Ashley Huffman's adventures and social experiments

So as you can see there has been a lot of time that has lapsed since I last posted anything. I suppose some of it was that I didn’t have much to say. The other problem is I still have problems with the back end WYSIWYG editor. It doesn’t load properly in Firefox, Chrome, or Safari. It visually looks ok in Internet Explorer but it throws JavaScript errors. I also looked at the error console in FF and it was showing the same errors. After much searching on google and on the WordPress forums, I tried many things to no avail. So I am giving up for now. I did find one interesting post that said GoDaddy free hosting accounts don’t work right. So, at some point I may migrate is to my paid hosting for my Playingdefchild site. Until then, I will post using the WordPress app on my new iPad. This of course being my first attempt at that. I also bought a MacBook Pro and have been learning how to use GarageBand on that and on the iPad. So far, I like what I see. Things are simple to use and it sounds great. It also makes it easy for me to compose music even though I lack the proper skills to play a guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, etc. The iPad app is really killer in that respect. The touchscreen lends itself very well to playing any of the aforementioned instruments.

On to other news. I’ve been taking vocal lessons over the past year or so. At this point, I’m ready to start my own band. I put up an ad on Craigslist and was contacted by a drummer. I checked out her website and emailed her back. Apparently she requires a payment of $50 per gig and $20 per practice. No thanks. I was also contacted by a member of a band that is looking for a singer called A Race Called Man. I liked what I heard, so I emailed him back. So, I have been working on a few tasks to get a demo to him. I am currently writing a song. I have the music done and the lyrics and melody are 75% finished. I hope to have it finished in the next week. I am also planning on recording me singing a few covers as well. To help me achieve this, I went to the Apple store and bought a Blue Yeti Pro microphone. So far this thing is pretty kick ass. It is so sensitive, that it picks up ambient sound in the other rooms of my condo. So, I built a small sound isolation box out of some foam in the recycle box at work. I found that someone is already making something similar and they cost $150! Mine cost me nothing! Granted, mine is not made with the pyramid shaped acoustical foam that they use in studios, but it did help. I will be posting some recordings soon. My allergies have been fierce the last few weeks, so my sinuses and throat have not been playing well with my desire to sing. Bah!

It is funny, Myspace’s new 2 column view looks exactly like….wait for it…..Facebook. Looking like Facebook isn’t going to remove your ghosttown status. People got sick of the bands, porn spam, face profiles and shit taking forever to load.

I got a thorn in my frozen berries today.

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!

Money can’t buy happiness, but neither can poverty.
– Leo Rosten

I just did a 12 mile bicycle ride with a semi-flat rear tire. My legs now feel like that tire.

Happy 8/9/10 everyone!

Heading out to the Ventura County fair. Anyone want to meet us there?

It is nice to be back home.

Heading to Albany by way of Cleveland. Too bad it is only a 40 min layover.

Baboon in the oil and vinegar.

My Elvis look. And Kat hiding behind me.

Finished my work in Orlando early. Heading back to LA 2 days sooner. Woot!

On my way to Orlando.

Just got to the Nokia theater with Jedi, in downtown LA, to see Tool. We have killer seats, so this is gonna be cool.

It is raining I’m the middle of July in Southern California. Weird. I’ve never seen that in the almost 6 years I’ve lived here.

You know what is really super awesome? When people use their turn signal, but then turn in the opposite direction they are signaling!

Having lunch on the Santa Barbara pier with Kat.

Just landed in Boston

On a layover in Minneapolis. Heading to Boston.

So I lost 5 lbs yesterday by way of this wonderful new diet called food poisoning. I’m feeling better today, so I’m going to try eating something. Wish me luck!

Ugh! I think I got food poisoning last night. Why does death have to come slowly. Can he just hurry it up a bit please?

Back to the grind in the office.

I hate Southwest airlines sit where you want policy. I’m stuck I’m a middle seat with a woman and her newborn on my left and a fat man on my right. 4 hour flight. FML

You’re not what you have and you’re not what you do; you’re an infinite, divine being disguised as a successful person who has accumulated a certain amount of stuff. The stuff is not you. For that reason, you must avoid being attached to it in any way. – Dr. Wayne Dyer

Just landed in Cleveland.

Just landed in Dallas. Now to see if I can find who killed JR.

On the plane heading to Dallas. Stopping in Vegas for a layover.

Just hit 70,000 miles on the odometer in my car. Not bad for being 6 years old

Kat says she is gonna have to pack a sandwich with no meaning.

It is good to be back home. I found out today that I’m heading to Dallas on Mon. though. I’ll have enough miles for the trip to Italy soon.

Getting more work done.

Florida water has a slight tinge of coffee flavor. I wonder if they are slipping some in the water supply to keep the old folks going.

Sunrise at the Orlando airport.

I just saw a billboard for a no wait ER. LOL

Just landed in Orlando.

On the plane. Heading to Orlando.

Where’s the beef?

Enjoying some Thai food for lunch. Mmmm spicy!

Kat and I at Westlake

On Melrose

On Melrose

At home playing with my new toy. About to go have some fun.

Only a few hours to go until the Evo is in my hands. Woot woot!

What’s the difference between an assassin and a serial killer?

I just saw a bus that said,”Lost” on it’s destination marquee. Ha ha ha.

View leaving work

View leaving work

So I pre-ordered the new HTC EVO phone for Sprint at Radio Shack yesterday. I can’t wait! This phone is gonna kick a lot of ass!

Enjoying spending time with my mom and sis this weekend

Emily at the waterfall

Mom at the waterfall

(No subject header)

Crayfish

Crayfish

(No subject header)

(No subject header)

(No subject header)

(No subject header)

Testing Ping.fm plugin.

This is me on my new CBR600RR. 

I haven’t updated this in awhile due to issues with the backend editor.  My domain name ashleyhuffman.net also expired and I failed to realize that the auto-renew was not turned on at godaddy.com.  I renewed it and it still wasn’t working.  So, I called Godaddy support to see if they could fix it.  They told me I had to update the hosting on this domain name.  Well, that didn’t fix the problem.  I think the name servers got screwed up.  So instead of monkeying around with all that  I finally changed my domain to be hosted on the free hosting account that came with the domain name to begin with.  I setup wordpress on that hosting account, created a new database and now I have it installed.  Now to get my data back on it.  I had previously backed-up all the files and the database.  I just had to figure out how to get everything uploaded/imported.  So, I FTPed all the original files back to the hosting account.  Then I imported the database backup that I had created.  I had to re-edit the wp-config.php to point to the new database that I had to created on the new hosting account.  Godaddy doesn’t allow duplicate database names even between different hosting accounts.  So after I made all these changes, my blog is back online.  Yay for me!  I’m also trying out the Windows Live Writer program that comes with Windows 7 (actually I had to install it along with some other proggies that come with the Windows 7 Live package.  So far the editor interface is much nicer than the WYSWYG editor that comes with WordPress.  Now I need to explore it and see if it can handle the comments and plugins.

And for posterity, I’m adding a photo.  Just to test out this functionality on WLW.

