03 I was filling up a bottle of water....something I do many times in a given day, and I thought of this scenario, where a robot were to fill a bottle of water everyday.  And each day he waits until the bottle reaches a certain level and then stops to get a perfectly filled bottle of water as only a robot can do.  But then one day the robot decides to show off for a little girl walking by or something like that and he lowers the bottle way way far down, but the water still flows all the way down through the openning of the bottle without wasting a drop, as only a robot can do.  He waits to the usualy level of water is bottle and then stops it, excepting to have a perfectly filled bottle of water again.  But no, some water spills over the edge!  Why is that?  Well, because he had the bottle further down and he stopped dispensing water at the exact same moment as he usually did, there was more water, still falling, in the air! So the bottle could not hold this extra water and it spilled over the edge, making the girl cry.  But there is no use crying over spilled water.

5/10/03 People talk about having a fear of heights and how it's such a bad thing....okay usually in movies and such. But just now I was looking over a railing from the top floor of this building and I looked down at the concrete pavement below and wondered considered what it would feal like if the railing I was leaning against suddenly wasn't there and I fell down to that pavement. What I can only describe as a fear of heights then caused me to lean a little lighter against that railing. I think it's a good thing, this fear of heights, and it's probably kept a lot of people alive, having this fear that encouraged people to not fall to their death or injury.

While I was out there, looking at the ground, a girl came out of the classroom and walked behind me down the hall. I had my reflective moment about fear of heights and then turned away from the rail and walked back to the classroom. On the way, a guy who had also come of the classroom approached me and said "She's cute, huh?" I blinked looking at him for a moment, as my mind was quickly rewinding through my time at the railing just now, and then I recalled the girl that had come out earlier who was still walking off down the hall. I smirked and said, "Oh, yeah, sure, heh...." and I went back to class. Later I saw that the guy had sat across from that girl in class and found myself wondering how much his attention was focussed on the screen in front of him. Heh....

4/30/03 Today I returned to the soda vending machine which I visit so often.  While I have highly suspicious of the orange soda slot (which has robbed me by failing to deliver sodas to me on two occassians) I still feel compelled to test my luck with it, as I really like orange soda.  When I pushed the button today there was a loud commotion in the machine, and when I looked I was happy to discover that two orange sodas has fallen!  Victory is mine! 

4/29/03 My friend came to visit me at work today and we play pool and ping pong.  I had a great time dancing and jumping around trying to catch all the balls my friend was hitting to me.  One time he hit the ball clear to the other side of the table and I just flat out dove for it along the floor.  It was a nice clean dive, sliding hands first along the floor, but in order to keep from killing myself I kind of had to over shoot the ball a little and hit it with my hand or forarm I think.  Heh, it's really fun playing where you run and slide for every hit, but man, it gets you tired.  Play on....play on.....

4/28/03 Today's driving to work was interupted by a nice fellow who changed lanes from the slow lane into the faster lane where I was about to pass him, making me slow down as my car coasted up to his.  It has been raining so I had normal headlights on which I could now very clearly see reflecting off this car that had just cut in front of me.  There was no doubt that he must of seen me coming. 

Anyways I shrugged off the inconsiderate jesture and turned off my lights (which switches on the softer day time running lights instead).  Then the nice gentleman in the car in front of me raised his hand and extended his middle finger.  I couldn't believe he would have the nerve to do that when he was the one that had cut me off, an astonishment that still follows me around even now.  Anyways he accelerated to a boastful speed of 72 mph or so which took forever to pass the car that was in front of him.  After which time I used the open lane to pass him finally and he was gone from my rear view mirror in less than a minute.  As I was leaving him behind though it was nice that cars that were in front of me actually moved to the side to let me pass and then moved back in behind me.  I gave them a friendly wave, and found myself laughing at the guy that cut me off.  May his good karma serve him well.

