Yesterday night, I had mad insomnia from thinking about my recent job interview. I've been trying to temper my expectations so that I can keep my sanity through these 'couple weeks'. When someone asks about it, my mind gets giddy again and goes bonkers! Don't worry guys, I will definitely let ya'll know when I get the news :)
I was so energetic at 2AM that I decided to watch that free Youtube flick: Girl Walks Into a Bar. I never really had any intention of watching it, but I am glad I did. The trailer didn't give away much, and that's how I like it. I watched the 10 clips version, and after every clip I wanted more. Just like reading a book.
It was entertaining dialogue, good acting, but I couldn't get over how ravishing* the 39 year old lead actress Carla Gugina was! Did I mention she was 39? Ok, it was more of her 'tude that caught my attention, but you can't say she's not a looker. Same with Rosario Dawson. At first glance, I didn't think she was that pretty. But the way she talks, oozing with charisma is what gets ya.
Check out her swagga freestyling with Youtuber Destorm:
(dont be intimidated by the 9 minutes, when you click play it'll jump to the right part)
Damn, I think I got a crush on Rosario Dawson
*I always hesitate when using 'ravishing' because it sounds like ravaging, and I've heard people use ravenous before haha. So I googled it: (Sourced: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/ravaging.html)
"Which brings us to “ravish": meaning to rape, or rob violently" Wait, what? did I use it wrong?
"To confuse matters, people began back in the fourteenth century to speak metaphorically of their souls being “ravished” by intense spiritual or esthetic experiences. Thus we speak of a “ravishing woman” (the term is rarely applied to men) today not because she literally rapes men who look at herbut because her devastating beauty penetrates their hearts in an almost violent fashion."Haha, the bold part cracked me up. But phewf, ravishing's the right word.
Sitting in a library, I get a text to update this thang. This'll be a good change from writing cover letters all day. To my readers: "Thank you for your time and consideration, I hope to speak with you soon."
It's been sick living in Portland being only 1.5 hours away from the slopes. I feel like going every weekend, and this $99 season night pass is letting me do it. If only I had the money for snow tires. And if only gas prices hadn't hit 4 bucks.
I'm working on my speed now and going down steeper slopes, but it's hard when you got the fear! The last time I went, I caught an edge going so fast I swear I flipped over twice. But good thing I haven't been doing the "split the sphincter" fall lately. That is an ungodly hell of pain that can't be explained. Anyways, to psyche myself up for my snow trips, I've been watching Terje Haakonsen ChuckJesusNorris abusing (sexually) the steepest snow slopes I've seen a human ever attempt.
The dude is a legend, I don't know of anybody with bigger, brasser, bronzer, balls than he does. The first part is nearly freefall! and on the rest of the face of the mountain, he's just chillin, doin jumps like it's nothing. Just watch the video.
Hey will ya look at that, my blog is already Orange. haha, I am by no means a baseball fan, but I've been watching the ends of some of the SF-Philly games, just for fun. I used to follow the Giants when I was a kid (like 5-12 years old?), trading cards, following stats, all that good stuff. But I just lost interest. Playoffs starting in the 7th inning is fun to watch though!
Brian Wilson. Hell of a character. I never knew, but this last game when the Giant's beat the Phillies was when I learned all about the Giant's closer Brian Wilson. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:
The Beard
The Same Guy as above
All this time I thought BW was some 40 year old dude looking like a lumberjack. But no, he's a 28 year old bro. haha when they showed his shaved pic on TV, I couldn't believe it and just busted up laughing. It doesn't stop there, he's a hell of a character:
When I was watching the postgame interview, he talks about "The Machine" and I just had to find out:
hahaha man that's awesome. This guy is ridiculous and entertaining as hell.
More machine :) Don't worry, the video starts at 7:16 on its own, i'm not making you watch 8 minutes.
Besides being obsessed with my phone, I got hooked on something else. I got addicted to a show about Meth. I remember my buddy Henry trying to get me to watch Breaking Bad way back in January and I just shrugged it off. "meh, its not for me" "i'm more of a comedy kind of guy" "fuh-gettabout-it"
I haven't gotten into hit shows like '24', 'Prison Break' or 'Lost' because I like my shows short and hilarious. But I'm pretty sure if I saw the first episode of each of those shows, I'd get sucked in just as easily as I did with Breaking Bad. I started watching it last Sunday, and a week later I finished the 3 seasons. Here's how you know when you got it bad:
You get emotionally attached with the characters and you get angry at them, swearing and calling them out by name, even when you're the only one watching it. "WTF WALT, YOU IDIOT" "YESSSS KILL THAT MFER! POW!POW!"
