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Blog - September 2003 |
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This page stores my blog entries from September 2003. The entries are dated September 11, September 20, September 23, September 25, and September 29.
Prologue / Creation Science Fair 2001: Real or Hoax? / Iron Maiden Concert: a Review / The Greek and Italian side of Pam / Tiny's Closed / Ponderings on CD-encoding technology Thursday, September 11, 2003 My blog for August is the largest amount of writing I've done so far for my blog. My resulting file was 43KB. It eclipses the 37KB blog for February of this year. This blog entry was initially slated to be posted this past Sunday, September 7. I have been so busy with applying for a job and talking with Pam that I hadn't had the time to even write this until now. Take note that I believe this is the longest single blog entry I've written so far. Already it's almost as long as my April 2003 blog. ***** My high school friends have a community blog that we use to post assorted links to fun, interesting, or absurd sites. The following fits in with the latter. One of our gang brought to our attention the site featuring the winners and other entries to the Creation Science Fair 2001. This site, in the middle of cyberspace nowhere, describes the winning entries of the fair and gives the titles to other entries given. The entries range from things like, "My Uncle is a Man Named Steve (Not a Monkey)" and a purely ridiculous project where a student showed how women were made to give birth to babies, vacuum, and were meant to stay home instead of work for an even greater absurdity of thought (that women, allegedly, were not paid as much as men because they could not work as hard or well). I've only read through very little of this site, and for much of the time it seems perfectly legitimate. I think Pam believes that this site is a hoax or parody. She began to believe that when she saw that the online store sold thongs (not the footwear, either) that had a picture in front that said, "Will you be my husband?" At first, I was still skeptical that it was a spoof site, given that the thong underwear could be considered ok by the warped sense of logic that such people could hold. But, then, by the aid of someone else out there in cyberspace, I began to agree that it's probably a spoof site. I tried to search for things about the alleged "Fellowship Baptist Church" and its alleged related university, but I found nothing except what appeared on pages of the aforementioned link. I did a search for something else and found many chat sites and blogs that talked about the site in question. I tried to search for something on the "Fisherman's Quandary", which was mentioned in someone's biography as his major accomplishment towards ending the Cold War (or something ridiculous like that). Surely, as someone mentioned, that something that major would have solutions and other great information throughout the Internet. The only hits on Yahoo (or Google, really, since the former uses a lot of the latter's search engine) were for that aforementioned link and blog sites that reference it. Actually, the more I think about some of the things stated in those biographies, they do seem awfully far-fetched. This is the problem with making parodies about such stuff: there are people out there who actually believe things like that. ***** \m/ <plays air guitar, followed by an air drumming session> \m/ Last weekend, I attended the Iron Maiden/Motorhead/Dio concert at the Sleep Train Amphitheater in Marysville, CA. This very rad concert had many interesting and funny moments. The evening started with Forrest, an old high school friend whose first name is Jason, and I bounding off to an In-N-Out Burger over in the North Natomas Marketplace just north of I-80 near Truxel Rd. I had been to one of these only once beforehand, and all I had was some lemonade and mooched a few fries from someone. This time I had the burger/fries/shake thing and ... wasn't impressed. It was cheap, and it filled me up. It certainly wasn't bad, and it didn't completely disappoint me like Ford's "Real" Hamburgers did some years ago. The cheeseburger was ok, and the french fries were too salty and not much flavor of their own. The chocolate shake was good, but I'm forever going to have to compare it to shakes from Leatherby's, which is an unfair comparison regardless of the other entity. From there, we headed off for Marysville. For some reason, I thought I'd need about 1.5 hours to get there, but it was only about a half hour to 40 minutes. We ended up searching for a market for some brew, and found a Chevron gas station off of Highway 65. We headed back, relaxed a bit in the parking lot, and then headed in. Motorhead, as Forrest surmised, opened the night. They seemed ok, though I wouldn't exactly call them great. There weren't very many people to see them, but what few were there really enjoyed the set. Lemme, Motorhead's bassist and lead singer, was really cool that night. Lemme made a few sarcastic remarks that seemed funny at the time. Early on, he asked if the music was loud enough. Naturally, everyone shouted, "no!" Then, Lemme said, "Dave, turn it up. Make them all deaf. I don't care." It wasn't meant in a mean way. I guess it's kind of hard to describe the semi-joviality in that comment. Later on, while leading up to the next song, Lemme said something like, "Here's one you might have heard before. Sing along if you like. We can't hear you anyway." I guess it was his sarcasm that I rather enjoyed, even though I enjoyed it more than the set itself. After a short stage change, Dio came up. I never would have guessed that Dio would be this popular. Nearly the whole amphitheater was filled up when he came on. People were singing along with the songs and were very much into it. The cheers were very loud, too. I really didn't understand the attachment, since I was bored outside of hearing Dio do a couple of Ronnie-James-Dio-era Black Sabbath songs: "Mob Rules" and "Heaven and Hell." The rest of the set seemed like a very basic heavy metal. Slow, crunching, and rather sedate, even though their fantasy themes could have been kind of cool. The best part came thanks to Motorhead. Earlier, Motorhead's drummer did a rather cool drum solo. During Dio's set, Dio's drummer did a drum solo as well, though I thought Motorhead's drummer was much better in this department. At