Yes, I uploaded the Mayan calendar.  I was able to resize it by dragging and dropping instead of having to type in the actual pixel width as in the old editor I was using.  I has a various border options, watermarking (for copyrighting), and various basic effects (B&W, Sepia, etc.) This Windows Live Writer is pretty damn cool.  It must be the end of the world cause Microsoft actually did a good job on this so far as I can tell.  I’m curious how the Photo album, TableMap, Tags and Video insertion functionally will work in this program.  I suppose my next post will be a photo album of my bathroom shower project.  Cheers ~ Ash

So last Friday night I headed out at about 9:25 to go to the Lead Pipe Logic show in Venice. I got as far as Yosemite on the 118 freeway, which is about 7 miles from my house. Shortly before that exit, I felt my car shuddering. I quickly decelerated and headed towards the exit lane. I knew there was a well-lit Shell station right off that exit as I used to live on that street. So I pull in, get out and check the tires. Passenger side rear looked visibly low. I have low profile tires on my car, so they have to be really low to appear low. I then pulled out my compressor and tried filling them. It pumped for about 10 minutes and still registered zero. So, I pulled out the jack and took the tire off. There were several shredded cracked areas on the rear sidewall of the tire. Time to pull out the spare. Mind you, I have a large heavy speaker box and a bag of discs and other random crap that has to be removed first before I can get to the spare. So, I finally get the spare out and attempt to install it. The lug bolts were too short. On a side note, VW’s have lug bolts that you install into the hub. Most other cars have threaded shafts sticking out and you install a lug nut on them to secure the wheel. So, I thought the aftermarket lug bolts must be too short. I called my friend Rich, as I have my factory wheels stored in a shed at his house. He was in bed already. He had to throw on some clothes and grab a flashlight to go look for the factory lug bolts that I suspected were out with the wheels. In the meantime I called Kat and told her what was going on. She graciously offered to come get me and drive me to Rich’s house if he found them. So, she’s on her way and Rich calls back. NO DICE! Shit, where the fuck are they? HMMM, must be in my carport storage then. As I waited for Kat, I put all the shit back in my car. I then decided to go in and buy a six-pack of beer and tell the lady at the gas station not to tow my car and I will be back in less than an hour. I sat there “to da curb” drinking my beer out of a paper bag. I felt like such a wino. So Kat arrives and we head to my place. I dug around in my carport storage cabinet and found them pretty easily. Back to the car we go. These ones don’t fit either. FUCK!!! Ok, well let me try putting the spare on backwards and see if it fits that way. I was able to get them on!! YAY!!! Ok, it looks retarded and probably isn’t very safe, but I will just have to drive really slow and take city streets instead of the freeway. At least I can get home now. So I throw everything back in my car again. I start her up and put it in reverse and start backing out. Now I hear a grinding noise. GRRR, WTF NOW? I get out and look. Duh, the wheel is rubbing on the brake rotor. I’ll call AAA Kat says. Alright. Defeated, I put the factory wheel back on my car and wait for the tow truck driver to arrive. He gets there pretty quickly, in like 30 minutes or so. As he pulls up and gets out, a blond girl walks over to him and starts talking to him. I’m thinking, “Hey this is my tow truck step off bimbo.” He walks over and asks me if I mind if he gives her a jump-start before he loads my car onto the flatbed. Ok, sure. It should only take a minute. It did and then he loaded me up. I jumped in the cab with him to give him directions. Kat followed. We got back to my house and unloaded my car. At this point I noticed the truck number was 13 and it was Friday the 13th. I pointed this out and the driver pulled back his coat to expose his name tag. He said, “And my name is Jason too.” Oh, the irony!

To be continued…

So, I arrived in Ohio on Friday. After my parents picked me up from the airport, I headed back to their house, showered, changed and headed out. My brothers and their friends were at the Diamond Lodge in Rootstown, so I met them up there. It was a pretty nice looking strip club as were the women working there. Nothing much exciting to report other than a few interchanges with a few dancers and Dianne’s drunkenness. Dianne is an old friend of my sister’s. I’m not sure exactly how she ended up at the bachelor party and not the bachelorette party, but she was entertaining regardless. She was pretty drunk and was harassing people outside. I think she was trying to pick a fight actually. Nothing happened though. Anyway. So, I happened to go up to the stage with my brother Adam and Andrew (Adam’s future brother-in-law). There was a girl dancing named Emily (same as my sister, so it was easy to remember). She does her thing and extracts a dollar from me, whatever. So, she comes over later that night and asks me if I want a dance. I told her, “Nah, I’m good. I’m not very impressed with your dancing skills.” She was like, “What?” I said, “Well, when you shake your ass, you are not supposed to use your hands. You are supposed to use your ass muscles.” I think she weakly tried to show me that she can and I was like nah again. She got all flustered and walked away. All the guys I was with just busted up laughing.

So, on to the exciting stuff.

We left the next day around 2 pm to drive down to Salt Fork state park near Columbus. It was a long drive, but we entertained ourselves on the way. Hurray for McMobile rum and Coke! We got there, checked in and dicked around for a bit. There was a small doe and her fawn that came up behind our room. We were on the 2nd floor and they were right below us.

View from balcony

We then went down to the lake. I should say we traversed our way down. It was quite steep and treacherous to get down to the water from the lodge where we were staying. There was lots of fun stuff to climb on; rock faces, trees, boulders, etc. So, once we got down there, Anthony jumped in the water. The rest of us were content to just sit on some rocks in the water and chill. At one point, my brother Jake and Anthony started throwing rocks and sticks at each other. Much splashing and hilarity did ensue.

We headed back up to the room and “shaved” Adam’s head. The prank was to put a bald cap on him, add makeup and some shaving cream and then send the pic of him passed out bald to his fiancee at about 2-3 in the morning. Well, let’s just say she freaked out just a little too much. I guess we did a pretty convincing job. What do you think?

Adam bald head

We went and had a kick ass dinner in the dining room at the lodge. We then left on our quest for the Fox Hole strip club that was in Zanesville, about an hour away. We were a bit apprehensive once we got to the town. It looked pretty ghetto when we first entered it. It seemed to get a bit nicer once we were further in though, so it seemed promising. We still figured that a place with a name like Fox Hole, it was probably going to be a bit on the seedy side. Well, we got there and found it was indeed! So, we see the building was some sort of 100 year old partially decaying monstrosity. Mind you the entrance area looked like something out of a horror movie. I led the guys in, clutching a case of Bud Light. It was very dark with one dim light over the counter. It looked like a poker scene from a gangster movie where the table is lit up but the people around it are all in the shadows. This was supposedly a full nude place that let you BYOB for an extra $5. So, we each parted with $10 and were given 2 buckets in which to put our beer. Once we filled them up, they topped them with ice. The 2 dudes at the counter were pretty hick too. One of them even asked me if he could have a beer.

So, 23 beers left, we headed up the rickety old wooden stairs. We get to the top and it opened into a pretty large and much nicer looking room. The tiny little thing that was on the stage was seriously working that pole. It was at least 10 if not 15 feet high and this girl was on it like a spider monkey. If this girl was born to do one thing, it was to work that pole. So, we are sitting at this table at the end of the stage watching from a far. There didn’t seem to be that many women there. There were also only like 3-4 dudes in there at this point also (not including our group of 5). Well, more women did eventually come out from the back when it was their time to stage dance. They certainly fit the place. I will describe them a bit more later. So, we were largely ignored until we made our way up to the stage. Dollar bills went a flying and Bud Lights consumed. I asked one of the dancers why they are not fully nude and she said, something about the laws have changed. Well, that wasn’t quite worth $10 now was it? At least we had our own stockpile of beer. I also mentioned to one of the girls that it was Adam’s bachelor party. So, they called him on stage and sat him in a chair that was up against the pole. Let the hazing and beatings begin.

Stage one. Song, something with lyrics chanting you’re stupid. The first girl was kinda of amazon. She was definitely bigger than Adam. Not obese, but just a large framed girl. She sat on his lap and started violently dry grudge fucking him. I think his head actually hit the pole on the first thrust. This girl looked like she was trying to break his dick, or maybe him. Her daddy must have really beat her when she was young. They took their turns doing various lap/pole dances with him. Spider monkey actually came down the pole head first into his lap. These girls weren’t fucking around and they were good at what they did.