You don't even notice the sun has set, and you have to pry yourself out of the butt-crevice you formed when the sun starts to come out again.
You just finished the last episode, and you just need more content. So you scour the internet. IMDB to read the random trivia. Wikipedia to learn all about the characters and actors. Youtube to watch actor interviews, and award speeches.
Man Bryan Cranston surprised me in this series. He deserves his 3-Peat Emmy wins. His character goes through so many changes and he portrays it perfectly. And he's a completely different person in real life too! Funny Jimmy Kimmel interview:
It's sad I need to wait another year to watch the next season, but good thing the TV season is starting up again! Shows I'm looking forward to: HIMYM, Modern Family, Community, Two and a Half Men. ahh.... my comedy fix
PS: hahahaha i just got finished watching his interview with Craig Fergusen they're crazy funny hahaha
Who likes lists? I do. I present to you, the highlights of my trip:
Dill and I hitched a ride with Andy and Lisa, but the car had no MP3 capabilities! What did we do? we serenaded the lovely couple with the roadtrip classics. You've Lost That Loving Feeling, Baby On Board, Still of the Night, Copa Cabana (wish you could join us Henry). It was fun and funny as hell, to hell with ipods.
Deciding to make a campfire without matches or lighters was very educational. I learned some nifty techniques from Andy who took a wilderness survival class recently. But most importantly, I learned to always bring matches with you cus if you had to build a fire from scratch you're SOL.
Finding out somebody was no longer in the tent. and in his place was a puddle of puke. I almost died laughing from the absurdness of the sight. I'm sorry, that was probably one of the roughest night of his life... but i couldn't stop laughing.
Prime Rib & Crab buffet at the local buffet. 'nuff sed.
Playing roulette for over an hour and only losing 40 bucks. That's probably the best gambling session I've had in a casino and I'm not being sarcastic. Anyways the lady next to us who was going to "teach us how to play" kept on shelling out hundreds. She probably lost over a grand of her rich husband's treasure that night.
Serenading Doug with You've Lost that Loving Feeling, Top Gun style way past the campsite's quiet hours.
Watching Doug re-enact the Warriors scene waaaaay past quiet hours. HAHA
Just spreading some music around. This guy, Matt Cab has been going around in the FB/Youtube-sphere and I just can't stop listening! I'm not a Bieber fan, but here's Matt's cover of his song "Somebody to Love".
wow, he just owns the song, puts Bieber to shame. When he sings in the higher register its oh so silky. I remember back in highschool when he sang for the talent show, and I wish him success 'cus he's legitimately good. Thanks Fishy for passing along the vid.
Then I went on the usual Youtube surfing and found a video of the guy 'Snuggles' who beatboxes for Matt. He's beatboxing 'A milli' by Lil' Wayne. Now, I am not only not a fan of Lil' Wayne, but I think he sucks ass. However, Snuggles just makes the song sound siiiick. Check it out:
Oooh and there was another vid of Matt behind the scenes producing one of the tracks on his up and coming album Ryan Leslie style (or Han style).
My brother's been listening to mostly JRock and Visual Kei bands for the past few years, and I never knew what the fuss was about. I mean there were some good X-Japan and LunaSea songs, but I never really went out of my way to listen to them.
Then he with my cousin to this Miyavi concert recently, probably their first one? And I'm like who is this guy? I never heard of him, and shrugged it off. Then a few days later I hear some funky junky guitar coming from the other room and found myself bobbing my head. This shit was FUNKY, and I was really digging it. Hey Wilton! who is this? MIYAVI.
Miyavi
"God of Guitar"
Age: 28
and yep, he rocks, and he's always having fun doing it.
Man I love listening to funky music, and he also incorporates a lot of blues rock and rock guitar in there too. I've browsed through some of his other songs, and they all have a different feel to them. He draws from all kinds of musical styles and elements and FUNK.
I wish I was at the concert, he passed by SF on 6/15 and Portland on 6/19.
Have you ever heard a song on the radio and have a mental construction of what the singer looks like, only to find out later that the singer looks completely different than what you had in mind?