the end of the second (Dio's) drum solo, all three members of Motorhead came walking onto the stage holding up score cards. I know I read a 4.7 and a 5.1, but I don't know what the third score was. They showed the fans the scores, and then they showed the drummer the scores and threw the cards at him! That was the best thing of three things from Dio's set: Motorhead giving scores to the Dio drummer, hearing Dio do "Mob Rules", and Dio's backdrop image. In the back of the stage, the bands had these huge tapestries that hung behind them. Dio had one that had a large mountain with a demon coming from the top of the mountain. The demon flailed this chain about in the image. It was a very cool pic and one that should end up on a t-shirt at some point. Last, but certainly not least, was Iron Maiden. Many of us had to prepare for that one, so off most of us went to the bathrooms. The Sleep Train Amphitheater has two main bathrooms, each with many, many toilets. They weren't nearly enough for the rush of people who stormed to the bathrooms right after Dio finished his set. The one closer to the main gates had a line that stretched along a long corridor and out quite a bit into the main area outside the amphitheater. Fortunately for me, the other bathroom had a shorter line, and I managed to get into a good spot to snag a toilet. I had never seen such a rush for a bathroom before, but then Iron Maiden is immensely huge with the metal crowd. I do remember seeing somewhere that this might be their last major tour. That's not likely to happen, but it's best to not throw caution into the wind. Maiden actually started out playing "Number of the Beast" followed by "The Trooper." This really surprised me, since I thought these were their most popular songs. In between songs, Bruce Dickinson completely tore into some of the fans in the mosh pits. He started off saying, "why did you stop? Keep going! We're not playing right now, so you obviously didn't come for the music. You're not looking up here, so you certainly don't care to see us." He kept on going, saying that he'd already seen two fights break out in the pits, and that it was people like them who ruin things for everyone else. He continued by saying, "Get out of here. We'll buy your albums back." It was one of the greatest tirades I've heard so far! It didn't put a damper on their set, since they continued playing without a hitch. Bruce did make one other between-song speech, but this one was a little lighter than the previous one. He noted that Iron Maiden had been together, in one form or another, for 25 years. Instead of giving a lot of "thank-you"s, he said he wanted to give many "no thank you"s. These included shots at radio stations (for not ever playing anything Maiden) and record companies (for releasing crappy music; I think N*Sync was mentioned here). Bruce did have two "thank you"s: to the tour crew, which he didn't think of before, and the fans (of course). In introducing "Fear of the Dark", Bruce had a short monologue while sitting under an overhead spotlight. All the other lights on stage were turned off. Then, he blew up towards the light, and the light went out with him saying, "fear of the dark." That was a rather creative way to lead into the song. They also had Eddie, their mascot, dressed up in the "Eddie the Great" garb from a greatest-hits album and walking around the stage. He attacked two of the guitarists and left (Maiden has three guitarists, which really surprised me). Maiden left the stage for a bit, but for a rather unusually short break, they came back on. Bruce said something about how it was silly to just sit back there, pretending that they're done, only to "surprisingly" come back on stage for the encore. We all knew it was coming anyway. <grins> Once Iron Maiden was officially done, they had "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" by Monty Python playing on the speakers. I had looked at the merchandise booths, but the prices were asinine. T-shirts sold for $35-40. Hockey jerseys, which looked kind of cool, sold for $75, as did the boxers/sweatshorts. Iron Maiden had a really cool tapestry up during the concert that featured Eddie in blue woad and a kilt (for "The Clansman"), but they didn't have any t-shirts like that. I looked around online for one, too, but the one for "The Clansman" didn't look very good. It was a great day and concert with Forrest, though there was only one bad side. While talking about the concert, we noted how expensive ticket prices were getting. I mentioned that the concert was reasonable for $28. Forrest wondered if I really only paid $27.50 for my ticket, disappointingly stating that he paid some $50 for his. His seat was in the same section as mine but a few rows up. Something wasn't right about that, and I hope he got that straightened out with Tower and Ticketmaster. Now I'm motivated to get Iron Maiden's back catalog. I might also get their key ring/bottle opener to replace my KDVS bottle opener. ***** Pam and I haven't been doing too much lately. A week ago this past Friday, we went to the Greek Festival in the Sacramento Convention Center. The decor for the celebration seemed a little bland, but there's not much one can do with the Convention Center (plus, I bet the church was rather limited in budget). We bounced around from area to area, looking at pictures of Greek people, places, and things. We perused the things for sale, only buying food in the end (a sampler of desserts, a loaf of sweet bread, and Greek coffee for Pam; loaf of sweet bread, Festival cookbook, and Pam's leftover baklava for me). We enjoyed dinner there, too. I had the lamb dinner, which came with rice and some marinated/cooked green beans. Pam had some beef and a tomato salad-ish thing. I also had my first experience with ouzo, and that was rather strong stuff. The entertainment ranged from really good to "interesting." We watched some people dancing to the live music, and we could hear the live music throughout the venue. While we shopped in the food section, I had immediately wished we had parked closer; they had fresh feta cheese! Granted, a place like Corti Brothers or a local Mediterranean market should have some at a reasonable price, so I'll have to look there. Also, the drink people had this Greek beer called Mythos Lager. I'll have to hunt some of that down, too. This past Friday, we went out to dinner at Buca di Beppo. I had this flyer for their Dinner for Two special