Monday, May 31, 2004

Happy BeerBQ

Well its Memorial day.
A day off we can all barbque and drink.
Many say thats a crappy way to celebrate a holliday dedicated to our veterans and those who died in war. And of course being in a war, this one is extra important.

I dissagree. I think celebrating the american way of life by partying is the perfect way to celebrate what so many have fought and died for.
Just keep in mind why were able to celebrate.

Personally, im a vegitarian which means not much to barbque, and as I'm kinda sorta watching my figure I prob wont do TOO much drinking today.
Spent a TON of time on the website yesterday. Go check it out damn it. I run in 1280x1024 with icq glued to the side of my screen, putting me in an odd resolution to test websites. On the main comp I only have IE 6 (its a good browser damn it) but also have Knoppix running on another comp so I can test in Konqueror (Where my site looks crappy) and Mozilla (where it looks fine) So go to the site (I'm going to add the link to the top of the links at right as soon as I'm done with this post.) and leave some comments on how it looks for you, if there are bugs please tell me what page, what browser and what rez youre in. IF you use anything older than IE 5.5- then upgrade, I dont care about you.

Links of the Day


Everybody loves Hypno-toad!

See if you can figure it out, I cant.

If ya really want to waste some time, heres some funny pics

Friday, May 28, 2004

YAAAAAWN....

Cant seem to shake the feeling of being tired today, once again got very little done.
Probably shouldnt even be posting, except for the fact that I've got SOO many LOTD's to share.

Still, between bouts of napping I did do some good work on my webpage, whos "site updates" are
beginning to give this blog a run for its money since I'm babling there too.
As always, the website is edamamebeans.com. Since its still gloomy here in southern California, I still dont have a logo, but I put a pic up to save my site from its drabness anyway.
It may be pretty boring here the next few days, I'm thinking of taking the weekend off to rest and do little things. As of Tuesday, I'll have just two weeks before I leave for Japan and I have SOOO MUCH to do. (Why must I always slack till the last minute?)
Anyway, onto something hopefully entertaining- dont miss these!

Links of the Day!


Tokyoplastic.com Do NOT miss this site, its the most interesting thing ive seen on the web in awhile. Click the Japanese at the top for the 'old' version and the japanese text just below it for the 'new' version. Both deserve thourough exploration.
Geeks who need real girlfriends- part1.
Geeks who need real girlfriends- part2.
Only on the internet. This guy will never have a girlfriend, hes too far gone.

Thursday, May 27, 2004

nothing shocking

Not much to post about today, getting home at 4am yesterday meant today was pretty restful ^^
Did do some work on edamamebeans including ripping off the wonderful people who run bluerobot and glish quite extensively. (hey, theyre tutorial sites, they dont mind)
Check edamamebeans often, I swear it wont always look so ugly and will have some more real content soon.
Something I'm going to introduce with this post and hopefully use often is the "Links of the day" at the end of this post. From IRC, ICQ and general surfing I find lots of fun and interesting sites everyday that just dont belong in my favorites for one reason or another (mostly becuase if I add much more I'll NEVER FIND ANYTHING.)
So anyway, enjoy!

Links of the Day


the first 64bit uh-oh
google war, showing America can rest safe
how evil is youre favorite game?
opps, you "forgot" your admin password (ya right you computer theives!)

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Save the Children!

In case you all havent noticed, the world is a dangerous place.
Everyday we find we need more and more safety labels on things. "Coffee is hot." "Do not eat the chainsaw." Are all important warnings we too often overlook in our everyday lives.

I have long had an answer to this ever-growing problem. Someday, I hope to dedicate a foundation to seeing my vision fufilled, but for today I decided to reveal part of my multi-faceted plan to save the world from the dangers of itself.
This all came to a head when "kodex" mentioned part of the X Box Manual- which he was kind enough to send me a scan of to post here:



Now, most people know how big, awkward and heavy an X Box is. My plan can protect the children of the world from this danger and so much more, I have titled the non-profit-organization-to-be "NERF the World."
There are so many things NERFing the world can do for us. But for now lets focus on the imediate problem of the X Box.
If Microsoft were to cover the X Box in 3 inches of NERF, its danger from falling would be greatly reduced.
As an added bonus to Microsoft, besides indemnifying them from lawsuits, this will make it much harder to "mod" the system.
Which of course, would mean the only reason to buy an X Box would be gone. And wouldnt that make the world a better place for all of us.

