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| News of the Day Archive- January 22-31 |
| January 22- Today I woke up at around 8:30 and got dressed in a sort of half-hearted way as I tend to do for school. I gathered my books, poured my cup of coffee, and was out the door at about 8:50 or so. After taking the streets to school, as usual, I made it there in about twenty minutes or so, and parked in the lot nearest the baseball field. I made my way to Earth Science, where I found a seat in the back at about 9:20, which left me about ten minutes to spare so I took the opportunity to do my Statistics homework that was due later in the day. Finally at about 9:35 Mr. Caputo showed up and gave us a five question quiz, though I didn't have a Scantron so I was forced to borrow one from the girl next to me. When the quiz was finished, a lecture ensued, and that occupied the remainder of the class, and at about 10:45 I walked over to my History of the Wild West class. That class was pretty interesting, even though Bill Jones didn't do much other than discuss the living conditions of the Western United States for the duration of the class. He showed us some slides of Native American housing, as well as some of the landscape before we were let out at about 12:15. I made the relatively short walk from my history class to my Statistics class where I sat for about ten minutes before class started. Pretty much the entire class was spent going over the second chapter in the Statistics book done via the teacher's powerpoint slideshow over the overhead projecter. Since it was nearing the end of the day I was getting a little tired of sitting around so when class was let out it was a welcomed sight. I made the long journey from my class in the 26 building to the parking lot, which took me about ten minutes or so. Once at my car I leisurely drove home, since I was not in any rush not having to be at work or anything like that. I got home at about 2:20 or so where I sat at the computer. My mom kindly heated up the leftovers from dinner a couple nights prior and I ate that for lunch, while continuing to sit at the computer. At about 4:30 I stopped by Lindsay's house to sell her my Religion book from the class failed the semester prior due to it's early time. I took that money and made my way over to Target where I went to buy the Back to the Future Trilogy. I had tried to do so a couple days ago but they were all out, so I figured I would try again. I could have bought it at Best Buy, but in this case the store didn't live up to it's name because it was about ten dollars more expensive there. I got to Target and went straight to the DVD's, only being briefly interrupted by an encounter with Julie and Katrina, a couple of coworkers. After about five minutes or so in the store, I was on my way out the door with my new purchase in hand, and I drove home. When I got home I again sat at the computer for about an hour or so. At about 6:00 I almost forced my mother to give me a haircut, as I found out shortly that she did not want to. The entire procedure took about half an hour, and by about 6:30 or so I was back at the computer sitting on AOL, while watching tv. At about 8:00 my dad came home with food from Taco Pub again, and I ate my two taco combination plate before ending up back at the computer. I decided to take advantage of my most recent acquisition and watched the first Back to the Future, as well as looked at some of the bonus features. About midway through I fell asleep for about half an hour or so, but quickly regained consciousness in order to finish the movie. When that was finished I started watching tv before deciding to do a little laundry. In the midst of doing so I decided to start watching some of the bonus features of the second Back to the Future movie, which led on to watching the actual movie. It is now a little after 2:00 and I'm only about halfway through the movie, and most likely that is how I will finish my evening. January 23/24- At around 8:30 on Thursday I got out of bed and dressed myself before heading out the door for school at about 8:50. I got to Mt. SAC and parked near the baseball field at around 9:10 or so before I met with Robert in the parking lot. We went to our first class, Psych of Sexuality, where we had a quiz which required me to borrow a Scantron from Robert. The quiz was somewhat difficult because, like always, I failed to do the reading for the chapter that it covered, but when I finished, I looked in the book and found that I got at least a few answers correct. When the test was completed, John Long began a lecture regarding sex research and techniques, which was somewhat interesting, but hard to follow in regards to the notes he wrote on the chalkboard. Class was let out at about 10:45, and I talked with Robert while partly on my way to Sociology. I got there, and unlike the other days I have gone to the class, there was an abundance of seats, so I took one off to the side like I prefer. Slowly but surely the seats began to fill, and after sitting there for a few minutes some girl sat down beside me and in a rare moment, we very briefly chatted about how difficult it could be to find seats in the overcrowded class. At about 11:00 class began and we spent pretty much the entire time listening to the teacher discuss research, and research techniques. Sort of unusual since I had just finished hearing a variation