-Jay, Owen, Jaymi, Shann, and Lianne came over to apartment last week. We bbq'd and they took a dip in the pool. I didn't feel like swimming, so I just chilled next to the pool. It was still nice out, even in the shade.

-Shann's car was stolen, during the night, in front of his house. Hella sucks. Sucks for him, cause school starts in a month and he was to drive to school and drive to the hospitals he's doing clinicals at.

Not to sound insensitive, but I'm about to go off on how this affects me. I had put a lot of work into that car. The day before it got jacked, I had just did some solder work on the main relay to fix the "overheating restart" problem, and it appeared to work. The week before, I did a full tune up: changed the oil, oil filter, spark plugs, spark plug wires, distributor cap, & distributor rotor. I even changed the transmission fluid and the oil pressure sensor, which was the source of a leak. I also replaced the fast idle, which fixed his "cold start" problem, and I helped install his one piece headlights. I hooked up his head unit, and bought him an amp to use with my spare sub that I had lying around. Sucks that all my hard work is now in someone else's hands.

Last Tuesday, Haile's cousin Mark was in town. Mark being Mark, he wanted to do an eating challenge, so we went to Suki Sushi in south Sac. They have a 4 roll challenge, with is roughly 4 pounds, but only cause they use hella rice in the challenge rolls.

Me & Haile split 3 rolls, and they used significantly less rice in these rolls than in the challenge rolls.

The rules were that he had an hour to finish the 4 rolls, salad, & miso soup. He couldn't leave his seat at all, and no one else could physically touch any of this food, or else he would be disqualified. Haile being Haile, he threatened to disqualify Mark numerous times, jokingly, and as "an out" if he couldn't finish. Well, turns out that he couldn't finish it all. He only finished 2 rolls and a couple pieces of the 3rd.

That's still hella to finish. Me & Haile were kinda full off 1.5 rolls. Mark was soo done with sushi after this, and didn't want it to go to waste, so he let me take the rest of it home. This lasted me 3 meals over the following 2 days (2 lunches & 1 dinner). I like sushi too much to actually do a challenge like this. I wouldn't want to be sick of sushi, ever.

This past weekend, I finally got around to cleaning my desk in my room, since it had been slowly turning into a giant mountain of miscellaneous crap over the years. So as I moving stuff around and organizing things into a “keep” and “toss out” piles, I came across my high school binder that I had used my senior year. It had my class schedule, some classwork from my english class, and my unofficial high school transcript. It also had my SAT II score and a mini-flyer for One Vo1ce. Craziness.....

As you can see, I wasn't an over-achiever in high school. I was basically in the top 1/3, was about a B+ average. I actually had the opposite of senior-itis, where I got my best grades my senior year. Weird, huh?

Then I also found my old CD binder from what looks to be around 2000-2002. Some of the CDs were labeled, some weren’t. So I started listening to them, and it instantly brought me back to those times. And the unlabeled CDs, those were like opening gifts at Christmas. Shock, awe, surprise, it’s a crazy feeling, this nostalgia. I would go on, but I decided to dedicated my next post to just the CDs & songs in that CD binder, cause it’s a kind of a crazy mix. I completely forgot about how much Limp Bizkit and happy hardcore (rave) music that I used to listen to.

And finally......POGS!! Do I even have to explain this one? We had a family party at my parent’s house for one of my cousins & uncle. I don’t how it came up, but my cousins wanted to go to my room, cause apparently no one’s been up there in like forever. So they go up to my room, make fun of my 15” CRT monitor, and then randomly ask if I still have pogs. Since not throwing anything out is in my DNA, of course I still had pogs. They were right next to my Magic (The Gathering) cards. So yeah, for about 10 mins we brought pogs back, and then like that we were soo over it. We were kind of amazing that pogs were even a thing back then.

Wed, July 4

• In-N-Out for lunch in Kettleman City. At least 39 Chinese kids, they were everywhere. We like to think that they were mathletes or something.

• Phil’s BBQ for dinner. The plan was to eat there, then watch the fireworks afterwards. But the wait was hella long, so we just took it to-go and ate in the room, so we missed the fireworks. Fortunately, it worked out for us because they screwed up the fireworks show that we were supposed to watch. It was supposed to be a 15 minutes show, it only lasted 15 seconds because somehow they ignited all the fireworks at the same time. Sucks for the people who waited hours & hours for that clustf@ck of a fireworks show.