Sunday, May 23, 2004

and on the seventh day, I rest

Disneyland was great fun. I havent been there in ages because I thought it was too kiddy, but I'm so glad i went.
I will be adding a very entertaining pic of us here hopefully by mon night

do i fuffil my promises or what?
I let Meldoy make almost all the decisions on what to do, which annoyed her to some extent (^^;) but as I kept pointing out, I could potentially go there anytime I wanted, so it was her day.
Besides, lots of the fun for me was just hanging out with her again after so long, it was nice to know we still get along so well. ^^
It was a bit sad to see her go, but I was so tired I wasnt really there by then anyway. The ciggarette she gave me for the ride home kept me from passing out, (thanx! ^^) but just barely.

So today is my traditional day of rest. Especially durring football season I do nothing but lay around all day. Lately tho I've been going out and having lots of fun.
However, its been making my weeks harder because I cant seem to fully recover durring the week. Might be going to see the lakers (die die die) but I'm not sure ill make it. Would be fun to make a lakers jersy with whatever his # is and replace the name at the top with "rapist" and see how long i last at the bar. ^_^

Other good news is I registered a domain name last night which was activated (your DNS will vary)about four hours ago.
Which makes me extremely reluctant to give out the address but whatever.
edamamebeans
It's a name, not the perfect name, but its got a nice ring and is growing on me.
As I said, it was activated less than four hours ago, so its not too exciting yet.
enjoy if you can :P

Friday, May 21, 2004

Work, work, work, party, party, party!

No post yesterday, but I didnt promise you a daily blog did i?

Yesterday was a long day that really is just ending now.
I worked quite a bit, making my happy client even happier, then went off to turn in the rest of the paperwork to go to Japan. On the way home, I got a call from my friend Melody who is in town who wanted to go to the beach, so I took an hour to eat, shower and relax (bout 5 mins) and went to pick her up. We went to Laguna and walked around a bit before eating at Bj's Pizza because they have beer. Its always an agonizing choice between Bj's and Taco Loco. (no website, I looked)
I love Taco Loco's mushroom tofu burgers, but not having good beer on tap....

Anyway, just after we ordered Melody's friend called and we just couldnt make it back to her in time so we decided Melody would spend the nite and I would take her back to Chino (argh) in the morning.

Later we went out to The Yard House in search of her favorite Texas beer, Longhorn (er i think ^^;) they didnt have it, but we had a few beers anyway.

We stayed up talking till about 3:30 when she fell asleep quite comfortably on the couch (quiet you pervs) and I went to bed.

She woke up with a charlie horse at 7:30am, the same time I was getting up to drain the lizard and we were wide awake after that. So I took her out to breakfast then took her back to Chino. Almost fell asleep on the way home. >.<

So that was yesterday, and probably all of today as I'm quite tired. Had a bunch of things on my little calendar both yesterday and today that arent getting done, but at least I billed one of my clients. (You can tell I have a happy client, they called me to remind me I forgot to charge them for some hardware ^^)

Tomorrow I'm meeting Melody at Disneyland for the day. Should be fun

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

YAY! BOO!

*Ok, this is the SECOND time I'm writing this, no more using "blog this!" on the google toolbar >.<*

damnit damnit damnit damnit
Today I paid for my ticket to Japan, (not the bad thing!) $503 AFTER tax to go from LAX to Narita (Tokyo) airport and back. Dates are June 15th to August 2nd.

I didn't ask that cute travel agent out, not because I'm a wuss, I actually was looking and feeling good, but I've got a lot to do this weekend and fitting a date in might be hard financially and time wise. I will see her again, since I have to go pick up my ticket and buy the Japan Rail Pass for the last two weeks of my trip. I do feel sparks between us, but its hard to tell if its just how nice she is.

Then I took my poor neglected car in for a 4000 mile late oil change. I asked the guy to tell me what was leaking, which started about a week ago.

He said that it was my transmission pan gasket and if I went to this one place and told them he sent me it would be about $50. OF course once I get there and they put it on the rack they tell me that the FRONT of the transmission is leaking too, which means they have to fly out voodoo doctors from Zimbabwe and pray over the cursed seals AFTER removing the transmisson from my car, assuming its the seals, if its not it will be MUCH more expensive.
It also means I have to be without my car for TWO WEEKDAYS, not possible in my job. (for those who dont know im a computer consultant)When someone calls me its usually because they cant work. If i tell them "I'll be there in two days" theyre going to call someone else.

