Nov05

11-30-05 (00:40)

less than 24 hours in davis left. i have mixed feelings about it. i'm eager to get on with the next stage of my life, but i sometimes worry about money and friends.

four years in high school. four years in college. four years at tower. wonder what's next.

cleaning my apartment and getting my stuff in order. my grandma will be here tomorrow after work and then i'll leave davis.

i miss meryl a lot. we had a great time while she was here. it's never long enough. she's great.

11-28-05 (12:11)

meryl's here.

moved yesterday, that went relatively well. john and meryl were a big help. all that i have here are a mattress (which i'll sell on my last day here) my computer, some clothes and some food.

11-23-05 (22:10)

bonzi wells has 11 steals in the last two games combined. i'm loving this guy.

about to go watch "just friends," i'm sure it'll be "just so-so."

jim gaffigan was on letterman last night and joked about xmas, easter and other stuff. he's my favorite comedian right now. chappelle is number two.

got the two new sets of seinfeld today. great stuff. already done with the first disc.

updated movies i own list.

11-22-05 (21:57)

realized today that i went to a kings game on 11-21-04 and another one on 11-21-05. pretty cool.

11-21-05 (22:40)

went to the kings game tonight. they lost by three to the reigning world champion spurs. very fun game, but i was sad to see them lose. they really made it a game in the second half and bibby could have tied it in the last second, but missed a tough shot. he had a great game and made some big shots down the stretch, but couldn't make the last second one to put it into ot. the kings were without peja so i was pleasantly surprised to see them in it at the end. garcia played a good game in peja's place and wells had some very fine defensive plays. good effort overall and that's what i like to see.

cleaned my oven and packed up more stuff tonight. still have my cds and kitchen to pack, but that's about it. moving on sunday will suck, but i'll have meryl and john to help so it shouldn't be too bad.

one of the actors from "mail order wife" was just in a skit on conan. pretty cool.

updated movies list.

11-21-05 (11:52)

brandon lloyd just made another absolutely amazing catch. this year he's made two of the most amazing catches i've ever seen. the first one was on a post and he jumped in the air and reached behind his body to make a one-handed grab. this one was a diving one-handed catch on a fly pattern. thoroughly insane. later in the game he made another one-handed catch in the end zone, but wasn't able to get his second foot inbounds. his td catch that counted wasn't that impressive of a catch, but the route he ran was pretty great. he faked a corner route just enough to get the cornerback to turn his hips and that freed lloyd up enough to make the catch in the middle of the field for a td. this guy has the potential to be really special.

just went and got my storage place. the woman wasn't a bitch this time so that was good. it's a 5x10 place which means it's going to be a little tight, but i should be able to fit everything in there. i'll just have to stack things high. meryl's bed is the biggest thing i have. after that i've got about 16 boxes of cds, 15 of dvds, my tv, my cd and dvd cases, 7 boxes of books, my desk, my chairs, my a/v equipment and a few other boxes of random items. still not sure what i'm going to do about my bike.

11-19-05 (23:13)

i've noticed a potentially disturbing trend in acting lately. i know it's not completely new in film history, but it seems to be more prevalent today than in the past. the trend is the tendency of great performances being that of imitation, rather than creation. consider phoenix in "walk the line," hoffman in "capote," (both likely to be nominated) foxx in "redemption" (not nominated) and "ray," theron in "monster" and "north country," roberts in "erin brokovich," swank in "boys don't cry," blanchett and dicaprio in "the aviator," cheadle in "hotel rwanda," smith in "ali," crowe in "a beautiful mind" and "insider," hayek in "frida," etc. those are all films from the last six years. this is disturbing for a couple reasons... 1) it's unfortunate to see so many talented actors increasingly choosing imitation of real people rather than creating their own. of course this is also an issue of screenplay availability and production. 2) it's sad to see so many great actors get oscar nods only when they choose to imitate. in other words the academy is encouraging imitation of pre-existing characters rather than encouraging studios, writers, producers and actors to create new ones. this is even more worrisome since the trend in mainstream cinema is to remake classics. academy award nominated pictures supposedly are the elite in cinema and yet they demonstrate the same lack of creativity that mainstream films do. that said, i like many of the above films and don't see anything wrong with making a picture based on real events. i hope hollywood stays selective in this regard and i wish the academy wasn't so intent on rewarding these performances simply because they're true to life. i also hope that the younger generation of actors doesn't get into the habit of imitating in an attempt to adapt to this trend in acting.