• Met up with Mikey. Delivered some stuff from home.

Thur, July 5

• Rigoberto’s Taco Shop for lunch. Adobado ftw!

• San Diego Zoo – PANDAS!! and NO parking, had to park a couple miles away & take a free shuttle. and PANDAS!!

Giant Pandas!!

The "baby" om-nom-nom-ing on some bamboo.

• Pizza Port – hella good pizza & beer. hella good!

• Bonfire @ Ocean Beach

• Jasmine arrives

Fri, July 6

• Stone Brewery tour - free beer, good beer!

• Stayed at the Embassy Suites in Downey. They had a koi pond. With turtles!

• The Americana at Brand in Glendale - girls shop for 3 hours, guys wait for 3 hours

• Umami Burger - good, but kinda over-hyped, imho. Father's Office burger waaay better

• Robby & Robin arrive

Sat, July 7

• Universal Studios - Transformers 3D was dope, but The Mummy messed me up. Couldn't ride anything after that.

• Road to Seoul - omg, hella good, way better than I remember, but due to a "failure to communicate" and time restraints, not everyone got to experience the yummy awesomeness.

• Turning card games into drinking games: Survivor Dos, BS, Spoons - hella fun, killed the vodka & Nuvo hella fast.

Sun, July 8

• Porto’s Bakery - pretty good stuff. i see what all the fuss is about.

• Magnolia Bakery - pretty good banana pudding, it's like a Nation's banana cream pie, with bits of bread, stuffed in a pint ice cream container.

• Beverly Center - ate lunch at the food court & more shopping for the girls.

• Stupid traffic on I-5 - they closed 1 lane on a 2 lane highway, which caused roughly 2 hours of extended driving time.

Our last cousins road trip to SoCal was in 2008. We definitely need to go back again sooner, maybe spend more time in San Diego. There's a couple of free museums to check out, and the beaches are always nice.

It was awesome game until the 6th & 7th innings, then the 9th was really exciting. We were down 9-4 going into the bottom of the 9th, and we put up 4 runs off their closer, but we ultimately lost, 9-8.

We had no business even being that close. Brandon Moss committed 3 errors in 1 inning (2 of which came on the same play) that resulted in 2 unearned runs, which was the different in the game. Brian "WTF" Fuentes needs to be DFA'd immediately!! (DFA = designated for assignment, which is basically a baseball team's way of telling a player that they suck and don't want them on their team anymore.) He gave up a 2-run homer to Buster "all the ladies love me" Posey. So if Moss or Fuentes didn't play, we would've won. Oh, well. At least it was exciting.

And this game was hella long, 4 hours 15 min, and it wasn't even extra innings. A normal game is usually about 2.5 hours long. The 6th & 7th innings were hella long, you know, when the A's forgot how to play baseball (gave up 7 runs & committed 3 errors). And then the bottom of the 9th seemed to go on forever. The Giants used 4 pitchers that inning, 2 of which didn't record any outs, which is really a pitcher's only job. The 1st pitcher got the 1st 2 outs, and then it took the other 3 to get the last out. And we got down to our last strike hella times, only to keep extending the inning. A's fans were going nuts, Giants' fans were having heart attacks. At least they got the win.

Now for pics! I took pics at the tailgate, but on my slr, so I gotta get the film developed, but I took some pics with my sony.

View from our seats down the right field foul line in section 202

Group pic after the game: Jaymi, Tj, Owen, Mel, Uncle Ernie, Shann, Gabe, Jay, Lianne, Kim, me, & Bubba.

This was actually the 1st time that the Giants have won since we've been going to this series, maybe 3 or 4 years. I guess they were due for a win, but we'll get them back next year, or if we're so fortunate, in the World Series.

I'm here at my favorite Starbucks in the 925, patiently waiting for the mini's overheating/cooling issues to be diagnosed and fixed. So I'm sitting on the cushy bench against a wall, facing the rest of the store. Perpendicular to me, there are a set of 4 chairs. A mom sat down with her young son, maybe 2 years old, and of course he's doing 2 year old things, like hopping in & out of the chair, touching just about everything, and noticing everything in sight. Me, I'm listening to a couple of new songs on Grooveshark, cause I haven't downloaded them yet , and I currently have T.O.R.N.A.D.O. by The Go! Team, Don't Stop Me Now by M-Flo, and She's So Outta Control! by M-Flo featuring 2NE1, on loop. They're all pretty high tempo songs, so I ended up kinda nodding my head and tapping my foot to the beat. And the kid, whenever he looks over in my direction, he'll notice and kinda start imitating me. Cute. But since he's 2 and has an attention span appropriate for his age, he's notice something else and stops to attend to that.