Wrong Ethnicity
For example, one of the first ones for me was back in highschool when I heard Paperboy - Ditty. I totally thought it was an Asian rapper for some reason. Probably because Viet Rap was all the rave back then. Does anyone agree with me though? I swear it was Paperboy's sort of higher-pitched, softer rapping style plus the minimally produced backtrack. Reminded me of the poor quality self-produced azn rap songs. no? maybe this was a bad example. In any case.
Wrong Gender
How about Nick Pitera?
Yeah, it's a little bit different with video, but if you had your eyes closed you wouldn't doubt it was a girl singing. Pretty damned impressive. Props.
Just Plain Wrong
This post came about because of a song by Tracy Chapman - Fast Car that I heard on 96.5 (Lite Rock Less Talk). I've been listening to this song for years now thinking that it was some white dude in the country singing about wanting a new life, right?
ANNKKK wrong! check the music video:
Little did I know, Tracy Chapman is a black woman! That just blew my mind. Whaaaaaaaaaat. I couldn't believe it, I got both the gender and ethnicity wrong on this one. Nonetheless, it's a great song and great artist.
Wrong.. Species?
haha just for fun, i'll throw this one in. Ever heard of Vitas? Skip to about 1 minute.
Doesn't it remind you of the Diva from The 5th Element?!
So yea it's pretty interesting how dynamic or different people's vocal tone and range can be. How do people, especially impersonators manipulate their vocal chords to sound like someone else? Crazy.
Terry Fator doing a puppet doing a woman's voice
Skills... so much skills!!
haha man i'm digressing, but here's the extent on vocal chord research we are currently at. LOL HAHAHA i can't get enough of this:
I had another chill out weekend, and it was sunny to boot! (I don't know what that means, I just heard that somewhere and I hope I used it right). Tiana and Julien were in town and we went to go yum cha at Wong's King. It was so good, I haven't had good Fung Jaos (chicken feet) in a long time. Julien never had them before and I was hoping he'd try them but he mentions that they look like a baby's hand O_O. Haha, I see where he's coming from, but I still love my Fung Jaos. They went to Saturday's Blazers-Suns playoff game and got me these!:
(thats the sound it makes, for real)
Now I can twang by myself in my living room! (you're sick) Ahh.. they're so lucky to be there, it was a great game too! With Brandon Roy making a surprise appearance and Blazers with a W. RIP CITY!!!
So a lot of people wonder why Portland is called Rip City. Even my cousins didn't know. So here it is:
From Wikipedia: "The term was coined by the team's play-by-play announcer Bill Schonely during a game against the Los Angeles Lakers on February 18, 1971, the Blazers' first season.[13] In the days prior to the three-point field goal, Blazers' guardJim Barnett took an ill-advised long distance shot that nonetheless went in, giving the new team hope for a victory against the powerful Lakers. Excited, Schonely exclaimed "Rip City! All right!" Schonely admits that he has no idea how he came up with the expression, but it became synonymous with the team and the city of Portland.[14]"
Interesting how Jim Barnett is now the announcer for the Warriors! Also from Wikipedia, Portland is called Razorblade City....for its relatively high depression and sucide rates....wonk..wonk..wonk....
ANYWAYS, on Monday Nate called me up to go watch the Blazers game at Mission Theater (a bar theater). It was awesome, packed with Blazers fans watching the game on a movie theater screen. Man the 1st few minutes of this game was a blast! We came out in full fury and the Sun's were ice cold. The theater was going crazy, it felt like I was at the game, so fun! but.. the Blazers streak got stopped dead in its tracks with relentless foul calling the whole game. The most memorable and ridiculous one is this one:
Watch it! Even if you don't watch basketball, its so ridiculous!
McMenamin's Mission Theater was a great time out. They show movies here too and you get to drink, eat meals while you watch! For those that don't know McMenamin's owns a bunch of restaurants and pubs in Oregon. Nate and Emily told me that they even have a place called the Kennedy School, which is a ex-school turned into a hotel! wowza. another place on the "to check out" list
What it kinda looks like in there. Imagine a sea of red and black, with an endless supply of beer pitchers.(please excuse my poor photochopping skills)
Actually, I am the Champion, not you. 'Cus I won my 2010 NBA Fantasy League!!! Before I signed up for this league, I always thought, "what's so fun about fantasy sports? sounds hella boring". But it was one hell of a nail biter because I won by the smallest margin ever. Here was the scenario:
I had one player (David Lee) left to play on Sunday afternoon.
My opponent was beating me all week and the score was 4-5.