Stage two. Make him get down on all fours and beat him with Jake’s belt. These girls must have learned a lot from their daddy’s cause they really whipped his ass. They even let 250 pound Anthony get up and have a few whacks too. Adam actually said the girls hit him harder. hahaha!

Ok, time for the manager’s special. 2 for 1. So, for $30 you get a private dance for 2 songs. I motioned for Spider Monkey to take Adam for a dance. Then the only blond dancer came over and asked me if I wanted a dance. I said, “No, you just want my money.” She was like, “No, I think you are cute.” I know I’m cute, but I knew she probably says that to anyone that is a hard sell. She said, something about me not being from around here and I made her guess. She did guess that I was from California on the first try. I did look somewhat Hollywood that night. I think we were probably the only guys in there that had all their teeth also. So, I said what the hell and she led me back to the private booth. Adam and Spider Monkey were already back there. So, Blondie started doing the lap dance for me. I noticed that her nipples were in serious need of some lotion. They felt like sandpaper on my face. I come to find out that in this club they have to put a bandage type thing over their nipples and also over the vaginal opening. I guess it is ok to show your clit and labia, but not the hole. Kinda strange. Anyway, so Adam was sitting across from me and I was able to watch his lapdance also. So our 2 songs finished and Spider Monkey came over to ask me if I was paying for his dance. I parted with $60 (what a rip) for both dances. Then they were on their way to the back room. Probably to do some more lines or something. We stayed a bit longer and finished our beer then headed back to the lodge.

The next day, we headed to my buddy Carl’s cabin on Lake Mohawk. We went out on his ski boat. He had a tube, wakeboard and skis. We started making our first pass around the lake. Halfway through we were waved down by 2 drunk girls on a jet-ski. Anthony jumped into the water and swam over to them. He tried getting up on the jet-ski and ended up tipping it over and dumping them off. One of the girls somehow lost her bikini bottoms in the process. Her and the friend were trying to figure out what to do about it. Luckily for them, the other girl was wearing shorts over her bikini bottoms and they swapped things around. We started tying the jet-ski to our boat so we could tow them to the dock. Lake patrol came over to see what was happening. He probably thought we were a bunch of idiots, especially when we almost ran the boat into the rocks on the shore. Apparently we weren’t paying attention to the fact we were drifting too close to shore. We finally got them back to the dock and blew up the tube. I went first. It was quite fun. Anthony was next. Then Adam. Until the damn cover on the tube split and came off. So much for that. Now onto the wakeboard and skis. Nobody but Carl was able to get up on either of them. So, we ended up with Anthony trying to ski barefooted and then he gave up and we were dragging him through the water on his back. It was hilarious. It looked like a water fountain behind the boat. We headed back to shore and then back to the cabin. Then it was off for home. Ahh, what a fun weekend.

This is pretty funny, but sad that this guys is so clueless. This is from a chat I had with my friend Olivia.

Olivia: you should of heard the line I got at the gym yesterday
Ashley: do tell
Olivia: oh yes, I must
Olivia: I will do this in kinda script ish ways
Ashley: k
Olivia: Scene: Myself on the elliptical and dude on elliptical next to me. Me headphones on and jamming away whilest doing a high resistance level on machine….dude reading something while working his own machine
Olivia: Dude: [looks over and speaks to me but I obviously can't hear dude, cause I am listening to my ipod]
Ashley: lol
Olivia: Me: [take off headphones] yes?
Olivia: Dude: I am concerned about your heart
Olivia: Me: I am sorry, what?
Olivia: Dude: You have a beautiful heart
Ashley: and how does he know that?
Olivia: (sheeya, right!)
Olivia: Me: Oh
Olivia: Dude: Yes and I want to be in your heart
Ashley: oh, god
Ashley: run away
Ashley: danger danger
Olivia: Me: [to self- dude cannot be for real] oh, thats oh well a thanks
Olivia: Dude: can I take you out sometime
Ashley: um, no
Olivia: Me: [split second freak out silence] er, I am seeing someone right now but thank you for asking
Ashley: insert appropriate evasive action here. lol
Olivia: Scene Ending: Dude returns to paper, I return to running with my headphones on…two minutes goes by dude slinks off machine and disappears…..then me looks up to tele and the news is about another dude who opened fire at gym and killed self and other ladies at gym.

For God’s sake, someone tell this guy about David DeAngelo, The Mystery Method or Real Social Dynamics!

So, my buddy Carl sent me this link today: 3 wolf shirt (This will open in a new window)

3 Wolf shirt

The customer reviews and the “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” sections are fucking hilarious. Read some of them first before you continue.

So, this inspired me to write my own mock review. The actual one I submitted to Amazon should appear in 48 hours if it is approved (if you read any of the ones already on the site, I doubt I will have any problem). Without further ado:

So, I was compelled to give this shirt a try from all the rave reviews that everyone had on it. So, I got the shirt and immediately put it on. I felt so much more manly than I ever have in my life. I decided to go take a walk. I just so happened to be passed by Chuck Norris and his wife. She took one look at me and immediately ripped my pants off and started servicing me right there on the sidewalk to Chuck’s dismay. Well, of course, this really pissed him off. So, he yanked her away from me by her hair and setup in a Kung-Fu stance. Well, I wasn’t sure if he was pissed about the BJ I just got from his wife, or if he was just trying to get my awesome 3 wolf shirt. Well, either way, I wasn’t having any of it (besides his wife didn’t finish me off yet). So, I jumped and kicked him in the face. His beard flew right off! I couldn’t believe it!!!! Was this for real? Am I dreaming? Is the 3 wolf shirt so magical that I could actually have a chance to take out Chuck Norris? Well, I don’t know the answers to all those questions but here is what ensued. Chuck was powerless without his beard (or was it the shirt?). So, punches flew and kicks were landed and other body parts went flying about. After exactly 3 minutes, Chuck Norris lay on the sidewalk as a puddle of goo, teeth and splintered bones. I couldn’t believe that I actually just pummeled him to death! Well, his wife was a bit shocked too, but this caused her to erupt with passion. She rode the wolf like you have never seen, right there on the sidewalk!!! Ron Jeremy had nothing on me. Actually, I think the shirt made things grow better than the Enzyte I have been taking. So, I must say, this shirt is amazing, but please exercise caution when wearing it. You never know who you will have to kill or what lady will attack you. Granted you will be able to rip anyone apart while wearing it, but that is no excuse to do so. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.

This was in my dinner the other night. Kinda looks like a peace sign huh?

I got my new Steve Madden boots today that I had ordered online. Woot!