4/24/03 While I was driving to work today I saw a bald man quickly move his hand to his mouth just as it appeared his whole body has a brief seizure.  Without the benefit of sound (not being in his car) it actually took a little thinking to deduce that the guy had sneezed.  I was marveled by the concept of a silent sneeze.  Found myself kinda watching this guy, as I was stuck in traffic and really didn't have anything else to look at.  Then he turned his head to the side and something shot out of his window and went flying high into the air until landing with a splat between the lanes.  Suddenly the marvelous notion of a silent sneeze was replaced by the silent act of spitting out one's window.  The contrast of the acts tickled me, so much so, that I started laughing.  I laughed quite a bit actually until he could take the traffic no more and exited the freeway.  I kinda was sad to see him go, but I thanked him for being my morning amusement and wished him well on his way.

4/17/03 Last night I went to the store to buy two dvds. One was an action movie that I had seen before and really liked, The Transporter. The other movie was that anime, Spirited Away, that won best animated picture I think. Anyways they had the one I had seen but the new one was sold out. After that I went to Jack in the Box and got something fancy...the chicken fajita pita meal. Now everytime I go to Jack in the Box I always get Lemonade, cause I like their lemonade and I never can get it anywhere else. But that night they had no more lemonade, so I got orange soda. Then I reflected on the night.... First I was able to get something familiar to me, but not get something new at the dvd store. Then at Jack I wasn't able to get what was familiar, but instead had to get something new. The ying and yang balance of the evenning seemed to be preserved. So I was happy, the orange soda was pretty good too.

4/2/03 I was playing with my koosh ball, tossing it up and catching it over and over.  It's very fun stuff I highly recommend it.   Well so then I placed it on the desk and was working on some other stuff, but now I look and it's gone! Well, ok, not quite gone. It's actually on the floor directly underneath where i placed it.  It is as if the desk just disappeared for a moment, lettting only the koosh ball fall but at the same time still holding the soda cans and mousepad and everything else up. It's very spooky. It's still sitting down there.  I haven't touched the koosh ball since then because I'm afraid I might fall through the floor with it.

3/10/03 I saw something most intriguing this morning.  There as some sort of winged bug crawling around on a book no and half and inch thick.  I observed it for quite a while, as it ran around the book in every direction.  It seemed to be looking desperately for a way off the book.  It would get to the edge and even crawl sideways along the edge a little but then give up and head back to the surface of the book.  On the face of the book he would sometimes take flight, flying upward for a brief moment and then landing back down on the book.  If he would just have done that off one of the edges he might have found his freedom.  But I guess it can be quite intimidating to jump or fly off the edge of anything.  In general it's probably a good survival instinct not to attempt that too often.  So for minutes i watched this bug run around on top of this book, captive only in the sense that he didn't seem to understand how to get off of it.  I thought perhaps this bug isn't that smart, cause after all our brains are many times over larger than this bug's so it is perhaps not fair to make judgments as to the bug's intelligence.  But then I looked on a more basic level.  If I were to try to squash the bug, even with my big brain, I would have had quite a hard time doing so, since he kept running around constantly always changing directions.  This credit I had to give to the little guy, and even considered that perhaps he knew what he was doing the whole time and was just toying with me, bragging that I couldn't squish him cause he was too fast.  So rather than leaving a stupid bug on that book, I could think I left a highly sophisticated and perhaps overly confident little individual to have his moment in the sun.  Hopefully the sun through the window does not cook him to a crisp.

3/4/03 Today I pulled up to a stop light with 2 left turns leading the freeway on ramp.  I was sitting the furthest left turn lane, and this old lady pull up next to me....well actually proceed a full car into the intersection and pull in front of me and kinda looked at me and smile while waving.  I was so puzzled when the light turned green I let her go ahead, trailing at a safe distance from the crazy person.  Once on the freeway I got over into the fast lane and took off.  I noted that she didn't even get on the freeway and just stayed in the exit only lane.

