Category: General

Joey sent me a link to a bouncechrissy‘s journal after he had seen this art posted. Take a look:

more pictures

Apparently, I don’t write enough stories. Remember how I had resolved to finally write my stories that I had in my head? Now I remember why I didn’t write them in the first place: they aren’t very good. For example, me and my pal Eduardo had wanted to make a movie last summer, but we never got a script going. I scraped a previous script, but as I told Shoshanna, I was gonna turn it into a short story. The premise of the story was one man going back in time to save his friend from the lonely existence he would eventually lead. What caused it? The friend never had a chance with the girl next door. Why? Because our main character ended up marrying her. Sort of interesting I suppose. Well this is what I have so far:

Untitled (as of now)-Darkness in Illuminated Cove
  It was a cold, wet night in Illuminated Cove. It had been like this for the last two days, for the rain had come pouring down unrelenting. The streets of the town, usually busy with life, had been emptied. The people of the cove huddled indoors, bundled in the safety of their own homes and loved ones. The once friendly roads that were as easy to tame as a friendly Labrador became as wild as the storm itself. This was an unfriendly night to be out. For John Sanchez, though, every night was an unfriendly night.
  John had been living alone for the last 10 years. He had no family, no friends. Nobody. Nobody to share the day with. Nobody to catch up with. Not one soul. To him, the storm made the day no different from any other. He spent most of his time huddled indoors and off the roads, away from the world, as if everyday there was a big storm.
  This day, though, he did decide to go outside. The storm had broken one of his fuses, leaving his home as dark as he sees the rest of the world. John had felt it was okay to drive out on the rain soaked streets. In fact, he was looking forward to it. “Less traffic,” he thought.
  John was right, there was less traffic. “Not a car in sight,” he said to himself. With not a car in sight, though, no one could have seen him lose control on the slippery road and hit that light post. Nobody saw the wreck for hours and when the paramedics came to the scene, they knew right away if just someone, anyone, had called them earlier, John would have survived the wreck.

Hmm, it’s better than I thought, but I’ve having so much trouble with the rest.

From http://www.microsoftcalsettlement.com/index.htm:

A settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit about certain Microsoft software acquired by consumers and businesses between February 18, 1995 and December 15, 2001 for use in California. People and businesses that are covered by the settlement can get vouchers that may be redeemed for cash after buying eligible computer products. If you or your business is covered by the settlement, you can get more information, send in a claim form to get vouchers, or object to the settlement. The Court-ordered notice and other documents at this website explain the settlement, the benefits it provides, and the options that you have, including how to submit a claim form. Claim forms are due by March 15, 2004

What this means is if you bought Microsoft Windows, Word, Excel, Works Suite, or Home Essentials in between 1995 and 2001, even if it came with your computer, that means you can get some cash vouchers for your purchase, as part of the Microsoft Antitrust suit. Get more details and a claim form at http://www.microsoftcalsettlement.com/index.htm.

So I was reading a friend’s Xanga site when I stumbled onto an entry about the relations of men and women. In it, she talks about how she believes men and women can’t be friends (though not altogether seriously). All I have to say is “ha”. I mean come on all of us are friends with some member of the opposite sex, right (if not, talk to me and we can rectify that easily)? Honestly, I can’t believe that’s true. I mean the first friends I ever made were girls. When guys still thought girls had cooties, I befriended them. To this day, I know many a member of the opposite sex of whom I can proudly call my friend and I hope I can keep calling them friends for a long time. I was curious as to how this could not be possible.

Further into the entry, there was like to a website, the Featured Website, called The Ladder Theory Master Page. I took a look at this and laughed, laughed, laughed. It is a humorous page (as it was meant to be) about a model for male-female interactions called Ladder Theory (which is supposedly a real theory which the webmaster explains in a very sarcastic fashion). In it, men have one single ladder where they place every women, attractive or unattractive, they’ve met onto a scale of who they’d be likely to have relations with. Meanwhile, women have two ladders, one for friend ranking and one for relationship ranking. Why is there only one ladder for men and two ladders for women? Apparently, it is, because men think about sex in every single relationship with women (be they attractive or not), where as women like to categorize the two. I don’t know; there are truths in the pages I admit, like male attraction being based mostly on looks. However, I don’t like the idea that I only made friends with girls, just because I wanted to have sex with them. I showed some people the site and asked a few people what they thought:

Funny Quote–mnk17fx (12:42:05 AM): hmm interesting, i was reading my friends xanga, she thinks guys and girls can’t be friends
mnk17fx (12:42:07 AM): yeah right
knightangel007 (12:42:29 AM): she needs to be introduced to me

Funny Quote–chichi8100 (12:48:57 AM): hey women dont go for money and power
chichi8100 (12:49:05 AM): at least not until after graduating

VickyD8183 (12:50:34 PM): omg, this is hilarious
VickyD8183 (12:50:51 PM): kinda accurate though

Check out the site and let me know what you think. It is interesting and I do love how they quote from When Harry Met Sally to explain this ladder theory.