for $25.95. This place is rather cool, and I never would have imagined that the dinner would have come with so much! We had the breaded pork chops, the rigatoni with meat sauce and the penne romano, the caesar salad, and some garlic bread with mozarella cheese. By the time we were done (and we had both eaten a lot), we still had a little more than half of it left to take home. Those leftovers easily filled a large plastic grocery bag. We managed to fit dessert in (imagine that), enjoying a rather luscious chocolate cake-type-thing. After that, we went to her house and eventually bounced out again to rent "The Sixth Sense." Now, yes, I had not seen "The Sixth Sense" before then. I'm rather awful when it comes to getting out to see movies (not too much motivation at times). I rather liked the movie, though I don't think the "completely unexpected ending" was as surprising to me. Frankly, I never really put any thought into how the movie progressed or to possibilites from an inconsistency. At one point early in the movie, Bruce Willis' character ends up using the past tense in describing something that should have normally been described in the present tense. That moment struck me as being a little odd, but I didn't think anything about it after that. I guess I just like to sit back and enjoy movies for what they are. A rough itinerary for things between Pam and I:
***** One of the saddest things came to my attention this past Tuesday. Tiny's is this small, independently-owned hamburger joint on Fulton Ave. that's been open for over 50 years. Well, the current owner announced that he's going to sell the business and land. That wouldn't be so bad, except that it's now closed. I had been going to Tiny's off and on for most of my life. My mom and grandmother took me there when I was very young, and I went there in my college and post-grad years. I'm happy I took Pam there when I did, since there may not be a Tiny's anymore. Hopefully someone will buy it with the intent on keeping it open. Hopefully they will allow further generations experience one of the best hamburger joints in the city. ***** CNN has a short story about Macrovision's new technology to create "rip-proof" CDs. The article says very little about the technology itself, but it does say that the technology would allow limited downloads of the songs from the CD to a computer. I'd have to agree with the CNN article that such technology is not going to boost CD sales. Just like all other technology, including the encoding algorithm for DVDs, this encoding will be broken. Plus, the price put on CDs by labels is ridiculously expensive. I have to applaud Viviendi Music Group (I believe it was) who dropped the retail price of all their CDs to $12.99. This is one of the only ways that record labels can somehow get CD sales to go up. The other way would be to start selling songs online. Apple already has a rather successful business with their own store, and, I believe, others have popped up here and there, too.
My Soul's Worth (Value) / Iron Maiden Concert (Addendum) / Progress on Samurai Helmet Cases / Recent Phone Interview / Better Living with Pam / Fraternity Style of Politics Saturday, September 20, 2003
***** Gabe noted a potentially-confusing statement in my review of the Iron Maiden concert. When I noted the flood of people to the bathrooms to "prepare for Iron Maiden to come on stage." To elaborate, most of the people in the venue rushed to the bathrooms so they didn't have to go during Maiden's set. Although having bathrooms with viewable windows towards the stage would be a cool idea (and, frankly, nearly necessary for things like the Lord of the Rings movies), the people did not get toilets that were in view of the stage. ***** The creation of my samurai helmet cases is gaining some headway. My grandfather and I spent Saturday the 13th working on parts for both. We're using poplar wood, since it'd be a little easier to work with (it tends to have fewer knots to worry about). This past Saturday, we cut one plank to size and glued together three sections to form the base of the helmet case. The rest of the first plank and part of a second went towards cutting pieces for the posts and the top. Right now, I have the base for the first helmet case. We were going to get together today, but I was just tired. Also, and more importantly, I had some decisions to make about the design and structure of the case. Since I hadn't had time to make those decisions, it didn't make sense to continue further. I have some 1" x 1.5" posts right now, and, initially, I was going to work towards making them 1.5" x 1.5". That cross-section size is what I have on my prototype that we made, but it might be better off to leave them at 1" x 1.5", given that the cases are likely to be rectangular rather than square. Second, I decided I needed to remeasure the interior dimensions I'd need for these cases. These cases will eventually sit on my dresser, and the initial measurement of 20" x 22" seem to be awfully big. I want to save some room in the front for the tassels that hang in front of the helmets, but I don't think I need so much room for them. I probably need them to be about 15.5" deep and 16.5" deep for my small and large helmets, respectively. I'll have to do the math for the rest, though, to see how big the bases need to be to accomodate everything. The last thing I need to determine is how far in I want the posts to rest. That'll make a big difference as to how it'll look and how large the bases need to be. Some of this decision will be based on how large a cross-section I want the posts to have. ***** Recently, I had my first job to apply for in many weeks. It's a reporter position for a construction news company. It sounds like it could be interesting, but I have concerns. This past Thursday, after failing to connect Tuesday, I had my phone interview with a representative of the company. I think it went rather well, and she thought my questions for her were rather good ones. I don't know if my enthusiasm for that position was as it should have been, since I probably would have enjoyed that Editorial Assistant position much more. This "reporter" position would require me to make about 60 calls a day to people in the construction industry to gather data about potential projects in their area. I would then have to follow up on any leads and enter all the information into a database for their publications. Frankly, making 60 calls