Traffic was pretty good the rest of the way to work.  Going across the San Mateo Bridge I had such a long clear straight away, I pushed it up to 106 mph and it held pretty well, and just when I was about convinced that the rumored 100 mph cut off was just a myth, the car jerked forward, and I figure out what had happenned last time.  When I approach these high speeds I ease up to them, to such a degree that momentum is doing most of the work of carrying the car forward and so the engine (thinking it's not doing much work) decided to downshift at 100+ mph!  That why the car lurched at that speed, not because of a built in cutoff on Saturns.  I guess that's another reason why real racers like stick shifts in addition to just more control of shifting times. 

3/3/03 I was driving to work and to work today and ended up behind a bunch of really slow moving trucks all going in a line at the same speed.  I was coasting up on this moving road block when I started to identify parts of each of the vehicles.  I thought about how the terminators looked at things outlining each part that provided useful information.  There was first the general shape of the truck, including it's size and shape.  Then scanning labels and signs on the vehicles.  Then analyzing the load of each vehicle.  In particular the truck I was following looked like it had a bunch of sheets of wire fencing, on laid on top of the other.  I remebered a time going across the San Mateo Bridge on a rainy windy day and similar sized sheet of wood got blown straight up in the air right in front of me.  I had hit the brakes and had the thing land right in front of my car and rolled over it.

No eager to repeat that feat, I moved behind another truck.  Not too much later I ended up behind this guy that I could see was holding a cell phone to his head, chatting away.  I consider anyone actually holding a phone to their head to only be about 30% paying attention to the road and that turned out to be the case with this guy.  I looked though his back window straight through his windshield to see he was closing in fast on a bunch of cars that were slowing up.  So I changed lanes over and when he slammed on his breaks moments later I blew by him.

2/24/03 I just read an email header that I thought said "how to turn on luggage".  Got me thinking that they must have some really fancy high tech suit cases or something.  Maybe they would unpack themselves or have built in entertainment systems or onboard travel information.  But yes, upon closer inspection, the email says "how to turn on languages".  But it was a journey I'm glad i took.  Maybe I can go to Samsonite with my ideas......if not then maybe Sony will be more receptive. 

I was up pretty late last night converting email joke forwards that people send me into webpages for this site.  It was quite entertaining, I'll have to thank the various people that sent them to me.  Now they'll be here for all to look at when every you all have an idle moment. 

I also chatted with an old friend yesterday whom I hadn't spoken with in a long time.  It was remarkable how much I noticed that I had adapted certain things from their personality to become part of my own.  I guess when I see something I admire, I try to make it my own.  Heh, now that just sounds like the Borg going around around assimilating everything.  But to a nicer degree, yes I think I do just that.

2/21/03 In looking around I see a lot of things I want. And I want different things on different levels.  I guess the question I must pose to myself is which things do I want to put the effort into getting, and perhaps on top of that which things can be gotten at all?  One things seems certain....one shouldn't let not deciding on something make the decision for you as to whether to get something or not.  The world does not ALWAYS come to your fingertips, heh, but it's nice when it does.  You know, looking at the thoughts I have here, I start to see that in time, any specific one could get lost amongst the many.  Once upon a time this happenned in my room.  I had so many posters, covering every inch of my walls and celing that I could not bring attention to a specific thing.  How to have everything, but still maintain focus?  I don't have the answer to that....maybe time will tell.

2/20/03 Well my amazement with that soda machine continues today.  Again I wanted to buy two sodas.  So bought one, and then planing to buy another one, I didn't take the can out fo the machine yet.  When I got the second one it made that loud thunk of a cad dropping but when I looked.....it was nowhere to be found.  I searched everywhere inside that thing with no sign of it.  As best as I can figure out, the soda flew down, slammed into the soda that was alread there, and bounced back up into the machine before the security door came back up and it can trapped weird place.  Someone else saw it too and said it was really bizarre.  I bought a 3rd soda, but only got one.  So I dunno what happenned.

