Happy new year. Sorry I was unavailable all week Dan, as I've been with my high school friends almost every day or at church, etc. I'm going to a "party" tonight. I say "party" because I think we're just playing cards and a rented gamecube. Anyways, see you all next year haha.
posted by Larry at 1:04 PM

might be my last time blogging before 2002, so happy new year everyone. as you can see, its kind of late right now so i should probably sleep.

BTW, Eric, i liked your post about "tai poh"
posted by yodaslap at 5:32 AM

duh, im tired. is anyone out there?
posted by yodaslap at 4:53 AM

i found out this past weekend that this jr high kid at my church suffered a head injury and now has [hopefully temporary] amnesia. i spoke with him earlier today at church, and boy was it weird. being the idiot i am, i approached him with the wrong question. heres the convo that resulted (some editing and paraphrasing to keep it short):

me: so are you alright?
jbong: yeah (BTW, "bong" his last name. hes not a druggie or anything, or at least i dont think he is/was)
me: (mentally slapped myself in the forehead) wait a minute, do you know who i am?
jbong: no
me:do you know him? (i point to jma, jbong's good friend, who was standing next to him)
jbong: well, now i do, after he told me
me: what about your parents?
jbong: same thing
me: how do you feel about living in a house with people you dont really know?
jbong: its not bad. i mean, its a nice house (which it is)
me: oh... so do you remember your name?
jbong: no, but i found a card inside my wallet that had my picture and name on it, so i kinda figured it out

its interesting how the brain works. jbong cant remember anyone, yet he still retains the skills and general knowledge from before. he knows the material that was covered in class, but he doesnt remember the names of his teachers. he remembers how to play the games he played before, yet uses completely different strategies now. he is given a fresh start of sorts, even tho his memory is supposed to eventually all come back. amazing.
posted by yodaslap at 1:17 AM

whoa, i havent checked in a while either. i guess mainly cuz the cc.losir.com link was (still is?) messed up. anyway, havent been up to much. spending a lot of time at home. Lawrence, if youre not busy lets do something. i guess calling would be a quicker and more efficient way of reaching you than blog. duh.
posted by yodaslap at 5:45 PM

Thanks for the wishes. I haven't checked the blog in a week. Things are going fine, I haven't watched LotR yet, but Roberta likes it. I may watch it today or tomorrow. I'm just at home, and we're having a good time. We played some mahjongg and then went shopping yesterday.
posted by Larry at 11:37 AM

merry christmas, everybody. i'm at work right now and things are kind of slow so i just wanted to take some time to wish you all seasons greetings. is everyone enjoying the snow? lawrence, dan, please wish your families a merry christmas for me too. thanks.
posted by jylo at 11:10 PM

duh fools.

im at Justin's right now, using his computer while hes talking with a friend. im kinda tired for some reason so i cant really think of what else to say, ha ha ha. maybe more later. *yawn*
posted by yodaslap at 1:57 AM

Testing testin, since my own page is down.
posted by asiliat at 3:29 PM

Well my final is Thursday and I'm going home Saturday. So if we do anything it'll be Friday night. I should be off work by 6 or so.
posted by Larry at 12:19 AM

Lawrence, this message is for you since Justin already knows, but if all goes well ill be up in UW this wednesday, or possibly tuesday night. let me know if you can log onto AIM sometime to talk about things, or if it would be easier to do it through blog, just reply here. as of now im taking the bus, and if you have room in your car, i could help you pack and ride back down with you. either way, let me know. i most likely wont be driving. duh.
posted by yodaslap at 2:19 AM

Yeah, what a dumb question. It should have been, "How many hungry, rabid lions should we release on the farms?" That'd stop the farmers' complaining. Forever.
posted by Larry at 12:52 PM

follow-up to the bean lab:

i finished up the write-up today while standing in the hallway, because i nearly forgot about it. anyway, the last question read as follows:

"a wildlife biologist wanted to estimate the size of a deer population because farmers were complaining that the deer were destroying their crops. she trapped and tagged the ears of 28 deer in june. in august she trapped a total of 60 deer and 17 of those had tagged ears. how large was the deer population in that area? the carrying capacity is 95. should any hunting permits be issued? if so, how many?"

now what kind of stupid question is that? it should have ended with "how large was the deer population in that area?" but instead, they had to go that extra step to ask about hunting permits. how am i supposed to know how hunting permits work? in theory, if you issue just one permit to a highly skilled hunter, he could take out all the deer in the area, no problem. on the flip side, you can also conceivably issue 100 permits to idiots who cant hunt, which will end up having zero effect on the deer population. anyway to make a long story short, the estimated population turned out to be 98.8. here was the second half of my answer, word for word:

"the population is slightly over the carrying capacity. now whether or not hunting permits should be issued depends on the skill of the applicants. if they suck at hunting, then it wouldnt really matter either way."

