The thoughts that were thunk and the goings on of my life.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Priorities

As much as I hate to admit it, this blog is one of my last priorities.

Life has been really busy of late, and things aren't going to change much in the next couple of weeks. Most of the business centers around work, where we're coming to the end of a review period. What that means for me is that I'll be racing to try to get my various numbers up to par (there's something like 10 different 'factors'), so that I can get into better positions in the future. Chances are I'll be working a few weekends, but it'll be nice come mid May when this is all done with.

Other than that, here are a few odds and ends:
  • I pushed a handicaped man's car out of the middle of the street today...he forgot to put it in park.
  • Finally starting to get some leads on selling my old motorcycle.
  • Got the plates in for my new one...so she's official!
    Got my next belt level in Karate. From here on out it's going to be a lot harder to get a promotion, but I can tell my sensei really likes me, so it'll happen.
  • Bible study group is great.
  • I'm an usher at my church now, come Sunday at 12:30 if you want to see me.
  • I saw a roach in my house, so now I'm cleaning up food a lot quicker.
  • I've eaten at least one ant a day for the last month...those things love my cereal.
  • Recently met my first Otis! (Hopefully a future post on that topic.)
  • It's awesome to see God provide for friends when they least expect it.
  • I've discovered I'm a bit of a Google stalker.
  • I bought a new toothbrush cause I couldn't make it turn off in the store without pulling it out of its packaging.
  • I'm still sad that Mitch Hedberg died.
  • My best friend really is getting married, but it looks like I don't get to wear a bridesmaid dress.
  • Only one week till I get to order a new motorcycle jacket...I hope.
  • Finals are this week at A&M, man do I not miss those.
  • I've gotta get up early, so I'm gonna stop.

  • Songs of the Week:
    Dragostea Din Tei by O-Zone (aka Numa Numa Song)
    Home by Marc Broussard
    Blizzard of 77 by Nada Surf
    Begin by Ben Lee

    Wednesday, April 20, 2005

    In Need of a Good Backup

    Back in my senior year of highschool I watched My Best Friend's Wedding with none other than my best friend. Well, we decided that the idea of a 'backup' was a great one to implement in our own lives. From there we decided that we would be eachother's 'backups' in case we both reached the ripe old age of 30 without finding anybody else.

    Well, it looks like that day will never have to come, because she's getting married this summer! Really happy for her, 'cause she's been dating this guy for a long time and thinks the world of him, and from what I hear it works the same the other way around too.

    I would give more details, but I don't really know anything. All I got was a message that said, "Hey, just wanted to see how you were doing. Oh, and you might want to keep June [teenth] open." I'm not a genius, but I think I can figure out what the real call was about.

    What does this mean for me? Hopefully I'll get to be a bridesmaid! But if not, then I'll be happy just going to the wedding...although, why did she have to pick the one during the middle of my trip to Cali? Oh well, it's well worth it.

    Other notes:
  • I need to find a new backup, so if you're in the market to be such then let me know. (Although, I'll probably set the bar a little higher, like 35)
  • I'm now the only one of my highschool friend's that's not married or engaged
  • Sunday, April 17, 2005

    What Am I Doing?

    Today I was sitting on my couch channel surfing, and one station had on Good Will Hunting. While watching it Will said something that I worry about when doing my job. It seems like sometimes I'm just given a job and I do it, but I never really know the impact of what's being done.

    Will Hunting's response to the question: "Why not work for the NSA?"

    Why shouldn't I work for the NSA? That's a tough one. But I'll take a shot. Say I'm working at the NSA, and somebody puts a code on my desk, something no one else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, 'cuz I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East, and once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels are hiding. Fifteen hundred people that I never met, never had no problem with, get killed. Now the politicians are saying, "Oh, send in the marines to secure the area", 'cuz they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, getting shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number got called, 'cuz they were pulling a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some kid from Southie over there taking shrapnel in the ass. He comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, 'cuz he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so that we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And of course the oil companies used the little skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. They're taking their sweet time bringing the oil back, of course, maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and fuckin' play slalom with the icebergs, it ain't too long till he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy's out of work. He can't afford to drive, so he's walking to the fuckin' job interviews, which sucks because the shrapnel in his ass is giving him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starving 'cuz every time he tries to get a bite to eat the only blue plate special they're serving is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what did I think? I'm holding out for something better. I figure: fuck it, while I'm at it why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected President.


