Month: October 2003

Spoken by glue at the Jelly Belly factory gift shop when I was running around excitedly looking at all the merchandise and candy:

“The funny thing is, he’s actually in a candy store.”

So this year is one of the years where as a birthday present, I get an extra hour of sleep.

Yes, you’re all welcome.

Tomorrow is a group trip to the Jelly Belly factory. Then again, almost all of the people who are going are around this journal somewhere, so that’s no news to anyone, I’m sure. I’ll be sure to take pictures, it’s been a while since I’ve actually used my camera. *walks away briefly to make sure battery is charged*

One of the new features in the heralded Apple iTunes Music Store is Celebrity Playlists. I only mention this because I think it’s rather cool that most of the songs on Michelle Branch’s playlist I’m familiar with, and quite a few I actually own. Just goes to explain why I like her music so much.

Speaking of Apple, I haven’t gotten Panther yet, but I will. Still undecided on the whole iPod thing, though.

I’ve been furiously trying to finish a bunch of games in anticipation for the arrival of a new batch. I’m currently trying to finish Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and .hack//OUTBREAK. Soon, I’ll have Super Mario Advance 4 as a birthday present, and of course, Final Fantasy XI, which could easily take up all my free time, as MMORPGs are known to do. Then there’s Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, which is being put on purchasing hold until I can get clear of some of these other games…

So many games, so little time. Speaking of games… I don’t know where I originally heard about it, but I’m 10 weeks into Planetarium, an online “puzzle-story in twelve weekly installments.” It’s starting to come together, but I feel with 10 weeks of involvement, if I don’t manage to solve the dang thing, I’m going to be awfully let down. I’d suggest it to people who like logic-type puzzles and are willing to wait three months for the thing to play out.

Even though I can do this with more customization through my own scripts, this is me posting on my phone, the official way.

When I was a kid, Stevie Nicks’s voice reminded me of Pidge from Voltron for some reason.

That is all.

So, this last week I was “unemployed.” I used this time to relax, play video games, and finally get around to switching the office and my bedroom. The subject of this entry refers to the old “hobby” I had when I was in college: Increasing and decreasing the potential energy of heavy objects. (Because I lived at the top of campus, I was always lugging textbooks and other heavy objects up and down.) This week gave me a chance to experience that again, as I lugged such objects as books, boxes, televisions, dressers, mattresses and clothes up and down two sets of stairs. The big day was Thursday, where I started at 10 a.m., and barring a break for lunch, moved things continuously until 1 a.m., when I was finally able to sleep on the bed in its new home, the master bedroom.

After that ordeal, I once again drove up to Berkeley on Friday, with the main intention of seeing Bubba Ho-tep with Luke and Dom, but otherwise just to hang out with CAA people again. On the way to the movie, I had the pleasure of freaking Danny out* and after the movie, I made the previous entry on my cell phone.

Saturday, not much happened, I managed to sit around most of the day at Luke’s doing nothing, basically waiting for things to happen that never did until way too late, was freaked out by Luke**, went to the mall, then saw Kill Bill. I ended up staying Sat. night as well, and went to karaoke on Sun., then drove home.

Yesterday, I went in to Yahoo! in the afternoon to discuss with the various groups vying for my time. Tried my computer setup in my new cube, found it not quite working, then left. Today I wasn’t needed, but I’m going in tomorrow and should be up and running by then.

*Danny has a habit of listening to J-Pop music on his headphones constantly. While we were waiting to leave, he started to sing along with the music. I managed to catch the beat and started air drumming along with him. After a bit, I freaked him out by drumming along to the drum solo at the same time as it actually occurred, and when he asked me how I did it, I just said “well, you stopped singing…”

**Luke freaked me out once again by displaying psychic powers. While reading Cannon God Exaxxion, he commented “I didn’t know Adam Warren did that,” when I flashed the cover to him. We both wondered where he got that from, as his name isn’t anywhere on the cover. A short while later, I was looking at the credits page, and, sure enough, Adam Warren was a translation advisor on the book. This freaked both of us out, as there was no way Luke should have known that, and gotten that from a brief flash of the cover.

On the front of the Taco Bell in Berkeley.

Auto-attached image

Whenever I’m in the mood to write, I’m not in front of my computer… and vice versa. Because it’s been so long, I’m forcing myself to write, so there!

The main reason why I haven’t written is because I was waiting for formal confirmation of my work situation. But, even though there is no written contract in place, it looks very certain that I will be going back to Yahoo! Monday as a contractor. The first department is in line, setting me up, and the other department is in communication with them to get billing issues set up.

And now, something completely random. Because I never wrote an entry on my Indiana trip, I never got to comment on Microserfs, which I read while I was there. Yes, I’m a bit behind on the times, it seems. What was cool was reading about all the places, and knowing exactly where they were.

And now, something topical. I can’t believe that Arnold is leading the polls, likely to be the next Governor of California. I mean, I knew the whole country was populated by idiots, but I thought that, perhaps, California was immune. I was wrong. SHEEP! You awful, gullible SHEEP! Baaaaaaa! Baaaaaa!

Moving to Canada keeps looking better and better.