(Did I just write a men’s magazine type entry? Wow, was right.)

I guess I’ll start with reviewing some interesting news over the last few days. (Yeah I’m bored)

-First off, Scott Peterson gets to move his trial over to a new county. Guess where his lawyer wants to go now. When asked, defense attorney Mark Geragos was quoted to say, “My top three choices are: LA, LA, LA.” Gee I wonder why; I mean you don’t suppose just because OJ Simpson was found innocent there has something to do with it do you (sarcasm implied)? I guess even after all these years, the stereotypes about the stupidity of people who live in LA live on. (Read the SF Chronicle’s article)
-“The Governator” Arnold Schwarzenegger has unveiled the new California budget and man is it a hard pill to swallow. I mean so many cuts and raising student fees. It’s funny how me and my old roommates were joking about Arnold being governor. Now who’s joking? (Read the SF Chronicle’s article)
-President Bush is calling for a mission to Mars in the future. I guess he got wowed by all the pretty pictures of the Red Planet. Seriously, as much I would like to see this, I’m not really sure how this can happen right now. Reading this Washington Post editorial, it states that the possible cost of doing this is $400 billion dollars. I love space travel as much as the next guy (okay a lot more than the next guy) and a big project like this can spawn a whole revolution of new technology, like how the moon project launched part of the computer and telecommunication age. However, it’s too much money, especially when there are so many projects to be done on Earth like those wars. You know the one’s in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the waistline. Speaking of being fat…
-Finally, You’ve Got to be Kidding Me. How about a car that can tell you if you’re overweight? Yeah you heard me. Apparently, one man has invented such a device. My question is why? I mean it’s embarrassing enough being told you’re overweight by your loved ones, your coworkers, and that fat guy on the subway (editors note: how did I come up with that one?), but once your car starts tell you’re fat, you’ve got major problems. Find out about it here.

Help save the rain forests by just clicking your mouse

I’m sure all of us get them in out inbox. You know chain letters asking us to keep sending messages to help some poor kid or to spread good/bad luck around. I for one am getting tired of these things, as when faced with common sense most of the chain letters can’t do anything to us nor to the sender (except get us mad at them for sending crap). Everything I resent about them is presented in this parody of a chain letter (lj-cut for your convenience). Read on if you want to see (and laugh) all about chain letters.

Chain Letter Types

New Year’s is when people decide to start fresh and come out with certain ways they resolve to improve themselves, though for one reason or another, hardly ever keep to them. So I decided that I would write certain things I’d like to change about myself and maybe not hold myself to this year, but will gradually improve on.

I resolve to
–Get to know myself better: I honestly think I know some people better than they know themselves, yet I am not truly sure I know who I am myself. I know I’m a thinker and an eccentric one at times who can come off as really odd and/or really funny at times, but I’m not sure what else defines me. Plus, I know I’ve been acting in different ways to different people, so really I wonder who got what out of my personality and what do people think of me. More importantly, I’d like to know which aspects of my personality do I feel really are my personality.
–Finally finish one of my creative projects: I’m starting to get really tired of saying “I’ve been meaning to write…” or “I’ve been meaning to make…” this or that. Actually, they are kind of long and I manage to come up with so many different ideas that I can’t put them all down. Alright, I think I’ll try to write some where in between 2-5 stories (in particular, the first in a series of stories inspired by my first year of college) and hopefully produce that student film some how.
–Get out a little more: I spend far too much time indoors and not interacting with people who have intriguing views and ideas. I need to stop doing this soon or else I’ll end up complaining about it more and more. So for sure, I am going to call up people to study and hang out more often.

I swear I had more things to add, but I can’t seem to think of them anymore. I thought this entry would be funnier too, but it’s not. This is a good entry though and I think I’ll leave it at that.

Happy New Year to you all. Let me first say that it has been 4 years since I had this space that is my home in LA and I have failed to throw some kind of New Year’s Eve party. So count on New Year’s Eve 2004 at my place next year. Guaranteed.