of such in my Psych class earlier, and basically the same thing in my Statistics class the day prior. The class went by relatively quickly though we were kept until 12:15 which is always sort of annoying when it's your last class of the week, let alone the day. I got out of class and walked to my car, on the way to which I encountered Robert again, and talked with him while walking to the parking lot. From school I decided that I was hungry so I drove by Wendy's, but seeing the lunchtime rush made me reconsider, so I got onto the 57 Freeway and drove home, opting to find something at my house. When I got home my mom offered to make me something to eat. She made me some grilled cheese sandwiches, and some soup, which was chicken noodle and didn't compliment the meal too well, but still sufficed. After eating I started to get pretty lazy and decided to lay down on my bed. I didn't wake up until about 5:15 or so, then took a shower before getting ready for work at about 5:30. I clocked in for work at about 6:04 and was given a drawer by Jim, then assumed the role of cashier for the night. Initially the night appeared as though it would be easy, with very few customers, but after about two hours that sort of changed. Not to say that it was difficult, but there were a lot of customers for a weeknight, and it was enough to annoy me. It kept me relatively busy for a majority of the shift. There wasn't much that was noteworthy about the shift, and eventually 11:00 did arrive and Gina cashed out my drawer, which was oddly fifty cents short. I really don't know how I did that, but it's only fifty cents so I didn't care. I shredded the tickets, and did all my closing procedures before getting the all clear to leave. I was joined by "the usual gang of idiots" (Mad Magazine reference) and joined them in the parking lot for a typical gathering around the cars. After standing around discussing the night's activities it was decided to head over to Ricardo's backyard. So I opted to get some food before making it over there, so I made a stop at Carl's Jr. since it had been a while since I have eaten there. When I pulled up to the drive-thru there was a sign on the microphone saying that it was closed for the night, so I decided to go to the nearest place which was Tommy's, where I got a double cheeseburger, chili-cheese fries, and Pepsi. I took it to Ricardo's house where he began working on a 12-pack of Budweisers, while I attacked my meal. Those of us that were back there were Ricardo, Shay, Gabe, Big Chris, and myself. We were later joined by Lindsay and her friend Stacy. The conversation was pretty typical, teetering on the edge of vulgarity, which is always amusing and made for some good laughs. Slowly but surely the group began to dwindle until it was just Ricardo, Gabe, and I, but that didn't last too long because we were joined by Little Chris. The conversation pretty much stayed on trips to Mexico, until around 3:00 when the cold became unbearable to my unsheathed kneecaps and I went home. Once at home I started watching the Back to the Future Part 3 special features before watching the actual movie and falling asleep somewhere in the middle. I woke up at about 12:15 on Friday at which point I got dressed and headed to SpeedZone for yet another day of work at 1:00. Over the past week and a half or so I've attempted to grow a beard and recently people have been commenting on it, though I'm still not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Oh well. Things started off pretty uneventful (not to say that things became eventful later on) and my shift was pretty easy. I spent a lot of time walking up to the bar to talk to John the bartender since there's not much else to do. It sort of reminded me of Clerks when Randal constantly leaves the video store to go talk to Dante at the Quick Stop. Though I could never spend more than a few minutes at the bar before somebody else would approach the counter and I would be forced to help them out. Things never got out of hand, but I was kept relatively busy for a decent portion of my shift, though AJ stopped by with one of his friends and loaded up on some of the candy. In general the time went by pretty slowly. At around 5:00 Daylo showed up for his shift which took off some of the burden of my work, namely the redemption duties. The last hour of a Friday shift always really annoys me and today wasn't much of an exception, though it was much more tolerable than last week. Eventually 6:00 did arrive and David cashed out my drawer which was perfect. At about 6:20 I was done with work for the day, at which point I found out that my "ghost hunting" plans were cancelled for the night, so I had nothing to do. The thought crossed my mind to head over to the train station, but my parents offered to bring me home some In-N-Out for dinner I stayed home and enjoyed my three hamburgers and fries while watching Seinfeld with "the old people". When that was finished I went to my room where I sat at the computer and watched some tv. Sometime around 9:00 I fell asleep while watching the History channel, and didn't wake up until about 10:00 or so. Pretty much everybody was on their own for the night, so Little Chris and Shay decided to go to Casino Morongo. Earlier in the night I considered going but by this time I opted to just stay home and watch tv. I watched the special features to Wayne's World before watching