cogito cogito ergo cogito sum

Yes, I'm still alive

2006-06-25T01:40:00.000-07:00

Hey, sorry about the lack of blog updates. I was afraid of this sort of thing when I started it up.

So what's new with me? Well, I'm still working at the Atascadero News... I'm living in a two-bedroom place up in Paso Robles now, which has a lot more room... I adopted a cute kitty... Christina and I broke up a while back... other than that, not much new here.

An update

2006-01-16T13:14:00.000-08:00

There! I made a new post! Now for all y'all naysayers who say I never update, how does that crow taste? :D

Love

2005-10-03T18:49:00.000-07:00

I guess you can say things are doing pretty well with me and Christina. It seems like that break we took might have been the best thing to ever happen to us. Since we've been back together (9/13) we've had a whole new focus and things feel like they're in the proper perspective.

I love you baby. :D

'Sup dudes?

2005-08-23T01:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I know my last post seemed a little mean. I'm not really one to censor myself or take down prior posts... but I should make note here that Christina and I are on a lot better terms than we were when I posted that. We're not back together or anything... but truthfully I'll take this any day of the week.

So my job at the Atascadero News is going pretty well. I'm making more money than at RadioShack and I enjoy the work more. Of course, I'm pretty dog-gone busy this week. I really should be sleeping right now since I have to cover something at, like, 7 in the morning and it's 2 now. Yikes.

Another new post

2005-07-06T01:33:00.000-07:00

Here is some interesting reading that someone forwarded to me.

Background info: Christina and I are on less-than-speaking terms right now.

New Job

2005-06-28T22:24:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm updating! Imagine that.

Come the late part of July, I'm going to be starting as the sports editor at the Atascadero News. At a paper the size of the News, "sports editor" means "sports writer, sports editor, and general sports guy." I'll be making more money than at RadioShack, while not having to ask everyone who comes in for something small if they want a cell phone with that transistor.

and, um, like

2005-04-27T03:06:00.000-07:00

So, like, I was working at RadioShack, right? And, umm, this girl, like, comes in and asks us if we, like, have the internet, right? So she, like, gets on the internet center, right? And she starts to, like, type in a URL, and she, like, asks me if you use a dot or a slash, right? So I, like, had to show her how to type in a URL, right? And, umm, she, like, wanted to go to savannahtheadultress.blogspot.com, right? And she, like, says she's the Savannah the guy is talking about, right? So, like, she asked if he can get in trouble for this stuff, right? And she, like, said the stuff in it is true, right? So, umm, like, I told her I only know some basics of libel I'll, like, need to know in my future journalism career, right? And I, like, told her she should ask an attorney if she'd have a case or not, right? And, like, somewhere in all this, she, like, asked me what a blog is, right?

Holy hand grenade, Batman! It's a blog update!

2005-04-11T03:04:00.000-07:00

Some might call my blog-posting habits "lazy" or "nonexistant." I prefer to think of them as semi-lazy or semi-nonexistant. Maybe the reason I post so little is because precious little has changed. I'm still attending the same classes. I'm still working at the same place. Things are still going well with me and Christina. I'm just not one to bore the entire internet with the mundane trials and tribulations of daily life. I seem to have no trouble boring my girlfriend with the mundane trials and tribulations of daily life... but she's special. :)

So, what's new? Well... umm... I turned 24 on March 14... I applied for and got a 76 gas card, only to watch them become the most expensive place in town ($2.699 a gallon!) to get gas almost immediately afterwards... I used to refuse to pay more than $2.50 for a 12-pack of soda, and now that price warrants a special trip to a store regardless of its convenience to me because it's such a smokin' deal... I vacuumed down all the spider webs in my apartment and all the spiders I could find, and it took me about half an hour to do it... I recently had someone come into RadioShack wanting to buy a new microphone because Dee Dee from Dexter's Laboratory stole his... my car has recently started getting better gas mileage and I don't know why; everything I've done that might have made a difference was done several tankfuls before I noticed the increase... I also find it amusing that RadioShack wants us to sell lots of accessories for cell phones because it improves the store's bottom line, but then they turn around and send us hot new phones to sell without sending us leather cases to sell with them, or holsters or tips to make our car charger work with them.