very surprised to see miami fall to ga tech today. i thought miami was just as good as texas, but that doesn't appear to be so anymore. usc had a tough day against a tough team. i knew the rest of their season was going to be interesting.

watched the second half of the kings game last night. they looked pretty good. milwaukee isn't as good as their record indicates so i'm not too excited, but it was still good to see the kings finally win a couple in a row.

packed up the tools that i'm not bringing with me. also packed up all my posters and sports equipment. listened to a lot of queens of the stone age and top 10 of 2005 candidates.

might go to the kings game on monday. if i had a car there would be no "might" about it. if i had a car i would have started moving by now. if i had a car i would have purchased some wood for my cd and dvd cases by now.

11-18-05 (19:07)

went to secure my storage place today, but the woman was a total bitch and i didn't have a check on me so that didn't work out. i've used this place twice before and have had nothing but good experiences, but this time it was a different lady than usual. i went in and asked to rent a place. she said "did you call or are you just coming in here blind?" i said "i want a 5x10 place. i called and they said you had plenty of available places. i've rented here before." she said "ok. do you have a check?" i said "no. you don't take visa?" i said this as i was looking at the credit card machine behind the counter. she said "no." and added "you didn't call did you?" i said "yeah, i did." she said "oh really? because we always tell people that we only accept checks. so come back with a check and we'll get you a place. oh, and the store is going to be close from 3:30 to 4pm because i have to pickup my daughter." it was easily the worst customer service i've ever received. i'm not sure what to do at this point. pay more for a place that's further away or give this place a second shot since they've been so good to me in the past. maybe her mother just died, or something, so that's why she was in a crappy mood. grade A bitch.

don't feel like doing much these days. that said, i think i've done a good job of prepping for the move. i've also stayed productive at work in spite of the affliction known as "short-timers syndrome." i've got 7-8 more days of work left.

don't have many interesting movies to watch, don't feel like reading or playing video games.

yesterday i went to my boss's apartment and played some video games. got a headache because of the stench of pot and tobacco, but had a decent time other than that. it's interesting to see how other people live.

updated recommendations.

11-16-05 (22:51)

updated movies list.

haven't wanted to watch movies lately, mostly because i have a bunch of (mostly) crappy screeners and three long foreign films that i got from netflix. all my dvds are packed up so my options are relatively limited.

haven't been too thrilled about life lately. nothing is really wrong, it's just that i'm in a state of limbo. i'm still in the process of packing up and selling my possessions. i had a bunch of cds on my desk an in front of my cd player and, after i put all those away, i have almost no room left on my cd shelves. i've got about 1600 discs now. i plan on building one more dvd case and one more cd case on monday.

updated recommendations.

lately i've been watching late night shows (conan, letterman, leno) and it seems that they often use some of the same jokes. i don't mean that they all make fun of the same people or anything as broad as that. rather, they'll take an incident like paris hilton being bitten by her monkey and they'll all make the joke that the doctors weren't sure which of the two should get the shot. har har. i can almost understand it when it's leno/conan making the same joke since they're on the same network, but it happens with letterman as well.

conan has gotten particularly stale lately. it seems like every show is the exact same. he dances out onto the stage, he'll play around with the camera boundaries, he'll make some self-deprecating jokes and then he'll talk about how huge he is in finland because the prime minister looks like him (or vise versa). i'm not saying he's unfunny, but his shows lately have been too similar.

11-15-05 (18:14)

some guy came into tower yesterday and asked to fill out an application. he started filling it out and asked justin "hey man, you know what date it is?" justin replied "the 14th." and he replied "of?..." justin replied "november." that same guy somehow got an interview for 3pm today. he showed up at 3:22pm. justin and i met him up front and justin said "what happened to 3pm?" he said "i was in woodland." justin said "well, i can't give you an interview. bye." on the one hand i felt almost sorry for this guy, but i also couldn't help thinking how pathetic a person has to be to a) not know what month it is b) unable to show up to an interview on time.

there's a great episode of malcolm in the middle on right now. it's the one where the three boys get caught on writing graffiti on a billboard. it turns into a well-written showdown between them and their mother.

updated movies list.

11-14-05 (22:57)

i like terrell owens and i think i like jesse jackson most of the time, but i don't really understand why jesse jackson appeared in an interview on owens' behalf. seems ridiculous to me.