Lol....so as I'm typing this, trying to get to my point, my point gets up and walks to a different table further away from me, no longer in my direct line of view. She moved because another mom & young daughter came and sat with the mom & son already sitting next to her. Don't blame her for moving, but I can't help but laugh....Now back to my story.

So then this japanese girl sits down in the chair directly in front of me, across from the little kid. She's pretty cute, and......dammit, I kinda lost my chain of thought when she moved. I was going to write about how there's an opportunity literally right in front of me, and how I was going to do my "yoozsh" (which is absolutely nothing) and blow it. So now I guess I won't get to that point, or I've reached that point in a manner of not my own doing.

So now I'm kind of observing from afar. She keeps on checking her flip phone, probably checking the time, and it seems like she's waiting for someone maybe. And she's re-touched up her makeup a couple of times now. Oh god, I sound like creepy stalker status.

Lol again.....as soon as I typed that last sentence, she got up & left, as if she knew what I was typing/observing. WTF

So now with nothing to focus on, I'm just sitting here kind of bored. I'm not telecommuting today, I forgot to bring my hard drive of tv shows, and I forget to bring any books, so other than browse the web, I gots nothing to do. I guess the guy to my left noticed, and just tried to sell me on an "easy money" scheme. (I guess I forgot to put on my "not having it" face this morning. I've kind of been working on that, and it worked to my detriment today. Lesson learned.) I listened, and he was nice, and it actually sounded really, really simple, but I know better, and I politely declined.

That's all for now, I guess....until something interesting comes up or I get the call that my car's done.

That last post was a little sad, so now I counter with this post.

Baby Blue! by Halcali

8 years later, and it's still one of my favorite songs.

Twin Peaks by mc chris

This song makes me smile every time. And it's actually about the show, Twin Peaks

Riot Rhythm by Sleigh Bells

This song just effin rocks! Makes me want to break something.

Genie by Girls' Generation

My obligatory kpop song. This is actually the japanese version, but I just like this music video better than the korean version.

Flow Like Poe by MC Lars

Lit-hop, baby! I love big words!

Happy Birthday by Flipsyde featuring T.A.T.U.

Twenty-Three by MC Lars

 I don't know why these songs popped up in head all of a sudden. I'm not depressed or anything, but recently I have fallen asleep (and on more occasions than I care to admit) thinking about what I would write in the note if I were to "leave" (not that I ever would). I do admit that that is a very strange thing to fall asleep to. But whatever works, right? And I'm still here, more or less, so no harm, no foul.

So at work, I went from this:

1 18" non-widescreen LCD, to THIS:

2 24" widescreen LCDs. I had to take a couple steps back to get both screens in the pic. Back in Fresno, I had 2 22" widescreen LCDs and I thought that was too much. I would've been happy with another 18". It's total overkill, but I'm not going to complain. I wonder how much this is going to affect my productivity?

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I have been giving blood twice a year going on my 4th year now, and every time, it's been a good experience. Or in other words, no mis-stabs, mis-pricks, mis-anythings. Every time, they were able to find & hit the vein cleanly. You can probably see where I'm going with this. Well, I donated blood on Saturday, and it totally was not like all the other times. The nurse, which I believe did me last time I was there, kind of hesitated when she stuck me with the "whatever you call it.....the thingy with the big needle". And I could tell something wasn't right cause it felt weird, and I had never had felt that before. So she calls 2 other nurses over, they check it out, give it the "no-go", then try on my other arm (right). One of the other nurses does it this time, no hesitation, and all was good. So they had to wrap both my arms in tape afterwards, and I kinda looked weird, and I had to explain it to just about everyone I saw. I wish I took a picture.

So the next day, I take off the wrap on my left arm, the one they messed up on, and now it looks like this:

Blood pool at the surface & bruising underneath the skin. It doesn't hurt, but I can definitely feel it. Depending on what my left arm is doing, I can feel it more (twss). Still have one of the 3 pen marks that the nurse made to target the vein. Psshh...hella didn't work. I guess 1 out of 7 times isn't too bad. They better not mess up again when I go back in December. If they do, I'll probably stop donating.