So I arrived on Tuesday evening. I got the rental car, and then checked into my hotel. I then used their fitness center for some chest and back lifting and rode the stationary bike. I showered and then left to go find something to eat. I think it was around 11pm, so the only place near the hotel that was open was a TGI Friday’s. So I sat at the bar and ordered a Blue Moon and a Sandwich. So, this girl, Megan, comes over with her guy friend and sits down next to me. So, I started chatting with her (and a bit with her friend). She turned out to be a waitress at Erin’s Snug Irish Pub. So we bullshitted for a bit and I asked her what was cool to do around the area. So she said I should check out her bar the following night because this guy, Pat McCurdy would be playing there. She said I should meet her there since her friends didn’t want to go and she didn’t want to go alone. So, I had another beer and finished my sandwich. She and her friend got up to leave and I said, “Hey, why don’t you just come pick me up at my hotel because I have no idea where this place is.” So she said, “Put my number in your phone and call me tomorrow.” So the next day while I was at my customer’s site doing my work, I texted her “What time are you coming to pick me up?” She replied several hours later, “Well it starts at 9, whenever is good for u. My friends think the guy sucks anyway.” So I planned on being ready around 9. I finished up at the customer’s site and headed back to my hotel. I hit the gym again and then showered and got ready. I was planning on going to Red Lobster across the street and figured I’d be done eating by 9 or so. Megan texted me at like 7:37 and said, “Can u be ready by 8?” to which I replied, “Sure but I need to eat first.” So, we ended up going to dinner together. I told her that I can’t pay for her diner because I probably can’t get away with expensing it, but I can pay for some of her drinks later since she was so kind to be driving me around and playing tour guide. She declined that as well. So, I had been teasing her about her wanting to get me drunk and take advantage of me. We had some fun and interesting conversation during dinner. We ordered a 2nd drink as well. Afterwards, she suggested getting one more before we head out. I was like, “Oh mY God, you really are trying to get me drunk and take advantage of me aren’t you?” We arrived at the pub and went in through the back door so we didn’t have to pay a cover. As we were waiting at the bar, the hostess, came over and said she was cool, but I have to pay. $5, whatever. Megan deciced to buy me a drink to compensate for that. I refused, but she paid before I had a chance to get my debit card out. So, she introduced me to her friends, Trevor and Litte Big Man (as I don’t remember his name, LBM from here on out). At one point I went outside with Megan and the 2 guys while they smoked cigs. I enjoyed a Black and Mild. LBM said something about 2 fags inside wearing white shoes. I noticed that he was wearing some white sandals (which were actually kinda gay). So to get a little comraderie going, I busted his balls about being gay. Well, Mr. Insecurity didn’t like that so much and said something to the effect that he isn’t gay and he can “back it up”. Get a sense of humor dude. Mind you, he was probably close to a foot shorter than me. I’m 6’1″ if you don’t already know that. He was somewhat muscular and looked like a troll, but I figured if he was gonna try and start something, I could take him. Word of advice, never trust a troll. He just went back inside. Megan asked me if he was trying to start a fight. It didn’t seem to me that he was, but he did seem to try and establish that he was the Alpha male of the group. We finished smoking and went back in also. Megan bought me another drink. It was another Jack and Coke and then a Black and Tan. Trevor handed her a shot and she didn’t want it, so I had that one as well. It smelled and tasted just like strawberry nerds. So we left and headed to downtown. It was pretty cool. They were telling me that it is the oldest state capitol in the country (I think they meant the building). We parked quite far from the bar that we were going to meet up with some of their friends. Megan then bought me 2 more drinks. Vodka Cranberry this time as I had mentioned earlier that I needed to stop drinking caffeine otherwise I will never get to sleep. I tried paying, but again, she beat me to it. We didn’t stay long as the bouncer wouldn’t let Trevor back in for whatever reason. So, Megan, Trevor, LBM and I all walked down the street. We ended up running into a few of Megan’s girlfriends and they were on their way into a bar we just passed. In we went and LBM decided to try and be the Alpha male at this point and said, something like, hey you better step off my girlfriend or whatever. I wasn’t going ot put up with that shit, so I was like, dude, you need to chill. I’m just here to have a good time and Megan is being a good host. So he stepped off. She wasn’t his girlfriend anyway and I don’t think he was implying that she was just a female friend. Good lord I was pretty buzzed and another Jack and Coke from Megan. I mentioned that her boy needs to chill. So she asked him what is his problem with me? So I was walking away from the bar with my drink and LBM got up in my face and pushed me down. One of the bouncers helped me up and started escourting me to the door. I was like dude, he attacked me and I’m not leaving. So, he let me go. LBM was bounced, the little fucking troll. Of course my drink was spilled and Megan tried buying me another one. Instead I told the bartender the story of why I spilled my drink and insisted that he not charge us for another. He complied. So, Megan was upset and started apologizing. I told her to knock that off. She was also fretting that he’d be outside waiting for us when we leave. I told her that I have no reason ot fight him, but if he comes at me, I will be fine. So we finished our drinks and headed out. We could see LBM was outside waiting. I figured he would try and accost me, so I mentally prepared to fight. He was more level headed now and we walked down the street side by side and at one point we man hugged and walked along and I think Trevor and I both had an arm over his shoulder and he on ours. So, it was cool. Then LBM decided to part ways and I opened my stupid cocky mouth and tried to give him some advice. I think I ended up saying something like, dude, you need to work on your game. He said his game is tight. Which I knew was a lie. I continued walking with Trevor with Megan up further ahead. All of the sudden, LBM comes running up and tackles me. I had let my guard down and was quite drunk at this point so I was an easy fall. He got on top of me and I think he was punching my head. I didn’t really feel anything because of the alcohol, thank god! I was finally able to flip him off me and a male passerby pulled us apart. My ring had flown off my hand in the tussle and I started to look for it. Megan was screaming my name and urging me to come on. I wasn’t leaving without my ring. So the samaratin stranger and LBM helped me look for it. LBM found it and handed it to me. Megan had continued walking so I picked up the pace to catch up to her. She was pretty upset. I had a shit eating Tyler Durden grin on my face. This was pretty much the first time I have ever been in a fight and gotten punched up a bit. My nose was bleeding but whatevs. So we got to the car and I had to calm Megan down. I assured her that I was fine and am still having fun. We then drove back to my hotel. They both had to pee, so I invited them to come and do so in my room. When it was my turn in the bathroom, I found that I was more beatup that I felt. My nose and ears were covered in blood. I had a bruise and a scrape on my forehead and some bruises on the back of my head. My elbows were roadrashed too. So I took off my shirt and started washing out the blood. So, I was standing there scrubbing and Megan came in and started taking pictures of us together. I finished with my shirt and put on a fresh one. We bullshitted a bit more and Megan was sitting at the desk and decided to write me a note. She started the first one with, “I’m sorry” so I tore off the sheet and made her start again. She crumpled the 2nd one and trashed it. It was like 3:30 am and I was starting on the caffeine/ alcohol crash. They headed for the door to take off. Trevor exited and Megan and I hugged. I could see in her eyes that she wanted me to kiss her, so I did. I also figured that it was appropriate after the whole ordeal. I went out a few mins later to smoke a nasty cigarette that one of them had given me. They were out in the parking lot trying to find her keys. The security guard was giving them shit too. So, I walked over to find out what was going on. They mentioned the keys and I had noticed them on top of the entertainment center in my room earlier. So back we went and I made them chill for a few mins so the security guard wouldn’t call the cops as he had already advised them not to drive. I walked them out this time. On my way back in, the security guard was on the phone and he had a satisfied look on his face. I didn’t like the vibe he was giving off either. So, I made it back to my room ASAP and called Megan to warn her that I think he may have called the cops. They had already left, so I implored them to be careful and take the back roads out of there. Then I went to bed. What a hell of a fucking night!

Some pictures of my wounds and of Megan and I are below.

Forehead wound

Forehead wound closeup

Bruises on the back of my head

Megan and I

This all started with my friend Bryan trying to meet women. So far in his life he hasn’t enjoyed much success in this area. I was trying to offer him some advice on how to better interact with women he meets. I couldn’t seem to practice what I preach though. I was also having difficulty meeting women after my October breakup with Jenne and even before that relationship. I have come to realize that I avoid talking to women because I can’t figure out how to open the conversation, and when I have, it has generally not ended so well. I would get nervous and start mixing up words and stuttering (and I’ve never had a stuttering problem). It seems that I lost my game! So, Bryan had been forwarding me these newsletters by David DeAngelo. They were basically just tips on how to meet and interact with women and feedback that he had received from satisfied customers. So, I did a bit of research and downloaded this guy’s e-book. I also got some audio and DVD seminars that he did. So in this research I discovered a lot of things about myself that I need to work on. First, I still was acting out of a boy mentality. I don’t wanna grow up I’m a Toy R US kid kinda thing. I realized that my relationships with women in the past were generally not successful because I was operating under this wussy boy mentality. I was being too insecure and needy. When I was in college, I was actually pretty comfortable in meeting new people. I was being cocky and funny as David D. describes. I somehow lost that after awhile of being out of school. So, anyway, I realized that I need to become a man in order to have the confidence to meet women. I think at this point, I am actually feeling like I am a man. I have been working out at the gym pretty regularly for the last 8-9 months. I have dropped about 20 pounds of fat and my muscles have grown. I can actually see a huge difference. I have had a few friends also mention that I seem different. I suppose it is due to the fact that I feel like I walk with a more confident upright manner. I have a smile on my face more often as well. For once in my life I can truly say that I love myself, I like who I am, I like who I see in the mirror and I’m really starting to feel like a man and not a boy trapped in an adult body.