a day is more calls than I'd normally make in a month, so I don't know how I'd feel about that. Also, while recounting the details of this position with my mom, she mentioned that it might be a call-center-like place, which doesn't sound very appealing. I'm truly happy to have this opportunity to even have the phone interview with that company. The job market is tough when you don't know for certain what you want to do. There's a part of me that hopes I'll get an in-person interview for the interviewing experience, and there is a part of me that hopes they just continue searching. I'm not sure yet whether pursuing this position would really be worth it, but I don't have enough information to really say so. The woman was nice, and I get the impression that she's looking for people with certain qualities and not really specific knowledge (e.g. programming in C++ or something like that). I didn't particularly like how she asked what I'm looking to earn, though I responded with something like, "I haven't determined that yet." She did ask how much I currently make, and I ended up telling her that. It's hard to say, since I don't have much confidence in maintaining personal friendships, let alone business ones like the contacts they have. I should hear from them either Monday or Tuesday, so we'll see what they've decided. ***** Pam and I have been having a lot of fun lately. We had dinner together a week ago yesterday. She picked the Old Spaghetti Factory since she knew they had good margaritas. I mentioned that I never had one before, so I tried one there. It was good, though it didn't seem very strong to me. We ate while we drank them, so I know that had some effect on its minimal effects on me. I ended up having a repeat appearance at the Old Spaghetti Factory with the rest of her family this past Wednesday. The group consisted of Pam, her sister Leann, her parents, and her maternal grandparents. I was there, too, of course. We had some good conversations and ate a fair amount. Pam and I created a foil turkey out of the wrapped loaf of bread. Topics bounced from some place called Old MacDonald's Farm, Jesuit, and assorted jokes and funny remarks. Pam's grandfather made sure I had enough to eat after I polished off my meal; apparently he does that with everyone. Pam reported that her grandmother rather enjoyed my company, so all is well on that note. Yesterday, Pam and I hopped off to Vic's Ice Cream shop (shoppe?) over on Riverside here in Sacramento. I have heard of it before and had some of their ice cream during a recent family gathering, but I had never been to this fabled and, almost, historic shop before. After much consideration and uncertainty, I ended up having a milkshake with Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream and a cherry phosphate. Both were very good. The phosphate was hard to describe, but the cherry flavor was strong and yummy. The milkshake was one of the best I have had. The ice cream made it so, with chunks of real strawberries in it. They definitely make one of the best milkshakes in town. Pam had a sundae with a raspberry ice cream. Raspberry and chocolate taste very good together, and she made a wonderful choice. She liked the phosphate, too, and said she'd order her own next time. People who know me well would know that I like to joke around. Those same people may also know that I can be rather hard on myself about things, too. I have been known to create my own entertainment when I'm bored, and this past Friday was no exception. While waiting for something to do in the early afternoon, I thought of a fun, yet slightly mean, joke I could pull on Pam. It started when, while eavesdropping, I thought I overheard Larry, a fellow co-worker, say something about problems he was having. I started wondering if he had problems himself, which, though funny, I knew was impossible. So, I know I misheard. He passed by while I was getting some new sheets, and I asked him if Alistair had told him that he did not do well with his stuff. After a short bit, I mentioned that we could just have Pam take over. From there, I walked over to Pam and called Larry over. While Larry stood there with a serious look, I told Pam that Larry had, miraculously, failed to do what he needed to do. Therefore, it had been determined that Pam was to take over. I had never seen Pam turn so red before, and I couldn't hold my laughter in long enough to build any sort of suspense. I think that was a good thing, since I had scared her much more than I realized. Pam came over to me a bit later. She told me that she thought she had been let go and that Larry had called me over for some reason. Pam was genuinely scared until she heard what I said and saw me laugh. In fact, while she was telling me this, she couldn't keep from laughing herself, so I felt a little better about it. Naturally, though, the more I thought about it, the more I felt that, maybe, I shouldn't have done it. Yep, that old friend "guilt" had started to set in. It took the second talk and second reassurance from Pam before I could put that behind me. She said it was ok. She even thought it was funny, even though her father didn't think as much when she told him about it. Funny or not, I think my own minor discomfort with it was a sign that I need to scale back my general teasings and such towards Pam. All of it was in good humor and such, but I have seen how I could have gone overboard (or possibly could in the future). Our fun together will continue this coming week, when we'll go have lunch and see "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. A week from today, we'll schlep off to San Francisco, where we'll hunt down the perfect pillow for my other helmet, enjoy some good food and drink, and, hopefully, meet up with Gabe and his lovely wife, Jen. ***** I will never, ever, claim that my perceptions or understandings of politics is or was ever very deep. Maybe I understand more than I realize, or maybe my lack of understanding and decision-making is what makes me detest the whole political entity. To add to my not-very-deep ponderings about politics, I recently began thinking about how much the Democratic and Republican Parties are too much like college fraternities. Competing fraternities, possibly from two different colleges that are heated rivals. I'm not sure if I can really formulate the thoughts that led me to this conclusion, but if I can, I'll be certain to note them in a future entry.