I needed David Lee to get either 10 rebounds or 3 blocks to make the score 4-4-1 and tie up the Finals.
I yelled, "C'mon David Lee!! Do Your Thang!!" and the man produced.
He got 10 rebounds exactly.
With the score tied up, I win by default because I had a higher season record (Seed 1 baby!) phewf!
No time for losers cus we are the champions of the World!
My Final Roster:
1. Stephen Curry (MIP) - I took a gamble picking him up and I'm glad I held on to him all season. A lot of people were iffy about this choice, but he blew up mid-season. And now his turnovers have gone down too!
2. Kobe Bryant
3. Andrew Bogut (MVP) - This guy was ridiculously good all season. and he kept me alive in the playoffs until the very end; the unfortunate freak injury. (Not for the faint of heart). Hope you get better soon! He's a great player and hilarious too. I am a fan!
4. Rashard Lewis
5. David Lee (MVP#2) - Thanks David (Huang) for the tip. Double Double beast!
6. Andrea Bargnani
7. Rajon Rondo
8. Richard Jefferson
9. Channing Frye
10. Jason Terry
11. Paul Pierce
12. Reggie Williams
13. Anthony Tolliver
Honorable Mentions (dropped due to Injuries)
1. Kelenna Azuibuke
2. Andrew Bynum - It was a huge hit when he got injured. Big reason why I was hurting on blocks and rebounds. Alex warned me he was injury prone from the beginning, so it's a wonder he lasted as long as he did.
3. Richard Hamilton
Dishonorable Mentions (bad choices)
1. Andris Biedrins - what happened to yoU!? lowest free-throw percentage evar!
2. Allen Iverson - Injuries Injuries Injuries
3. Tracy McGrady - Injuries Injuries Injuries
Looking Back
In the beginning of the season I was completely lost at sea with this. Sure I watch basketball from time to time, but I didn't know 90% of the players out there. It was a lot of fun keeping track of my players every week (probably 'cus I was winning haha). My lessons learned are:
1. Don't go after aging All-Stars with a history of injuries no matter how big the name.
2. When there's news of an injuriy, look at who'll start in place of them.
I would like to thank:
1. Dillon for giving me tips on most of my draft
2. Beginner's Luck (most of my star players stayed healthy)
3. My love for statistics??
Hahaha oh Andrew Bogut Funny Guy. I understand if you blazed through this post, but please at least watch this video!
ahh.. just finished my obligatory nighttime cup of milk. It's my obligation to drink it because I foolishly bought two gallons of milk because they'd be 1.99 each thinking "sure, I could finish this no problem!". And now I'm in a tight race (gallon challenge?) against the rapid rate of bacteria growth in that last jug. This ain't the first time I tried this either haha, I'll never learn!
What's up with these new milk jugs? They pour so awkwardly
Have you ever come across something or someone awesome on Youtube, and just devote the next few hours scouring all the related videos? I just found out about this beatboxing dude called Beardyman. I was into some beatboxers back in the day like Rahzel and LeeJay where I was trying to find all their videos, cus they were so mindblowing! Haha, LeeJay actually went to UCD and I walked past him at work once and I thought "man he walks like an asshole". Anyways, this guy Beardyman is pretty sick. Beatboxing tends to get old and repetitive pretty quick. But he takes it to a new level with crazy sound effects, DJ equipment, and comedy. He's pretty funny and entertaining to watch. Check it:
He gotta do more of this!
pretty cool, yea it's old 2007 I think I even watched it back then. Oh well, i think it's awesome.
That was the song that I last heard from Andy's car (reminder: get Andy's CD), and we were karaoke-ing the hell out of it. It also wasn't the only song that we karaoke'd. We sang a crap load of songs throughout tonight. Man today was a regular day that turned out to be one of the funnest random days I've had. I wouldn't say it was the time of my life, but it was pretty damned awesome. And I'm sure Andy, Gary, Henry and Kevin can vouch for this haha.
Mundane Morning
Morning for me these days is pretty much after 12PM haha so bad. I was planning on going to this WIA orientation at one of the EDD One Stop Centers to find out more about government subsidized training, but... I arrived late. Poo. When I got to the area (that Market, Mission area that confused the hell out of me) I hella couldn't find the place. So even if I had skipped my "morning" shower, I probably wouldn't have made it. Oh well. Henry got off early, and Gary took the day off and it was a sunny day so I wasn't really kicking myself. We ended up playing Altered Beast and River City Ransom at my place, fun!
