random bits and pieces

fat

ah more on texas obesity.

luckily i have now moved to a healthier region... or will my texas roots haunt me forever?

rallisport 2 vs. ddr

obviously i need to put down the controller and go back to the dance pad...

Loosing weight with DDR Thanks to kevin for the article...

i feel like tonight will have to be a video game night. i think i'm making up for lost childhood time...

boston

i think gray weather likes to follow me around. more proof that i'm meant to just deal with cold & wind & rain. of course seattle is gray and rainy when i'm there and now boston is too. MIT is not pretty at all. I am so glad that I went to Rice instead. I think I am greatly affected by my surroundings. If it's nice outside it's easier for me to relax and be happy. I know one should be able to be happy by themselves, but i think the sun can make such a difference.

i'm still scared of baltimore. i think it'll be okay and i talked to oliver yesterday too. he knows people in the area too. so maybe he'll come to visit some time too. karen and i caught up a bit. apparently there was confusion about my current boy situation, but it's all cleared up now. it's fun keeping in touch with her. i wish i could get back to houston before moving to baltimore, but it just doesn't look likely. maybe in october/november sometime. school seems to have more breaks than work... less opportunity cost too.

updates

i'm a tester... i have lots of machines in my office and each one has several partitions... i don't constantly reboot to all the different partitions, but not too unfrequently either. so today i rebooted to a 10.3.2 partition on a machine and low and behold tons of updates... i guess it's good now it tells me when I need to update rather than making me responsible for seeing when a new update is out... but wow... and i'm such the non discerning user i just allow it to install whatever it thinks is necessary. i think given what i'm going to study this fall I should perhaps be a little more wary. the one thing i don't understand is why does it sometimes suggest for me to get updates on things that i don't own? really what is that update going to do? reminds me of corky and his turd files.. (only Rice CS ppl who took programming languages will understand that reference.). looks like this update is going to take a while... might as well move on to something else.

what city am I?

this is kind of funny though to be honest i had no idea what to answer on the activity question:

Take the quiz: "Which American City Are You?"

Los Angeles
You are the epitome of duality. You'll deal with all the strife to bask in all the glamour.

hippie

according the great starbuck's oracle, i am a hippie. i order a tall cafe mocha with soy milk usually... here's what it says:

Behold the Oracle's wisdom:

Personality type: Hippie

In addition to being a hippie, you are a hypochondriac health nut. You secretly think that your insistence on only consuming all-natural products is because you're so intelligent and well-informed; it's actually because you're a sucker. You've dabbled in Wicca or other pseudo-religions that attract morons and have changed your sexual orientation a few times this year. You probably live in California. Everyone who drinks tall cafe mocha with soy milk should be forced to eat a McDonald's bacon cheeseburger.

Also drinks: Beverages with lots of marketing that says they're herbal and organic
Can also be found at: Whole Foods, indoor rock climbing facilities

best cities for dating

seattle makes the list for one of the top cities for dating... what the?

as far as i can tell there's an extreme shortage of women in seattle...

Seattle, WA: No surprise here - Seattle has the largest amount of coffee shops (great places for meeting people or gathering to rehash the previous night’s activities). It also has the highest percentage of online daters.

going out.

i'm not against going out. i actually like it occassionally, but i think people misunderstand me. i like going out to people watch. dancing is a nice way to cover up the fact that you're just observing people.

anyways so friday night we went to bada's then checked out a new club on capitol hill called X Factor. minus the 30 min. wait and the incredibly hot (temperature-wise) upstairs area it wasn't bad. the place was packed with people, the drinks were decent, and the music was pretty good. i was pretty tired since it was friday... i've never been good about going out on fridays. they seem more like a day to stay in, rent a movie & unwind from the week. i did manage to stay out until 1:30am. i thought that was pretty good.

saturday night was tiki bob's again. we're hoping to stop going here. it's not terrible per se, but it's not exactly great. steph had a good time dancing which is always a good thing. i left early around 11:45 pm or so. i was tired. three days in a row of going out drains me now. got home played rallisport which was not so successful lying down. i'll have to try playing again sometime today.