The Rushed Americans of the Freeways / MSCL Fiasco: An End in Sight? / Barry Bonds Bobblehead: a story (and tongue-twister) / Pam Plans Tuesday, September 23, 2003 I swear that speed limits are like religions around here: people don't follow them unless they believe in them. Granted, I'm not exactly holding myself to the speed limits in a rigid fashion, but I certainly don't blatantly and overwhelmingly bow it out of the water. I have no concerns around I-80 here, since the speed limit is 65 and I tend to go about 70 when safe. My concern tends towards Business-80. For those of you who don't know, Business-80 is a short in-city stretch of freeway that splits from I-80. The speed limit along there drops to 55mph, since it curves around in a few places. I rarely see anyone who actually slows down from the I-80 speeds when driving through Business-80. Granted, I know most people could drive 65 along that stretch, but there have been entirely too many accidents in a certain bend called the Marconi Curve. People are in too much of a damn hurry these days. ***** Over a year ago, I got sucked into this big fiasco with a company called Another Universe. Initially, they were the sole retailer for a special edition packaging for the My So-Called Life DVDs. This packaging included the five-DVD set from BMG, a metal lunch box in styling for MSCL, and a bonus DVD containing some interviews and other stuff. This was a whole year ago, and one that cost me over $130. A year or so later, the only thing I have so far is the five-DVD set. No lunch box. No bonus DVD. I've received notices about inpending mailings and alleged updates, but nothing has materialized so far. Recently, I received an e-mail saying that, within the next two weeks, they'll start shipping the remaining items. Assuming they do send this stuff, I'll be happy and finally rid of an awful purchase. I have only one other problem: both my grandparents and parents will be going on vacation soon, and I may not have a good place to which to ship this stuff. This happened when they sent me the DVDs. Hopefully, this time, I will find a way around it and finally be done with it. ***** Have you ever had one of those times, either as a kid, teenager, or recently, when you saw something your inner kid wanted but you refused it anyway? Many times I had done something like that and regretted it. Yesterday, my inner child yelled loudly at me, and I responded. A couple of weeks ago, while doing a little shopping at Albertson's on Manzanita, I saw that they had Giants bobblehead dolls for sale. My eyes landed on one for Barry Bonds. I picked it up, looked at it, and put it back down. There was a part of me that wanted it, but the other part of me had concerns about spending money on it. So, I left it there, thinking I might get it later. Last week, I went to the Albertson's on Folsom and saw the bobblehead display there. No Barry. I think they had JT Snow, Jose Cruz, Jr., and Benito Santiago. But, no Barry. Immediately, I lightly kicked myself for not buying the one I had in my hand at the Manzanita location. I've done some collecting of things (baseball cards) in the past, and I knew how things like this would sell out quickly for a very popular player. Knowing I would be out near the Manzanita location again, I set my mind on visiting there in hopes of finding one. Eureka! I hopped into the Albertson's on Manzanita, and they didn't have one Barry bobblehead but seven! My mind went from minor "desperation search" mode to "which one is in the best condition" mode. I found that rather funny, actually. So, I picked one that looked like it was in better condition paint-wise and bought it. I think it had been a long time since I had been that happy about a purchase. The Barry Bonds bobblehead doll is currently sitting on my dresser in the original plastic container. It's made of ceramic and, apparently, hand-painted. It shows him batting, and it has a little sign in front of home plate that reads, "2002 NL MVP." The detail is rather nice, with the texture of the uniform looking like real cloth. They have the cross-shaped earring painted on his left ear and his elbow armor on his right elbow. It looks rather nice, and hopefully, at some point, I'll have a good displaying home for him. ***** Pam and I should have time off together starting the middle of tomorrow. Today, that sweetheart brought (warm) lunch to me while I was at work. Her family had leftover kufta, lamb meatballs with a lamb/grain outer shell, and some pilaf. She warmed some of it up, and she brought it over to work for us. We sat at a semi-shaded table near the little church and ate. It was good! We still need to figure out where we'll go when we go to SF this coming Saturday. I know we'll go to China Town, since I need to look for an appropriate pillow for my samurai helmet. There has been talk about going to Golden Gate Park, which Pam brought up. Other places like Ghirardelli Square, Haight/Ashbury, Buena Vista Cafe, and the botanical gardens catch our interest as well. We'll have to make a list of what would interest us for this trip and what to hold for next time. We'll have to give Gabe a call while we're there so we can have dinner with him and his wife, Jen. As for the rest of this week, I imagine that Pam and I will wing it. We'll certainly go see "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" and have lunch somewhere. I know I need to get my car's brakes checked and get an oil change. There's a whole list of things I should do for my car, but I need to do those two before I even think about driving it to SF.