Oh ya, the Jiffy Lube guy also said my front tire is ripping.... >.<

So what was to be a perfect day now has a shadow cast over it.

Whatever, I'll still get up tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Stupid blog tricks and a long day

well this is the first post im going to try using theGoogle Toolbar so hopefully it wont be a problem. IF you dont know the google toolbar adds the only USEFUL toobar ive ever seen, giving you the power of google AND POPUP BLOCKING. If you have IE, get it.

it has been a long day, tho fruitful.
Got up early filled out a bunch of paperwork for my trip to japan that i have been slacking on, and drove all the way out to riverside to turn it in. On the way i stopped by a client who it turned out didnt need me by the time i got there, which was somewhat dissapointing.
paid $2.45 for gas and drove back after an hour filling out more paperwork at UCR and getting a 15 pg Japanese test that was designed to make sure those in the intermediate course belonged there- but us beginner course people need to take it too >.<

so i worked on the test for an hour and got to page 5..... then did some vaccuming and some cleaning up of my room.
i still have like 9 things i want to get done today, including having time to study japanese and work out a bit.

even tho a monster energy drink and a stacker 69 pill are keeping me buzzing im getting tired.
so we'll see what else i get done

Friends

i have good friends, its a wonderful thing.

from Jeanine who pulls me out of my shell and takes me out, to people like Scott and Izhar i can always chill with and have fun doin nothing.

friends who live in other places i keep in contact with thru the years like Adam and John

and internet friends like PrincessV and Cyber_Akuma i can mess around and play with rather than watch tv.

today i got re-aquainted with two old friends, one being Cara, the oldest x girlfriend who still can stand the sound of my voice, who i found out is ~7 months pregnant today with a girl (^_^)

then another old friend Melody from highschool days who lives in texas called me and is in california for the week for a wedding!!
she just graduated with a masters in Electrical Engineering, definately kicking my ass (since im not even sure how to spell engineer) and is going to work for amd.
since i cant afford to buy her air-conditioned, fire retardant clothes for her new job im gonna take her to disneyland on sat (her idea)

should be fun, i cant wait

i cant name everyone here, theres many both in real life and on the internet i love, if ur mad i missed you thats what the comments section is for!

if you dont have friends, back slowly away from the keyboard and go out and get some, theyre really worth it ^_^

Monday, May 17, 2004

Prospectors is cool, im not

wheeee
even tho im sick i went out last nite, drank heavily as "cough medicine" and being drunk + sick wasnt great for my sense of balance
knocked over a drink but it only spilled on a small table and not on anybody and the bartender gave me the drink free
he also introduced me to a rusty nail- scotch and drambouie, good drink, ill have to remember that one
towards the begining of the nite it seemed as if i was going to be 5th wheel as both girls i was with were kinda there to meet guys, but it didnt flesh out that way (thankfully for me anyway)

i wasnt even the drunkest, tho unfort i dropped marie trying to cary her home ^^;;;;;
jeanine rules, she babysat us all nite and drove us home and i slept on her floor
anyway, if u live near long beach look up prospectors on a sun nite and u can kick the redheads ass for making this stupid blog

now im under the tripple threat- sick, tired and hung like a moose
hungover anyway ^^
i can only manage mindlessly chatting about old console games on irc
and posting annoying garbage here ^^;

Sunday, May 16, 2004

echoes

ive been trying ot become a bit more spiritual lately

basically just trying to pay better attention to my surrounding enviroment and what its teaching me as well as what i project and seek through my attitudes and the things i do.

ive also been trying to meditate, something i rarely do but always see great benefits from.
so far my body has told me one thing:

im sick >.<

yup, pretty much the day i meditated i realized there was a part of my brain (now i realize it was my sinuses) that just wouldnt let go, and here i am 2 days later quite sick.

didnt help that i was up till almost 3 am then woke up at 8am, but thats part of listening to the world too.

i was up talking to someone i really havent talked to since early january, i almost didnt realize the phone was ringing because i had never heard the "Tainted love" ringtone i set ages ago (Changed from Shiina Ringo - Gibs) painful but a good talk.
ive been asking for help reacing the next levels of my development, and i know that means doing the difficult stuff.