the movie with the commentary on, which wasn't too great. It didn't have enough of the technical information that I enjoy to hear about the movies. When I was done with that I searched for another DVD to play with and decided that there were some things on the Swingers DVD that I had yet to explore. In the midst of doing so Gabe called me up, which was around 1:00 and asked if he could come hang out in the backyard. Since it required no effort from me I was fine with it, and at around 1:15 he showed up. We sat in the backyard talking for what didn't seem like very long, but before I knew it the time was about 2:45. That was about the time that he left, and I came inside where I ate a Pop Tart, and continued to write the News of the Day for yesterday as well as for today. I read Tom's journal which was nice to see, and made the necessary pages to archive the new additions to the News. It's now about 3:45 and I'm watching Swingers, which I will probably fall asleep to in a short while. January 25/26- On Saturday I woke up at about 8:45 when my mother knocked on my door asking what time I planned to get up since I had to be at SpeedZone by 9:30 for a meeting before my scheduled shift. I ended up getting dressed, and got to work where I clocked in at 9:24 at which point I was told to wait in one of the rooms for the meeting, so I sat in Daytona. Slowly but surely the others that work groups showed up, and eventually Rachel came into run the meeting at about 9:40 or so. It was a pretty short meeting that basically covered some minor changes in how groups are handled, and just information in general. After about fifteen minutes, the meeting was over and I assumed my duties as cashier and gametech for the day, though it was pretty uneventful at the beginning. So I grabbed the glass cleaner, and some paper towels and walked around the gameroom, occasionally cleaning a game. As she was about to leave, I briefly talked to Taylor Hooks about some of the back office drama, and as I read an E-mail that was a part of it I kept cleaning a game without even realizing I was doing so. Just one of those things that was sort of funny at the time. We chatted then went our separate ways which was about the time things started to pick up, which meant I had to keep near my register to help out the customers. I past my last obstacle in regards to my unkempt look, as I directly spoke with Stolfus about something on the cash register and he didn't mention anything about my "beard" so it's safe to say I'm in the clear. I pretty much stayed at my drawer, helping out a relatively steady stream of customers, until a little after noon when Jenine showed up and David gave her a drawer to use at the redemption side. So from that point on I sort of assumed my original duties of walking the gameroom which wasn't too bad. Every now and then I would have some problems to deal with, but in general the gameroom was being pretty good to me. At around 1:30 Paul walked in to go on break, and he convinced me to take mine as well. It was pretty early for me to do so, but I was really hungry so I decided that I might as well do so. I ordered the chicken finger sandwich and took it into the breakroom where Paul and Chris Lem were. The three of us sat there eating, and watching tv before our breaks ended. I went back to my duties in the gameroom, which at this point was getting busier as the afternoon went on. Every now and then I would help out at redemption when it would get busy, but for the most part I stayed in the gameroom until about 3:00 when I went back on my drawer to help out with the line. Things got pretty busy at that point because I was working at a pretty feverish pace and the line did not seem to subside at all. I initially was working fast to get rid of the few people in line so I could close operations side and get back to the gameroom, but it slowly grew and never went down. In hindsight it was a good thing that I worked as fast as I could or else I would have been overwhelmed by the crowd. Things remained that way until about 3:30 when Jenine came off of her break, which was about the time David decided to cash out my drawer. I ended up spending the rest of my shift in the gameroom, which continued to be relatively easy to handle, and I had someone else helping me which made things even easier. At the time my stomach was bothering me, so having an easy day was a welcomed sight. The last hour or so of my shift really went by slowly because of my ailing stomach, but I managed to get through it. At around 5:30 Gina asked me if I had clocked in for my meeting, and since I had that I shouldn't stay for my entire shift to avoid the chance of getting overtime. Had my stomach not been bothering me I would have tried to stay until 6:00 since I knew I clocked in a few minutes and took a short break, but it did, so I didn't. I went straight home in a hurry and took care of some business to get rid of my stomach ache. After that I was fine, and sat at the computer quite contently for the next couple of hours. For some reason I was recieving a lot of phone calls which was out of the ordinary. From all those phone calls, and all the time spent online, a plan arose for the evening, so at about 8:30 I left my house. I made a stop at the Unocal 76 where I filled up my gas tank for $1.65 a gallon, which I later realized was pretty expensive. From there I drove to The Hat to meet up with