Pre-Script / Vulgar Display of Pantera / A Tomato Ate My Sister: 25th Anniversary Edition of The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes / DK Shirt Shocks worker; End of Project / Bits of Pam Thursday, September 25, 2003 I guess I feel like writing. I don't know if I've just had a lot to write about lately, or if it's a mood I'm going through. I'm certainly not complaining, of course! There's something nice about having fun writing something that I enjoy writing about: me! I do like writing about other things, too. ***** I made two purchases Wednesday. The first was the "Greatest Hits" CD for Pantera. A sure sign that the band is done, this CD comes with a DVD full of their videos. I really didn't get this for the CD, since I have the albums I want from them. "Cat Scratch Fever" and "Hole in the Sky" are rather nice to have, though, since they do not appear on anything I have (I believe "Hole in the Sky" appeared on "Reinventing the Steel", but Pantera lost me much before that). I haven't listened to the whole CD or watched all the videos yet. I did watch, among others, the video for "I'm Broken", which I vaguely remember seeing on Headbanger's Ball back when it was still on. The memories. Although Pantera simply took a nosedive after "Vulgar Display of Power" (sure, "Far Beyond Driven" had some good songs, but most of it was crap), they were the last of the great new metal bands in the popular sector. Nobody after them has really made it big enough or were as heavy, novel, or cool as they were. Other bands are still around, but:
I can't really comment on Anthrax, since I know nearly nothing about their songs and albums. Iron Maiden is still around, of course, and, from what I've heard, they're still spitting out good, consistent albums. Pantera was the last popular heavy metal band to give the metal scene a kick in the ass, and nobody since then has done so. ***** The second purchase from Wednesday was the Special Collector's Edition of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". This classic is almost as old as I am. This 25th Anniversary Edition came with the following:
The movie has three modes: movie, with commentary, and "Tomato Mode." The latter apparently allows you to splice in clips from the original 8mm version if you click on certain icons that show up during the viewing. I haven't tried this yet, so I don't know if it's even worth watching or doing. Now, I just need to get the 50th Anniversary Edition of "The Thing From Another World" (aka "The Thing"). ***** I'm done! I'm completely done with my current project. I expect to hop onto the next one, and things went smoothly today at the end ... except for one thing. I figured it would take me only a couple of hours (ended up being almost four) to finish up what little I had to do at work today. I had worn my "Dead Kennedys" t-shirt in the past on a few occasions, and I never had any problems. Heck, I've even had some good conversations about the band and was able to get someone caught up as to what Jello Biafra has been up to lately. But, today was a different story. While I was working on something in a large room with many tables, Lisa, one of the people in my company's office, asked where the others in my group were. I told her that it was just me and Alistair. Then, she asked me to turn around. Apparently, someone walked into my company's office and complained about my t-shirt. They found it offensive and decided to let people know about it. Nobody I talked to saw what the big deal was. Either the people I knew understood that "Dead Kennedys" (which was written on the back of my t-shirt) was just a band, or they didn't know what it was and really didn't see it as a big deal. Even Steve, someone I've known since I started working there, was in support of my shirt. <grins> Lisa said that I might want to not wear it to work anymore. I'm cool with that, even though it seems a little odd. I really wasn't bothered by it, since I knew, in some small amount, that there was some risk in me wearing that shirt to work. My mom's right, though: it is one of the shirts that fit me the best. Fortunately, I have plenty of other shirts to wear. I really should dress a little more conservatively at work. That might be best, since I may try to work myself up in the company. The company's office people saw my badge picture, which was taken when I still had long hair and the vandyke. Naturally, if you have seen any pictures of me lately (or have seen me in person), then you know I no longer sport either of that. They all insisted that I needed a new photo. Since I rather like that badge and photo as a conversation piece, I will dodge getting a new picture taken for as long as I can. I tend to be rather good at avoiding something I don't want, so we'll see how that goes. ***** Today, Pam and I spend some quality time at my house. We determined where we wanted to go in San Francisco and located them on Yahoo's mapping feature. We bounded off for lunch at Kim Son and stopped by St. Vincent DePaul's, a thrift shop, to see what all they had. Pam bought a couple of Nancy Drew books for 97 cents each. I saw the maple entertainment center they had there before, and they still wanted $1800 for it. It's a huge piece and would be great to have. Unfortunately, even $800 would be out of my range at the moment. We looked to see if they had another cocktail shaker, but we had no luck on that one. After we ate lunch, we hopped into an art store to look around and see what they had. For some reason, a patron decided to ask us, "where did you two meet?" Neither Pam nor I knew why she asked that, or why no other words were exchanged on the subject. We were a little weirded out by the occurrence, and that's why we never inquired as to why this woman asked this of us. We may play some tennis tomorrow. Fun stuff!
