October 2003 Archives
Okay, there are a few entries that I've been meaning to enter this week, and yet I haven't. I will just start listing them now, and fill them in afterwards when I've got more time and I'm more awake. I just want to make a record of them so I don't forget:
1) I was nearly assaulted on the freeway on Tuesday after work.
2) On Friday Julie and I went to Teatro Zinzani, which was pretty much a peak experience.
3) My dog decided to dig a pit in my lawn on Saturday, and again I caught her tonight at midnight digging in the same spot. I know she's hunting a mole or some other vermin, but still -- I really could kill her at times like this.
I really do not like cleaning up after someone else's bad coding. I mean, small typos and omissions, sure -- not a big deal. But when you run up against really bad engineering, and bad design... it's just demoralizing. It's hard to express to the non-technical. It's like this -- imagine you are tasked with spicing up a meal that someone else has already cooked so that it becomes palatable. This is already an ill-advised activity. If they are missing salt, or need a little pepper, it's no big deal -- you add and it's fine. Well, imagine they used motor oil in the recipe, or started with spoiled food, or worse yet -- it's constituted of twigs and rocks. What do you do then? You've got starving customers ready to storm the kitchen, and the dinner is ruined. Do you add flour? Tobasco? Sneak out the back window?
GAH!! Is it friday yet?!
I'm wearing silk boxers, and man -- this is seriously the way to go. Lots of freedom, and the nice caress of silk on my nether regions. I'm in a great mood. I always wore bikini briefs for most of my life (except as a kid, when it was exclusively tighty-whiteys or the occasional underoo), and never delved into the boxer arena until recently. I think it may have something to do with my dad. You see, my dad always wore boxers, for as long as I can remember, but they were... Okay, you have to know my dad for this to make sense, but first of all, he would wear really nasty cheap boxers made of thin cotton, and they'd always be stained, or torn, or both, and then there was the fly hole. My dad would walk around in his boxers, and scratch himself through his flyhole. I got to see my dad's penis constantly because he wore those goddamn boxers. Of course, later in life he just stopped wearing underwear altogether (As my friend Lisa can attest to with the 'stuff that back in your pants' incident.) So, I had very bad associations with boxers, and I wanted something as far from what I witnessed as possible.
So recently, on a whim, I bought some boxers for my 31st birthday. I got red ones, because I was toga'ing up to be Mars, and I thought that red boxers would be a discreet way to keep my bits from showing. So I bought a pair. I love them. I love them so much Julie bought me another pair. Unfortunately, they're expensive, and they have to be hand-washed, but Okay, fine -- I could get used to that. I may not wear them every day, but every once in a while it's a treat. Maybe I'll try out some cotton ones -- I'm just slowly working those childhood images out of my head. It may be a while before they're purged.
I belong to a daily poll email list, where questions are asked daily, and the results from the previous day are posted to the list for everyone to see (well, only the best ones). The question today was 'describe your perfect brunch', and instantly I thought of Continental Gardens in Berkeley. Here is my post:
There was a restaraunt in Berkeley -- about 6 years ago now it closed -- called 'Continental Gardens'. This was the sort of place that looked like crap from the front, and you'd NEVER go in if you saw it on the street, but if you were fortunate enough to have a friend 'in the know', you'd get invited to breakfast, and then you became an instant convert. They had the most awesome breakfast/brunch in the world. The main dish was called 'The Blue Max', which came in two sizes: 'Large' and 'Not As Large'. It was a heaping plate of Rostii (swiss-cut) potatoes, with either spinach or ham, plus swiss cheese mixed in, one or two poached eggs, and smothered in the most awesome Hollandaise sauce ever invented. It was the perfect combination of buttery, lemony goodness, with just a slight kick of cayenne. I've tried to reproduce it -- it's impossible. Roman, the owner/chef was a PRO and he'd come at you with a meat cleaver if you asked for extra hollandaise and didn't finish it all. And if that were not enough, he would make personal bread loaves baked fresh, with homemade strawberry jam, and fresh squeezed orange juice from the oranges that grew on the patio of the restaurant, which was this amazing urban garden courtyard. It was invisible from the street, surrounded by red brick walls, had exotic plants, and wooden benches and trellaces. I miss that place intensely. I cried the day it closed. Roman was forced out of business by the landlord who wanted to offer the property up to a new tenant that would pay him x2 the rent. They wouldn't even allow Roman to sell the business to a new owner. He owned that place over over 25 years, and he said he had no plans of reopening in a new spot. He's probably doing construction work now. My perfect brunch would be at Continental Gardens, with all the friends I know that loved that place, and with Roman taking a moment to sit and talk with us like he used to. *sigh*
The tickets sold out in less than an hour. Jason, as well as other friends who wanted to go could not get tickets. I am very sad about this. Damn. I guess we should have coordinated better. :(
I GOT THEM I GOT THEM MY PRECIOUS MY PRECIOUS!!
Actually, Julie landed them, but I'm going to trilogy!
Get them while they're hot!
Okay, I've been waiting to buy Lord of the Rings trilogy showing tickets for Dec 16 for almost two hours. Headquarters for Loews said they'd be open and selling tickets today starting at 10am. The Metreon seems to think they're not selling tickets until several days previous. Dammit, give me my movie tickets! You don't understand that by denying me my tickets, you're blowing away a good two months of productivity! You're hurting the CSU system, and therefore wasting precious tax dollars! You're what's wrong with government! DAMN YOU TO HELL! I'm gonna call Arnie on your ass, if you don't give me my goddamn tickets!
(pant, pant, pant)
Okay, breathe. It's just a movie.
NO IT'S NOT GODDAMN IT, IT'S MY RELIGION! MY.... PRECIOUS!!!!
So last night, I went to bed at 10:45, and woke up around 6:30-7am. I feel frikkin' great! I don't know if I will do this religiously, but wow -- a full night's sleep really is an awesome mood elevator!
That being said, this was a pretty spiritually inspirational weekend. I feel rejuvinated, and ready to tackle the world and all its concerns.
Let's just hope the vote doesn't kill my buzz.
I've lost 10 lbs in the last 3 weeks.
OH MY F*CKING GOD what a week this has been. Total overscheduled social calendar + school + crap at work == tired burnt Josh.
* 2 D&D games
* 1 evening consulting
* debugging really BAD code inherited by an ex co-worker for code that needs to be released two weeks ago, written in a crappy language by a crappy programmer. UGH!!!
* massive homework assignment
* midterm today.
I am so friggin' done, I can't even see straight. Stick a fork in my ass and flip me over.