Four o' Clock Fro-yo
It was a pretty warm day for Autumn so we met up with Mel for fro-yo at Lakeshore Plaza. Something like Nuubi Fro-Yo? I think it was new. It was selfserve and I went way overboard on mine. There were like 12 flavors! So I just went crazy. I had 5 different flavors and 5 different toppings. Total cost? $4.49 oops. Next time I gotta control myself.
Spontaneous, Ambitious, Delicious
Hmm.. that spells SAD. Which is what we would have been if everything didn't fall into place like it did tonight! (heh maybe) So at Lakeshore, Henry get's the ambition to be spontaneous and buys a set of Boxing Gloves and Mitts too (relevance). Here's when the day started getting fun.
I was originally planning to eat at home, but Andy mention's Chinos and cleverly lures me to eat at Henry's house. We ate some, played some rockband, and we started boxing! I had brought my gloves too, so now we had two sets. Perfect for some light sparring. This is what lured Kevin to Henry's house haha. It was a lot of fun sparring with each other. We got to test our own fighting skills (since training mitts don't really do that) and just randomly fought each other. I felt so uncoordinated in a sparring match! And it's actually pretty hard to get a good hit on the other guy. I think I fought Gary and Henry, and man when you get hit in the gut you feel it. But the gloves give good enough protection to not do any lasting damage. I'm so glad that everyone was so into it! Good investment.
Gary decided to go to Safeway and buy some Wine haha. So random. I felt like it turned into a Ladies Night: Men Edition. Wine and Boxing? Great times! While we were sipping on the Reisling (quite tasty, sweet and sour, i like!) Gary bought, we watched Man Vs. Food on the Travel channel. I swear the host is going to die of some heart disease. A 4 patty hamburger thats got the diameter of your head? That can't be good.
Then this show Meet the Natives came on, and it was actually pretty entertaining and interesting! It's about 5 tribal natives from an Island in the South Pacific coming over to the US to see what life is like here. Those guys are so naturally funny, and they're really looking at our world with virgin eyes. They described a sleeping bag as a "tube" and have never seen a snake (which one of them was terrified of ). In a way, this show may be exploitive, but I think it's always interesting to see cultures mingle (why travelling is so fun!). They were exposed to cattle ranchers, New Yorkers, and even "the Orange County people". Man those people are so superficial it makes us look bad. The OC'ers explained to the natives that they had a lot of mirrors around the house, because "you always have to make sure you look good in Orange County". They even brought them to a Botox injection appointment, which was pretty cringe-worthy.
But the most interesting part were the questions that the tribe wanted to be answered during their 5 ambassador's vacation.
Why are we so obsessed with money and possessions?
Why do we allow pollution even though we know its bad?
Why do we treat our pets better than some of our fellow citizens?
Is the United States still a peace keeper? Do we look out for others?
Very interesting perspectives coming from a tribe that has never been exposed to our kind of society. It's pretty cool how people exist in a society that is entirely untouched by "modern" technology. It's also refreshing to see the happiness the guys had living a simpler life.
It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!! So another food program comes on showcasing different unique restaurants around the country, and by now all our mouths are watering. This one restaurant in LA I think serves only Peanut Butter Sandwiches. Once we see the Peanut Butter/Marshmallow Fluff sandwich, we start looking at each other. We're like fuck it, we gotta hit up Safeway again and make us some peanut butter sandwiches haha. It was SO worth it! and this was when we were all buzzing from the wine. We picked up bread, Peanut butter, Strawberry Jam, Marshmallow Fluff, Condensed Milk, Nutella, M&M's and Lactose-Free milk (to prevent Andy's lactose farts, which happened anyway). Haha yea, we went all out on creating many different combinations of PB sandwiches. I only had room for 1, so I made the PB and Marshmallow. It was sooo delicious! Really hit the spot. Some other combinations we made were: Jam and Marshmallow, Jam and Condensed milk, Jam, PB, and Marshmallow, and Andy's famous, PB, M&M's, condensed milk, and Jam. (need to grab pictures from Henry's camera)
It's Karaoke Time! Lol for some reason when we got back from Safeway with the sandwich ingredients, we were breaking into song left and right for the next of the night. It was hilarious and felt great to belt out our favorite ballads. I think we were buzzed and hyper from all the sugar. Lol we were so ridiculous. We also streamed Karaoke from Youtube on Henry's big screen TV. I swear we never have to hit up a Karaoke place again. We sang
Unchained Melody - Oh, My Love, My Darling, I Hunger for your touch
You've Lost that Lovin Feelin - You never close your eyes, anymore when I kiss your lips
I'll Make Love To You - Close your eyes, Make a wish, and blow out the candle lights.
