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Blog - May 2003 |
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This page stores my blog entries from May 2003. The entries are dated May 4, May 7, May 10, May 18, May 27, May 29, and May 30.
BevMo Buy-Up / Whole Earth Festival next weekend! Sunday, May 4, 2003 Wine is the word of the day today. I don't think I've ever spent this much on booze at once, and that includes when I've had coupons with Beverages & More to save $5 when buying $30 or more. Well, the aforementioned superstore had a sale recently where you can buy certain bottles of wine for regular price and get the second one for a nickel. I ended up getting:
The first two on that list were a part of the "buy one, get one for a nickel" deal. That brought the Heather Ranch down to a more affordable price for me ($25 for the pair, rather than $25 each). The last three are the cheap $2 wines. The Two Buck Chuck wine is actually called that; it's not the Charles Shaw wines from Trader Joe's. I liked the Charles Shaw wines (the red ones, at least; didn't try the white ones), so I thought I'd try the others in the area. The one at Raley's/Bel Air has eluded me though; they were sold out when I went there last. ***** Next weekend is the Whole Earth Festival at U.C. Davis. As anyone who knows me, you know I'll be there. I always get some sort of candles when there, and I may get a couple of colorful tapered pillar candles if the dealer is there this year. My mom wants a candle from there for Mother's Day, so I'll try to find something unique for her.
Metallica: mtvICON / Diablo II / Confiding within a Friendship Wednesday, May 7, 2003 Yesterday, I watched mtvICON with Metallica. It seemed weird (and probably equally unsettling, in a good sense) to see so many people who were influenced by their music and sound. The tribute performances ranged from interesting to awful. My awards go to:
At the end, Metallica took the stage, and right as MTV went to credits, Metallica started playing something that, I assume, will make it onto "St. Anger", their next album due in June. Impressions? I'm not sure. It seemed very different from what they've done before. I didn't hear enough (or enough of it clearly enough) to get a gauge of whether things from them will be good again or not. We'll have to stay tuned and see come June 10. ***** I've been on a big Diablo II kick lately. I think watching my friend from high school, Paul, play it at his new house made me want to play more. I've already beaten it with all of the characters (including the expansion characters), so now I'm going through it again on Nightmare difficulty. I'm looking forward to the 1.10 patch, though I'm always a little wary when they say they're going to make some significant game changes. We'll see what they end up doing! ***** I'm beginning to wonder about friendships and how they should grow and progress. I have some male friends, but the ones I tend to spend the time with are female (the male ones are either co-workers who I only see at work, or are my high school friends <waves>). Is it just the people I happen to meet, or does it seem like people tend to just want to talk about themselves without really wanting to know how you're doing? I've already talked to a co-worker at work who was whining about her semi-boyfriend. I'm having problems with a friend about what she confided with me. Complete strangers seem to enjoy moaning to me about their problems, too. I know I'm a good listener, but I don't believe that it's too selfish for one to want a decent, well-balanced friendship to be in place before I start hearing about one's personal life and issues. If it's a happy friendship where both people get along rather well, then I can see that as being a good thing. Things that can draw people closer together as friends can certainly be a very good thing. But when you don't know the person, it can leave a really bad impression about who you are. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something, or maybe I'm just being impatient with some friends who seem to not really ask how I'm doing. Frankly, I could believe either one. So, for those of you who out there who aren't doing very well in life or with something, here are some pointers:
I guess that's how I see this little bit. I know relationships of all types and degrees are like a game of give and take, but sometimes a person needs to take something rather than always give.
