4:20 am

Well its 4:20 am, and I'm back at work. I meant to come back in after taking a nap at 9:30 pm, but that "nap" ended up lasting till about 3:30 am. I tried to go back to sleep after that, but I couldn't so I decided I should come back into work and do what I was going to do last night. So I figure, the next person gets in around 8 am, so I should have almost 4 hours of work time to myself. I should be able to get a lot done.

So I should tell you all about the awesome concert that I went to over the weekend. It was the last show of the "Tour of the Curbside Prophets." It featured Makana, Raúl Midón, and Jason Mraz. It was an awesome concert. All 3 are talented in their own way. I'll tell you about them, and you can make the call if you want check them out.

Makana is this 24 year old kid from Hawaii that plays ki hoalu, or "slack-key" guitar. This is basically tuning your guitar to open tunings. I'm a big fan of this style right now, and I'm trying to learn it. It's called slack key, because in order to get to an open tuning, you generally tune the guitar down. This is accomplished by loosening, or slacking the strings. In this style of music, you will notice that the guitar incorporates a bass line alternating with the melody. Its really a beautiful form of music. For those interested, check out Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Masters - Instrumental Collection put out by Dancing Cat records. Anyway, Makana is probably the most technically gifted slack key player to come out of Hawaii. He plays SO fast, and so cleanly, its amazing. He also played this awesome song called "The Poi Song" where he used his hands and arms and even his feet to create a sliding type sound. It was awesome. I've got 2 of his cds, and would highly recommend his album Ki Ho'alu: Journey of Hawaiian Slack Key. It's a great cd with a lot of Hawaiian classics, as well as some of his own stuff. The man is very talented. The only drawback is he has an interesting voice, and a slightly obnoxious vibrato, but the kid can really play the guitar!

Raúl Midón is another really talented individual. He's got a very clear baritone voice, and sings very well. Very reminiscent of black singers from the 50s, but with a hip twist to it. He also plays the guitar like no one I've seen. He does a lot of slapping of strings, and ridiculous finger picking, and using his guitar like a bongo to provide some percussion effects. Its really cool. I can't describe his music. You can tell that he pulls from a lot of other types of music. You just have to check him out. Oh, he also makes his voice emulate a trumpet. It's a really cool vocal effect!

Now what can I say about the man, Jason Mraz? I've been to see him 6 times in concert since last year. I try to catch him whenever he comes to southern california. He never fails to impress me. While his talent on guitar is no where near Makana or Raúl, he has an incredible voice. It's so clear and he can sing so high. Of all 3 I would say he has the best stage presence, as well as the best lyrics, the best melodies, and the best flow. You can tell he's a more polished performer. He also can improvise very well. He always changes up the way he plays the songs. I think this is really cool. He's been known to come up with alternate arrangements of his songs. He's got a really cool disco version of "Sleep All Day". He's got a live cd that is coming out in August. If you liked Waiting For My Rocket To Come, you have to check out his first Live album, or wait until August, and pick up the new one. Then you'll understand why I see this guy whenever I can. His concerts are always a great time. If you can't tell, I'm a huge fan of this guy.

Ok, this took me way too long to post. It's already 4:47 or so, and I haven't started working! I'll post more later.

Good eats

I'm going to dedicate this post to my good friend David Vo.

On Friday night, we went to the Blue Agave, which is located on Cota near the Palace. We went there for a friends birthday party. I ordered a Pillsner Urquell to start off the evening. I then ordered a Chicken Mole at 8 pm, and waited till after 10 pm to receive it. Besides the horrible service, the Mole was wonderful.

Today, I went to my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in San Diego, called Pho Hoacali. I had something the Vietnamese Beef Stew served with French bread. It was excellent. However, I do wish they would have used leaner cuts of beef. I would say that only 30% of the beef I got was edible. But, the broth was tasty, and the bread added a nice touch.

For dinner tonight, I went to a restaurant called Kaiserhoff. It's a german restaurant/beer garden located on Sunset Cliff Drive. I ordered a beer that had the name Hacker in it, and that was a pretty funky beer. I ordered something called a Sauerbrauten, which was beef in some kind of sauce. And it was excellent. We had all sorts of sides including sauerkraut, red cabbage, german potato salad, and a bread dumpling. Just as good as what I remember having in Germany!

Anyway, if any of you are confused about my post, I do apologize! But some of you will get it!

It's been a while

It's been a while since I've updated the blog. I've been really busy at work these days. I've got a lot to do with GoToAssist going live. Not to mention I'm not getting much help, because QA doesn't have the resources.