I think that's about it for now.

Site updates!

2005-02-20T05:48:00.000-08:00

I'm actually doing some update work on the website, if you can believe that. It's at www.inkara1.com if you don't already know. I got a new design for the front page, some new pictures added to the photo gallery, and some spiffy "under construction" pages for the rest of the site that's not done yet.

As for other news, I'm now seeing a girl named Christina. I'm hoping to get some pics in the photo gallery before too long. I've mentioned her in my blog before. So far, things are going pretty well; she actually makes me feel wanted. She's been having some back problems lately that have left her in a ton of pain, but yet she still wants to see me. Most girls look for excuses to not see me, instead of going through pain just to see me. Little things like that loom large in my mind.

Monthly update

2005-02-02T01:25:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, this place still exists, doesn't it. I should probably update to appease the teeming masses who visit this blog on an hourly basis.

Well, school seems to be going decent so far. The business law class is a little dry, but it's not too terrible. I've certainly had much worse.

What I'm thinking I should do is just give links to the bulletin boards I post at most often: Off Topic Central and Thread Wonders. I update there much more frequently, so reading there is probably a better way to keep up with what's happening in my life.

I might still post here from time to time, but considering how often I do it now, how much of a loss would it really be if I didn't post here? Food for thought.

I'm _almost_ important

2005-01-10T17:39:00.000-08:00

So I got this "priority message" in the mail today. Of course, those punks didn't even bother to spell my last name right.

I opened it up, and it's a message from "All Points Wireless" in Morris Plains, NJ, trying to get me to call their 1-800 number so they can send me my FREE AT&T Wireless phone. Of course, anyone who's known me a while and who keeps up with current events would notice two things pretty quickly:

1. AT&T is now Cingular Wireless, and if Cingular were the last cell phone company on earth I would go without.

2. I'm locked into a two-year contract with Verizon, and that contract won't be up until November, 2006.

At least with Verizon, what I expect the bill to be and what the bill really is are pretty close to the same amount.

New IM policy

2005-01-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

I've decided that instead of leaving Yahoo and MSN on "away" when I'm not at the computer, I'll just log off. See, sometimes the connection to Yahoo will blip for a second, and when it hooks back up it always switches me to "available." This is less than good if it's 8:15 or so and I'm stuck at work until 9, and someone tries to message me in the meantime thinking I'm there. This happens too often, so I've decided to change my approach.

New domain

2004-12-29T03:34:00.000-08:00

I finally spent the cheddar to get my own domain name.

www.inkara1.com

The domain resolving process is still going on, so the link might not work right yet. Once it does, I've still got to get stuff uploaded to the new server. I would want to redesign the page at the same time, so it might be a bit.

But I also installed a photo gallery. It will make it a lot easier to post pictures, so I'll probably do it a lot more often. I'll post the link to that once the domain resolves.

I wonder...

2004-12-18T03:39:00.000-08:00

...does anyone actually read this blog?

Mwahahaha, my project is just about complete

2004-12-17T03:47:00.000-08:00

Computer project, that is. I started it a few months ago, and have slowly but surely (although more quickly lately) transformed my computer system. The only leftovers from my old system now are the case, keyboard, zip drive, SCSI card, 56K modem, DSL modem, uninterruptible power supply/battery backup and printer. That means I've replaced the scanner, monitor, video card, CD and DVD drives, mouse, speaker system, sound card, motherboard, processor, RAM, hard drive, operating system and power supply. I'm contemplating replacing the UPS with one that has more plugs and a longer battery life, expecially since the current one is five or six years old and was the bottom of the line when I bought it. My new specs:

Soyo SY-P4I865PE Dragon2 v 1.0 motherboard with built in NIC and sound (sound disabled)
Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz 800MHz FSB processor with hyper-threading
1024MB Corsair PC3200 RAM (latency set at 2.5)
160GB Maxtor SATA hard drive
nVidia GeForce 6800 128MB 8XAGP video card
SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 sound card
Sony CRX320E CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive
Toshiba SD-R5372 DVD-RW drive (burns double-layer discs at 5X)
US Robotics hardware-based 56K modem
no floppy
Iomega Zip100 SCSI drive
Adaptec SCSI card
Samsung SyncMaster 712N 12ms LCD flat panel monitor
Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speakers
HP Deskjet 3650 color inkjet printer
Epson Perfection 2580 scanner
SanDisk SD card reader
Logitech cordless keyboard
Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0
M$ Windows XP Professional SP2
Efficient Networks SpeedStream 5100 DSL modem
APC Back-UPS 200
ThermalTake 420W power supply

It kind of seems like someone who games as little as I do shouldn't have bought such a high-end video card, but there it is. It came with three free games, so I guess I should learn to play them to help justify the cost.

Hopefully I'll get some good life out of this system. I got three years out of the AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz system I had; in fact, I put together a second system around that and most of my other old parts to give to my mom.

So what else is going on? Well, finals are done, and I've registered for two more classes for next semester. Once I've finished those two, I'll have completed 126 units out of 124 required for my journalism degree. I'll then have Cuesta College mail my transcript over to Fresno State and apply for graduation from there. Once that's done, I'll hopefully find a job at a newspaper somewhere and be able to enjoy myself. RadioShack is a lot better than Home Depot for me, but I still think working at the Atascadero News for a summer was the best job I've had.

I'm also just now getting over what I suspect was a head cold. I can't count how much Kleenex I've gone through the last few days. I still managed to have fairly decent sales at work, somehow. But now, as my health improves, hopefully so will my sales figures.

Those punks!!!

2004-11-29T22:43:00.000-08:00

I don't know just what's going on at the Jack in the Box here in Atascadero. Last time I went (a few weeks back), I ordered my usual, which is four tacos and a large order of stuffed jalapeños. They shorted me by two tacos. I didn't notice until I got home, and by that time it was too late to say anything because for all they would have known I might have eaten them in the time I was gone.

Well, tonight, I went through the drive-thru there after class, because it was late and I didn't feel like cooking. They've got a promo now where if you get a combo meal and large-size it, you get a free reindeer Jack antenna ball. So I large-sized my order just to get the antenna ball, since I would have just gone medium size otherwise. So I got home, and I think you can guess what happened. That's right, there was no antenna ball in the bag.

Boy howdy, it sure is cold out there

2004-11-29T01:16:00.000-08:00

It's supposed to be 25 degrees outside this evening and early morning. That means it will probably be about 55 or 60 in my apartment when I wake up. It's about 73 in here right now, but when I go to sleep I turn off the gas heaters because they're older than dirt and I like to be able to keep an eye on them when they're running. I have a quiet electric heater that I leave running all night while I sleep, but it can't really keep up. It would probably be below 50 if I didn't use it, though.

The cold also means that the crack in my car's windshield will probably grow tonight. I'll soon be coming into a little bit of money, though, and replacing the windshield is on the to-do list. That, along with getting the timing belt changed, which is close to $500 by itself. I'll also get the water pump replaced because the timing belt drives it, so I don't want to risk it going out and forcing me to repeat the entire timing belt procedure and cost. I'll also be paying all my credit cards down to zero, so I won't be swimming in debt anymore. That will certainly be nice.

I haven't been up to much new lately. Work is going fairly well; my sales are quite decent considering my relative newness at this. Things weren't as good as expected the day after Thanksgiving, but foot traffic was surprisingly low, so my sales were quite good all things considered.

Eh... I'll procrastinate later

2004-11-14T02:53:00.000-08:00

It just occurred to me that I haven't posted in about two weeks. Shame on me.