So, On May 4 I flew to Albany, NY for work. I went to Davis Vision to upgrade their XLS unit. You can find more info on that here: Qualstar XLS. So, on my flight I decided to have some fun with this cute girl that was sitting in front of me. I was in the window seat and she was in the middle seat one row up. So, a verbal conversation was not really feasible. I decided that note writing would be fun. She was receptive to it and for the next several hours, we passed pen and paper back and forth. I will scan it and post it on here when I get a chance. I will add more to this later…

So, I have been hanging out with Tas and playing some disc golf with him this week. We have had some interesting conversations about things we are trying to accomplish in our lives. He is in a band Lead Pipe Logic (check out the link to them in the Sites I Like section). They have been gaining a lot of ground recently. They are about to release their second EP and will be playing a show on Saturday at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. I have seen them play there quite a few times now and that place usually draws a good crowd. They have some contacts with A&R people and they need to put together a promo pack to submit to them. I have been doing the photography at several of their more recent shows. They have liked my work (you can check it out here: LPL pics) and invited me to do their band photos for their promo pack. I’m super stoked on this. It is not a paying gig, but at least it will be more practice and exposure. If they go on tour, I will be their first choice for a “roadie photog”. Sweet! So, check out that link of the photos next week and I will have new pics of the band up there.

So, I just added a plugin to automatically tweet my twitter. Wow, how gay does that sound? Anyway, lets see how this works….

So, last night, I went to this bar, Yankee Doodles. I was there 1-2 months ago and met that Korean girl Suzie. I think I may have mentioned her. I was there playing pool with a buddy and there were NO attractive girls there, so I texted her and told her to come play me. She made excuses and I gave her a hard time. She finally came. I was in a pretty good mood, so I was flirting with and harassing her. Oh, and she hugged me when she first got there. I wasn’t expecting that at all. Since the last time I saw her, she gave me the impression that she had some sort of physical contact phobia. So, anyway. We played some pool. I was harassing her the whole time. She is very good at pool. So, at one point, I smacked her ass with my cue. She missed the shot. HaHa Woot! At the end of the night, she offered me a sip of her drink. I asked her how many rufies she put in it. She didn’t know what they were, so I had to explain. So today my head was hurting due to the fact that I had 2 – 34 oz beers at the bar. So I was harassing her again via text today. I asked her, “What did you put in my drink? My head is killing me today. I think you did put some date rape drug in it. Naughty naughty.” She replied, “Your friend bought me that drink, it was probably him.” I replied, Don’t blame my friend for your poor rapist skills. You really should try harder. She relied, “=P” I replied, “It is ok. I will let you take me to dinner so you can try again.” She replied, “lol” Then I said, “I’d prefer sushi if you are gonna try and take advantage of me.”

I found this on the blog of a “friend” of mine on Myspace, Deepak Chopra. Pretty interesting stuff.


Washington Post On Faith: Satan’s Last Gasp

Satan is losing the battle for people’s minds. This is a clear trend, and it’s been mounting for a long time. The basic reason is that evil has gotten a lot of competition. Are schizophrenics possessed by the Devil? Raise your hand if you say yes. A century ago, countless more people would have raised their hands than today, when we use “sick” in place of “evil” for many things, including psychosis. The more replacements we find for evil, the weaker Satan grows. After all, the Devil is the embodiment of absolute evil, the kind that admits no other explanation. His fortunes decline when valid explanations are at hand.

Besides psychosis, we attribute criminal behavior to a host of influences — poverty, domestic abuse, peer pressure, social resentment — that overshadow the simple word “evil.” Centuries ago, the first word that would come to mind when a murder took place would be “sin,” opening the door automatically to think about the great tempter and progenitor of sin, the serpent in the Garden. Today, if we fail to understand why sadistic violence occurs, we might fall back on a phrase like “pure evil,” but even then we don’t automatically insert Satan’s name or make him the cause. We simply mean an evil that passes understanding — for the time being. Understanding can grow, after all.

And it does grow. Leaving aside the dwindling number of fundamentalists who have made the Devil a core belief, fewer people see the hand of Satan at work around them. Abu Ghraib was a horrific example of human nature at its most depraved, but who did the media rush to for explanation? Psychologists, not preachers. If you take the most evil acts in the world, such as the Holocaust, you must run out of human explanations first before you resort to supernatural ones. These human explanations for evil include the following:
*Hiding dark secrets.
*Feeling ashamed and guilty.
*Repressing feelings of deep anger and hostility.
*Denying painful truths, such as past abuse.
*Imitating the worst actions of one’s peers to gain approval.
*Hatred of authority.
*A deeply rebellious streak that acts out as self-destruction.
*Ungoverned impulses of sex and aggression.
*Repression of the shadow side of the psyche.
*Hatred of “the other.

A toxic cocktail of these all-too-human tendencies fueled Abu Ghraib, the Holocaust, and Islamic extremism. No supernatural agency needs to be ascribed. When anyone believes that Satan is a universal force, the enemy of God loosed upon creation, I ask a simple question. How much evil was there in the universe before human beings came along? If Satan is so cosmic, why did he wait billions of years to appear on the scene, until the day when the Old Testament was written? And what about cultures like the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and ancient Indian that had no concept of Satan?

The rational mind has no trouble discounting the bogeyman, so it’s our irrational side that we must calm, with all its shadow fears and shameful impulses. Does Satan perch there, in the darkness we dare not confront? Religious believers haunted by a strong sense of sin may believe this, but look around at all the agnostics and atheists leading normal lives without the notion of absolute evil. They would seem to be the choicest prey for Satan, since they have no faith in God to protect them. But the Devil seems to keep his distance, and there’s a simple reason why.

Satan is a projection of human fear, anger, and guilt. He used to be such a major projection that he dominated psychological life. In an age of faith, Satan held a monopoly on evil. Now our minds have expanded, light has been shone on every level of the psyche, and a great change occurred. Satan stopped being strong because we stopped needing him so much. We took responsibility for evil away from him, and although it’s hard to face the fact that human evil trumps supernatural evil a hundred to one, the good news is that being human, it’s something we can heal.

Published in the Washington Post On Faith
Watch “The Nightline Face-off: Does Satan Exist?” March 26 on ABCNews.com and on “Nightline” at 11:35 m ET.

So, this week has been pretty uneventful so far. I have been copying files from the old laptop to the new. I also decided to finally purchase a Flickr pro account so I can see all the pics I had formerly transferred from Yahoo photos. I have been uploading pics to it. I only have like 7000 or so more to go. Woot!

Check it out:

So that article sparked a debate with my online buddy Gabby, here it is for your enjoyment:

gabby: lol, the men were given jaywalking tickets, but not the old ladies

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: yeah

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: stupid cop

gabby: you dont like cops do you?