So I should have come back in to work to get a bit of a head start last night, but I was WAY too tired. I decided to go to bed around 9:30 pm, and I figured I'd wake up around 5:30, and get into work. NOPE. That didn't happen. Of course my lazy ass stays asleep until 8 am. And even then its next to impossible for me to get out of bed. At least I feel well rested!

Alex and I are discussing racing to San Diego. It will be a corolla vs. a civic. This naturally got us talking about other Toyotas, and we started discussing the evolution of the Tercel to the Echo, and how the Echo is a funky looking car. After seeing that car in 1 hour photo, I can't look at it the same. Robin Williams was so creepy in the film, that part of that creepiness extended to his car.

I'll be in San Diego this weekend so I can watch a concert. Its the "Tour of the Curbside Prophets." Jason Mraz, Raul Midon, and Makana will be playing. Jason Mraz is my favorite artist these days, and I'm really in to Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar, so this is a perfect concert for me.

Anyway, I have a log more to do here, so I'll post more later!

All about the weekend

So I never post much on weekends. I'm going to attribute this to me not wanting to sit on a computer over the weekend since I do it so much during the week. And when I do sit on the computer, I don't really want to post anything. I'd rather just buy something over the internet!

But this weekend was a hectic weekend, so I'll share with you all some of the highlights...

On Friday night, I went to see "The Chronicles of Riddick." I read nothing but bad reviews of this movie, so I wasn't expecting anything. But I really wanted to watch it after seeing "Pitch Black." I thought Riddick was an awesome character. And the movie was pretty fricking cool. In any case, I was rather impressed with the chronicles. It was a really fun and entertaining movie. The ending was dumb, but the rest of it was thoroughly entertaining. In any case, if you want something fun to watch, check the movie out.

It was Alli's last weekend in SB, so we got together at Dargan's and had drinks. We were situated in the perfect spot. We were in a back corner that was a little secluded, so we could talk, and we were right up against the bar, so we could order drinks very easily. We got Alli good and drunk. I think she had 11 or 12 drinks. I'm proud of that little girl. She held her liquor! Alli, you'll be missed!

We had a bbq for Carrie on Sunday. She is leaving us to go to Texas for grad school. It seems this seems to be the time that people start leaving. And it makes sense. This area is so expensive. It's really on the difficult side to make a living here. In any case, there must have been something in the air yesterday, because we saw 2 fights at Leadbetter beach. The first fight was between 2 women. I'm not sure what it was about, but I heard them yelling at each other, and a bunch of people separating them. About 30 minutes later, a hippie fight broke out! I have no idea what happened, but basically one of them stepped on a piece of glass that the other guy broke, and all hell broke loose. The cops came, and ended up booking one of the hippies. And boy was he resisting arrest. As entertaining as it was to watch, I ended up feeling sorry for the guy. I'm not sure he instigated the fight, and I wonder if he was used as a scapegoat.

Then we head over to Waldman's for a bbq and to watch the Laker game. 2 bbqs in one day! I think I'm a little BBQ'd out. Michelle grilled up some fabulous burgers while I sat on my fat arse and watched the Lakers get pummeled by Detroit. You know what, I'm going to go on the record. I love the Lakers, but they aren't stepping up. They are not playing like champions, so they don't deserve to be the champions. Detroit is doing a good job clamping down on Kobe. Kobe is doing a good job passing out of double/triple teams, but the supporting cast is NOT doing a good job hitting open shots. This in turn causes Kobe to have no faith in his cast, and makes him take bad shots. I mean really, I'd rather have Kobe taking an off balanced shot, than Devean George taking a wide open shot, given the way he and the bench have been playing. Enough of that. Lakers, step up, or go home.

A matter of mass debate

So my friends and I have been having a debate about what exactly a chode is. I was under the impression that it was the spot between your anus and your scrotum, but my friend Fred told me that it was a penis wider than it is long. During camping, the topic of the chode came up, and Luke and Josh also stated that a chode is a penis wider than it is long. They also told me the place I was referring to was called the "taint". I of course was skeptical, but I went along with it. Last night Colleen asked me if I had looked it up on Urban Dictionary and I said I hadn't. So of course, I decided to do it this morning.

Can you believe there are 31 pages of definitions for chode? Don't believe me? Look for yourself http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chode&f=1 and scroll to the bottom. Indeed, I was wrong. It is a penis that is wider than it is long. I also found out that the area that I originally thought a chode was could be called a "Gooch".