In the meantime, I ended my employment at Home Depot and began at Radio Shack. It's been going fairly well so far. I'm starting to catch on pretty good, so I think this will work out well for me.

I also got a cell phone. I had one of my co-workers check my credit with Verizon, and it came back as needing no deposit. After I recovered from the sock of that, I got hooked up with the LG VX3200 flip phone. I've got a cool blowfish background image on the screen, and I was able to download Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" as a ringtone.

There's really not much new going on with me. Just the new job, and school as normal.

New glasses

2004-10-31T01:15:00.000-08:00

It's not the greatest shot, but it will have to do. Here's what my new spectacles look like. Think I'll score a few more dates with these?

As for the Grandpapa situation... his body's already been cremated (as far as I know) and we're looking at a memorial service around Thanksgiving, probably that Wednesday.

Grandpapa's gone

2004-10-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

Grandpapa passed away this morning. I'm headed out the door to go up there right now; more details (and probably a mini-bio or something) later on.

Radio Shack, where the radios are at

2004-10-23T01:13:00.000-07:00

I honestly can't remember right now if I've mentioned my having applied for a job at Radio Shack on here or not. If I haven't, then I just did.

Anyways, I got a job there. I'll be selling electronics, which sure beats being the Home Depot store bitch. I put in my two weeks' notice on Wednesday at Home Depot, meaning my last day is Thursday, Nov. 4. I start on Monday the 8th at Radio Shack. Of course, now that means I'll have an entire weekend available, and I have no plans yet.

Since I have two weeks of insurance left through Home Depot, I went to see the friendly local eye doctor. I'll be getting new glasses in about two weeks (it takes Wal-Mart that long to make glasses and Wal-Mart is the only place that takes my vision insurance up here). They've got sunglass lenses that clip on with a couple of little magnets. My insurance had a $15 co-pay for frames that cost up to $118. The ones I picked cost $128, so I had to pay the $10 difference. I also had to pay about a $40 co-pay for the lenses. There's something else I don't remember, but it all added up to about $70 when it was all said and done. That, along with a $15 co-pay for the eye exam, means that for $85 my eyes are set for... well, hopefully I won't wait four years to have them checked again like I did after the last exam and new set of glasses... in September 2000. The clip-on sunglasses will be nice for long trips into the sunset, instead of having to have a complete separate pair of prescription sunglasses made up like I did last time. The prescription sunglasses I've got now like to yank my eyebrows between the lenses and upper part of the frames. That's no fun, and it doesn't help that I don't really like the look. So it looks like things will be improved in the vision department.

I won't be going to a general practitioner because there are none in my area that take my insurance. HealthNet sucks. I'm also not going to go to a dentist around here because if they tell me I need work done, that will have to come later and I will only have the insurance for another week and five days.

Finally finalized

2004-10-14T01:17:00.000-07:00

Well, unless something is screwed up in the courts and the paperwork I have now is not to be believed, my divorce was final as of last Friday, October 8. I think it's credible, though, since in addition, the court's web site shows the case documents as having been shipped to the archives department for microfilming. I would think the court would want to wait until the case is all over and done with to whip out the microfiche, since you can't change the contents of the documents once they're on the film.

Wow. This feels... well, a lot like it has for the past year or so. But now it's official.

Oddly enough, the time from split-up to divorce finalization was only one week shorter than the time from marriage to split-up.

I got new tires today

2004-10-07T01:25:00.000-07:00

There haven't been many aftershocks the last few days. There were 5.0 aftershocks immediately after the mainshock I mentioned last time, then 24 and 49 hours after. It's nice not getting woke up at 10:15 by earthquakes now, though.

So I've just been up to the same tricks lately, that being work and school. I might be getting a job at RadioShack soon, though. They pay commission... and if your commission sucks one week, they pay minimum wage instead. It's better at least than when I sold Dish Network door-to-door, since that job was straight commission with no money to be had if no sales were made.

