April 30, 2004
It's the last day of april. And it's friday. And it's Payday.

The students at ODU are in Exam Week right now. I've been pretty busy with all of the stuff coming through my computer room because of the exams. Next week should slow down though with the students starting their summer vacations. Then the public schools let out a few weeks after that. Then my nice, quiet, and peaceful weekday outings will be no more.

I've got another wedding shower to go to tomorrow. For those of you going, a little secret inside info - there will be wedding shower games with Fabulous Prizes!! And to win, a little knowledge about the celebrants may be required. So study your G&K history everyone. Also, if you haven't gotten them a wedding shower gift yet, they like Home Depot, Costco, Best Buy gift cards.

Speaking of weddings...
Some of you may have heard of this auction for a wedding dress already. It's becoming sort of iconic for ebay as the news of it has been all over the internet and it's already had over 10 million hits. Check it out for a good laugh before ebay pulls it.

Some coupons: 30%off coupon for the Reebok Outlet. May 1 - May 9. 20% off any 1 item at Borders Book Stores. Good now until May 9.

OH NO!!! Could it really be??! Have my Dreams come True!! It's Them again!!

April 28, 2004

Jessica & Me with Chali Tuna, an MC from Jurassic 5, at a Bay Area Concert a few years ago

Free Ice Cream Cones tonight at Baskin Robbins. Nothing to buy. Just walk in and get a free cone. They've done this every year for the past 5 years. Ben & Jerry's had a similar thing last night. I would have told you about it yesterday, but my cable modem was down yesterday.

I saw underground hip hop group Jurassic 5 in concert yesterday. This was my second time seeing them in concert, but the first time was at an amphitheatre in California as they opened for bigger acts. I didn't get the true vibe of a J5 show that they give at the smaller venues. They are known for putting on a good show, i've never heard a bad thing about any of their shows, and they really impressed me. Another fun concert for me. And I've got to emphasize the "fun". Unlike most other hardcore hip hop concerts, J5 concerts are all about having a good time. The best way a performer can give the crowd a good time is for them to actually enjoy themselves on stage. And you can tell because of something you almost never see at hip hop concerts, all of them smile throughout the whole show. They were laughing, interacting with the crowd, and you can tell that they just enjoyed being on stage - a rarity for a hip hop show. And they love their fans.

For those of you unfamiliar with the J5, they are an underground hip hop group specializing in old school beats and lyrics. They constantly work their rhymes in conjuction with each other, meaning they all have parts all throughout the songs. It's not like one mc does a verse then someone else does the next verse, they all throw lines back and forth with each other. And more importantly, they've got great vocabulary and they specialize in originality. They also rap about love, politics, good times, etc. No bling bling or drugs or violence. They are one of the more prominent "underground" groups that are bordering on the mainstream (In reference, Black Eyed Peas were at this point a few years ago, and now they've completely crossed over). And I prefer that at the concert, because the people in the crowd were actual J5 fans, most everyone knew who they were and the kind of vibe that you get from a J5 show, so it made it enjoyable for everyone there. There was no pushing from people in the crowd and it was as if everyone respected everyone else (good for me because I was up front against the stage). I've been a J5 fan for a while so I was expecting to enjoy the show, but it exceeded my high expectations. I've just added them to my "must see/can't miss any time their in town" concert list.

April 24, 2004

Hoos That???

The NFL Draft is today. It's supposed to be a good class of recruits this year. One of those expected to join the big leagues today is the guy pictured with me above, UVA's star quarterback Matt Schaub. He holds almost every Wahoo quarterback record out there. He's rated as one of the top 5 quarterbacks of the draft, but because of the deep talent pool this year, he may not be drafted until the late first round or early second round. It all just adds up to a lot of money. I told Matt some of my quarterbacking secrets and when you see him in the NFL leading that last second game winning drive, you've got to believe that he's got my expertise in mind.

My beloved Redskins have got the 5th pick this year. Even though they've got a high pick (their only pick) and they'll probably get someone really good, I don't think any young talent can help them out right away. I just can't wait for the season to start to see how these new look skins do. It can't be any worse than they've looked the past few years. Another trip to a redskins game should be in the plans again this year. Hopefully I'll be close enough this time to at least be able to read the numbers on the jerseys.

April 23, 2004
It's friday. The start of another eventfull weekend. Right now, my schedule is: weekends - busy, weekdays - sleep. I've got a wedding shower to go to this weekend, followed by another wedding shower next weekend. Ozomatli (I'm a big fan) has a concert on Sunday but I may not go, depending on how I feel. Also , MTV is at ODU with Hoobastank, but I may not go to that either.