2/11/03 I just went to buy a soda, two sodas actually, that being because I just had chinese food... so i'm very thirsty.  So went to the machine. Each soda costs 50 cents. I had no change but was not dismayed.... for I had a dollar and how perfect everything seemed that I would be needing two sodas and have exactly one dollar to spend. So I gave it my dollar and it accepted it... on the first try! No spitting it out! No flattenning corners.  It just worked.  Then I picked my first drink.  It came out.  Joy!  But then 2 quarter came out of the machine.  I made an ugly face at the machine as it attempted to tell me that I wasn't thirsty enough to buy another soda, but rather that I should just take one and and my money and leave.  But in defiance to its wishes I put the money back into the machine and bought my second soda.  As though I would let a machine tell me what I had to do.  Uh oh, gotta go now....the computer is telling me I need to restart my machine now for some reason....

1/31/03 How funny I just looked at the dates of the two previous entries and it looked like I went back in time from the 19th to the 16th.  I even went as far as checking the time stamps on the files.  I guess that shows how well I can read.

I have had a lot of interesting thoughts lately.  Another elevator one even....yeah the great insights I always have regarding the elevator and the summoning of it.  So here's today's scoop.  I work on the top floor of my building now.  So when I go to work, I push the up button on the elevator.  The up button is the only button available since we have no basement.  When I go home at night, I go and press the down button.  The down button is the only button available since the elevator does not go to the roof.  I never noticed the simplicity of this process until one day I took the stairs down to the 3rd floor for a soda and then approached the elevator.  I suddenly had to make a decision before I could step into the elevator.  I have to choose up or down.  I was puzzled at being placed in this state.  I stood their curiously considering my options.....okay not for a very long time, but it was most intriguing to have a choice.  Don't worry I did press the down arrow and went home just fine.  ;)

Another moment of brilliance came just two days ago.  I had a bowl of cereal.  Yeah I know, ooooo spooky......heh, no it wasn't alphabet cereal spelling out the answer to the universe, but here's the thing.  After I ate all the cereal and was drinking the milk, I came realize how truly awesome milk tastes after it's had cereal soaking in it for a while.  So amazed was I by the wonderful sensation, that I wondered if anyone had ever tried making pre-cerealized milk.  It could come in different cereal-flavors....  I know I would get it.  But yes, that was totally a moment of zen.

But contrary to my attempts to leave out anything too personal in this journal I think I will also add this.  Meeting someone new can make you review and question everything that exists in your life.  Is it cause there are fresh eyes looking upon it?  Or is it because you suddenly want to be better than you are?  Well be it a reminder or a wake up call, you are bound to find out something about yourself.  Just hope you like what you learn.

1/16/03 I've been having these weird dreams lately, like is any of this for real or not?  Heh, I dunno I just find myself dreaming day and night.  I like where I find myself in each dream, but how am I so easily falling into and out of these worlds which I am creating.  Would it be so bad to lose myself inside them?  One thing is for certain, I feel more alive today than I felt yesterday and the day before that....

11/19/02 From time to time today I was heard this really loud but short beep at the office.  I could not tell where it was coming from.  It was kinda spooky.  I could tell it was really close, but where?!  Well just now I found out where as my machine decided to make an extremely loud and continuous tone that would not be stopped until I finally shut off my machine.  Did something just die? 

11/11/02 I walked up to a goose today and it didn't really make much of an effort to get away. So I was wondering what would happen if I just bent over and picked it up.
My coworker envisioned with would probably try to bite me, but that he would pay 20 bucks if I brought to the lunch place and let it loose there..... ah, that path not taken.........

11/10/02 Last night I went bowling with my friend.  It had been a while, but contrary to other times when I hadn't bowled in a while, I was doing pretty horrible.  It was like my aim was just plain....off.  But I did improve 40 or so pins over 3 games, and I only fell down like twice!  The argument could be made that I was tired.  Well maybe... but a better argument could be made that I was distracted.  The group next to us has this guy who had this approach which was to run like a track runner up and hurling the ball with enough force to send every pin in every direction.  It was really something truly amazing to see. 