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: hate them

gabby: nice, we’d never work out as a couple then lol

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: why? Do you want to be a cop?

gabby: my friend aimee’s a cop, and my parents are cops lol

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: Well, I wouldn’t be getting pulled over by them

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: and on of my buddy’s dad is a sheriff

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: and his step mom too

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: they are cool

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: I don’t hate the people, I hate the elitist attitude

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: They arbitrarily enforce laws that I don’t agree with and didn’t have any choice in making

gabby: you cant say you hate cops, you should say you hate the people who lets authority go to their head

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: well, that is pretty much all cops

gabby: wow, whatever

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: I am a scofflaw.

gabby: your an ass, no offense

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: whatever

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: how can you follow that with no offense?

gabby: I like cops, and I like what they do for us

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: haha

gabby: thats like me saying I hate potheads

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: and you are a blind fool like the rest of the populace

gabby: whatever

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: I don’t like being told what to do

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: this is supposedly a free country, yet we have more laws than anywhere

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: other than maybe communist China

gabby: my mom was a sheriff when she was younger. one day she was called out to a house of this couple who were known to do drugs. she came into the house and was horrified to see what they had done to their child. apparently they were high and got annoyed of the baby crying, so in their high state of stupidity they put their kid in the oven and cooked it

gabby: All I have to say to you is, if you dont like this country then dont live here, its an easy choice

gabby: so dont you fucking tell me that cops are bad

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: well, the problem is that the parents do drugs and have not been properly educated

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: and I am planning on moving to my own island once I have enough money to buy it

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: and no it is not an easy choice other wise I would have done it already

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: have you ever even been to another country?

gabby: lets see, mexico, germany, france, belgium

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: ok, did you try finding work there?

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: or a place to live?

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: etc.

gabby: I have cousins and family in belgium, and no I would never want to live in another country, I like the country I live in. despite its downfalls

gabby: I could live in belgium anytime I want to, I just dont want to

gabby: you dont remember that my mom was born overseas? that I went overseas in 2003 with my mom to meet my family? I have seen other countries, and I like mine better, period

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: I remember

gabby: then why the hell did you ask me if I’ve been to other countries

gabby: ?

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: I meant live there not visit

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: why are you so angry?

gabby: because I dont like people who “generalize” the work force

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: I’m just telling you how I feel.

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: it is my opinion

gabby: “all cops are bad”, thats a lame narrow minded comment

gabby: thats like saying “all pot smokers are dumb asses”

gabby: or “all doctors are money hungry”

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: I don’t like the majority of laws in this country. I didn’t say cops are bad. They are just a product of a controlling, corrupt, self-serving government that wants to keep the populace in check so they can do whatever the fuck they want

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: I don’t hate cops as people, just their mentality and their position as law enforcers

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: I don’t agree with most laws. I didn’t have any choice in making them, so I don’t care to abide by them

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: granted I’m not going to go out and kill, steal, etc.

gabby: mentality? there you go again generalizing, most cops arent bad, most cops are very nice and understanding

gabby: thats because you are one of the people that would probably make marijuana legal, which is the most stupid thing I have ever heard someone trying to legalize

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: yes I would

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: and why is it stupid?

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: alcohol and tobacco should be illegal before pot

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: they are more addictive and harmful

gabby: WHATEVER

gabby: did your parents smoke pot around you as a kid?

gabby: Marijuana is the “gate way” drug

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: apparently you believe the lies that have been propagated to the masses

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: you are a fool

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: no, my parents didn’t smoke pot or cigs, or drink

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: and it is not a gateway drug

gabby: I lived until i was ten with a man who smoked pot

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: tobacco and alcohol are

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: how many people do you know that have tried pot before cigarettes or alcohol

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: probably none

gabby: all he cared about was getting his pot, my brother, sister and I didnt matter

gabby: my biological father

gabby: my brother

gabby: my sister

gabby: my stepsister

gabby: shall I go on?

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: go for it

gabby: id rather not waste my time on a narrow minded asshole such as yourself

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: haha

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: fine then

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: I thought you were intelligent, I guess I was wrong

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: just because you had a bad experience with pot doesn’t make it evil

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: your dad and family had a problem with it

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: it probably stemmed from abuse or neglect from their parents

At this point she signed off. She can’t handle an intelligent debate apparently.

supapimpxx@yahoo.com: drug users commonly use them to fill the void in their life left by a lack of love and caring

Yet another reason I hate cops. This motherfucker should be fired: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090226/ap_on_fe_st/odd_good_samaritan_ticketed
What an asshole! So, this cop doesn’t think that a trip to the hospital, bleeding in the brain, broken bones, a dislocated shoulder and a possible ruptured spleen is enough punishment? Actually, forget about firing this guy, Lynch him instead for being an un-compassionate asshole.

So I took my new laptop to work with me to try to fix it. I generally have lots of free time at work between customer calls and emails. So, I figured I’d spend it working on this POS. A co-worker had suggested this utility that he had used in the past to fix a similar problem. It still didn’t work. So, I did another system restore and still no dice. I then tried re-installing Norton 360 and it instead prompted me to uninstall first. Well, now I saw that the Norton 360 program was listed in the add/remove programs list. It kept erroring out that the directory could not be found. I uninstalled the Live Update program and tried the Norton removal tool again. After a reboot, it looked like the network connections were working. I wasn’t able to get past the firewall at work since my computer is not part of the work domain. So, at lunch I took it home and wallah, it works! Woot! So, now I can finally get on with my life.

Since I worked the early shift, I was off at 3:30pm. I went home, put on my leathers and such, then rode my motorcycle down to the NoHo dealership to see about this deal on the GSXR1000. They largely ignored me for 5-10 mins as I looked at the bikes in the showroom. Then I found someone to help me. The $7999 bike turned out to be $11,400 after tax, title, registration, the freight and dealer setup fees. I was like, well forget this, I can get a newer bike for about $1000 less at a different dealer. After Manny, the sales rep talked to his boss, he said they could match the price on either the 2008 CBR1000′s or the 2007 GSXR1000′s to the price of $10,600 at the Thousand Oaks dealer. They only offered me $800-1000 for a trade in on my bike. So, no deal was made.

I rode to Rich’s since he is pretty much on the way back to my house and I figured I’d avoid some traffic. He was not home, so I left. I rode back to Simi Valley and stopped at the gym and did a short leg workout. While I was finishing up my workout, Dan called me and invited me over for dinner at his place. So, I went there afterwards and had some chili and a beer. We watched some TV and bullshitted for a bit. I played with his girlfriends kid a bit too. He is 3, so his attention span is a bit on the short side. I headed home around 10, played with the computers a bit more and went to bed.

I forgot to mention that earlier in the day, I texted Jenny-Marie and asked if I could take her to dinner. She accepted and said Tuesday would work for her. So, tonight, we are going to the Macaroni Grill and then out for some cocktails. Yay!

I know I haven’t posted anything in a long time. You are just gonna have to deal with it. I have been working on internet issues at home and have generally had nothing much to say.

So, it all started when I was tweaking my new laptop. Yeah, I know I’m a geek. I have actually had some of my friends nickname me tweak in the past because I spend so much time doing things to make my computer faster. And, no it isn’t because I use Crystal Meth. That shit is the devil! So, anyway, when you buy a new computer there is always some extra software on them usually in the form of trial versions. I, for one, generally despise paying for software. Especially these days when there is so much freeware and open source stuff available to all. So, to hell with the Norton 360 trial and the MicroSloth Office suite trial. So, I uninstalled that crap and other miscellaneous garbage that was tainting my hard drive. I also disabled a bunch of unnecessary services and programs from starting when I boot the machine. So, at some point it followed that I rebooted the machine. And, what would you know, the innerwebs ceased to exist on my new lappy. BOO!!