Oh, and as the title says, I did in fact buy new tires. Toyo Spectrum touring radials. They seem better so far than the el cheapo tires that were on the car when I got it, and my butt doesn't get shaken as I go down the freeway anymore.

Recent Earthquakes for 120-36

2004-09-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

Florida has their hurricanes, I've got my earthquakes.

Whoo! Fun! It took long enough, but the USGS finally decided the first shock was a 6.0 and not a 5.9. It sure woke me right up.

Luckily, I have today off. Home Depot would have to change their entire business model to be earthquake-friendly. Even better than that: inventory started last night. I wonder how that's going. :D

Apparently the first shock was the 6.0 quake Parkfield was supposed to have in 1988.

Juicy tidbits!

2004-09-22T23:28:00.000-07:00

OK, not that juicy... we just hung out at the park for about two hours, had smoothies and talked. It went really well though. So we'll see what develops from here.

Also in the good news file, it looks like maybe Grandpapa's kidney isn't shutting down after all. So it looks like he's not going to be dying in the next couple days, so that's good.

More as it develops

2004-09-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

The date with Christina has been rescheduled on account of her having to leave school early because she's sick. So now we're looking at tomorrow after I get off work. So, I've no juicy tidbits to report this evening.

Guess it's been a while

2004-09-21T02:52:00.000-07:00

Well... what's been going on in the last 11 days?

It's been more of the same, mostly, with work and school. However, the Fairlane Club had their California meet his past weekend, and my dad and I went. It was up in Gilroy. It went well; about 48 cars showed up, including some that hadn't been to any past meets. The 1962 Fairlane we've got didn't win anything, again, but we don't go just to pad the resume anyway.

Sadly, it looks like my grandfather's time with us is just about to end. Grandpapa's kidneys are shutting down, this after him battling terminal cancer for a lot longer than the doctors thought he would. He doesn't want to go through dialysis because it would just put off the inevitable. The bad part is that he's been suffering for quite a while, and has done absolutely nothing that would make him deserve something like that. It's also driving him nuts, because his mind's still sharp but his body's deteriorated to the point where he can't even sign his name anymore. So in anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, maybe even a few months, I'll be having to post more about this, and it's not really a post I'm looking forward to making.

On a happier note, I've got a date tomorrow (technically today) with a 5'10" blonde girl named Christina. So far, we seem to have a lot in common... including politically, so thankfully I don't have to spend any time convincing her how much John Kerry and Michael Moore suck. Also a plus: she's a non-smoker. Hopefully age won't be a factor, since I'm 23 and she turns 19 in February. More on this as it develops.

burp ooh, excuse me

2004-09-10T23:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I had an almost fun day at work... OK, I was lying my ass off on that one. I got to clean diarrhea off the wall of the women's restroom. What gets me is that this always seems to happen in the girls' room, though. Guys are supposed to be the dirty ones. But there I was, using a mop with a lot of disinfectant to wipe down the wall and the toilet around the base of the seat. I've seen worse, but that still was not a fun time.

If it's any consolation, I'm getting signals that I might be moving to the paint department in the near future. That would be a nice upgrade.

Finally a day off

2004-09-06T15:09:00.000-07:00

I actually have two days off now. It's like what most people get on weekends. Plus, since it's a federal holiday today, that means no class this evening either. I celebrated by sleeping until two in the afternoon.

Also, when I stepped on the scale after waking up, I was down to 231. That's pretty good considering that I ate a fair amount yesterday. I guess all that sleep let my body burn a lot of calories while it fixed itself. Also, 231 is the lightest I've been in ages... so I'm celebrating by eating an Uncle Ben's lasagna pasta bowl. Vons had them for something like half price, so I thought I'd try one. It tastes pretty good but is a bit on the small side for the price. I got a much better deal on cans Campbell's Chunky Soup: $1.33 each. I stocked up since the sale on that ends real soon. Those things work out real well for me, since they're quick to heat, taste good, are fairly filling but not that high on calories.