It was family time throughout most of the holiday season. It seemed as though every relative I have came over to our house at some point, especially my dad’s side of the family. It was a nice time catching up with them, seeing as though I left a lot of them behind when I went up north to college. Strange how some things change as my mom seems to really like to entertain guests now; probably cause she got a lot of new furniture and stuff over the last year.

The last three days have been spent trying to socialize with my old friends from Lincoln. It again feels like I managed to everyone I ever knew at high school, which was cool. I went to lunch, dinner, and the movie Stuck on You (mildly entertaining I thought) with assorted groups and saw people that I didn’t expect to see again like Matthew. Also, I found out Pedro has moved up to the Bay Area and wanted to see me when I get back there. That’s pretty cool.

So all in all I was reunited with people from the past in the past three days of the past year. Now to await the future.

Interesting Fact-The verb “cleave” is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate. (source: Subprofile)

Help feed the hungry with mouse clicks

Friday, December 19– I went over to my old high school to catch up with the teachers and the people I left behind like science teachers Austin and Paulson, math teachers Martinez and Louie, social studies teachers Zapata and Wong, and English teachers Fletcher, Schauer, and Passler. It was great seeing the place, but it’s strange how things have changed. Since I’ve been gone, there’s been a massive renovation project going on at the school. New paint, new tiles, new a lot of things really. It’s not finished yet, but I’ve been fairly impressed so far. It’s a major improvement over the old.

Saturday, December 20– I decided to hit the Glendale Galleria with my pal Eduardo. Bad idea. 5 days before Christmas means no parking, tons of people, long lines, and nothing but large or extra large sizes left. It was fun trying to find gifts for people, but sad not being able to find good gifts.

Speaking of which, these are the gifts I have received for Christmas so far.
-Foot Makeup from Bed, Bath, and Beyond (I have no idea why I got this)
-The Worst Case Scenario 2004 Survival Calendar (now that I think about it, it is a pretty good conversation piece)
-Chris Webber Sneakers by DADA (make a cool statement on the court, but makes the wrong statement everywhere else)
-CK Colon (I forget which fragrance, but it’s a nice gift)
-Magic: The Gathering Cards (don’t play, but I can pick it up)
-Gamestop Gift Card (new games here I come)
-Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell for PS2 (great gift except I don’t own a PS2)
-A few sweaters (actually a pretty thoughtful gift since I go to a cold Berkeley, though they got me a few red ones)

Lastly, on an odd note, I think it’s funny that www.berkeley.edu has an animation of a snow falling blizzard when it hardly ever snows there.

Oh well. Hope you had some happy holidays.

Funny Quote–Lewis: So did anybody see South Park last week?
Me: I did. Man was that funny… haha.
Lewis: Haha
After ten seconds of two of us laughing by ourselves…
Zinnia: See this is why you guys can’t date girls.

Help people with breast cancer by just clicking your mouse

Okay I just realized it’s kind of an annoying habit to write about things that happened to me last week or about things I found in the news in the last few weeks. Well, I’ll try to avoid it, but I don’t usually like short entries and I like using this journal as keeping notes on what happened before for myself anyways.

Let’s see. There were finals during the two weeks before, but in between that time on Saturday, December 13, there was a little Christmas get-together with me and a few friends. It was nice and quiet over at frat house, where we (roll call: Shoshana, Joey, Elaine, David, Jessica, Kyle) all met up, talked, and played some pool and foosball. The big event of the night though was David’s (aka Lucky or Flipper) engagement to Jessica who he had met in the summer and it looks like they’ll moving in together next semester as well.. Congrats are in order, but I wonder how they’re parents have reacted to the news.

After all the madness of finals was over, Joey, Elaine, Patrick Gallagher, Brandon and I went to see Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King over at Emeryville on Wednesday, December 16. There were some problems as parking was a nightmare and we overpaid for the tickets, but the movie was just so good that it made it all worth while for me. The movie seemed to fly by faster than the previous movies and I must say that I found it superior to the previous installments, making this definitely a must see.

The day after I headed for home in LA. Interestingly enough I ran into Shoshana along the way and found out we were on the same flight. That was surprising. Even more surprising was seeing Julie, one of Joey’s friends, at baggage claim in Burbank. We had no idea we were on the same flight, but go figure. Gee what a small world we live in.

Alright, I think I’ve blabbed long enough about last week. I’ll finish up later.

Hot Tip-(New journal feature) If you’re a Cal student or alumni and planning to go to Tahoe anytime, Berkeley sponsors a lodge with comparable rates. Check out http://callodge.rtbg.biz/index.htm for more info. (Thanks go to Imad for this tip).