Chode - chode, as many have so elequantly put it does in fact mean a penis that is wider than it is long...the space between the ball sack and all of you, in other words the anus, is called the GOOCH. ALso an insult...

So of course I looked up gooch and got:

Gooch - The piece of skin connecting the scrotum and testes to the poop chute. The gooch is also attached to the bacon strip which is located directly on the undercarriage of the testes.

and taint, and got:

Taint - the flap of skin between a man's ball sack and his asshole.

So there you have it. Definitions of chode, gooch and taint!

EDIT - Colleen just pointed out to me that on one of the definitions of taint it says it's also sometimes interchangable with 'chode', so wasn't as wrong as I thought!

1:11 AM

It's 1:11 am and I am still at work. YUCK!

To be fair, I did leave to watch the laker game, then I came back for an hour, then left to watch Pitch Black then came back at 12:20. So its no where as bad as it sounds! But still. No one should be working at 1:11 am.

I'm looking forward to watching The Chronicles of Riddick after seeing Pitch Black. He's a badass, and I love watching movies about badasses. Of course, the remake of Shaft with Samuel L. Jackson in it sucked, but that's beside the point! Movies about badasses still rule!

You still need to make some crazy exceptions though. I found it way too coincidental that the crew happened to crash land on some planet on the exact day of an eclipse that happens in the same month every 22 years. Also, this planet happens to be infested with creatures that only come out in the dark, and they happen to have someone who can see in the dark. It seems way too convenient. But besides the plot being ludicrous, it was still a fun movie to watch. Definitely no where near as bad as it could have been. I've read some bad things about the sequel, but I'm still going to see it tonight.

Oh, and about the laker game. That was terrible, horrible basketball played by the lakers, and they should be ashamed of themselves. How can you get blown out by 20 points by the pistons? How can Shaq only score 14 points? How can that be the highest point total of any laker? How can they only score 68 points? Pathetic. But in any case, I'm sure Phil has something up his sleeve for the next game. Come on guys, you need to put up a better fight!

Man's Body Lies Undisturbed for 20 Years

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Wow. Just read it for yourself.

An interesting adult ed class

So I took my first SBCC continuing education class yesterday. It's a class called beginning singing. It was an interesting experience, considering I've never sung with a group before, and I've never had any kind of training.

So, its basically an older hispanic crowd. There are 3 of us that are young. 1 is this girl Tasha, who I think is a few years younger than me, and it was her first class, just like me. Then there is this guy Manuel I think, and he is either my age or a little older. Other than that, we have 2 or 3 people in their 30s, and the rest of the 17 are 40+. And, because its a hispanic crowd, we're going to sing mostly hispanic music. We started off with a song called "Spanish eyes", then moved on to "Guantanamera" which is pretty fun, and finished with a strange song called Heart of my heart. However, we've been asked to perform in 2 venues this summer. This could be interesting. How strange is it to see an Asian guy singing mexican songs! But its ok, I'm there to learn how to make my voice better.

So the class is more like a choir. I was hoping to get instruction on how to sing, but it doesn't seem like the class is heavy in that. I talked to the teacher, and she said that she would be willing to do that if I was willing to get up in front of the class and have a lesson. I'm not sure that I'm ready to sing in front of people. She says that everyone can benefit from it, because everyone will learn by observing. Not what I was expecting, but singing in a group should still be fun!

BBQ, Alcohol, and more BBQ!

I figured I'd finish up about the weekend. I've got a little bit of time at work so I thought I would take advantage of it and finish what I started.

On Saturday, I went with my friends Alan, Wendy, and their baby Jade to a picnic at the Firestone winery. I guess if you are a member of their wine club or something, they throw a huge picnic for you. And you get to bring some friends along with you. I'm not sure how much it cost, because they wouldn't accept my money... In any case, they had all you can eat food and all you can drink beer and wine. I would just like to reiterate that Firestone makes some of my favorite beers. They had their porter, lager, pale ale, and of course, their double barrel ale. And they had the standard fare of wine (cab, merlot, syrah, chardonnay, riesling, etc). I had a glass of the syrah, which was pretty tasty. However, I'm not really a wine connoisseur so I'm not sure how good it was.