sunday night bbq at jay's. beth's in town. she's fun. she has an avocado tree in florida! i want an avocado tree. she agrees that the avocados can barely be called avocados. she's also disappointed in the mangoes. jay made hamburgers. kevin & i brought watermelon & chocolate cake (the QFC kind). it was sunday i didn't feel like baking a cake. anyways heather brought holly along. i had fun feeding her random stuff. cooler ranch doritos, hamburger meat, bun, plates, watermelon, and strawberries. she does not in fact like cashews. for dessert we cut the chocolate cake which i had fun with the icing (I stuck it on kevin). then andy stuck icing in my hair :P. yuck. so i got it on his arm. my sweatshirt apparently wanted some too so i had to wash that when i got home!

other interesting things: i got a patch for the developing hole in one of my jeans. it's a patch of tinkerbell! i like it except for the weird light green color. it seems to work well though. that's about it for me. this entire week is busy: tonight is a hockey game, tomorrow is ballet, wednesday is the Dido concert, thursday is macaroni & cheese with Andy, friday I leave for Boston. i haven't had a packed week in a while. perhaps i should have gotten more sleep this weekend...

so many quizzes so little time...

You belong on a lazy-day beach or anywhere where
you can set up a relaxing bench or chair and
watch the world go by. You don't want to make
any changes, watching is enough to make you
content. The blue of the sky and the light of
day beat into your soul and you drift into the
world and around without harming anything or
making any ripples in the fabric of humanity.
Enjoy your peace, few have it, though few would
want it at the cost.


Where do you belong?(ANIME IMAGES)
brought to you by Quizilla

final fantasy character

i don't know who this is, but she looks kinda cool...

Lenne


Which Final Fantasy X-2 character are you?
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kevin you have to play it now so i can see who she is!

since everyone else has done it...

congratulations. you are the kiss my ass happy
bunny. You don't care about anyone or anything.
You must be so proud


which happy bunny are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

i wanted the cute but psycho bunny. :(

okay retook the quiz... apparently to get cute but psycho i need to have my closest friend be completely insane. (but really compared to me how can anyone be seen as more insane? birds of a feather flock together?) and i need to listen to techno... oh wait i do that.

you are the cute but psycho happy bunny. You
adorable, but a little out there. It's alright,
you might not have it all, but there are worse


which happy bunny are you?
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some thoughts

saturday night: tiki bob's
i took my first jello shot last night it was interesting... some scantily clad girl squirted whipped cream in my mouth and then i tried to swallow a shot. i'm not quite sure how people swallow that entire thing at once... i had to chew. i didn't drink that much at least not considering we were there for over four hours. we drank, we danced, and then the best thing of all: we ate hot dogs :). it was good, not great because it was rather early, i.e. midnight. street meat tastes best after 1am.

sunday: becky & alan's, safeco field
becky threw a terrific engagement party for eric & steph. i think steph was genuinely surprised albeit a bit confused at first. irwin & I left the party early though, b/c thanks to ivy irwin & i got tickets to the mariners vs. yankees game today. (yankees won 7 to 6). it was my very first baseball game (well professional baseball game...) i now know the general rules etc. it wasn't as boring as i thought it would be. it was actually kind of fun. i saw the mariners moose! after the game came home, went running (all the way to marymoor from my house that's at least 1.2 miles... and walked back.). that's been my day. not too bad for a weekend.

listening to...

say anything by good charlotte

Here I am on the phone again and...
Awkward silence is on the other end
I used to know the sound of a smile in your voice
But right now (right now) all I feel (all I feel)
is the pain of the fighting starting up again

All the things we talk about you know they stay on my mind, on my mind
All the things we laugh about will bring us through it every time,
after time, after time

Don't say a word, I know you feel the same
Just give me a sign, say anything, say anything
Please don't walk away, I know you wanna stay
If you just give me a sign, say anything, say anything

Some say that time changes, best friends can become strangers
But I don't want that, no not for you
If you just stay with me we can make it through

Now I'm wondering if they ever change
When will you laugh again, laugh like you did back when
We'd make noise til 3:00 AM
And the neighbors would complain

All the things we talk about you know they stay on my mind, on my mind
All the things we laugh about will bring us through it every time,
after time, after time