Nice and Slow - It's seven o clock on the dot, I'm in my drop top cruisin the streeets
Top Gun - You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin
Man it was so awesome, we let it all out with no care in the world!
Gary said it best: "Should this be a Thanksgiving tradition?" aha maybe, maybe not. But I'm down for more nights like this. Good clean random ass fun.
Today is Thanksgiving, and I'm thankful for all my friends (you know who you are!)
Sorry for such a long post haha. I mostly write about events for myself to remember later down the road. And today was a memorable day. If you made it to the end, you are awesome!!
So ever since I got SNES on the Wii I've been revisiting my favorite game Tetris Attack. I love it! It's so simple to pick up, but takes a lot of skill to master. Been playing a lot with Wilton and Angel so far and it's been a lot of fun and I'm looking for more Tetris Attackers out there! (Alex, I'm calling you out) Also heard from Andy that Melanie plays too, thats pretty awesome. I wanna play more people to see where I'm at skillwise. cus I've been watching some youtube vids, and damn. Makes me look like a banana.
Seriously, are these people robots?!
So last Saturday after the lumberjack party, Gary (facial hair and all) starts talking to me in some southern ass accent like "I do declare" and "it just flows out of your mouth like sweet molasses" "there's been a muhder tonight". I'm like wtf right?! I'm like hungover as hell and I don't know what to make of the man. Then yesterday he shows me the clip of The Office where he got it from, friggin hilarious. I only found a snippet of it on youtube:
Haha, I don't watch The Office much, but the entire episode was great though.. here it is on Hulu. Watch it when you got free time! it's only 22 minutes
Sorry about that. But it's 4AM, an ungodly hour to scream in real life. I just can't contain my excitement right now so I'm having trouble sleeping. So....Here's what happened (Warning: lengthy nerd talk ensues):
DSL Drama
So the past few days, I've been having a shitty unstable DSL connection that would crap out ONLY at night. My DSL has had random periods of solid connection, but spurts of disconnecting for many years now and I have never been able to resolve it completely. The only thing I've noticed is that it always happens at night.
So I call the Sonic.net support rep a few times, and every time they keep telling me: "Sir your line seems fine" "please check your filters blah blah" "reset modem, reset router, reset computer" (reset this <^>(-_-)<^>!!!) and we could never figure the damned problem. On Monday, support guru "John" tells me I should probably switch out the modem and see what happens.
By now, my patience has worn thin, so I head to Best Buy the next day and buy a complete set of Modem and Router. I never buy electronics from retail stores, but I was fed up and needed a solution QUICK. Luckily Angel's cousin was working there and I got a discount to lessen the pain :) It was a nice router though, because it had NAS support (Network Attached Storage) so that I could access a USB harddrive from anywhere in my house (and maybe outside my house too!) I was so happy. I plug everything in that night, and man everything was so snappy, solid connection, cool features = BLISS. I've never had a network up and running by just plugging things in. This was a great sign, and money does buy happiness haha.
The Belkin N+ router, the answer to all my prayers?
wtf.
So this setup is running great until Wednesday, when the guys were over after we went to the Exploratorium. We exhausted our burritos, boxing, and Mario Kart and got bored as hell, so...let's just look at stuff online! (SCREEEECH!) Internet is dead again. wtf. I just dropped 100+ on a new network and it conks out on me. I'm just floored. Morgan tells me about his similar DSL problems, and said it was due to worn out rubber around the phone lines outside his house. Hey! maybe that's it! I call Sonic again, so that I could have them send a guy over, but they are assuring me that there's nothing wrong with the line. At that time, the DSL is working again so I just hangup and give up for the day.
Then God said, "Let there be Light" and there was light, but my DSL got the died.
Today, I finally found the problem to all my white hairs and pimple outbreaks. I turn on the ultra-bright Halogens in my room downstairs before I went to sleep, cus they're right next to my bed. That way I can turn them off with my foot once my head hits the pillow. Internet Dies. (oh here we go again).
Then a crazy idea pops into my head: "what if the lights are causing the DSL blackout?"
I turn off the halogens. YouTube Loads. Turn on the halogens. YouTube freezes.