Whole Earth Festival at U.C. Davis Saturday, May 10, 2003 Whole Earth! So far, there hasn't been an event that I look forward to more than the Whole Earth Festival on the U.C. Davis Campus (outside of concerts). Ever since I went to my first one as a Junior or Senior in high school with Adam, I have been hooked. The incense and candles booths. The bands jamming on stage and the speakers talking about important social, ecological, and political issues. The drum circles drumming away with assorted dancers gyrating to the organic beat. An immense positive energy proliferates the whole quad at UCD, and I always seem to come back in a much better mood than when I left. This year wasn't any different. This year's Whole Earth Festival had some very interesting things going on. The drum circle, for people who don't know, is composed of several drummers with whatever drums they have (usually hand drums; bongos of various sizes and numbers). They drum to a beat, and usually everyone tunes into a similar beat with each person making a different contribution to the whole sound. The drum circle was alive and well when I got there, including one person using a huge plastic barrel and two sticks with wrappings on the ends. While I wandered around, I noticed that there was yet another drum circle on the other side of the road to the west of the original one. It was drumming to a different beat. By the time I left, the splinter drum circle had pretty much died down while the original one still thrived. For the first time, I wanted to see who was performing on stage to judge when I should go. I enjoyed Ten Ton Chicken last year, but, sadly, their performance was scheduled for 6:40pm -- too late for my blood this year. Instead, I saw that a band called Home At Last was scheduled to perform at 2:50pm. They were pretty cool. I'm not sure how to describe their sound, but it was very appropriate for the festival. On the Wellman Stage, they had all sorts of different performances. One in particular was a hip-hop group who did a routine and had some breakdancers on the stage. I don't remember seeing anything like this before at the Whole Earth Festival, but I liked the fact that the acts became a bit more diversified. Food is never cheap at festivals like this one. I spent about $14 on lunch, and I fed myself and nobody else. That included a portabella mushroom burger, a big plate of garlic fries, and a chocolate shake. All of it was very good, so I couldn't complain. They use reusable plates, cups/mugs, spoons, and chopsticks at each food booth, charging you a bit for their use (something like $1 for a plate or cup; I don't know how much the rest was). Once you're done, you clean off the plate and return it to special booths for a refund of your deposit. It's a great way to help minimize waste and allow people to use plates without having to haul that stuff around. Next year, I'm going to bring my own stuff. I saw many unique things this year. Many, many beautiful women attended the Festival. I watched one group of people set up on the lawn with a big silver-ish hooka (nope; they said it was tobacco). I had never seen a hooka before (outside of the Alice in Wonderland cartoon/movie, that is), so I had fun watching them set it up and use it. Also, I saw someone carrying around a macaw on his shoulder. I do not know what kind of macaw, but I do remember it having a lot of green feathers along its back (all of the pics I've found online do not match what I remember seeing; it might have been a Chestnut-fronted Macaw). I have seen bird owners take their birds around while shopping, but this was the first time I saw one at the WEF. As usual, there were the requisite punker kids at the Festival as well. I needed to get my mom something for Mother's Day at the Festival. I asked her what she wanted, and she wanted a candle from there. I knew which vendor I wanted to visit, and I brought enough money for something for both of us. Sadly, that vendor wasn't there this year. I still got something for my mom: a dark mottled green pillar candle. It has a reverse-fluted surface on the side with a french vanilla scent. My mom loved it, and it now resides on the fireplace mantle. I really didn't get much of anything for myself, though I made a donation to a dude who gave away little clay medallions with "peace" pressed onto them in different languages (each medallion had a different language on it). I made a donation and got two: one that said, "paz" (Spanish) and another that said, "sìth" (Scottish Gaelic). The gaelic version is not painted, so I may, at some point, try to paint it with a Scottish plaid. The Spanish one is painted a blue-green and sealed (I assume) with a clear shiny wash. Both have some sort of sun design on the back. I'm tempted to wear them off and on as my mood suits me. (I'm not much for wearing jewelry or anything around my neck, so we'll see how long that'll last.) A great time was had by all. Ok. At least I had fun. <grins> Until next year, when, hopefully, some better candle dealers come to sell their wares.
Prologue / Old Friendship: Post-Talk / New Friendship / D&D Sunday, May 18, 2003 I sit here, pondering whether the frequency of my posts are an indicator of my happiness during periods of time, or if it's something else. I think it's more like I go through moods where my energies for things ebb and wane. Sometimes I have a lot of energy to talk and have great conversations with others (something I always enjoy), and sometimes I have a lot of energy to just listen. It seems kind of contradictory to say that one needs energy to listen, since most people think one just has to sit there. It does, though, since one has to think about what the other says and say enough to keep the conversation going. I think my periods of silence indicate times when I'm just plain busy with life and other stuff. Not only has the past week been an example of it, but it has also been an example of a week filled with very good things. ***** This past Wednesday, I had dinner with an old friend. I think everyone who knows me well knows who this person is, and I've bitched and complained about her a lot in the past concerning the problems I have had with her. Within the last year or so, we broke off contact with each other, and I did my best to take all the time I needed to sort things out for myself, regain perspective, and confront the problems in a constructive manner. This past Wednesday was the night where I got together with her not only for the purpose of seeing her and doing a little catch-up, but also for the purpose of resolving the conflicts within me so I could move on. We had a decent dinner, keeping things somewhat light for most of the night. While sitting around a local park, I started a conversation about our mutual past and what transpired during that time between us. I took the opportunity and told her where I was in the past three years with her and how certain events affected me. I explained how other events from before she knew me might have affected how I was when she and I were friends. I received an apology for something that hurt me very much, and I am still happy that she did that. This past Wednesday marks a rather important time in my life where I succeeded in moving on from a rather horrible time in my life and put to rest a lot of things that fueled my unhappiness at the time. I have grown to see things I want and don't want in friendships, and I have the strength to deny people a place in my life when they don't fit what I need and want in order to be happy. So, where does this place my old friend and I? I don't imagine that anything will happen between us in any sense anymore. Might I hang around with her on a rare occasion? Possibly. It may give me a clearer viewpoint from which to see if I really want her back in my life or not. Right now, I can't really make that sort of decision. Or, maybe that decision has already been made, and I really don't know it just yet. ***** More good news comes from this past Thursday night. Originally, I was going to meet up with a friend from the credential program, but she had to ship off to SF for an interview. Instead, I got invited to see Matrix: Reloaded with a new friend. She was going to go see it with her sister and her sister's boyfriend, but she apparently decided I would be much better company (it's not always fun to be the third wheel when two are in a relationship). We managed to get a ticket for the 9:30pm showing at a theater that had no lines whatsoever (for the second day of showing, I found that to be amazing). While we waited, we chatted over coffee at a nearby Starbuck's. We both had a great time. Sometime this coming week, I know we'll find something to do together again. ***** Last night, I joined my old high school friends for another session of D&D (using 3rd Edition rules). Normally, in the semi-distant past, I would be rather negative about D&D in general. With this game, I've been rather interested and excited for each new session. I'm having fun with it without overthinking or hyperanalyzing it for what it might lack. Instead, I'm enjoying it for what it is. I'm even participating more within the game, and that's something I've had problems doing before.