Don't say a word, I know you feel the same
Just give me a sign, say anything, say anything
Please don't walk away, I know you wanna stay
If you just give me a sign, say anything, say anything

I'm falling, I'm falling, I'm falling down
I'm falling, I'm falling, I'm falling down
Down...down...down

not life but toys?

perhaps i should write to my current audience, how's this? i'm not behind in life per se, but i'm definitely behind in toy acquisition.

i still drive the car i had in high school - pretty much everyone i know has either 1. newer car or 2. fancier car than me. (not only that pretty much everyone drives standard too...) i could buy a new car, but car payments just sound stressful.

i don't have an ipod. this should be remedied in a few weeks.

i don't own a fancy cell phone. smaller the better or the more features the better. i did upgrade my phone this year, but it's not bluetooth wireless or anything. my laptop has a bluetooth something or the other, but honestly i'd be really surprised if i ever utilize it.

i don't have a big tv. dennis is right, no hdtv. i wonder if those are heavier than my 24" tv. i already dropped that. i don't think i can get any larger tv. i'm not going to tempt fate. the first tv didn't kill me the second one might.

no tivo. that's one toy i wish i had but i don't. i think it'd make tv watching signficantly more efficient, though the only show i watch regularly is alias.

kitchen scale. okay okay no one i know has one... but i'd like one anyways. you know the digital kind.

no roomba vaccuum. i don't know if that's a good or bad thing. i think i'd end up tripping over it more than anything else.

my stereo system was given to me by gerald. it's a nice one, but i didn't buy it. i suppose in the realm of toys i could get a super fancy stereo system with klipsch or paradigm speakers?

however according to dennis i do live the bling bling lifestyle as i do have a set of wusthof-trident knives.

okay that's all i can think of offhand of toys that i'm missing that most of my friends have. but that's the beauty of it. my friends have the cool toys so i get to play with them anyways :)

it's official

i'm behind in life. my friends are getting married. some even already have kids (the ones I knew from high school). they're starting to buy houses and what am I doing? starting over. it's like i didn't get it right the first time... i have to go back. maybe this time there will be more partying? doubt it.

maybe i should work on that M.R.S. degree after all. but could I do it? probably not. i think that route can only be taken by people who don't have this strange fear of depending on others. i remember i used to creep out people i dated because they never felt needed by me. that's changed as i've gotten older, but now i can definitely see what they mean. (by change i mean guys i meet these days are usually happy that i don't depend on them 24/7) i'm not particularly needy minus certain moods. i'm pretty good about keeping myself occupied and taking time to myself.

so that's my feeling today. i'm behind. time to play catch up.

memories

there are people in life we will never forget. usually they're connected to those momentous occassions in life, yet when i look back now i'm surprised at who i remember and who i've kept in touch with. i still remember the kid from preschool JT Moore and the oddest thing i remember? his family had a conversion van. I still remember Ms. Dufour from 4th grade, her husband worked at the prison in Sugar Land. I try to remember people from middle school/high school, but the ones I remember the most surprise me. these were not the people that i necessarily spent the most time with but the ones i connected with most. the ones that had similar backgrounds and upbringings. sure everyone changes, but people i thought i'd remember forever are fading. i look back at pictures, yearbooks, etc. and i remember, but i'm surprised that i can't recall these events anymore. maybe it's just me, my brain is dysfunctional.

as i get ready to move, i wonder who i will remember, what events i will remember, etc. in high school i'd thought i'd always be friends with the people i hung out with or at the very least always remember them. yet now when i recall high school, i only remember maybe a handful of those people. gotta love quite contemplation.

waking up at 7am

is not as easy as it was when i was say 15 yrs. old. i did manage to pull myself together by the time the estimator came at 7:30am. eek. that was painful. fortunately he did ease my fears... my bike now weighs 35# instead of 70#. he also said it's highly doubtful I have more than 2100# of stuff. interesting note: for this company as long as i don't exceed 2100# it is a flat rate. so it doesn't matter if i have 1000# or 2100# it's the same.