DVDs came in today

2004-08-31T15:09:00.000-07:00

The DVDs I got for free for singing up for SBC long distance and DSL came in the mail today, a good bit quicker than the 6-8 weeks the site said it might take to get it. The only caveat is that instead of individual packaging for each DVD, it came in two tri-fold cases, each with 3 DVDs inside, that say "SBC Companies Present..." on the covers. That was a bit of a downer, since now I don't have chapter guides or any of that other fun stuff that's in the packaging... but I did get the movies for free legally. I would have signed up for the long-distance and DSL anyways, even if I got nothing for it besides the satisfaction of having a flat-rate long-distance plan and fast internet.

Finally called Providian

2004-08-30T15:59:00.000-07:00

It seems the crappy high-interest card hadn't gotten here yet because the wrong apartment number got entered, so the card got sent out and came back to their office. So I got the apartment number updated, and should now "allow 7-10 business days" to get it.

I also found out my limit is $1,500. My Capital One card has a limit of $1,200 after having it for four years. But this helped me more than double my total credit limit without raising the balance any, which should up my score because instead of having 86 percent of my credit already used up, I now have 40 percent of it taken. I'm still planning on paying down the Capital One card as quick as possible, though, but this gives my credit as much of a shot in the arm as I can have without having to wait for years.

I propose a toast to bread; for without bread there would be no toast.

2004-08-30T01:09:00.000-07:00

I noticed that it's been about a week since I posted anything of real substance here. Not a whole lot new has happened in the last week. Just school and work, mostly. I also put a computer together for Amanda with a bunch of parts she had lying around. She paid me with lasagna. Good deal.

I have class tomorrow (technically today) at 7 p.m. Otherwise, I have tomorrow... er, let's just call it Monday and Tuesday off. It will be nice. Hopefully it will give me a chance to clean up this mess:

So with that, pairing my (recently washed) socks, calling Providian to find out if they're ever going to send me a card, and probably calling the LDA I paid $150 to to find out if he's ever going to take the paperwork to the court like he was supposed to, I have an action-packed schedule ahead of me. I'll probably sleep a lot too.

Forgot to mention...

2004-08-25T05:18:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that "British Teeth" Tony the Lot Tech (who I've mentioned in a previous post) quit a few days back. His story was that he's going into the Army, but I suspect he just got tired of people telling him to work.

Saturday night's alright for fighting

2004-08-21T23:04:00.000-07:00

I'm still watching the mail for that credit card. I'm starting to wonder about it.

But yesterday, I did get a thing in the mail from SBC. Because I signed up for SBC long distance service, I got to pick out three free DVDs, and another three for signing up for SBC Yahoo DSL. That's a total of six. I could have had 12 if I'd also signed up for Cingular Wireless and Dish Network through SBC.

There were 30 DVDs to choose from, and I picked:
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course
Double Impact
A Fish Called Wanda
The Birdcage
Cadillac Man
What's the Worst that Could Happen?

On the thing I got in the mail, it only said I could pick three DVDs for signing up for SBC long distance; it made no mention of the DSL. I found out about the second three when I logged onto the website.

So it will probably take 6-8 weeks to get my movies... but it's still a fairly nice surprise.

It feels good to take off my shoes

2004-08-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

I had fun driving to Fresno today to sign some divorce-related paperwork. It was actually surprisingly easy and painless. Our required preliminary declarations of disclosure are now exchanged, and a marital settlement agreement is typed up. It should be going to the court soon, and however long after that it takes the judge to sign it is how long until my divorce is finally finalized. It's nice to finally have some progress made on that. I guess $150 isn't so bad if it finally gets done.

Also, while I was in Fresno, I was able to once again experience the goodness that is Robertito's Taco Shop, and the goodness that is New England Pizza. Yum. I also got to say hey to my ol' pal, Laurie. That was nice. I tried to visit with my ol' pal Bekki as well, but that one didn't work out. I also stopped by Labor Connection, a temp agency I worked one job for one day through, to update my address so the W-2 form will go to the right place come tax time. All in all, it was a pretty productive trip.