A Pam Kind of Wonderful / Memorial Day Weekend Shopping Tuesday, May 27, 2003
Friday: The Elephant Bar looked horribly crowded when we got there, but it was only a 20-minute wait for a table (helps to have only two in our party). I had a Guinness followed by their breaded shrimp/fries/coleslaw platter. She had an iced tea with a lemon chicken platter. The latter had some thinly-curled onions and some spinach. We both tried some dessert, with me making an attempt at their mud pie and her trying the creme brulee. Neither of us were able to finish our desserts. The mud pie was huge! My dinner came on a medium-sized platter, and they brought my dessert out on a different platter of the same size! This pie piece covered the whole platter, and the part in the middle was maybe five or six inches high. From there, we went off to Scandia for miniature golf. She hadn't gone in years, and I ended up beating her 60 to 69 (the latter being an adjusted score, since I forgot that there's a six-stroke limit per hole). She got three birdies, while I had only two (one of them was a hole-in-one; 5th hole on the second course). It was very fun, but we'll see if we end up doing it again. <grins> Sunday: This night started at Starbuck's, where we got something to drink and then headed out to McKinley Park's rose garden. It was a lovely evening and night, though the mosquitoes made a meal out of both of us. After a few relaxing hours of chit-chat, we headed off to Rick's Dessert Diner for something scrumptious. I ended up with something very chocolate; it was some sort of pie that was a thick chocolate with a hard fudge-like top. She had a piece of yellow cake with some sort of frosting (mocha?) and some tea. We ended up eating in her car, since Rick's was closing early for some reason (for Memorial Day?). ***** I got a lot of shopping done this past weekend, too. On Saturday, my parents and I went to the Folsom Outlets and shopped around. From the Eddie Bauer Outlet, I bought three shirts (one dark blue with thin white horizontal stripes, one medium sky blue with dark blue collar, and one that was an orangish red) and a pair of dark blue shorts. My parents bought some things there, too, and bought a small food processor at a chef's-type place. I nearly bought a Guinness keychain that the latter store, but the bottle-opener part was really long. We enjoyed some freezes from Merlino's, who had a large cart set up there. I had the strawberry freeze, and it was great! On Monday, I took off for the Downtown Plaza in search of another shirt, one more pair of shorts, and a belt (preferrably a black one). Eddie Bauer has a store there, and their store-closing sale had everything at 20-30% off. I found nothing there that would work for me. One pair of charcoal cargo shorts fit really well, but I didn't want another pair of grey shorts. My frustration grew when nothing else fit very well in that store, and none of the other shops in there were really my thing (either lame, too expensive, or too trendy). On my way back to my car, I went through Macy's for the heck of it and discovered that they had 40% off many different racks of shorts. I ended up buying a pair of Docker's. They were khaki canvas cargo shorts, and they fit really well. I really like cargo shorts, since they have nice, deep pockets that most shorts sorely lack.
Thursday, May 29, 2003 I've been working my way through all the episodes of Strong Bad. For the uninitiated, Strong Bad looks like a skinny, masked wrestler who wears boxing gloves. He receives e-mail to which he responds in these little Flash cartoons. So far, my favorite episodes are "guitar", where Strong Bad illustrates how he'd write a song, and "dragon", where he teaches the characters how to draw Trogdor the Burninator (a dragon; you'll have to see how he draws it). There's another one that starts out with him saying, "awwww, E-MAIL!" in an echo-y voice, followed by a crunching guitar with Strong Bad headbanging to it. I don't know what that last one is called, though.
Awwwwwww EEEE-MAAAAAAIL!!! / June Preview Friday, May 30, 2003 That particular Strong Bad e-mail episode with him headbanging is here. I think it's really cool. The list of his personal favorites (which, I believe, include ones that aren't actually on that part of the site) are rather cool, too, in that episode. ***** Just a short update from yesterday's entry. This'll be the last entry for this month. Tune in next month as you follow the trail towards summer concert number one (the Van's Warped Tour) and the continuing story of my times with Pam. Enjoy the weekend, and I hope the goofy weather doesn't confuse you too much! |
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