anyways today is also the first day of the tuesday morning sale. if you need a stand mixer they have the kitchenaid professional series for $180. that's a great deal. now if you aren't really a foodie/cook etc. you probably dont' need a standmixer, but i find mine to be very handy. i can leave things mixing and still have a free hand to incorporate flour etc. they also have 400 tc pima cotton sateen sheets. i know some people are against the sateen, but honestly, after a few washing you can't really feel it anymore. sure it feels a little bit more slippery than the non-sateen stuff, but i think it feels nice.

today is ballet. after waking up at 7am. i have already done: 1. gotten another moving estimate 2. post office 3. bought a sheet set 4. found a repair man for a dishwasher (for rebecca) 5. scheduled at least 2 more estimates this week 6. created an excel spreadsheet of my move findings.

i think that's pretty good. all before 11am.

diamonds are a girl's best friend

or so says nicole kidman in moulin rouge. i'm listening to the soundtrack now. i really thought that moulin rouge was an adorable movie. i still really enjoy listening to the soundtrack quite a bit.

first estimate for the move: $2400 for 2850 lbs. of stuff. i doubt i have that much... could my bike really weigh 70 lbs? or my computer (i told him i was leaving the monitor)? well tomorrow will be second estimate 7:30am... eek. wish me luck.

and so on

so my feeling on this song is that it's about second chances. i feel like i've been given this second chance on what i want to do with my life. and though i know this is slightly askew from what the song intended (i'm sure it's about relationships - though i could be wrong)... for some reason it gives me motivation.

i've been thinking

about what to write all day. it's been a pretty lazy day again. i did a lot of errands/nothing - grocery shopping, laundry (still needs to be put up), and took out the trash. yesterday i planted all the things that i bought and today they're looking okay. i just have to remember to water them at least every other day. the strawberries are going to start coming in a few weeks. They're flowering now.

so i watched a movie Lucky 7 last night with Steph. The movie turned out to be a made for TV movie by ABC. It was remarkably cute. I was pretty impressed plot/acting wise. The thing that I really enjoyed though was the soundtrack. Thus far I've found one track was by Chantal Kreviazuk and the other was by eastmountainsouth. i'm contemplating buying the cds now.

Mother's Day is May 9th apparently. For some reason I remember it always as May 14th. I ordered a gift today. Hopefully it'll get there in time. If not I'm sure my mom won't mind. She doesn't ever seem to mind.

Anyways here's the lyrics to one of the songs:

Time, where did you go?
Why did you leave me here alone?
Wait, don't go so fast
I'm missing the moments as they pass

Now I've looked in the mirror and the worlds getting clearer
So wait for me this time

I'm down,
I'm down on my knees
I'm begging for all your sympathy
But you, (I'm just an illusion) you don't seem to care (I wish that I could)
You humble people everywhere (I don't mean to hurt you)

Now I've looked in the mirror and the world's getting clearer
I'll take what you give me
Please know that I'm learning
So wait for me this time

I should've know better
And I shouldn't have wasted those days
And afternoons and mornings
I threw them all away

Now
This is my time
And I'm going to make this moment mine
(I shouldn't have wasted those days)

I'll take what you give me
Please know that I'm learning
I've looked in the mirror
My world's getting clearer
So wait for me this time

This time, this time, this time

Ohhh, this time
This time
This time

-Time, Chantal Kreviazuk

jamba juice

the enlightened variety is gross. the low calorie jamba base resembles powdered chalk. yuck. today i went back and the nice lady did give me a free one after I told her that one was not good... it was a pleasant surprise. So i'm going back to my calorie laden regular jamba goodness. No more light stuff for me. (well at least in respect to jamba juice...) lite sour cream is good, fat free not so much. same with ricotta cheese. sometimes you need the fat globules for that creamy goodness...

plants & sun

today is truly a lovely lazy saturday. this morning i went to seattle tilth and picked up a few tomato plants, dill, and basil. i limited myself this year since i'll be gone by august. i chose some "early" tomato plants. let's see if they're really early. most are supposed to be northwest hardy also.

had lunch at ivar's salmon house along lake union. montlake bridge was closed for boat outing day which i'm still not quite sure what that is. weather was absolutely gorgeous, but the sun makes me tired too. all i kind of want to do is sleep...

came home let irwin wash his car. walked to the redmond market (not much to buy/see there yet). came home and just laid around the house. it was nice. tomorrow should be about the same.