its worth it.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Happy and Sad News

oh happy day!
i booked travel to japan today!!
im flying into tokyo two days early, i figure ill go wander around for a day then travel to kyoto in time for orientation (for those who stumble uppon this blog i will be at Kyoto Sango University taking a one month intensive japanese cource, the equivalent of japanese 1,2&3 and living with a host family, this is all through UC Riverside)

i will return thru japan august 1st (a sunday) giving me two weeks after the program is done to wander around japan nad cause trouble ^_~
this is all through Brazil airlines which is in its off-season since its winter in the southern hemisphere and is going to be about $450 after taxes, much cheaper than i thought ^_^
both my sister and my best friend are considering coming out to meet me for the final week and i encourage them highly ^_^

the 2 week train pass is $390 tho(~$225 for 1 week), but still very worth it (i was told it was about $100/wk ^^; but just the train from tokyo to kyoto is $130 so its VERY worth it)

i cant wait ^_^


but now the bad news,

politics is not something ive discussed in the short life of this blogg but it is a fair topic, in this case im not talking about the politics as much as what i believe is a bit of a revelation i had about society in general and why the western and muslim world cant seem to get along

many of you have seen and prob just about all of you have heard of both the iraqui prisoner abuse and the new story of the american jewish citizen being beheaded as supposed "revenge" for such abuse

everyone who HAS seen the video (i have not, i can get it rather easily but im not sure i want it) is apaled at its contents. most are also appaled at the pictures of the iraqui prisoner abuse, however at least in the western world i dont think nearly as much as the new beheading video (i do believe a certain ammount of the noise about the prisoner abuse is political.)

however i do know that to many in the muslim world, the sexual abuse is worse than the killing
while this seems idiotic to some, sexual abuse is something one has to live with while the dead dont agonize (at least i sure hope not)

so i came to this revelation
ive always believed a good portion of societies foundation is to control men, because at our base were rather barbaric (hey im a guy and im no faminist, but this is true)
there are basically only two ways to control testosterone: 1.sex and 2. violence

throught time society has switched between the two, but the only effect is a rise in the other
(the victorian era was extreemly sexually repressed and also very bloody, with duels and such being common)
obviously, neither unleashed is a good thing, however at least at this time western culture is more about sex than violence
however, the muslim world is exactally opposite, and this is why we just cant get along

how this will flush out i have no idea
historically, its by the 2 opposing factors battling until thru attrition some middle ground is found
however religions rarely change, and while it is causing the western world to be come more militarily violent, were not out in the streets blowing up mosques or even dueling eachother

so where this will all end, i dont know, i just hope ive given people some (correct, assuming im right) perspective on part of the roots of the issue.

damn lakers!

so, ive never been much of a baseball fan

in fact, i find baseball extreemly boring
i often say i was abused as a child because my father made me listen to baseball on the radio in the car

but we're originally chicagoans, and the cubs were in town playing to dodgers today
my dad got us all tickets and off we went
unfortunately they got their asses handed to them so we left in the 7th inning (after i had 5 $7 beers- hey, being a vegitarian there isnt much else nutrients there for me)

the only good thing about it was the whole game when they updated the lakers score they were down by 10
i kept yelling "GO SPURS!" my sister was convinced id get my ass kicked, but hey- all the lakers fans wouldnt be at tha game would they?

but on the way home the tide turned and that rapist and company won

anyway im about to go to bed

tomorrow i hope to get my ticket to japan!!! YAY!!!


smell ya later

Sunday, May 09, 2004

sleep deprivation

hello again, thought id update

yesterday after a little nap i went back out with some frinds to a bar called Prospectors in Long Beach

nice place, good ppl, even the bartender was cool

of course i drank and therefore spent too much and got home at 4am
woke up at 8:30 wide awake so i got up and took a shower and by the time i got out i had a message from a client that their server was down

fearing the worst i went in there and it turned out it was their email, which is hosted by their provider so there was really nothing i could do about it
then when to my other client over a minor backup issue

now its 12:30 and im home, i gotta keep myself awake till at least 1:30 to see if my client with the email problem calls back (i told them if it wasnt fixed after lunch i'd come back and call the provider)

heres hopin it works, i need sleep

Happy Mothers Day!