How We Met: The Dave and Pam Epic / Dave and Pam Do San Francisco / Sick / Future Possibilities for this Blog Monday, September 29, 2003 I had a request recently surrounding the wonderment: How did Dave and Pam meet? I could go with the simple, one-word response of "work", but that's not fun at all. Instead, I'll try to give the best detail my memory can pull out. Back in March of this year, I was offered an opportunity to be on a project at work. I had to write out answers to questions from a questionnaire, and I handed that in to my company's office before I left my previous project. Their office called me up rather quickly about this opportunity, and so I started on it near the end of March. I hadn't spent even a week on it until I was called to a different project. Pam had been there at the beginning, but having to do a different project separated us and stalled the inevitable. All of us on the original were called back about late April-ish. One of the women in one of the groups was named Pamela. I guess I was in a bouncy mood or something, and while filling out a form with her name, I started singing her name a la Van Halen's "Panama", substituting, of course, "Pamela" for "Panama." I briefly went over to her and asked if she was a Van Halen fan. After she said, "no", I shrugged it off, said, "Never mind", and went back to my chair. I think I had her rather confused, but I certainly had her attention. The project progressed, and on occasion Pam would sit next to me. I know there was one instance where it looked like we'd have a short day. I made a comment to her and another woman, Dallas, that we should go off to Leatherby's if we got let go early. We did leave early, but both Pam and Dallas left, leaving me feeling rather disappointed. Little did they know that I was serious about it! Eventually, on May 15 of this year, Pam was sitting next to me and talking about how her sister and her sister's boyfriend were going to see "Matrix: Reloaded" in the theaters. We talked a little bit about that, and eventually she asked if I would like to go with her to see it. I said, "ok", and we went off. On a side note, here, I could have certainly asked if she would like to go along with me (rather than her asking me), except that I didn't want to ruin any plans she might have had. I didn't know, then, that she sorely welcomed the opportunity to be away from her sister (or, more importanly, her sister's boyfriend). We watched the movie together. I was feeling some interest with her, and I had some thoughts about putting my arm around her. Somehow, the ol' "yawn and stretch" method seemed dated and lame, and so it never happened. We did retreat to a Starbuck's afterwards and had some coffee and a long talk together. There was certainly a lot of interest to meet up again, and we did that eight days later on a Friday at Scandia. That Friday included a trip to the Elephant Bar, followed by some miniature golf fun at Scandia. On my end, I remember the Elephant Bar trip as me having fun making her laugh and blush. We had a good dinner there, and then we bounded off to Scandia. It was a bit warm out, still, but we both enjoyed a good night of golf. We sat at one of the tables outside the club return window, and eventually we just started cuddling there. I don't remember what led us to it, but it happened relatively naturally. Well, maybe about a natural as two shy people can get, but it worked out well for us. I could say that the rest is history, but history is still being written in this relationship. Saying that it's all "history" seems to me that it implies an end. I'd rather not think of an end, but I would rather keep it going and think of it as neverending. So, that's the story about how Pam and I met. I think I did write about things in the past, starting with my May Blog, but I didn't start using Pam's name until the May 27th entry. I tend to have a habit of not introducing one's name into things until later. So, if you missed the beginnings because of that, now you know why. I think this entry has more detail than the related ones in the past, so you didn't miss too much back then. [Thanks, Jordan, for bringing this up!] ***** This past Saturday, Pam and I bounded off together to San Francisco. We had been talking about this for months, and we were both excited about going. Due to sleeping in and saving some things to do Saturday morning, we didn't get out of here until almost noon. Our first stop, given the time of arrival (1:30pm or so) was Golden Gate Park. We each brought a lunch with us to help cut down our expenses for the trip. We parked a block or two away from the Conservatory that just opened up, and we walked about a block in the other direction to a bench. Pam and I sat and ate our lunches, taking in all the sounds and sights of the park area. The slightly overcast sky created a calm atmosphere occasionally broken by the brief bursts of sunlight. Sounds cars roaring by would engulf and overcome the chirping birds and chattering people. We walked around the park a bit, taking a picture of a neat pathway bordered by trees with sparse foliage. We looked at the dahlia gardens around the Conservatory, which had a very long line streaming from its entrance. Pam and I took a picture of the Conservatory building itself. From there, China Town had been calling for me. I have one samurai helmet that lacks a pillow for it, and I felt that China Town would be my best bet in finding one. We parked in a cramped