Halogens Off.... Hilarious cat video.
...oh my god.
The halogen lights were like death rays to my DSL connection. Like an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) just like in The Matrix! or Starcraft!
haha reminds me of the light switch Friends episode:
Fast forward to 3:20 for relevancy
Retrospective Reflection and Research
Felt like I wasted my 100+ on the new network, but hey, this new router is pretty cool so I'm gonna keep it. Still happy! Plus, my old modem was borrowed 10 years ago from a friend.
Parents tell me this DSL problem started happening again only a few days ago. The room that I'm sleeping in now used to be used as storage. I used to sleep in the top bunk of my brother's room until I got fed up with his 5:30AM alarm clock that he doesn't hear until 7AM!!? So I cleared out this storage room, set up my bed, and unknowingly turned on the Death Rays.
DSL gets flaky not just b4 I sleep, but also around 7:30PM (dinner time). We also use Halogens with dimmer switches in our kitchen.
But how do these Halogen dimmer lights affect the DSL? It took me so many years to find out because the lights were never in the same room as the modem or router!
The Answer: Science
Here's what I found researching online:
Some DSL modems are overly sensitive to RFI (radio frequency interference). Lighting dimmer switches and/or electronic (non-magnetic) power supplies for halogen lighting are a common source of such interference. The result can be a degradation of DSL performance or even a complete loss of DSL sync, even when the source of the interference is not in close proximity to the DSL modem (because the interference can be not only radiated, but also conducted through building wiring).
Old phone lines? nope. Moisture at night affecting the external phone lines? nope.
Who woulda thunk it?
As Bill Nye the science guy says it: Science Rules.
So... if you guys have erratic behavior with your DSL, it could be your lights!
Been on a mini-blog-posting hiatus because life has been hectic, but good hectic. Now that I finished taking the GRE's I can post again.
(10/29)Drove back from Eugene starting at 10:30PM !! and we got back to sweet ole' San Franciso at 6:30AM (its great to be back). The drive was a lot more fun with Dillon and David there. We actually saw the moonset! I don't think I ever noticed the moon setting before and I wish we had a decent camera. It just sat there on the horizon getting flatter and flatter; kind of like a ball slowly losing air, pretty cool and funny. There was also this one stretch of road where there were no cars so i just opened the sun roof. It was pitch black and the stars were amazing, you could almost get lost in them (not trying to be poetic or nothin', it really felt like that!) Too bad it was dangerous to look at them for more than a second while driving. Lucky Dillon and David!!
Spookfest EVIL105
Dillon was cookie monster!! I wanted to be cookie monster last year, but didn't know how.. Angel was Quailman, I was Odlaw >:] and David was a Sumo wrestler. They were all huge hits amongst the peoples but David's was freakin' golden:
It was the first time my cousins have been to an event like this, and they were stoked! And boy were they in for a big surprise...when we were waiting in line, we witnessed this one girl in leopard print relieving herself IN LINE 3 FEET AWAY FROM US. I'm sorry they had to see that, and I'm pretty sure that set the tone for them for the rest of the night. We finally made it in and saw everybody else, it was good to see everyone again and in awesome costumes nonetheless. Andy and V's Mickey and Mallory was superb!
Right when we walk into the palace, I just realized that it was pretty much a Rave haha. So I turn to Dillon and David "uhh.. welcome to your 1st rave?". Then almost immediately after that, a druggie comes up to David..:"Dude.. you got any pills on you? any Acid?" lol it was gonna be an interesting night for them.
Later on...
Druggie #2 looks at David in his Sumo costume: "Hey man! you got any drugs in there?"
David: "nope"
Druggie#2: "Man, thats too bad. You coulda fit a shit load of drugs in there" lol
Dillon also tells me he saw some guy freaking out in the bathroom yelling "OMG somethings wrong with my hands"
Yea, it was pretty shocking stuff for them haha, I hope they had a good time. I'm sure David did. That sumo costume caught so much attention from girls it was ridiculous. It would take forever to walk across the place with him, because they all wanted pictures with him. Dillon on the other hand, attracted much attention from guys haha. There were these 3 guys that thought he was the DJ from Crystal Method (cus he was also in cookie monster costume) and wanted pictures and autographs from him haha.