    Another thing I like about what he said is how it almost seems prophetic towards a lot of what is going on in the world right now. Keep in mind that this movie was made in 1997, so it preceded George W. Bush, predated the Gulf War II (or whatever this war will be officially called one day), and as of this coming summer he's got the gas prices almost dead on.

    Aside:I also know I do a lot of good for people that are in other industries that help people. It's just sometimes I just try to fix things, and most of the time I don't know who I'm helping or why. I worry because if you break something down small enough then people will never see what they're doing as wrong.

    Okay, on to lighter topics

    MOVIES!
    So I'm really excited about the movies coming out this summer (and Harry Potter 6 on July 16), so here are a couple of trailers to what I think will be my favorites:

    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    The greatest movie trailer ever! If you haven't read this book yet, you should. It's the most random piece of writing ever, I love Douglas Adams.

    Kingdom of Heaven
    Knights in shining armor, beautiful princesses, battling with 'S-words'... As a kid I always wished I could grow up in this period, felt displaced in today's world. Knights and castles rock!

    Speaking of being a kid, my favorite books are about to become a series of movies! Keep your fun hat on, cause this December it's coming to theatres.
    The Chronicles of Narnia

    Friday, April 15, 2005

    Quiz Extravaganza!

    It took me all day at work and lots of changing tabs in my browser (so that I looked busy while at work) to bring you today's Quiz Extravaganza!



    Your Linguistic Profile:



    65% General American English

    20% Dixie

    15% Yankee

    0% Midwestern

    0% Upper Midwestern




    Somebody with way too much time on their hands made this really cool Baby Name Wizard. Just enter in any name and it will tell you how popular that name is in any given year. Matthew just so happens to be the 3rd most popular name in the 80s, go me!





    take the WHAT INTENTIONAL TORT ARE YOU test.

    and go to mewing.net. because law school made laura do this.






    Your Inner European is Irish!









    Sprited and boisterous!

    You drink everyone under the table.

    (While I might be able to, I wouldn't.)






    You Will Die at Age 82



    82





    Congratulations! You take good care of yourself.

    You're poised to live a long, healthy life.








    You Are 23 Years Old



    23





    Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

    13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

    20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

    30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

    40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.








    Your Seduction Style: The Natural





    You don't really try to seduce people... it just seems to happen.
    Fun loving and free spirited, you bring out the inner child in people.
    You are spontaneous, sincere, and unpretentious - a hard combo to find!
    People drop their guard around you, and find themselves falling fast.








    In 1981 (the year you were born)


    Ronald Reagan becomes president of the US


    Minutes after Ronald Reagan becomes president, Iran releases 52 American hostages that had been held captive for 444 days


    President Reagan is shot in the chest by would be assassin John Hinkley


    Space shuttle Columbia, the world's first reusable spacecraft, is sent into space


    A suspended walkway in the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapses, killing 113


    A female former lover files a "palimony" suit against tennis star Billie Jean King


    President Reagan appoints Sandra Day O'Connor to be the first woman on the Supreme Court


    The Pac-Man video game is introduced in the US


    Alicia Keys, Elijah Wood, Kelly Rowland, Anna Kournikova, and Britney Spears are born


    Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series


    Oakland Raiders win Superbowl XV


    New York Islanders win the Stanley Cup


    Raiders of the Lost Ark is the top grossing film


    "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes spends the most time at the top of the US charts


    MTV debuts on cable television, playing music videos 24 hours a day


    Gimme a Break premieres

    Friday, April 08, 2005

    Does Europe Hate Us?

    I just got done watching the best piece of journalism that I think I've ever seen. Too often in the media all we get is an inundation of the headlines that have no meaning behind them. Michael Jackson, the price of gasoline, the latest health news, what the weather going to be like, what the latest diet fad is, a new study says this, a new study says that... The list just goes on and on, but the list is pointless (reminds me of Ecclesiastes).

    The reason the headlines are pointless is because they are completely void of WHY anything happens. When was the last time a news channel really attempted to not just tell you what happened, but WHY it happened? Let's take gasoline as an example. I've heard a ton of headlines this week stating, "Gas is at a new all-time high!" Big deal, cause first of all, it's not. When you look at anything concerning money it should ALWAYS account for inflation. If you don't, then you're just lying to yourself. Once you figure that in, then you see that gas IS expensive, but in reality it's still almost a dollar cheaper than it was in 1981. But that doesn't fully explain WHY gas is more expensive. Why won't the news look at the WHYs. Just in case you are wondering, there is a large set of WHYs and here are a few.