i was a little short on time, so i didnt get a chance to elaborate as much as i would have liked, but oh well. the class is finished, and thats all that matters. now to see if i actually passed it this time...

posted by yodaslap at 6:11 PM

Think i'll be home on Dec 22 (Saturday), and be there for 2 weeks or so. We doing anything?
posted by Larry at 2:36 PM

my bio final is coming up this wednesday, so ill be out of commission for the next couple days.
posted by yodaslap at 1:28 PM

From my blog:

So I was at McDonald's last night, and as I waited for my Big Mac, the guy behind the counter goes, "Hey, I really like your haircut." Now, I don't know of any McD's manual that tells workers to compliment their customer's hairstyles. Also, I haven't gotten an actual cut in about 2 weeks, though it was too short and is now just growing back. So I just said, "Thanks, man." And that was it. Really strange though, and as I looked in the bathroom mirror, my haircut didn't seem particularly good. Maybe this is the new wave in customer satisfaction... Service, a smile, and self-esteem.
posted by Larry at 1:39 PM

Eric, i saw the paper motorcycle link on your blog. wow... thats some pretty crazy stuff. not sure if i have the patience to be making one of those. nice oil can, BTW :)
posted by yodaslap at 8:15 PM

Duh, so I gave Justin a tour of my lab. It was unplanned, we just happened to run into each other after lunch.
posted by Larry at 12:42 PM

hello everyone.
posted by yodaslap at 3:42 AM

No, the review was horrible Dan. I wrote it just before having to run and catch the bus, so it was rushed. I tried to send in a revised one but they didn't take it. It makes me kind of mad, so I'd just as soon forget about it...
posted by Larry at 3:22 PM

my watch has proven to be a good illustration of how out of it ive been these past few days. although its a pretty decent one, there is one minor downfall to it. the date function shows only the day (number, not day of the week), and automatically cycles through 31 days no matter what month it is. its up to the user to manually adjust the day to "1" when a month shorter than 31 days reaches its end. just now i was looking at DU and noticed that the latest post was for the 4th. i glanced down and saw a little "3" on my watch. for a split second i thought to myself "what, how come the post is a day ahead?" then i realized that i forgot to change the date after november 30th. that was 4 days ago.

man, i need to snap out of it.

posted by yodaslap at 10:32 AM

duh, i guess i dont really listen to weezer enough to really have much say on the topic. the only concert ive ever been to (Third Day) was loud but not dangerous, so i guess i cant fully relate. all i remember was i partially lost my hearing afterwards for a good half hour or so.

anyway, nice reviews on amazon, Lawrence. thats kind of a cool idea. maybe someday ill write a review on amazon too. maybe for the phantom menace DVD or something, heh.

anyway, its about a quarter past 3am, and im about to go to sleep. sadly, its relatively early for me compared to recent days. blah!
posted by yodaslap at 3:24 AM

From the official weezer site (www.weezer.com):

12/02/01 Madison Mayhem
...well, it looks like people in this town really like to mosh it up. At times there was a seemingly endless stream of crowdsurfers coming over the barricade, and the mass pushing from side to side up front was looking pretty severe. There were some reports of injuries beyond the usual "getting squished and needing some oxygen" cases, and I spied at least one person being rolled to first aid on a stretcher after the show. Perhaps some of the previous nights Ozzy Osbourne show mayhem infected the crowd? I really hope everyone was ok. Please, be careful, folks!

They just missed taking a pic of us, as I recognize the kid all the way on the left in one pic as being near us. You remember him, Justin? The loud guy.
posted by Larry at 8:31 PM

I guess my review (from my blog) isn't eloquent or deep like Justin's. But I'm glad you had a good time, and I'd definitely go to another concert too.

Well, Weezer kind of sucked live. I mean, I like them and all, but Weezer live isn't a whole lot better than Weezer recorded. They basically drove straight through their hour-15 set and had zero audience interaction. I was down on the floor for half the set, then just went up and sat in the seats. Also, they didn't play my favorite song, El Scorcho.

The opening band Duvall was awful. They were 30-something guys in sweaters playing generic rock with a balding lead singer that sounded like a girl. Their bass player, as someone yelled out, looked like "Thom Yorke, Andy Dick, and Mr. Bean's lovechild," and acted like it too.

But the real showstopper was the middle act, Tenacious D. If you don't know them, it's Jack Black (the actor) and Kyle Gass. I've never heard two people rock so hard on acoustic guitars. And man, JB has some major talent and a voice louder then Weezer's guitars. I was close to the stage for that one and it was insane. People pushing and giving the heavy metal sign, crowd surfing, and it was so hot and sweaty. Major audience interaction, too, and a style that can only be described as bombastic. I bought their pre-signed CD after the show for $20. Man, they rocked the house.
posted by Larry at 12:29 PM

Tonight was a unique experience. "Jam/Last Coast Present Weezer, Special Guest Tenacious D." This distinction comes not from superlative quality in music, but from the sensation of a "coming-of-age" experience: the concert taught me a lot about myself and the generation in which I live.