When I got home and looked at my bank account information online, I found that the $150 check I wrote at about 3:30 this afternoon already hit the account (the guy must have gone right to Washington Mutual and cashed my check). It's a little surprising since the check I wrote for my rent for August still hasn't hit the account... and I sent it in about three weeks ago. I haven't gotten any three-day notices to pay the rent, so the check must have gotten there.

Also, my crappy, high-interest credit card that I got to improve my credit rating still hasn't shown up in the mail. I've already gotten sales calls from Providian, but no Providian card. I'd better get my card before I get my first account statement.

I've got a bone to pick with blogspot

2004-08-15T22:14:00.001-07:00

I had a long post typed out about songs stuck in my head, and about my earthquake post inspiring my friend, Keri, to drive all the way out to Parkfield with her husband. So I click "Publish Post" and up pops IE's wonderful little "The page cannot be displayed" page. When I hit back, it brought me back to the page where I type in my entries... minus everything I had typed.

Heads will roll.

Edit: I typed the above thinking I'd lost my "Timothy Leary's Dead" post. It took several tries to get this one posted... and then I found out the "Leary" one posted twice and this one 10 times. I had to delete a bunch of them.

Timothy Leary's Dead

2004-08-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

...no no no no, he's outside looking in...

The Moody Blues' "Legend of a Mind" has been stuck in my head all day. It's a very soothing song, sure, but still, it sucks anytime any song gets stuck in my head. But at least this time I've got more than an unidentifiable snippet stuck in my head, and I know the name of the song and already have it. It was two years before I could identify "Emotional Rescue" by the Rolling Stones, and about a year each for Goldfrapp's "Train" and Imani Coppola's "Legend of a Cowgirl." Those were all torture because of the length of time I had a little snippet stuck in my head without knowing which song it was from.

Since my ol' pal Keri mentioned a post of mine in her blog and linked to me, I was thinking it would be awfully nice of me to return the favor. I'm still kinda surprised that my post on the little earthquake I felt actually inspired her to take her husband all the way out to Parkfield, the "Earthquake Capital of the World." The town has a population of 18... although I'm guessing those 18 are all, ahem, movers and shakers in their community.

The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle and the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true.

2004-08-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

Well, today I worked 8-5. Well, I actually got there at 8:08 because I set the alarm for 7:30 but woke up at 7:51. I hope no one noticed.

Tony got there at around 3:30... and he was actually outside working, like he's supposed to be. It was a pleasant surprise... maybe he's turning the corner.

Well, I finally heard from Amanda again. In fact, I was able to weasel my way into getting her to come over to my place. I cooked tacos (boy, did they turn out good) and we watched "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." I've lived in this apartment for just over a month and she's the first one to ever come visit me... although my parents are going to come over on Sunday to see the place, and then we'll go out to dinner somewhere.

Other than that, there's really not much new going on. Luckily, I don't have to be at work until 12:30 tomorrow... so I can sleep in a bit. I need that.

I may or may not be making a trip to Fresno early next week to sign some divorce-related papers. More on that as it develops.

Little earthquake

2004-08-11T02:27:00.000-07:00

3.4 earthquake I just felt

As many of you know, Paso Robles, the town I grew up in, got socked in December by a 6.5 earthquake. But since I was in Fresno, I didn't feel it. I did feel a 4-something aftershock early Christmas morning (I went to my parents' house for Christmas), but it woke me up so I didn't realize what was going on.

But I just felt the above-linked-to earthquake a few minutes ago. It was a bit of a wake-up call for me... and also weird because for some reason the last earthquake I remember actually feeling before that aftershock was a 5-something earthquake that only shook for a second, if that, when I was in class in the fifth grade one day. This would have been 1991 or so.