because we all dont treat our moms well enough ^^


just a short one today, not too much new and im still recovering from the four drinks i had in two hours at mothers day lunch ^^

anyway, no, my gentoo doesnt boot. for some reason it insistes on trying to use the wrong file system then tells me that its the wrong filesystem (no kidding?)
as i spent quite some time on it yesterday im not in the mood to do anything with it tonight

+ im going out ^_^


Friday, May 07, 2004

uh-oh weblog sucks again

sorry all, lifes been pretty uninteresting, just working a lot
couple little things i got going on tho that i can ramble about ^^

1st, because i like pain, im trying to install www.gentoo.org these past few days.
At the moment im bootstrapping the system (following install guide STEP BY STEP ^^;) for the second time, because i decided to use (with advice) the 2.6 kernel and just got lost trying to switch up kernels in mid stream

2004.1 has a problem detecting and loading netcards, theres a sticky on the top of the install board that worked for me
just know theres actually TWO problems. One is an nvidia chipset problem if you dont disable firewire at the livecd boot (another reason im glad im an intel man) and the other was my problem, where it just doesnt detect the card. the forums have incredible speed to them, so go check em out. (twice i got two replies in 5 minutes)

anyway ill be sure to let you know if it boots or not when i get it done ^^;

on a more fun note i went and bought La Pucelle for play station 2 yesterday!!!

if you dont know, la pucelle is a new release from the same people who made Disgaea, im really NOT an rpg guy, in about 7th grade i decided id rather have a life then play rpgs and so i put them away (did play most of ffx but never bothered to beat it) but Disgaea is a HUGE exception to that, i bought it on a whim on the advice of my ex girlfriend and we made it a game we played together.
TECHNICALLY disgaea and la pucelle are TACTICS games, but to me the only difference is the battle system (which is MUCH BETTER than rpgs)
la pucelle is actually an OLDER game than disgaea, but they rush-translated it so they could capitalize on disgaeas success. ive passed the second chapter just now, and its a good game.
it does seem to be older than disgaea, it doesnt have all the range of items and abilities and weapon leveling that disgaea has, but im still enjoying it very much.

Disgaea is a blast, but it was a suprize hit so its really hard to get a copy, mines still at my x's...
i need to get it back...

Saturday, May 01, 2004

Whoohoo! my first rant!!

I wondered how long it would be before something pissed me off and i went off about it here.

Those of you who are Californians know that the speed limit is actually more of a minimum speed than its touted "Maximum Speed"
Those of you who arent Californians- dont know how to drive. Ive driven a lot of places and seen lots of out-of-state drivers, this is true. (at least untill you add weather- Californians do NOT know how to drive in rain)

I truly believe Californians are the best drivers at least in the US. Our primary goal is to get where were going as quickly as possible and for the most part keeping out of eachothers way. (except for cutting off anyone who tries to get into our lane)
But of course, eventually you see those lights in your rearview mirror which gives you a supposed choice.
You can either pay higher insurance (which for most of us is a rediculous ammount already) or spend your time in purgatory.

which (finally) brings us to the subject of my rant,
TRAFFIC SCHOOL

I cant say anything bad about the guy who was the teacher, he was 72 days away from retirement and generally lax and entertaining. Although i do wonder if part of this is Stokholm Syndrome.

but anyone who actually DOES learn something in these classes- should have their liscence revoked.

it is a complete and utter waste of time, a test to see if you can stay awake no matter how bored and tired you are.
as i had to complete the program by 5/3 and i forgot about it till thursday i had to go to a court that took me almost an hour to get to, so i left my house at 6am after about 2-3 hours sleep.

i didnt shower, and as i worked out yesterday even i knew i stunk, so i truly feel sorry for those around me. but hell, it wasnt like i was gonna dress up to go to purgatory. tho i do slightly regret it because there was an incredible asian girl sitting a couple rows away from me.

i sat as far in the back corner as i could, and brought my palm which i did use thru the movies, but was generally too scared to goof off too much because if i got thrown out i wouldnt be able to go back and complete the course on time.

so i sat there, with everyone else, bored to tears just watching the clock tick slowly by

im so glad i spent my saturday in such a productive manner- lets hear it for the fine county of Orange that is the only one around that wont let you take the class anywhere else. In LA and surrounding counties you can take it online, in a comedy club, or as i just found out today, even a topless place. (if only that asian girl got topless it would have been worth it)

so theres my first rant, probably pretty incoherant, but remember im on 3 hrs sleep.

now its time to go take a nap so i can go out and cause some more trouble tonight