So, the first thing I figured was that it was due to me disabling a service or some Toshiba crapware from starting. So, I begrudgingly re-enabled everything that looked obvious. No dice. Fuck! Then I proceeded to re-enable everything. So, now if course it takes ages to boot up and still no internet. Piece of shit!!! So, I thought maybe something got broken from the software un-installations. So I investigated that a bit. And of course tinkered around with the wireless internet settings to no avail. Then I tried plugging it in to the RJ-45 Ethernet jack in my living room that feeds my AT&T Uverse TV box. Well, that still didn’t work. So, I was trying various things from a command prompt (yeah, the old text way of controlling computers by typing in commands). It seemed that the ipconfig commands were accomplishing absolutely nothing but producing a bunch of strange errors. So, the back door was closed and I was not sure how else to fix this. I tried researching things on my old laptop and tried these solutions and still had no luck. Mind you, this has all stretched over several days. In the process, I also fiddled around with settings on the wireless gateway/DSL modem and also did numerous resets on it. This of course killed off my wireless connection entirely. I was beginning to think that the wireless portion of the router was fried as the wired connection was still working fine. So, now I’m stuck using my old laptop with the broken hinge and floppy lid on a wired connection with a cable that is just barely long enough. What a bummer! At least I got some semblance of internet connection at this point. Yes, you might add that I could have updated my blog, but my sole burning desire was to get the wireless connection working on all machines, especially on the new lappy that has morphed in to a music playing brick. So, after a week fucking around with all this, I found the Norton removal tool. Which was supposed to remove and fix corrupt installations of any Norton product. Well, it kept prompting me to remove the damn program I was attempting to remove in the first place!! ARGH!!! Stupid fucker!!! So, I gave up and did more productive things. Back to this later.

So, Friday I went home, did some cleaning and waited for people to show up for game night. Jenny-Marie and her friend were the only ones that showed up. It was still cool though. We played a dice game called Chicken in the Mid-west and Farkle in California. You roll six die and the goal is to roll as many 1′s, 5′s and 3-of-a-kind that you can. It is pretty fun and addicting. It is gambling with points and not money. So, we played for a few hours and then J-M and I ended up having some very interesting conversation about our spiritual beliefs and other related topics. I come to find out that we vibrate with similar energies in that respect. Very cool stuff.

So, Saturday, I did some cleaning/organizing in my bedroom. I then went on a motorcycle ride and ended up meeting a guy that wanted to look at my motorcycle for possible purchase. He was a Harley guy and was looking for his first sport bike. He spent less than 5 mins looking at my bike and said he wanted something a little cleaner. Well dude, maybe you should be looking at more expensive bikes then. At least it wasn’t very far out of my way to go to where he was. Any excuse to go ride the motorcycle is a good enough excuse for me. I spent Saturday evening with my friend Betty. I made some top sirloin steaks (from Omaha Steaks), baked red potatoes and asparagus. We watched Cape Fear and had some cocktails. She stayed the night as she was a bit too sauced to drive. Fine by me.

Sunday morning, I made my famous beer eggs or beggs for short. They were in omelette form with onion, green peppers, turkey deli meat and pepper jack cheese. I accompanied them with some waffles from the freezer that my roommate made a few weekends ago. I topped them with some fresh strawberries.

I showered, got ready and drove to Sylmar to meet up with Rich, Lisa, & Kayla to play some disc golf. We all shot poorly. just an of day I guess. I’m still playing with my left arm as my right shoulder is still intermittently causing me pain. We stopped at Sam’s club for some fresh hot pizza and then to Von’s for some Blue Moon beer. We went back to Rich’s and watched the end of the Lakers game. Well, they did, and I did some more motorcycle research. I found that the North Hollywood Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha dealer had some 2007 GXSR1000s for $7999. I have to go check that out I thought. I had my mind set on a 2008 CBR1000RR at this point, but they are pretty equal machines from the reviews I have read and price wins out in the end of my decision. So, I headed over to Jenny-Marie’s and we hung out a bit. We did some tarot card readings and chatted about random things. Then I headed home and off to bed as I had to be up for work at 5:30 Monday morning.

So, I was out riding yesterday and this guy from www.rockstorephotos.com snapped my pic a couple times. Here is one that I pirated from his site. He has a pretty good idea for what he is doing. His truck is parked on the side of the road with a big banner with his website url on it. I think I might try my hand at the same thing in a different location.

So, I see that I haven’t posted anything since Jan 30. Well, I have been on the move this weekend. On Friday, Cedrick, Chris and Jenny-Marie came over to work on a song. We started a melody and a beat. Jenny-Marie is quite good on the keys. I have never really heard her play before. So, I was pretty impressed with her improvisational skills for what we were trying to accomplish. She is quite talented. Chris, Cedrick and I just stood there with nothing to say for a bit. Then we started offering some suggestions on what we were looking for and she changed it up accordingly.

Afterwards, we went to Venice to meet up with some friends of Cedrick. Then off to a house party. It was a good time. There were some cool people there. Many of which were musicians. So, the acoustic guitar was being passed around and random songs were sung. I ended up staying out until about 4am that night. I haven’t been up that late in a long time.

So, of course I was ruined for Saturday morning. The afternoon turned out to be absolutely beautiful and around 75-80 degrees. I spent some time researching new laptops as I had a feeling that I needed to get a new one, post haste. I made some breakfast (at noon of course) and then headed up in the mountains on my motorcycle. Rich, my buddy I normally ride with, had other plans. So I went solo. Fine with me. It was a beautiful day to ride at my own pace. Which tends to be balls out at first and then mellows off a bit. I stopped at Newcomb’s Ranch and had some lunch. I sat at the bar and chatted with a couple sitting next to me and the bartender. He didn’t charge me for my hot chocolate (it is chilly up in the mountains this time of year) or for substituting a bowl of chili for french fries. So, he got a nice $4 tip on a $7 check.

I stopped by Rich’s on my way home and hung out with him, Lisa, and her daughter Kayla. They were watching the Laker game and I was browsing the web. I have decided that it is time for a new motorcycle, so I started doing some research.

I headed home and stopped at the Best Buy in Porter Ranch to take a look at their selection of laptops. They had the one I wanted, but I decided not to buy it there and wait until I got back to Simi instead. I’d rather not have my new toy bouncing around too much on the back of my bike for the 15 mile trip back. Not to mention the lack of help I had. The funny thing is, and I’m sure this is common, there were 2 different clerks that asked me if I needed help when I first started looking at the laptops. And, of course, when I was ready to be helped, none were to be found. Best Buy’s customer service has always been piss-poor in my book. Most of their employees tend to know shit about what they are selling also. Once back at the Simi store, I picked up a Toshiba A305-S6872 on sale for $599. It has the hard to find features that I wanted and quite a nice spec sheet to boot, for that price. I really would have rather bought a Macbook but I really can’t justify paying more than twice as much for essentially the same hardware. So, I will have to experiment with the Hackintosh software instead.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep it, so I decided not to open it up immediately when I got home. That takes a lot of will power for me. I usually open stuff in the car right after I buy it. Need to play with new toy NOW! HAHA! So, I left it in my bedroom, reheated some leftovers and then went to the Arena for an acquaintance’s birthday. I hadn’t seen a few of them for over a year, so I figured I’d make an appearance. I really hate that place. It is a sports-bar-wannabe-Hip-Hop dance-club-meat-market on the weekends. Not really my scene. Of course the music was also too damn loud to converse and it ALWAYS takes at least 20 mins to get a fucking drink. So I was over it really fast. I was there for all of 45 mins. I didn’t even have a drink either.