Henry was my arch nemesis, Waldo. He told me that he got pinched in the ass many times. I, on the other hand, had recognition issues. No one knew who the hell I was! haha I guess I can't blame them, cus I didn't even know of Odlaw until a month ago. Some funny quotes of the night:
"OmG! you're a bumble-bee too!! :)" umm.. sure?
"Look its BEE MAN!! BEE MAN!!" I'm not a bee!!!
"You're the most awesome Waldo in this place!" Thanks! Not waldo tho.
"Dude.. so.. are you supposed to be like.. the Asian Waldo?" -_-'
Finally, someone who gets it :)
Best music of the night was definitely Infected Mushroom. I saw the cousins get into it rocking out, and saying "yea you were right, they are awesome live." Then in the car ride back Dillon goes: "To be honest, the music the whole night sounded exactly the same to me" (face-palm).
3on3 Basketball
So on Saturday I played 3v3 basketball with my cousins and their friends. I'm not very athletic and I'm terrible at basketball, so I always get a little of nervous when I play a game. Luckily I was on Dillon and David's team, and they are damned good. Dillon was doing these crazy layups with a bum ankle, and David was draining 3's all day. Haha, the guy that had to guard him one game got frustrated after David busted 3 straight shots in his face and yelled: "THATS IMPOSSIBLE!! I COULDN'T HAVE BEEN ANY CLOSER!!" I did pretty decent, only took open shots, and drove it in couple of times so I had a pretty good time.
But I did do my trademark airball shenanigans once. Everytime I play with my cousins, I swear this happens. I cut to the hoop, and someone dishes me a beautiful pass. I catch it with my back turned toward the hoop a foot away from the basket, do a seemingly easy turnaround short shot, and completely airball it. Oh man, and the worst part is when I do this, I instinctively yell out a loud aiyah! (kinda like oh shit, but my chinese-ness takes over) and everyone just busts up laughing because it looks like I pulled something mid-shot. hahaha fail "(holding in laughter) are you okay chad?"
The Twilight Zone
(press play if you want to get in the mood heh)
So I just thought of this when I was driving back to Portland from Corvallis, and thought about it more when I was showering today (I always think of the best things when I'm driving or showering). So Dillon and I are pretty much the best of pals since he was born (he was born during my red egg party and we all rushed to the hospital). So here's the eerie parallel universe part:
1. We both went to agricultural schools (Oregon State and UC Davis) for college to study Mechanical Engineering, about 1.5 hours from home. (interesting.. but not too strange yet).
1a. An hour away from both our agricultural schools, is a more prestigious school (University of Oregon, and UC Berkeley) which are both known as "Hippie Towns" and smell of it too!
2. We both had roommates named Frank (zomg)
3. Both Franks majored in the biological sciences
4. Both Franks have a proven reputation for high tolerance of alcohol. (we thought this was pretty cool and laughed about it a lot)
5. This is Dillon's last year, and he took in a new roommate cus he needed a place to stay for a short period of time. So I met his new roommate Vince, the guy who introduced us to the boxing pad drills. Pretty cool dude.
6. Then while I was driving, I realized in my last year, when Anthony moved out, we took in a 3rd roommate to help cover costs. What was his name? yea you guessed it.. VINCE. (WHATTT?! cue twilight zone music!)
My 10 Year Old Cousin PWNZ (I don't use the word PWNZ much, its reserved for special occasions)
Hey Celina! watcha doin? facebooking? maplestory?... is that a gun? O_O
sorry for the long blog post, but I just couldn't ignore this one. I was hanging out with the younger cousins today and decided to check on little 10 year old Celina. What do 10 year old girls do on their spare time? I have no idea, because when I was 10 all my pals were guys. Here Celina is, happily killing strangers on the internet playing her favorite First Person Shooter called Combat Arms using a touchpad.
So whenever you're playing Halo or Call of Duty, be careful. You might get yourself embarrassed by a 10 year old girl haha
Parade: MUNI mayhem, 100k+ crowds, parade was definitely worth the trip downtown, my fave was the DNB float. It just gives you so much energy! Too bad I couldn't learn the step in time, Andy rocked it. Definitely the most penises I've seen in public. Afterparty: I thought this was going to be my last Rave, but I change my mind! I had loads of fun with a lot of my friends, and also with newfound ones!
Spent a lot of time watching drum videos for some reason? I'm just amazed at how drummers drum so fast! (see Gravity Blast). Youtube surfing led me to one of my favorite vids, Mr. Bean is genius!
The guy has a Masters in Electrical Engineering?! You're my hero.
