Worst Geocacher Ever

Yesterday I tried a new "sport" with Josh: Geocaching. For those of you who aren't familiar, you grab a GPS handheld, get some coordinates from a website, and go find what can be anything from a film canister to a shoebox sized container. Most of the time there's a strip of paper that you can sign your name to and frequently there are little items (McDonald's Toys or little trinkets) hidden inside. You can take something, only if you leave something else in it's place.

Anyways, so its a giant, world-wide game of hide and seek and I suck at it. I'm not talking like boxer who can't take a single hit and is the laughing stock of the sport, its worse than that. I's that kid who's picked last in kickball because the team just knows that somehow I'll ruin it for the whole team in the end. Josh says that him and Allyn have found almost 20 of these things in their few short runs; yesterday we set out with coordinates for 3 different ones and came back completely empty handed. I'm the only new variable in this equation, so I can only assume its my fault.

So this is my appology to Josh and the Geocaching world as a whole. I'm sorry I suck at life. I still recommend this as a great sport to anyone who has access to a GPS system--I hear its a great time. I apparently need to stick to my virutal world and leave the big scary real world alone. If you want to find out if there are any geocaching spots near you, go to the offical Geocaching Web Site and punch in your info in the top left corner.

I was going to take the red pill, but they didn't have it as a chewable.

So I've been gone for the last couple days. Spent it with Ro and her new apartment--it was dirty. We're not talking about needed-dusting sort of dirty, but sitcom-quality sort of dirty. Quarter inch of scum in the fridge... carpet that has NEVER been vacumed... tolietpaper wads on the walls... window and door frames hanging off... paint missing... it was bad. So that's what I did, I cleaned and spent quality time with Ro. It was awesome.

As a side note, here's an update on what I'm reading:
Book: truth, knowledge, or just plain bull
Audiobook: Matrix and Philosophy

I really like the Matrix--its an awesome movie. As far as the second two... ok, so the Wachowski Brothers aren't good at love stories, and the fight scenes run a little long. If they had just had a single sequal, I bet it would have been perfect.

I want to make a horror movie where the bad guy seemingly can't be killed. I mean, when they feed him rat poision, all that happens is that he throws up a dead rat. But the best part is, after they try silver bullets and cutting off his head and staking him in the heart, all you have to do is ask him nicely.

PSA #24

Asparagus makes your pee smell*.


Don't believe me? Here's a recipe**, try it out.


Asparagus and Cashews:

---

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
• 1 bunch asparagus stalks, ends cut
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 cup chopped cashews

---

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat olive oil and sesame oil in a wok over low to medium heat. Add ginger, and stir-fry until slightly brown. Add asparagus, and stir-fry for a few minutes before adding soy sauce and cashews. Cook until asparagus is tender but still crisp and bright green, stirring frequently.

* This message was brought to you by Cafe Press and their Asparagus Line
** This recipe was lifted directly from allrecipes.com.

Now I'm in a bad mood.

Sorry about the crappy post earlier, let me summarize for you: I got a month of free cable. TV sucks and there's nothing on. I ended up watching C-SPAN. I probably won't keep it the whole free month. There, you don't have to read the last post.

So before I was just in a blah mood. Now I got off work and wasn't exactly happy with something that happened to me today, so I'm venting. I HAD A LADY CALL ME RACIST! Ok, so she didn't use those words, but damn near close enough. Here's what happened:

[Lady was buying a computer and handed me her credit card]

ME: Can I see your drivers license?
HER: [incredulously] I shop here... all the time.
ME: Great, I'm glad to hear that, can I see your drivers license?
HER: I make a lot of large purchases here...
ME: Grea...
HER: ...And I have Never been asked for my license.
ME: Ma'am I ask everyone for their license, I'm not really sure of policies and its always better to be safe.
HER: We'll I think you're being discriminatory.
ME: ...
HER: ...
ME: ... [jaw open]
HER: ... and I don't believe it's company policy at all.
ME: You bitch.

[no wait, back that up.... lets redo that last me]
ME: Ma'am, I ask EVERYONE for their license [mentally insert explicitive]

frankly the rest of it was kinda hazy. I don't think I've ever been directly called out on any such thing before and I didn't know how to take it. Oh, but I went immediately to the managers area and vented... and then to the Customer Service people and vented... and to wireless...

I know how to handle it next time, I'm just going to pursue the question. "Ma'am what exactly do you mean by that?" I can do it sugary sweet and all that, but next time I'm not letting an off the cuff accusation slide over, if someone's going to say something like that to me, you better believe I'm going to make them try to put it into real words and say it. There's no better way to make the ignorant look, well, like themselves. Because I just have to mind my wording and tone of voice and there's no way I can get in trouble for anything.

Man I was pissed.

Free Cable!

I had this guy knock on my door yesterday, he was from the cable company, we'll call him: Cable Guy. So, Cable Guy came over because my Cable Company has been having a lot of problems and they had been recieving a lot of complaints from this area. I told him I didn't even have cable, he said nevermind then, I asked what was going on with it, he said they were reimbursing everyone's last month cable bill, I said "Oh, really?" Long and short of it, I just got a free month of cable.

Now I'm sure that what this guy was thinking, after the look on his face after finding out I have a 30" HDTV and no actual TV reception at all, that I would fall in love with the cable and he was potentially making a sale. He definately underestimates my fiscal situation. Do you know they charge $30 for basic cable? And I wanted to see what the HD stuff was like, so I got that as well (additional $13) and he offered a free movie channel while we were at it (HBO: $13). Somehow my "bill" has come up to like 60-some dollars and after checking it out a bit today, I STILL don't have any channels. The first thing I did was watch Contact, why? Because that was the channel he put it on to check and see if my cable was working properly.