My friends and I were a pretty big group so it took a while for each turn to come up.  I was just looking across watching their game when in my peripheral vision I noticed someone was looking at me in their group.  My eyes shifted over and there was this really cute asian girl with long straight dark hair just looking directly at me.  First instinct was to look away, cause that's how it is when I accidentally make eye contact with someone I don't know.  But there was something about her, my gaze continued on.  Reality slowly set it, and a shy smile found my face and actually matched by her in turn.  There was a cheer from my crowd, and I slowly looked away to see all the pins were down and one my friends walking back from the lanes.  But in less time than you use to take a breath, my eyes were glancing back to the girl across the way, just a moment before her eyes also returned to meet mine. 

That's what the night was, a lot of glances and smiles.  Even if I had the courage to find out what was behind that smile, she was there with some guy.  My friend, who also noticed her and noticed me noticing her was giving me funny smiles the whole night, says in situations like that you're supposed to make some excuse to go the bathroom or something to get away from your respective groups and meet up for a word or two.  Eh, maybe, but I guess that's just the path not taken.

9/19/02 I went to Jack in the Box tonight and there was a new cashier there. (I go there enough to know he's new).  And he was.....well...... a little different one hand on his hip......talked with that prissy voice.... He was very friendly.  The guy in front of me was this big construction worker guy and i could tell he was freaked out.  He like messed up his own order and was trying not to listen to anything the cashier was saying and trying not to look at him.  It was so funny. I was almost looking around for a candid camera. He was really nice and funny... hahahhaha. He made like he was going to leave then turned around and was like "Oh would you like to order something too?" Probably the most memorable fast food cashier I've ever met except maybe the woman that also works there with the painted face made out of clay but that's another story.

There is a light in the ceiling which rattles intermittently throughout the day, most likely because the air conditioner is located in close proximity to it.  I've found you can make the rattling stop by putting a chair under it, standing on the chair and lifting the light fixture up in the air and setting back down.  But eventually it always comes back.  Just now (with nobody around in harms way) I grabbed a ball off my desk and hurled it at the noisy illuminated fixture.  But to no avail.  I repeat the effort a few times until finally the noise stopped for a number of minutes.  It probably wasn't the most efficient use of my energy, but I do believe it was the most satisfying.  Tomorrow I should bring a bigger ball.

9/3/02 Today at our teem meeting, we were welcoming back an old manager with applause, and then our team's manager walked in the meeting late and started waving as though the applause were for him which further invigorated the team. Later someone else walked in late only to receive an even greater round of applause. It was quite a festive meeting.

The gang went out to lunch while I was working on something, so I went out and got something on my own.  On my way back in, my mind was off in the far reaches of space, and pressed the number 1 (the floor I was on).  The doors promptly opened, and I had a revelation.  If you request something that is readily available it can be provided to you immediately.  Amused and satisfied with this discovered I requested to be taken to the fourth floor which took the normal amount of time I was used to for the doors to open once again.

8/19/02 I went out to lunch today and it is very windy. I was being tossed around like leaf in the wind. But then I came across a feather. I'm not speaking metaphorically, like there was another person being blown around, well actually there were, but that's not my point. I actually found a feather....a big one, maybe eight inches long. I thought about sticking it in my hat and calling it macaroni, but I had no hat. I did get a "Ravioli Tomato Parmesan" soup, though I was fooled. I was suspicious when I saw the word tomato but the other two words Ravioli and Parmesan gave me a false since of security but yes it's a tomato soup will little bits of ravioli. Oh well.

Further tragedy, I have four non-winning game pieces to taco bell and a 5th would get me a free taco. The game runs for another month but last time I went there they were out of game pieces. Now I know the meaning of....... "while supplies last". My friend said she'd go kick their "arshes", which I thought was quite noble. Maybe there's a Mexican Pizza in our future. Who knows? A cone for a cone.