Shay, Robert, and Little Chris to eat. I got there at about 8:50 or so but I didn't see them anywhere, so I gave them a call. Apparently they thought I was meeting them at Robert's house, so they left, and as they drove over I sat in the car listening to the radio. They got there at a little after 9:00 and we went inside to eat. I opted for some chili-cheese fries, and large Coke which turned out to be a pretty generous portion, and quite filling. Chris and Robert didn't eat. The four of us sat in the booth talking about an array of topics including, but not limited to school, Seinfeld, and SpeedZone. There weren't too many noteworthy specifics, but in general it was a pretty good conversation that lasted a while, though didn't seem like it because it was so entertaining. Once Shay stuck his foot in his mouth in regards to making a rather loud racial reference, we migrated outside at around 11:00 where the conversation lasted for about another half hour. At about 11:30 I called it quits because I had told Smitty that I would stop by his house to hang out for a while. So I got to his house at around 11:45 where he, Kris, Alec, and their friend Walter were sitting around doing nothing. I always feel like an outsider when I hang out with them only because they have their group dynamic, and to be quite honest I find Alec to be annoying. But Smitty's an old friend so I bear with it when I hang out with him. We pretty much just sat around the stuffy apartment, mainly talking about old times like the Tommy's shootout among other things. At a little after 1:00 Ryan started talking on the phone so that's when everyone sort of decided it was time to go home, so at about 1:15 I was on my way home. When I got home I sat online for about an hour and a half before watching a little of the Mallrats commentary, and finally falling asleep at around 3:00. I had intended to wake up at 7:00 to write the News on Sunday morning, but I didn't end up waking up until about 8:30, so I got in the shower, and dressed for work before heading down to SpeedZone. I clocked in for work at 9:04 which was the earliest I had ever had to work, which was strange because I never see the games turned off before work, it's always after. Nevertheless I talked to Gina who said that Jay the gametech had shown up for work to do games, which was supposed to be my job for the day. I was given the option of staying and finding something to do, or just going home, so considering that I was both tired, and it was Super Bowl Sunday, I decided that it was best I just go home. So that's what I did. I clocked out seven minutes after clocking in and headed out the door. I got home and sat at my computer, which had been signed online for over three consecutive days. Despite being tired I had no inclination to sleep whatsoever, and decided to just sit at the computer and talk to whoever was online. There weren't many people that early in the morning, and there's not much on tv on Sunday mornings. At about 11:00 my parents brought me breakfast from Taco Pub, so I ate that with a can of Coke which I thought would mean I was definitely not going to sleep. Instead, I ate my chorizo and egg breakfast and sat online for about half an hour before finally laying down and dozing off. At about 3:30 I was awoken by my mother telling me that the game was about to start, so I walked to the living room in a sleep induced haze and sat on the couch next to my father. The game started off pretty uneventful, and almost boring until Tampa Bay started to take control of things. I really didn't have any particular interest in any team, and I never really got into the season in general, so I was just hoping for an entertaining game. For about the first two quarters the game had my interest entirely, then at around halftime I started looking at things online in regards to a notebook computer that I am seriously considering buying. I looked at all the details, and it seems to be the type of machine I want, and it seems to be pretty reasonably priced. I really didn't get into the second half too much, but I still watched. Also, in general the commercials were good, but they weren't very memorable as a whole. But there were a couple I really liked, and as always, the beer commercials were the most funny. At the end of the third quarter I got an IM from Robert Bustos, and a phone call from Robert Taylor telling me that I had won $75 in the pool set up by Noy which really put me in a good mood. The game ended and I retreated back to my room where I continued to sit online and watch tv. On the History channel was a history of sex which was pretty interesting, so I watched for about two hours. Though in general there isn't much to watch on tv on Sundays. I sat online not really doing much for a while before finally deciding to watch Office Space at around 11:30 or so. As I watched that I began writing the News for yesterday, as well as today, though the movie ended at around 1:00 and I'm still writing after 1:30. I'll probably stay up for a little while before calling it a night, and as I do so my online clock on AOL is at just over 98 hours. A personal best. January 27- My day started at around 8:30 when I woke up and got dressed for class before leaving my house at around 8:55. I got to school where I parked near the baseball field again, and walked to the crosswalk where I waited with a crowd of people to cross the