So yeah, that went pretty well, but then I didn't feel like watching what was coming next so I wanted to change the channel.... nothing. I get like 10 stations and only half in HD. Its only ridiculous stuff in HD too... The Knowledge Network, Sports, 1 HBO channel and C-Span. So I left the Senate Debates on Immigration run for about 2 hours in HD.

I'm SO cancelling this. It'll be hard to see if I even make it a month.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!

TO THE GREATEST MOM EVER!!!

That's her in the middle...
She's the best.

I love you Mom!

The Art of the Email Driven Web Show

Alright, time for a post because I just finished and sent off one of my papers. This one in particular was due at noon today, so look at that people, I'm ahead of the game. Now to read that book, write 10 more pages and study for that final tomorrow....

Some of these other websites have it easy. I think I'm going to have to get my masses to work a little for me so I can have my own email driven web entertainment. See, the idea is that you get about a dozen friends and have them each get an additional 5 friends... kinda like a pyramid scheme, but legal. Anyways, all these friends take turns sending me emails every week so I can draw inspiration and humor in responding to an email of my choosing. For those of you unfamiliar with this concept, I've included a few of my favorite examples:

First, Ask a Ninja. Fairly self explainitory. He's a ninja, and you ask him questions. He will answer your question, then look forward to killing you soon. There are 3 facts everyone needs to know about ninjas.
FACT #1. Ninjas are mammals.
FACT #2. Ninjas fight ALL the time.
FACT #3. The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people.



Now, in response to Ask a Ninja, someone formed Ax a Pirate. For those of you unfamilar, there is a long standing debate between the superiority of ninjas vs pirates. My favorite fact about this is, before Ax a Pirate got started, the Ask a Ninja guys made a premptive strike and bought www.askapirate.com and made it link directly to askaninja.com.



Finally, I've saved the best for last. Ladies and Gentles, I present to you the King of the Email Driven Web Show... Strongbad.

My Cell Phone Games

Cell phone games are great. I've had some good ones. Everytime I trade my phone in for a new one (the insurance plan payed off for me quite nicely) I have to get all new games. I've done Bejeweled, and Tetris... both are great. Breakout or I think it was called "Brick Breaker" and I had some good times. But most recently I've started going with the real classics... Like Frogger. Speaking of Frogger... this kinda reminds me of that...



I think next I'm going to get Pacman.

Gadget Shopping

I shop at Best Buy like most people go grocery shopping. Seriously, I have a problem. I haven't bought anything in a while, but lets face it... I've got some nice stuff and a lot of red numbers in the finances section. I figured I could make the most out of all my techy knowhow and put out a general notice:

If anyone has any gadget/techy related question, you better ask me first.

I own a lot of cool stuff and play with a lot more at work. Its not my fault I own all this, I mean, I spend all day telling people how great everything is. It is all great too... but I get jealous of selling it to everyone else, and not having it myself.

Anyways, my first gadget I'm going to tell you about is the Logitech Quickcam Orbit. It retails about $130 at Best Buy and is a pretty nice webcam. What can you use a webcam for? Video confrencing, making home movies, sending personalized birthday wishes. It'll work with most IM clients (AOL Instant Messenger, MSN, Yahoo, etc). The best way to show this particular one off is with a video:



So yeah, that's the Orbit. Note, I don't actually own one of these, but its one of those things I sell a lot of. Personally, I'm not buying anything until the new Nintendo. Also I thought I'd slip in a bonus item for those of you who actually read all of this mess.

November is going to be the best month ever...

Why you may ask? Well I'll tell you.


Guitar Hero II

Guitar Hero II is coming out... for those of you who haven't experienced Guitar Hero yet, here's an idea of what its like. I think Ro is actually going to buy it for her playstation 2... but then she'll probably get better at it than I am, and that's just unacceptable.



Happy Feet

Ro's favorite movie of all time, and it hasn't even came out yet. But seriously, it's almost like someone wrote it with her in mind. Its about cute pengiuns that can sing and dance. They sing to attract their perfect mate, but the littlest penguin "Mumblez" can't sing very well, but he can tapdance something fierce.



Nintendo Wii

Finally, but FAR from least... My new nintendo is coming out. I will have one. I'm not buying anything, until then. I'm saving my money for it. I will then take a year off school just so nothing interferes with my nintendo playing.

I slept for 11 hours...

So Finals week is approaching and is just as kind to me as it ever has been in the past. I finished up a 33 page project yesterday and still have another 15 pages due next week. I have a final tomorrow, and a final next thursday. Monday night was an all nighter-all dayer so I could get my stuff done yesterday. I figured that leaving Ro's pictures up an extra day would cause no harm, I mean, its Ro...

I got a link from mom that everyone needs to be aware of: http://www.dealdetectives.com/. I found out about an Epson Lawsuit of which I collected $30 from, through this website. Its good stuff, and everyone can use a little savings now and again.

Secondly, this is the hottest queen I've ever seen... Queen Rania of Jordan. Crazy, huh? England needs to take notes.

Lastly, I needed to post some pictures from my Dad's Website. He's got a flickr account, and for those of you who aren't familiar, flickr is a purely photo website. He's quite the photographer, what can I say? I taught him everything I know...

She really did it.

Some kid better be real happy, because they've got my girlfriends hair. She finally got to Great Clips and cut her hair off. It was unexpected, kinda, because we went to do it on Saturday but stupid Great Clips closed at 6 pm. So she just decided to do it while I was at work and now... its all gone. She donated 12 inches to Locks of Love.

She's adorable. I like it, its not too short by any means and lets face it, Ro's adorable no matter what she does. Even if she shaved her head bald and looked like a monk, she'd be the cutest monk at the monastery.