On a more interesting note, at about 12:15 or so, we drove past a sizable fire. It was on the south side of 101, and it was burning a 30 yard area or so. It was right after you come out of the tunnel if you're driving north on 101 to Santa Maria. I believe the fire was north of Gaviota. That area is pretty dry, so we immediately called 911, and they already knew about it. At the picnic, they announced that both 101N and 101S was closed off because of the fire. The only way for us to get back into Santa Barbara was to take the 154. A drive that should have taken us just over 30 minutes, took us over 2 hours! The traffic on 154 was awful. It was definitely entertaining that my friends car was running on empty, and we were quite nervous that we were going to stall in the one lane sections. Luckily, the drive back to SB is mostly downhill. Wendy, if you're reading this, notice I said MOSTLY... As of last night at 11 pm, the fire was only 20% contained, and had burned over 7500 acres....

On Sunday we had brunch at El Paseo, and had all you can eat food, and all you can drink again! I love weekends where all I do is eat and drink! After that, we went walking all around downtown looking at stuff. I decided I need to have some Birkenstocks. I've always wanted a pair, but never bought some. We walked past this store called Crispin's Leather (which is never open when I remember to check it out), and after looking at some birks, I've decided its time I buy some. So if I can remember to get there before 6, on a day that is NOT Sunday, I'm going to pick some up (lots of other places have some, but they have the best selection).

Then I convinced Matt to put his BBQ together (told him Alex volunteered to cook), and Alex, Matt, Kelly, Michelle and myself bbq'd some carne asada, vegetables, and a chicken for Michelle. We figured it was a perfect time to bbq because the laker game was on. Disappointing game, but great bbq.

Ok, there goes my allotted time. Back to work for me!

Plotting revenge is fun

So on Friday night, we went to go see the new Harry Potter movie. I would like to say that the security at the Camino Real Marketplace, as well as the employees of the Metropolitan theater suck major donkey balls. If any one that works for Metropolitan theaters reads this, I just want to say one thing. YOU'RE A VEGETABLE, AND I HATE YOU! Hehehe. I've always wanted to say that in some form of publication. My dream is to say that on national TV one day, but this will have to do for now.

Anyway, let me tell you why I hate the Camino Real Marketplace, and the stupid monkeys that work for Metro. First of all, they have one line for 2 movies. The first started at 9:10, and the next started at 9:35. This is a recipe for disaster. Anyone with a brain the size of a pea could tell you that. When the people get called out of line for the 9:10 show, all the ravenously psychotic Harry Potter fans from the back of the line will bum rush and trample everyone in front of them. And to make things worse, the security didn't really set up the markers for the lines very well. They didn't think that one of the more highly anticipated movies of the year would draw a huge crowd. So of course the lines starts to curl in all sorts of funky ways. It was a mess, but we all knew how the lines were supposed to be, and it would have worked. Of course, the jackasses came, and said what we did was dangerous, and had us move all around. In the process about 50 or 60 people that were behind of me cut in front of me. That's great. Then for some reason, before the people from the 9:10 show were let into the theater, they realized they needed to have 2 lines. So they started pulling the 9:35 people out. And of course people in the back saw this and immediately bum rushed to the front. I mean how could they not see this happening? Luckily I caught on before too many people cut in front of me and thwarted the next attempts. In any case, I got in, got decent seats, AND the movie rocked. So I guess it was worth it. So on top of that long rant there is my review of the movie. I give it 2 thumbs WAY up.

So now I'm going to have fun plotting my revenge. To all the maniacal Harry Potter fans, just you wait!

I'm tired, so I'll post about the rest of my weekend tomorrow.

Travelers: 5 tips on tipping

Travelers: 5 tips on tipping

Ok. I just want to come clean and say I'm a good tipper. If the service is great, I don't hesitate at tipping 20%. However, if the service sucks, I won't hesitate to leave a very low sized tip as well.

Michelle hates that I do this. For her, she always wants to leave 15% or more. The restaurant could totally screw up our order, take an hour to deliver our food, and when I want to tip 5% she is incredulous and insists I leave 15%. No way. Dammit, waiters have to work for their tips. I'm not going to leave someone a good tip unless I'm taken care of. That should be incentive for a waiter to do their damn job.

That being said, the service in Santa Barbara usually sucks. That's because too many people like to eat out, and too many restaurants don't want to spend the money to hire enough waiters/waitresses. So really, I usually take that into consideration. I don't want to penalize the waiter for the owner being stupid.

I hate people that steal my coffee

So I'm pretty tired this morning. I go in to get some coffee, and of course there is none left. Dammit people! If you drink the remainder of the coffee, brew another pot. I mean if its fricking 5 pm and everyone is gone, and you drink the rest of the coffee, that's fine. But come on people, it's 10 am. People will still want coffee!