underground parking lot and walked into China Town. Pam and I saw many wonderful things, including many nice pillow cases, kimonos, furniture, shoes, and statues. I had looked through many different stacks of pillow cases, but I did not see what I really wanted. By the last place I looked, I realized that the cases I had been looking at were all too small. I needed something that was 16" x 18", but everything I saw was 16" x 16". A pillow that was 18" x 18" would have worked fine, but none of these would be big enough. Failing to find anything suitable there, we rushed off to Japan Town. Many of the shops closed at 6pm, and we had about 15 minutes to see if we could find anything. One shop had a large black pillow that could have worked, but I refused to pay $78 for a pillow (the cases I had looked through in China Town were about $7 each; the pillow inserts themselves would have added another $8 to it). Although we had fun looking around at all the different places, I failed to find a suitable pillow for my samurai helmet. Our next plan was to meet Gabe, an old high school friend, and his wife, Jen, for dinner. After talking to Gabe, we decided to meet him at their place and work from there. They have a nice apartment south of Golden Gate Park, and it's one of the few that has its own small back yard. With two dogs, they really needed that yard. We sat around a bit, chatting over water (Pam), merlot (Me), and white wine (Jen and Gabe). One of the first things that struck us were the similarities in how we were dressed. I was wearing a red, short-sleeved shirt and long khaki pants, while pam had a velvety purple-ish top and black pants. Gabe was wearing a red, long-sleeved shirt with khaki shorts, while Jen wore a purple-ish top with black pants. It seemed a little eerie until the merlot hit me. The conversation turned from Pam's life, how we met, and where we worked. We talked a bit about Treasure Island and the filming that was going on there for the Hulk movie. Gabe and Jen used to live there, and they found it rather funny to see the props being placed at the guard gate for the old military base there. They showed us a picture book of the old fairgrounds that used to grace that island, too. From there, we staggered to a local chinese food place, which served rather good food. We had several dishes, including a shrimp and scallop dish with garlic, a cylindrical noodle dish, a dish with a spicy chicken, some potstickers, and some triangle crab puffs. The food was very good, and the service was nice, too. We bounced back to Gabe and Jen's apartment for some after-dinner espresso. Throughout our visit with Gabe and Jen, they were very surprised as to how friendly their dogs, Happy and Stella, were to us. Apparently, Stella had been rather ill-tempered to other visitors, making them rather afraid of her. Both seemed like big puppies to me! Eventually, Gabe should have a picture up on his site with me holding Happy like a baby. I told you he was just a big baby! <grins> Eventually, Pam and I took off from there, heading out to the Mission District towards Mitchell's Ice Cream. Pam had remembered this as being very good, and apparently Mitchell's had won many awards for having the best ice cream in San Francisco. We took a winding path from Gabe and Jen's apartment, momentarily losing ourselves in the maze of streets, and eventually showing up at Mitchell's 15 minutes before closing. Pam had an ice cream cone with Chicago Cheesecake ice cream, this month's special. I tried a milkshake with Kahlua Coffee Fudge, or something like that. The Chicago Cheesecake was very good ice cream, but the Kahlua Coffee seemed to be lacking somewhere. It was all very good, and I'm certain we'll make our way back there next time. Overall we had a very good time. We only hit about half the places we wanted to go, but that gives us reason to go over there again! We had problems with navigation at least twice, but it wasn't too much of a problem to find ourselves again. We will never forget (or forgive) any streets that do not allow you to turn left onto any cross streets, even though there is a space and light to do so. ***** Saturday morning, I seemed to have a slightly scratchy throat. It didn't bother me much, and I never felt bad during any point of our trip to SF. But, when I woke up Sunday, I knew I was sick. I never bother putting any sort of health indicator on here like Jordan has on his site, but that's because I'm nearly never sick. In fact, in an odd way, being sick and knowing that there are people who get ill much more frequently than I makes me feel lucky to be as healthy as I am. I think it makes me value it much more than I had in the past. So, if certain parts in this don't come out quite right, or if I've forgotten rather important details, it's probably because I'm trying to write this while sick. ***** I figure I have until next January to figure out how I will manage my future blog and its entries. I had thought that I could use Movable Type, like Gabe uses, but Geocities doesn't support CGI scripts for free users. I could just move my site to my Lanset space, but I don't know if I want to do that just yet. So, now I'm in the search for other options. Gabe suggested using Blogger or something like that, but I don't know if I like the thought of having my blog on a completely separate site. We'll see, since I have plenty of time to investigate my options. |
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