Last weekend, I played golf. I did decent. I am a lot better now, than I was in april of last year. When I did good on a hole, I did pretty good, but when I was bad, it was really bad. Nothing in between. I had fun though, and I'm looking forward to playing a lot more this spring/summer.

I also went to the N.E.R.D. concert last Saturday night. They really put on a good show with a lot of energy. They really do love Virginia. I guess they give a little more in front of the hometown crowd and it showed. A fun show that really got the crowd hyped up. Even if I wasn't a fan of the group, I would have enjoyed it a lot. They didn't do a few of my favorite songs off of the new album, but I guess it's because I like the slower songs better, and for the concert they stuck to the more energetic songs. Pharrell knows how to work a crowd. They're at American U. tonight in DC.

April 22, 2004
I know it's already thursday and this is just the first post I've put up all week, but I've been really tired all week. There is a lot of hustle and bustle going on at work and once I get home, I've been going straight to sleep.

At least I'm not sick anymore. I've spent the past two weeks with some kind of sickness and I'm glad to say that I'm back to normal. Two weeks ago, I had a cold or something and I ended up with a bad cough that took over a week and 100+ cough drops to get rid of. And then I get a bad fever for one day last week, but it left ill "effects" on my body for another week. But I'm back to normal, although the pollen count has been incredibly high and my allergies are kicking in big time, but I'm used to all that.

All that pollen is also all over my new (used) car. Yellow & Blue = Green. I was planning to wash it yesterday, but I was really tired. It does feel good to drive it around and not worry about it breaking down. And the air conditioning feels really good in this unusually hot weather. And it's clean. I'm still stoked about it.

So now I'm getting my old sentra cleaned up so I can get rid of it. It will probably go to my cousin who has been sans transportation for a while, unless someone else wants to buy it for $800 - $1000. It is on it's last breath as it does have it's problems:
-The felt ceiling upholstery isn't exactly on the ceiling anymore
-It burns a lot of oil. I've been adding oil monthly
-The shifter is temperamental. If it doesn't start sometimes you've got to move it out of park then back to park before starting
-sometimes moving it out of park doesn't work, and that's when you've got to walk away and give it some time alone and try again later.
-There is no shift indicator
-The right rear tire may have a slow leak. I'm not sure, but I've been adding a lot air to that tire (i'll provide a free digital tire gauge).
-The engine might cut off in the rain. It's been fixed and doesn't happen everytime it rains, but it has happenned.
-The trunk leaks when it rains.
-The dashboard lights for the speedometer and other indicators doesn't always work.
-the transmission may need a little work
-the timing belt might need to be changed
-the front bumper is a little crooked
-there is no air conditioning.

I know that seems like a lot, but I got used to it. But when the car gets running, it runs fine. It just passed inspection this past January and it's got new brakes and wipers. So if anyone is interested, just let me know. Otherwise, you'll see my cousin Gilbert driving it around in it soon.

April 16, 2004
Yesterday I was sick. I was "crawling on the floor" sick. I had the chills, even though it wasn't that cold. I'm not sure what it was either. I had a fever and headache but my stomach was doing okay. It could have been a number of things though. What made things even worse was that I was sore all over from the day before.

You see, this weekend I'm supposed to play some golf. So on Wednesday morning I decide to go to the driving range to see where my game is at and if I can at least hit the ball straight. I just got one bucket of range balls and I thought I was taking it easy. Except for the last couple of balls, I wasn't even swinging hard. I was just hitting slowly to see if I was hitting correctly. I was even taking little breaks every few minutes. I thought I was fine until a few hours later when I started feeling pains all over.
-my two shoulders were sore
-my back is stiff
-my right thigh feels funny
-my right forearm is sore
-my neck doesn't feel right
-both of my thumbs hurt
-my abs feel like I've just finished 500 situps.

I may have also gotten sick because of a lack of food. Because my abs were sore, I didn't really feel hungry. My stomach didn't know it was empty because of the rippling muscles that were there. But I hadn't eaten much because I just wasn't hungry. Even after feeling sick, I just didn't feel like eating.

And I may have also been sick because of a lack of sleep. I've been busy all week and I just haven't had much time to sleep. Working at night, then running around all day just isn't good for the body.

But I'm a little better today. I'm not 100% yet, but I'm a lot better than I felt yesterday. I'm still a little light headed and my body temp isn't at 98.6, but I'm up and doing stuff again. And I'm feeling better and better with every productive bathroom break I take.

So what have I been busy with all week. The big thing is that I've been getting my finances straight and stuff. I needed to gather some money because I am now rolling around in a new car.

Yup, that's right. I went and bought a used light blue honda accord and the white sentra may finally head into retirement. People will no longer see a white sentra and say "here comes el". Now they've got to look for the accord.