street. We stood there and at the point of the light cycle where we should have crossed came and went, but we never got the signal to do so. Thus, the lights continued, and let the traffic continue. I might have been the only person to realize it, but the girl standing next to the button neglected to push it, hence we were forced to stand for yet another cycle of lights. A case of "dropping the ball" in my opinion on her part, since the fifteen or so people standing there relied on her ability to comprehend the notion of having to push the crosswalk button. She failed us as a whole. Needless to say she figured it out and we crossed at our next opportunity and I went to Earth Science where I sat in the back of the classroom, as usual. Some guy sat next to me and briefly chatted about the Super Bowl, but I was kind of tired so I was inadvertantly curt. Caputo showed up to class a little late and continued with a lecture that was sort of boring since it was mainly review for me, and at about 10:45 we were let free. On my way to the next class I came across Robert so we briefly chatted before continuing on our ways. I got to my History class which began pretty much on schedule with a sort of practice map quiz on some basic geographic features of the Western United States. This was followed by a lecture, which I have always found interesting, and makes me wonder how people can say that history is a boring subject. Class ended at about 12:15 so I went to my Statistics class where I sat in the back, watching as people trickled in and filled up the seats. The lecture was in general a review for me, though I did learn a couple things about my TI-83 calculator which will be useful. It is a little weird becoming reacquainted with the calculator that I had become so familiar with during high school. I even noticed that I still had the program with the Chemistry final that I used during Senior year of high school. At around 1:30 or so we had a quiz which wasn't too difficult since there weren't any calculations considering what it covered was mainly just concepts, and recognizing them. I was finished in about five minutes or so, and was out the door on my way home. On my way to the car I noticed a generic UPS flyer regarding jobs which made me think that I should really consider it. The pay is pretty good, and it would put me in decent shape, both of which are positive attributes. I drove home, getting there at about 2:00 or so. When I got home I pretty much just sat online and watched some tv for a little while. My brother had called me at about 2:30 saying that he would be at my house to pick me up to go eat at Pinnacle Peaks, a place he has wanted to take me to for months. Needless to say that he didn't show up until about 3:45, and he wasn't alone... just as I had feared. He was with his S.O.(significant other), and her son. I really wasn't looking forward to it because to be quite honest, both of them sort of annoy me, but for the sake of my brother I sat through the experience. We got to the restaurant, which is just down the street from Tom's new house, at about 4:15, and they didn't open until 5:00 so we sat around waiting for it to open. Slowly but surely other people began to show up as well. In the meantime the conversation was relatively minimal based on my input, though the other three continued to talk. Eventually 5:00 rolled around and we went inside where we were seated immediately, and subsequently helped out quickly. The prices were pretty steep there, but my brother didn't mind. I ordered a steak, since it was afterall a steakhouse, medium-rare (everyone else at the table got theirs the same, so I caved), and a baked potato. A salad came first and it was pretty good, at least as far as salads are concerned, and I ate it relatively quickly since I had yet to eat all day. A few minutes later the steak came which was of a pretty generous portion, and the potato. The steak was pretty tough to cut, especially since my knife wasn't too great, and it was pretty tough to chew as well. At least half of it was. Also, because I got it medium-rare, parts of the middle did not just look red, but practically raw (not the type of red you see when it just hasn't been cooked long, but the red you see when its raw). The hassle of cutting the first half of the steak kept me from enjoying it though I wasn't highly impressed with it. However, the other half was much more tender, and would have been much more enjoyable had I not been tired out by the first half. I left a small piece of meat on the bone, which had I eaten would have made me uncomfortably full, which I was almost at the point of. While eating I tended to stay quiet and concentrate on my food which was a good way out of the conversation. When we were done eating we didn't sit around for too long which was fine by me, before heading out to the car. My brother drove and he took the streets home which prolonged the experience, but finally at around 7:00 we were home. I immediately went to the computer where I looke at some notebook computers some more, and ultimately decided to buy one online. So after sitting on the computer for a while, I got my mother to use her credit card to pay for the computer, since I didn't have a high enough limit on my own to do so. As of now I am the owner of a new notebook computer which I hope to use for things like writing the news when I feel more inclined, being able