  • Increased unity among OPEC nations allows them to set prices at will.
  • The US dollar has literally tanked because we cannot control our spending as a nation, as such people are less willing to loan us money. If the dollar was stable, then gas would cost (guess-timate) about 30% less, so say it's $2.10 now, if the dollar were stronger then it would be $1.47.
  • Environmental groups have prevented any new refineries from being built for decades. Even if we could get more fuel in, it would still have a bottleneck; therefore, prices would continue to remain high.


  • These are but a few of the WHYs, but why don't you hear about them? Because despite the increase in 'journalism' over the past two decades there is just superficial journalistic duplicity. Just think of how many idiot reporters are camped out in front of Michael Jackson's court building? All that's really needed is a small handful of reporters, but instead people are wasting energy and effort on something that's already being done better by somebody else. WHY is it that I still don’t know what ever really happened in Darfur or have any more information about how people in Indonesia are recovering after the tsunami?

    All of this comes back to my yearning for journalists to tell me WHY things are happening. And today I was shocked at what I saw. Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman took an honest look at WHY Europeans seem to hate America. Some of his conclusions were pretty interesting.

  • The large Muslim population of Europe gets its news from worse sources than we do.
  • Europe hopes that the US doesn't win in Iraq so that they can prove they were right.
  • The EU has basically declared economic war on the US by establishing bans on US goods because they are not 'eco-friendly', even though such studies show no real conclusive proof of such claims.
  • That the EU has saved tons of money by not paying for defence because the US has provided security and allowed them to spend that money on social programs instead
  • How European values are much more family oriented than the US's views and how they view social welfare as a more positive thing than we do.


  • All of this comes down to the EU has extremely different views of what's important. He didn't really offer any answers, and frankly, there aren't any. But what was nice is Friedman really asked WHY. WHY people feel the way they do. WHY our economies are on a collision course with eachother. WHY Europeans fear our religious tendencies. WHY

    It's sad that the viewing audiences typically don't even care about the principle reasons behind what is going on in the world around them. It's like saying you're a Christian and not knowing WHY Jesus had to die. Or looking at your life and not thinking about WHY you are getting up, WHY you are working, WHY you want to earn money for certain things, and WHY you consider other things to be of utmost importance to who you are.

    Now my only question is, WHY is this the first program like this I've seen?

    Wednesday, April 06, 2005

    My New Toy

    Any of you that know me know that I love driving. Probably one of my favorite things period. Well, this past week I finally got something I've been wanting for a long time. A new motorcycle!



    When I got my last bike I knew that it'd be temporary. I think the comment that my best friends little brother said sums it up best, "He looks like a monkey humping a football." So yeah, the old bike was a little too small.

    So how did I pick the new bike? Well, as any girl going out to get a prom dress can tell you, you gotta start with the shoes. In my case I bought a newer, quieter, non-facemask-flying-open-randomly-on-the-highway helmet (Shoei TZ-R) on Monday. That helmet just so happened to match this bike in the dealership perfectly. And it's all history from there.

    Actually, for those wondering if I'm going to start working for Surprise by Design, I'm not. The thing is I've wanted this particular bike for a long time now because it's just the best all around bike for a guy my size. So I saw this bike, I knew they were trying to clear it out of the store, I wanted a new one anyways, and I now have a perfectly matching helmet. I decided I wanted the thing on last Tuesday, and after a lot of wheeling and dealing on Friday I made the local motorcycle dealer really sad about how much they earned and I got my new favorite toy.

    So if you think I'm a little MIA lately, you're right. I'm probably out and about tearing up the roads on my new toy. My 2004 Honda Interceptor (VFR800). Man oh man, do I love the roads around Austin. I would also like to thank State Farm for insuring me for less than the $4000 per year that Progressive wanted, and I would like to thank Woods Fun Center for setting up quotas that made them want to make no profit on this bike.

    Now all I have to do is get a matching jacket and gloves, maybe some pretty shoes... I should stop.

    Monday, April 04, 2005

    Lewd, Crude, and Mostly Rude

    I don't know what it is about people that makes them think that being crude is funny. Seriously, I went to this place tonight with my Bible study group for "Fun Monday", and it was just ridiculous how lewd the owner of this place was. Basically we went to a place for sushi and karaoke and what ensued was just a guy on the mic that said anything disgusting that came to his mind, kept trying to grope anything female that came near him, and treated the guests like they were objects.

    Saddest part was that some of them seemed to really enjoy being objectified. Frankly though, I just don't see why some people choose to be so rude. Can't you see that those people are individuals too, that they want to be able to walk to the restroom without having you smack their butt.

    On the bright side, the sushi was good and the karaoke was awful as it should be.