So of course, I have to brew a pot. But I'm really tired this morning, and my brain isn't working right, so I dump a portion of the coffee bag into the container without putting a filter on it. DOH! So I clean it out, put a filter in, and start brewing. So of course, some jackass decides to cut in front of me, and steal the coffee as its brewing. So, not enough coffee grounds, plus someone stealing the coffee as it starts to brew equals a VERY weak batch for the rest of us. Sure enough, when I get my cup, its a very light thin blend. DAMMIT. I'm standing right in front of the machine. Of course I'm waiting for the coffee to brew. What in hell makes you think you can just cut right in front of me and take my coffee? Wait your damn turn!

Another post

I unlike my good friend Big Al, I don't have a 1 post a day limit.

Hehe. So I logged onto Orkut, and got a message from someone named Holly mentioning they were taking part in the Yahoo! live messenger thing.

So of course I check it out. It was strangely addicting. I was listening to a few conversations, promptly decided to support Holly, and partake in the conversation. I have decided that I must be a voyeur. It was kinda cool being able to listen in on the conversation and partake in it. Another thing that lends credence to this is that there was a trilogy of books called the Griffin and Sabine trilogy. These books showed the correspondance between the two people. So you got to read their letters and stuff. And I felt guilty reading them, but it was strangely exhilarating. So I must be a voyeur!

My first random messaging

So I'm working furiously on all of my numerous projects that I have, when I receive a message from someone named LiLMissWolff. I have no idea who this is, but decide to take the message anyway.

Turns out she's a 16 year old junior from Mississippi. Very nice girl. Just bored and wanted to chat. That's pretty neat. I wasn't sure that anyone I didn't know whas reading my blog, but I finally got confirmation! So if you happen to be reading this, and are bored, send me an IM, and we'll chat!

By the way LiLMissWolff, it was nice to talk to you, and don't be afraid to ask me for advice! I'm sure you're situation will work itself out! ;)

The winds of change

Dammit! So I'm reading my friend Al's blog, and I realized how boring mine is. He's quite the writer! He always has something entertaining to share, and comes across as very witty. You should all check it out. Then I read mine, and see how its just a boring recant of the daily activities of my life, which is readily apparent to me is really just the "same old shit, different day." I decided that my blog title is rather negative, and I think that is somehow subconsciously holding me back. I think I have sunk to a whole new level of patheticness for a title of a blog to wreak such havoc upon my life.

So I'm turning a page. I think I'm going to start sharing my thoughts more. I know I'm jumping on the bandwagon here, but I'm tired of being boring.

A link to some camping pics

Waldman's camping photos

I realized I should have posted this link in my last post. Oh well. Check out the pics.

This is late!

This is most certainly late.

Over Memorial day weekend, Michelle, Aaron, Colleen, Alli, Luke, Josh, Missy, Shane, Jess, and I went camping up in Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park. We were in bear country! Of course, for whatever reason, our campsite didn't have any bear boxes. We were told to put the coolers in the car. And much to my dismay, I never woke up to bears attacking our campsite, or to bears tearing into one of the cars to get the food. That would have been COOL! Hehe, well amusing to see, but would have sucked if one of us got eaten, or had their car wrecked.

It was relaxing. We rolled in about 4 pm on Saturday and we drank beer, and sat around. Luke busted out his guitar, and I was very impressed. We sang a bunch of songs and had a great time. The next day we did this boole tree hike, where we saw the 8th largest tree in the world. That was a HUGE tree. Quite impressive. They don't call it a Giant Sequoia for nothing. More guitar, more singing, more drinking, more eating. My favorite moment was when this Christian group was singing really loud, and Luke started playing Master of Puppets, and Josh started singing it. It was pretty hilarious!

Anyway, a weekend update coming on a Thursday. That is just sad. But oh well. Work is busy.

Yahoo! News - Jason Mraz Longs for Days of Small Gigs

Yahoo! News - Jason Mraz Longs for Days of Small Gigs

My boy is going big time! Now while I can't say I've been a fan of his from the days of Java Joe, I can say that I've been a fan from the moment I heard the Remedy, have been to every single concert that I can make that he plays in Southern California, and own his live album, and have downloaded many of his concerts.

This guy is talented. He's pretty good on the guitar, and has an incredible voice. Anyone who hasn't heard his stuff should check him out. If you didn't care so much for his album, check out his live stuff, because its WAY better.

Ok, back to work. I'll post about my weekend in a bit.