to do typed homework assignments at my convenience (this semester I have a lot of writing assignments in my classes), and hopefully some other minor things that i have in the works that I should be able to do. Once that was taken care of I sat at the computer for a while, as I watched some more tv, as my routine dictates. Eventually I got the idea of organizing my notebook before my mess of papers makes my notebook and backpack a nightmare. For the rest of the night that's about all I did, as well as talk to some people online, and continue to watch tv. It's now almost 2:00 and I am probably going to sleep in a little while. January 28- Today began at around 8:30 when I woke up and dragged myself out of bed to get dressed, before heading out the door a little late at around 8:55. I got to school at around 9:15 where I met up with Robert in the parking lot and went to our psychology class. There we took a quiz which was pretty difficult, primarily due to the fact that I neglected to do the reading, as usual. Once the quiz was over we listened to a lecture until around 10:45, at which time class was over. I walked part of the way to my next class with Robert before parting ways to my Sociology class. I got there and sat through the lecture, taking notes, before it ended at around 12:15 or so, and we were dismissed. I walked to my car, where I proceeded to drive home which was at about 12:30 or so. When I got home my mother offered to make me a couple sandwiches, so I took the offer and enjoyed two ham sandwiches for lunch. When I was finished eating those, I continued to sit at the computer and watch television, something that I had been doing during the duration of my meal as well. I fell into the usual routine online, which was to look at websites, talk to people, then eventually let my lack of sleep get the better of me, which resulted in falling asleep at around 3:00. I had a pretty decent nap, and didn't wake up until 6:00, or so I thought. I still haven't changed the clock in my bedroom since the switch back in October, so i still sometimes fall victim to the hour ahead. Instead it was merely 5:00 so I again sat at the computer and watched some tv before dinner was ready at around 6:00. I ate while watching some of the movie Heavyweights, and the State of the Union address, all while sitting online. Talk about multi-tasking. I eventually took a shower, before sitting around for a little while, until finally at about 7:15 or so I decided it was time to head over to Chain Reaction. I got there at a little after 7:30 or so, and met up with everyone that was already there just as the first band was about to play. It wasn't too crowded as we stood around watching them, before eventually going out into the alley to stand around and wait for Nutwood to play at 9:20. The time was passed just discussing various topics, and with a rather large SpeedZone crowd the conversation ultimately ended up on that subject. At about the scheduled time Nutwood began to set up for their set, and I had been given the task of taking pictures for the evening. So I took some pictures of them setting up their equipment, and when they began to play I took pictures of them playing. I don't know if it was by most standards a good or bad show since I was distracted the entire time, but I still had a good time. It was rather fun moving around trying to find better pictures to get throughout, though I was constantly worried that the pictures weren't going to be that great. Before I knew it the set was pretty much winding down as it went by pretty quickly. When it was all finished I got a picture of Robert at the Nutwood "merch table" where the CD was made available. After that I got a picture of Paul with Zoli from Ignite who came to see the band play because of Ricardo which was pretty interesting. Once Nutwood played I pretty much just stayed outside for the other two bands since everybody was going to eat afterwards, so I didn't want to leave early. I stayed outside talking to Nick and Jeannine about tricks to fooling the movie theaters into getting free things. Eventually the show did end and we all waited outside for a few minutes before ultimately leaving Chain Reaction at around 11:30 to go eat at Albertacos down the street. It was a little further down the street than I had anticipated, but worth the drive. Pretty much everyone in the band went, along with the few of us that aren't. I ordered a breakfast burrito and large soda (which was only $.06 more). As all of us waited we watched as our food was prepared with the greatest of ease by the Mexican guy in the back. The group of us sat outside at separate tables since they were pretty small so we all sort of had our own conversations with occasional intermingling. When I was finished with my burrito I really wanted another since it was so good, so I bought one, but when I got it I realized that it would be much better the next day, so I held off on eating it. We ended up staying there until about 12:45 or so, having a good ol' time, before leaving for the journey home. I drove by myself while Gabe and Robert were near me while driving, and since Robert didn't need to drop off equipment he hopped into my car at the red light atop the hill on Fullerton near Vantage Point. I dropped him off then came home where I sat at the computer for a while. I sat online before calling it a night some time around 3:00 or so. |