Frankly, I didn?t know what to expect. It was my first rock concert; all that I could anticipate was the inevitable excitement. What ensued as the crowd rose to their feet soon abated this unalloyed excitement: Everyone rushed towards the front fence. Not only could I no longer see, I was trapped immobile as loud music blared at me. Ok, this isn?t too bad, I thought. The music, although generic, was pretty good. The lead singer of Duvall sang in key and the guitars and drums faithfully supported his every note. After the first 20 minutes, though, I grew bored. Repetitive bopping to music I didn?t know just wasn?t what I wanted to do for the next 3 hours.

As they left the stage, I wondered what would happen next. What happened in that half hour between the first and second sets was not present in all of my wonderings. The crowd started to push, first from behind and then in all directions. People were pushing each other in every bearing; they were reckless as the uncontrolled movements caused the crowd to eddy wildly. And I was scared. I could not breathe. I was lifted off the ground, held upright only by the flesh that surrounded me. I felt trapped--I was trapped. I uttered a prayer for the safety of those around me and continued helplessly to be thrust by those same people for whom I had prayed.

I pondered how it was possible that this room full of my peers could be so mindless of others that with each push initiated, there was no thought for the people that would get squished. I became angry. I concluded all those around me represented a culture that had degenerated to abject apathy and unconcern. My personal safety was compromised by people I didn?t even know; as I heard the screams and shouts of the people around me, I knew I was not alone in my dissatisfaction. Enervated physically by all the pushing, and mentally but all the frustration, I had to get out. I whispered to the person beside me,
  "Excuse me, do you know how to get out?"
  "Just yell that you?re a diabetic."
  "I don?t think I can even yell anymore."
And with that, she raised her voice and yelled, "Diabetic! Let him out; he has to get out!" People tried to part a path for me as I dazedly stumbled towards the edge.

Then came the next band. I realized that I was brought up too well to appreciate the potty-mouth Tenacious D. As the crowd cheered each swear, I lamented for my generation. I was stunned as I heard the same words sung by the group coming enthusiastically from the person behind me, matching word for word. I couldn?t believe they enjoyed the profanity, the foulness--the immorality of it all. I realized that they indeed needed much prayer and guidance. And that was all I could do, while I anxiously awaited the end of their set.

When Tenacious D left the stage, we went to find seats before Weezer?s performance. In the relative peacefulness of our new surroundings, I felt myself lapse into an out-of-body, "The Wonder Years" sort of narration. What do I make of all this? What does this say about these people? I was still shocked by how irresponsibly the countless people pushed and shoved. But the incautious attitude was far from unanimous. The girl that helped me, she was nice. I saw my angry conclusion fizzle as the homogeneity of apathy I had suggested speckled. No, not all people are bad; just many in need of guidance.

Having quelled my frustrations, I began to enjoy the music. Sure, the people in our section seemed almost emotionless compared to those in the centre, but I had not come to be pushed around. Taking in the panorama of all the action around me, I saw the flickering lighters pierce through the cool cloud of smoke and fog. Now this was the experience I had envisioned. The euphoria of the crowd, boosted upon hundreds of cheers, was almost palpable. And I was enjoying myself.

As the last note of the encore sounded, I let out a sigh of relief. I had survived. I survived my first rock concert--ringing ears, parched throat and all. Would I go to another concert? Sure, why not. Probably not for music, definitely not for all the pushing. I?d go for the glorious elation from cheering with hundreds of people, feeling united in the corporate celebration of life. And to be reminded to be prayerful for a generation that seems so estranged from God.
posted by jylo at 1:39 AM

ive decided today that hospitals are pretty interesting places. im not even talking about the equipment and gadgets they have in there. well, take this for example. i took my friend Yidiot to the hospital today after he mangled his index finger with his bush trimmer. heres the conversation that resulted between him and the lady in the emergency room lobby:

Yidiot: yeah, i kinda cut off my finger today
lady: (without even looking up) did you bring it with you?
Yidiot: oh, no, its not THAT bad.
me: (thinking to myself) whaaaaaaat??

i can imagine some poor headless guy walking into the emergency room, and getting the same response "so did you bring it with you?" ok, so im guessing the lady was probably trained to not panic or show any outward signs of concern, but the overall conversation was still pretty comical to behold. i guess you had to be there.
posted by yodaslap at 7:07 PM

booooooo! well i am in the middle of "studying" for bio right now, but just taking a break i guess. this is a perfect illustration of how uneventful my life is... of all the things i could be doing, im blogging during my break! well i could be yoyoing i guess, but i already wasted away enough time yoying earlier this afternoon. thumbs down.

oh yeah, is there any reason why there has been transfer errors on recent posts? it keeps saying "530 Login incorrect"
posted by yodaslap at 4:22 PM