11-14-05 (12:18)

"the opposite of congress must be progress" -cage

have work in about an hour. was going to secure my storage place today, but now i don't feel like it.

woke up pretty stiff this morning because of the football yesterday. that's pretty pathetic. i need to do that every day so that my body isn't so shocked when i decide to use it.

11-14-05 (01:02)

johnny, luke and ryan visited today. that didn't go as well as it could have. we played a very fun game of football, that was the highlight of my day.

49ers lost, again.

have to work tomorrow. not completely upset by that fact, but definitely would have rather had the time off. i think i worked last monday too. maybe it was the monday before last, i can't really remember.

back hurts, but it's the good kind of hurt that comes after working out. should have stretched and warmed up more before the football game.

new cage album is pretty good.

played some madden 2004 tonight. i like video games, but don't play them very often. when john comes over we usually play some snes, but i don't play very often other than that. 10 years ago it would have been my dream to have a big tv and three video game systems, now it's not all that thrilling. i have a lot more fun playing football in the field behind my apartment building. johnny and i both bled as a result of that game. bleeding is good for you in small doses.

tired.

11-13-05 (00:09)

john came by unexpectedly tonight. we played some video games and watched tv.

i love this: "Despite earlier reports stating that Holmes' career could be over, Herman Morris, Priest's father, confirmed that his son will play football next year. "He's not contemplating retirement," Morris said. "He wants to go out on top. He wants to go out his way. He plans on walking off, at God's will, writing his own script, not having someone else write it for him.""

he's going to write his own script, if god allows it. hmmm...

11-12-05 (18:55)

updated movies list.

johnny, luke and ryan are heading over here tomorrow. hopefully i don't get called into work.

the single off the newest blackalicious is reportedly going to be "powers," which i feel is one of the worst tracks on the album. they should have picked the craft, world of vibrations, supreme people, side to side or egosonic war drums instead.

11-11-05 (01:01)

updated movies list.

good day, sorta lame night.

sent off my checks to the credit card company today. so far as i'm concerned, i'm officially debt free for the first time in 5 years.

i think the chi in my living room is fucking with me. need to adjust the feng shui and everything will be peachy. balance of fire and water is off, so is flow of energy. will adjust tomorrow. seriously though, i need to get rid of some of this clutter.

decided to walk to the theater tonight just because. as soon as i was going down the stairs i noticed a car performing a three point turn to head in the opposite direction - toward downtown, which is where i was going. as the car parked i started catching up to the car. two girls got out and were laughing very loudly so i looked across the street at them for a second and continued on my course. i heard bits of their conversation afterwards and it appeared as though their laughs turned into laughs about me. i heard fragments like "he's probably like what the fuck are they laughing about?" which led me to believe that they were laughing, at least in part, because of me. it brought me right back to junior high school, but it didn't bother me too much.

later, while i was watching the movie, i noticed that the couple next to me was drinking a couple double-size beers. as the film wore on they started to laugh at less and less appropriate times (for example, the charred iraqi bodies about 80 minutes into the film were oddly humorous to them). at one point i looked over at them and the girl looked back at me and smiled, i didn't smile back. after that i saw them talking with each other and looking over in my direction and laughing. it sorta ruined the moment. this is one reason i prefer to sit in front of everyone in the theater.

after the film i was walking down the street and i saw them getting into their explorer. the guy looked at me, said something to his girlfriend and then they started laughing. in junior high i would have felt isolated, embarrassed or ashamed because of this kind of treatment and those feelings would have led to anger. this time, though, i felt angry because i felt like this sort of shit really shouldn't be happening at this stage in my life. that kind of crap is strictly for 12 year olds, in my opinion. reminds me of a hoffman line in midnight cowboy...

so, i don't know what the deal was tonight...i looked in the mirror when i got home and didn't see any unusual growths and there wasn't any feces on my shirt, so i'm at a loss. anyway, no more walking for me. i'm all about the bike from now on. i'm pretty sure i've owned my bike for longer than anything else i still have. i got it when i was 12, or thereabouts. at the time it was too big for me. a couple months ago i went into the shop with it and the guy behind the counter gave me an odd look and asked "is that bike yours?" i said "yeah, why?" he replied "oh, because it looks way too small for you." he's right, but i'm not giving this thing up - we've been through a lot together.

boss showed me this today. i beat him on my first try, my object was "shoe laces." it took him 23 questions.

only a couple weeks left in davis.