Days off are nice

2004-08-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

I was really glad to have the day off. Atascadero hit a high of 104 today, and my indoor/outdoor thermometer even said it hit 101.8 outside my apartment (it usually reads a few degrees cooler than Channel 6's "weather watcher" report). Since I work outside in the heat all day at Home Depot, the potential for major suffering would have been there if I were at work. Tomorrow is supposed to be just as hot, but I have that day off too. Thursday is supposed to be 8-10 degrees cooler, and I'm scheduled 8-5 that day.

I guess the new "lot tech," Tony, is supposed to close tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. He always seems to be inside the store, instead of being outside pushing carts. Yes, lot attendants are supposed to help customers, but we're supposed to help them outside. I think tomorrow will be a major test for him, because every cart has to be pushed in from the lot to the front of the store. I won't be there to pick up the slack. I can almost guarantee Mr. "I won't push more than 7 carts at a time because they're just going to disappear anyway, so why strain myself?" won't get the lot done by 9:30, so the major test will be to see if he just stays late to finish it, or if he tries to leave the lot undone and has to be sent back out by Scott or Charles (two of the assistant managers; it seems that the bulk of the time one of those two oversees the closing of the store for the night) to finish the work. How will we react? Will he quit? Also, Tammy (acting HR manager) asked me last night how he was doing, and I was honest with her. She said she'd pass the word on to him. We'll see how pissed off Mr. British Teeth is about that one, since he tries to tell me before he leaves every day that he got just about all the carts in (when the lot is still a sea of orange because of the carts) and tells me he's no slacker when I drop hints that we're LOT attendants.

I've talked to quite a few people I know about it and many agree that "help" like that seems to be par for the course around here.

But enougth about Mr. "I got laid off from the winery I worked at" (it's going into harvest/crush season and the wineries are hiring, not laying off... firing, maybe, but not laying off).

I took the car to get smogged today. It passed, and it barely made a dent on the pollution meter. Although since it's a 2000, one would hope it still runs pretty clean. But I find it interesting that the legislature might enact a law making new cars have to run even cleaner than they do now. My car puts out one part per million of hydrocarbons at idle, while the average car that passes the smog check puts out 17 and the maximum allowable is 100. The test results for hydrocarbons at 2,500 RPM, and carbon monoxide at idle and 2,500 RPM were similarly low. It's hard to make a car run a whole lot cleaner than that, especially at a reasonable price. It seems like more attention should be focused on the "gross polluters" that I see on the road all the time, since that tiny fraction of the cars out there make up a huge chunk of the smog released. Taking care of those would have a bigger effect than making the cleanest of the clean cars run even cleaner.

I also went to Pier One and Dollar Tree to get some bric-a-brac to go on my bedroom shelf. Now it's not empty anymore. I then went to Target and got "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" on DVD. I loved that movie as a kid.

I'm hoping to see Amanda on Yahoo soon. She and I spent 3 hours talking at Denny's Thursday night, but I haven't seen her on since then. I don't have her number to call or her e-mail address to write... but I'd been hoping to make some plans involving her. She seems fascinating... and we both love lasagna. No expectations yet, of course.

I think that's about all I can think of to post for now.

This is my first post

2004-08-10T01:32:00.000-07:00

This is my first post at blogspot. Hopefully I'll actually update. See, I've had trouble with having stuff I want to tell some people, but not others. I've never made a big secret of my web site address, so family, friends and potential girlfriends (HA!) all see it. If I were to somehow end up with crabs (that's never happened, so don't start getting ideas) or something like that, it's not something I would want most of the family knowing about... or potential girlfriends.

So this should be quite an adventure. If nothing else, at least I could bring you some weird and wacky websites, since there's a "blog this"button on the Google toolbar... which I only installed for the pop-up blocker (it's pretty good, it's blocked 101 and allowed about 3). When I want to search Google, I go to their website, like I always have. Call me old and set in my ways if you like... just don't call me late for dinner. You're supposed to laugh at that last sentence because I live by myself, which means I can never be late to a dinner since I have to cook it myself.

Since most people seeing this probably already know me, I'll spare the details of who, what, where, when, why and how I am.