It was sort of an impulse buy, but it was in my plans for the year to get another car. I just didn't think it would happen until july or august. But a friend of my sister just happen to be selling her cars because she's moving to hawaii. I went to check it out and it was in really good shape. She and her husband are pretty anal when it comes to their cars . I wasn't planning on buying it, but it was affordable and I knew it was in good condition. And I know them enough to know that I wasn't going to be worried about getting screwed over with a bad car. Opportunities like this don't come around too often, and I may not get a better deal if I wait till later in the year, so I sucked it up and bought it. I am really broke now, but I'm driving around with a reassurance that my car won't break down if it rains. And I have air-conditioning.

It's an older car, but it's way better off than my sentra. It's good enough to get me at least 5 years. I know it's better off than my sentra was 5 years ago.

I spent Wednesday getting the insurance straight and then getting the title and registration and taxes squared away. Aside from the price of the car, the actual process of buying the car can be expensive. It could be expensive enough to make someone sick. I don't know if I should celebrate the fact that I now have a new car, or be sad that I'm really broke.

April 14, 2004

Happy Birthday Esther!!!!

I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend. It's been a very busy week for me so far. I'll elaborate more about all that I've done later this week. It's only Wednesday today.

I looks like VA taxes might go up next year. That sort of sucks. But it's a good thing that I don't smoke because cigarette taxes are probably going to go up from 2.5 cents to 30 cents.

Speaking of taxes, I hope you've got yours done. Tomorrow is tax day. I did mine about 2 months ago and got my return a few weeks ago. I used it to pay off a credit card that I've been chipping away at for a long time. It was the third and final card that I've been trying to close out (leaving me with just 2 cards, which I've got under control). Paying that off was really important for my monetary status. More about that later this week ...

April 9, 2004 - Good Friday
I haven't gotten around to posting anything up here for the past few days for a couple of reasons. For one, I really have nothing to post about. But really, I've just been really tired the past two mornings to mess around on the computer. I'm tired at work and then when I get home, I just go straight to sleep. I've even been disregarding my emails. I've just been sleeping. But that should change next week when I get rejuvenated by my return to soda and it's caffeine.

I've just realized that I'm busy every weekend, including this weekend, until the middle of May.

This week marks the 10 year anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death. It doesn't seem like it's been that long, and his music is still better than most of the stuff on the radio today.

April 6, 2004
UConn, just as I picked, won the national championship last night. This makes 4 years in a row that I've got the championship pick correct on my NCAA brackets, although the rest of this years bracket was screwed up. No more college basketball until the end of the year. I still have the NBA playoffs, although I don't find it nearly as exciting as the do or die NCAA tournament.

Also as I predicted, the FOX network went and cancelled my new favorite show of the year, Wonderfalls. I guess my plea last week for more viewers didn't work. Thanks a lot people. There is a huge backlash on the internet though, because it was a favorite of a lot of people. Makes you wonder who is actually a nielson family. The creator of the show asked the fans to not be geeky and spend time and money trying to save of resurrect the show, like the Angel fans. I'm just going to have to wait a few months and hopefully a DVD will be released, especially since all 13 episodes for this year were already made. Now my efforts can go to keeping Arrested Development on Fox.

April 2, 2004
Happy Birthday Vince Pascual!!!

For the person on the go, or the really lazy, you can now cook Hotdogs in the car while you drive. And people drive bad enough with just cell phones.

I just got this note and it may be of interest to some of you. Next week at MacArthur Center in Norfolk...
Auditions for The Bachelor will take place in Grand Court on April 8, 2004 from 4-8 p.m. The show is looking for eligible men and women. The video portion of the interview will take place during the event. Please bring 2 recent candid photographs of yourself. Complete the application during the event or you can print out the application by visiting The Bachelor website.

It's friday. We're on the last week of lent...

April 1, 2004
It's April Fools Day, and again this year I'm not going to put up some lame April Fools Joke only to have people think "boy that was stupid". And before a lot of you waste your time doing so, don't send me any email jokes or pictures today. I've seen them all already. Bah Humbug...

Breakgreen still has a few tickets they are trying to sell for this Saturday night for their concert at the Norva. It's only $7.50. I'll be there to support them and afterwards we'll probably just hang out at the bars on Granby street. The night does get cut short by one hour because...

Daylight Savings Time starts this (palm) sunday . So don't forget to turn your clocks 4-ward on 4/4/4. (ok, now you can say "boy that was stupid", but you'll thank me on sunday if you remember it like that...4ward on 4/4/4).

Rick Flair, the Nature Boy himself is in town today at MacArthur Center from 4pm-6pm. Wooooohhh!!!! (Don't expect me there, I can only handle so many wrestling geeks in one place).