11-08-05 (23:33)

busy weekend and busy day today as well. went to the bay area via train/bus, started meryl's mom's screenplay. met my sister at fisherman's wharf and ate expensive and mediocre pizza. afterwards we saw a woman get hit (more of a nudge, really) by a car. crazed driver's face was funny, city life is not. went to see a movie and we both didn't think too much of it. updated movies list. went back to her place (pretty nice) and called it a night. met her roommates - two aren't all that interesting and one is. sarah doesn't feel like she feels at home in SF and that's too bad. went to brunch with aunt's family and sarah. waited an hour to go to really small cafe. brunch was good. went back to sarah's hung out and waited for jon to arrive. said goodbye to aunt's family (cousins are cute) and went with jon to go kart place (biggest indoor track in the u.s.). took a bit of getting used to, but it was fairly fun (though expensive, as is everything over there). go karts were faster and tougher to control than i had anticipated, time went by fast. went to amoeba with jon and didn't buy anything. had slice of pizza (thanks jon), talked and went back to sarah's. hung out at her place, helped her with essay on movie and went out. walked around and ate at expensive, but not very good, diner. i picked up the tab because i'm rich, biotch. thought about watching a movie, but wasn't convenient. took muni back to her place and saw the same two drunk blondes that we had seen earlier on the same muni line. we made fun of them. hung out at her place with roommates, watched dumb tv shows (end of desperate housewives and all of grey's anatomy). slept. woke up and ate lunch with sarah, said goodbye and took bus to bart station. took bart to berkeley (after police action delayed my trip through embarcadero station - still not sure what happened there). met up with johnny at his place and talked for a couple hours. he's a good talker and i always enjoy our conversations. he drove me to minimalist train station and we said goodbye. started to rain, train picked me up. finished meryl's mom's screenplay, arrived in davis. had slice of pizza, started raining more. got home, talked with mom, sold bb gun, talked with meryl. packed dvds (all done) and watched south park (funny). slept.

today i had work and then went to pistons/kings game. boss drove me. we were going to meet john and his co-worker for dinner, but we were late because boss can't leave home without smoking pot. sorta sad. met up with john and one of his co-workers at local mall and then all went to the game. first home game of the season and kings were destroyed in the second half. sad outing, offense was offensive and chants of "defense" should have been chants of "defense?" that said, pistons are one of only two undefeated teams in the league so the competition was admittedly stiff. kings have no chemistry, no offensive flow, and aren't coached well on the defensive end. need to learn to play defense as a team. this'll take a while. wouldn't doubt it if adelman was a goner by this time next year.

closed savings today and promptly spent $43.04 on dvds/cds.

11-05-05 (00:56)

tonight i watched a tv show on dvd called oblivious. it's a cross between candid camera and a quiz show. i found it to be funny and creative.

going to sf tomorrow to see some people.

got free tickets to the kings/pistons game on tuesday. going with john, his girlfriend, and my boss.

packed up seven boxes of books today. next phase is the dvds and cds.

11-03-05 (22:01)

sold my dresser tonight.

updated movies list.

had a fairly fun day at work.

11-3-05 (17:24)

pure brilliance from top to bottom.

big 12 (and texas) is overrated. "No one seems to care that Ohio State still hasn't beaten a currently ranked team yet, which means Texas can two-step into the Rose Bowl without beating anyone who has beaten anyone." of course, this guy hasn't read my webpage, but his sentiments are spot on.

i think that the nba dress code is fine. i think there are elements of it that i don't like, but overall it makes sense and isn't opressive or racist. that said, i've got some interesting inside information. there's an nba video game out which has a soundtrack which apparently was pulled because it has foul language. it'll still be available in the edited form, but someone (and i was told by the caroline rep that it was the nba) didn't want the explicit version to be available anymore so they pulled it. i haven't listened to it yet, but it's got some great artists on it so i got one when the caroline rep came in. yay.

11-2-05 (22:27)

went to the dentist and had quite a pleasant experience. the dentist was informative, nice, and welcoming. too bad i won't likely see her ever again.

sold my futon less than 24 hours after i posted it to craigslist. that was surprisingly fast.

having trouble writing reviews for the last four films. have things to say, but am not able to get them out. overall it's pretty easy for me to write. i think that i could pop out school papers relatively easily nowadays.