8/12/02 Tonight I was driving home across the bay bridge and this red Toyota Tercel gets behind me and flashes his lights at me. I change lanes and he he follows and does it again. In the darkness of the night I could not make out the driver, but I don't think I know anyone with that kind of car. Anyways I lost him as I got on highway 24 heading towards the Caldecot Tunnel. I tried remembering what the license plate was and i was thinking 3xyzsomething and then I notice another car pacing along side me. I let him pull ahead and his license plate was 4xyzsomething. I followed him to the tunnel at a decent speed I might add. And they started playing that new remix of an old Elvis song on the radio. And then at around 75 mph following this guy with Elvis cheering me on, the tunnel went dark and Elvis hiccupped for a moment of silence. The beat rolled on soon enough, but the lights in the tunnel remained off. I thought to myself, terrorists usually cut the power when they take over something, but who would want to take over a tunnel. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, except for being passed by a car doing 90, to which I accelerated up to 80, only to be passed by a CHP probably doing 100. Luck was on my side tonight.

7/31/02 I was just sitting at my desk after eating two spicy chicken sandwiches from Carl's Jr. and I was getting kinda thirsty.  I looked at my desk and saw an empty water bottle that I had been drinking from earlier today, and I said, "awwwwww".  Then I looked to the other side of the desk and saw the Jamba Juice I had bought when I went out to Carl's and my "awwww" turned to joy. 

I just realized, this is probably the first journal that I haven't started out of being mad or sad or bored.....but rather cause I wanted too capture the little moments of my life from day to day.  Guess I find that important, cause I'm lacking in the big moments, heh, just kidding, I dunno.  I know someone that says "I dunno" a lot.  Hmmmm, I think I would say it a lot too, but I don't like other people to know I don't know, so.....I keep it to myself and end up being a quiet individual in person.  Funny huh?

7/30/02 A car cut me off today changing lanes from the fast lane into my lane.  I just released the gas and covered the brake pedal but did not touch it.  I think I was about 3 feet from their car, or about as close as you'd  be when you pull up behind someone at a stoplight.  If they had slowed down more, I would used my brakes, but as it was they eventually pulled away.  But my passenger was totally freaked out, yelling at me not to do that.  I asked if I should have slammed on the breaks and made a big fuss, and she said yes.  Guess that's just not my style.  Instead of I just let the car pull away from me, and then I changed lanes, passed her and cut over in front of her (with ample distance, since I'm not very comfortable cutting in front of people).  But i makes me laugh, those people that rush to cut in front of you and then end up driving slower that you would.  Lots of things about how people drive make laugh.  But lots of things about how I drive make people scream in terror or grab onto something for safety.  Eh, to ease his own...or her own.

7/29/02 Another long work day, so I went to Jack in the Box for dinner.  To my dismay it was the first time I'd seen a long line at Jack in the Box.   But then much to my delight there two very pretty asian girls waiting in line, also something I had not seen at that Jack in the Box, nor anywhere else in San Carlos for that matter.  It was a subtle reminder to myself of how much I seem to like asian girls.  Or a slap in the face reminder....heh, maybe that fits better, cause I really had a hard time not staring at them.  Ah yes, I'm such a guy.  I actually wouldn't have minded just staring at them my whole time there, but didn't want to creep them out, hahahah.  Probably did that enough in my own way.  Anyways, I got my 6 tacos and headed off to Jamba Juice where I decided to get a Peach Pleasure (a drink which still brings smiles and snickers around the work place for various reasons).  I hopped back in my car and was munching away and noticed the sun was setting just over the Electronic Arts building.  Was quite a sight...I was amazed how fast the sun actually falls when you watch it.  We tend to think of a day as being so long and vast, but really it's just a segment of time.  Took me 2 tacos to figure that out....heh.  After the sun set, I looked around and noticed a few other people around in the parking lot, sitting in their cars, eating....  Heh, I laughed at the lost novelty of my experience and went back to work.