So, I went home, made a cocktail and broke out the new toy. I have used Windows Vista on a few older laptops and let me tell you, it sucked. I think that on my new laptop, the hardware is up to snuff, so my experience with Vista was a bit more positive speed wise. Though I hate how you have to dig and dig to find things that were more easily accessible in XP. Anyway, I digress. So, I had it hooked up to the TV and stereo and was watching some youtube videos. I got up for a some reason and ended up tripping on the optical cable that was plugged into it and broke the connector off in the headphone jack. So, I was pretty miffed at myself for being so buzzed and clumsy. I tried removing the broken piece with needlenose pliers and tweezers but the damn thing wouldn’t come out. ARGH!

So, Sunday I went down to LA to pickup my friend Olivia on the motorcycle. We rode up the coast and continued inland a bit to The Rock Store. We got there right before they stopped serving breakfast. Woot! There seemed to be a lot more bikes there than normal at that hour. We walked around and checked out the 200 or so bikes and sat down and chatted a bit about random things. Then we headed back to her place. We watched some super bowl commercials and paid little attention to the game. Then went to the store for some food and came back and made some dinner.

I got back home and gave the computer jack another go with the tweezers. Still no dice. I took it back to the store and after a little unwanted noise, got them to remove it for me at no charge. At least they didn’t give me shit about not buying their stupid warranty. HA! I then spent the rest of the pleasant evening outside, installing software, transferring files form the old lappy and tweaking it. Yeah, I’m a geek, I know. Well, what would you know, I closed the lid on the old machine and the hinge decided to break clean off. Well, either she was jealous, or was just holding out until I had her replacement. I’m glad I listened to my gut feeling for once about buying the new one.

This is fuckin cool:

Ok, so this is a mediocre picture taken with my camera phone. But here it is. All done, at least with this part of my arm.

Finished upper arm tattoo

So it is done. You get a peek. I will unveil tomorrow. Stay tuned….

This part is now complete.

Just another boring day at work. Customer’s continue to piss me off for no reason, but such is life doing Tech Support. BLAH!

I finally got all my paperwork back so I could do my taxes. So, after about an hour crunching numbers on the innerwebs using TaxACT, I got my state and fed done. State and federal for $16.95 can’t be beat. It asked me questions about my mortgage interest, property taxes, etc., so the shit was a snap. Fuck TurboTax and HR Block and their over priced accountant wannabes. Here comes $2600. Woot!

So, bills will be paid and fresh ink installed on my arm. Body modification is fun. It makes more monetary sense too. You can’t take material possessions with you everywhere you go, even in death. But tattoos stay with you for life and death. At least until the body decomposes. So, here is the before and tomorrow you will see the after. Yay for needles!

Arm tat before

So I had breakfast at Fiddlers with Rich on Sunday morning. That place is great! I haven’t eaten there in awhile, so I was jonesing for it. We had some good conversation about things. We went back to his place to meet up with Lisa.

We all headed over to the Sylmar disc golf course. I didn’t think my right shoulder was quite up to snuff, so I played with my left hand. I actually did pretty well for that being my first game played only left handed. I pretty much shot bogey on every hole (That is 1 over par. Par being 3 shots, for you non-golfers). I think I had double bogey on 3 maybe and 1 or 2 pars. So, I will have to keep practicing with the left and make my game ambidextrous.

After the game, we stopped in to Ranchero’s taco stand. I think those were the best authentic tacos I have ever had. The flavor was amazing. Rich also had me try one of the hot peppers that they have marinading with some sliced onions. I have no idea what kind of pepper it was, but they were fucking hot! I had tears streaming down my face while I was eating my taco. I bet the Mexican ladies behind the counter had a good laugh.

We went back to Rich’s house and worked on his 2 motorcycles. He crashed his CBR900RR a few months ago and we were looking things over to see what parts he needs to ebay. His throttle/switchpod housing was cracked and causing the throttle to stick. We took that apart and re-adjusted. So, he will just glue that one back together. Looks like the only part that isn’t repairable was the bracket for the right foot peg. He ordered one in Ebay and hopefully will have it the end of this week. I also installed some rear brake pads on his VFR. So now at least he can ride one of his motorcycles. No more excuses (other than the weather, lol).

We made some DiGiorno rising crust supreme pizza. That is really damn good stuff. I was quite impressed for it being frozen pizza. We had some beers and watched Pineapple Express (again for me). Yeah it was good enough to watch it twice in one weekend.

So Saturday I didn’t do much of anything. I did some laundry and cleaning around the house. I actually organized all the cleaning products under my kitchen sink. How exciting!! Other than that, I just sat around staring at the walls. I really didn’t feel like doing anything. That happens when it is rainy out. HAHA! I watched Pineapple Express on Friday night since Serena was so kind as to ignore me. It was a pretty hilarious movie.

So last night I was supposed to go out with Serena. She flaked on me again. 3rd time’s a charm? No 3rd no call no show = you’re fired! I fucking hate getting stood up. At least have some fucking decency to call and explain why you have decided not to grace my presence. Fuck!

Why the fuck is this necessary? Who the hell eats in the mens’ locker room? It smells of ball sweat and urine in there. Fucking gross I tell you.

restroom sign

So Cedrick came over last night and we started working on a song. I have been meaning to get my equipment and computer setup to record and play for awhile now. He finally motivated me to get that shit done. There are still some software issues I need to work out before I can start recording though. So we started on a beat at least. He also showed me some scales on the piano and the proper sequence for fingering the keys. So, I feel like I at least accomplished something. Onwards and upwards!!

So a friend of mine sent me a recipe for this and I made it last night. It was pretty damn good. Check it out:

Olive Oil Spray

2/3 cup of quick oats

1/2 cup skim milk

2 1/2 tablespoons of hot sauce or wing sauce

1 pound of extra lean ground chicken breast

1/2 cup of finely chopped celery

1/4 cup of shredded carrot

1/4 cup of finely chopped sweet onion

2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

1/4 teaspoon of salt

2 ounces (about 1/2 cup) blue cheese.

Preheat oven to 350. Spray bread pan or similar size with olive oil spray.

Combine the oats and milk in medium bowl and stir to mix. Let stand for 3 minutes, or until the oats begin to soften. Stir in the wing sauce until well mixed. Add the chicken, celery, carrot, onion, egg whites and salt. With fork or hands mix the ingredients well. Add the blue cheese and gently mix to combine.

Transfer mixture to pan and spread so that the top is flat. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the chicken is completely cooked through. Cut into 8 slices and serve.

I did 3 1/2 Tbsp of hotsauce and 1/2 C. of red onions to give it more spice. I also added about 5-6 ground up Chili Piquin’s (they are tiny little hot peppers). It still wasn’t spicy enough for my taste, so I also added some more buffalo hot sauce on top of my slice. I used 2 whole eggs instead of just the whites. Who wants low fat and low cholesterol anyway? I also added some seasoned salt in lieu of regular, some garlic powder, sage and thyme.

buffalo chicken meatloaf

I went bowling with my friend Melissa last night. My shoulder was not being very cooperative, but we had some beers and it was fun. We had some good conversation and a few laughs. There were some people there wearing some attire that was quite interesting. It is amazing how much class people lack. More on this later…

So, Monday, I went out with Suzie, the girl I met last Saturday. We had some drinks and played pool. My voice was a bit better, so I was actually able to converse with her and find out a bit more about her. While she is an attractive and friendly women, who also happens to kick ass (mine at least) in pool, I find her to be a bit boring. Now granted I have only hung out with her twice, but I doubt that we will be more than acquaintances. I found out she was born in Korea, likes to day trade stocks and foreign currency, sleeps a lot, lives at home in Northridge with her parents, bartends part time (on call at Yankee’s), hates motorcycles (boo), and doesn’t like going to the beach or mountains or being outside much at all for that matter. The only outdoor recreation she mentioned was that she used to snowboard.

She also doesn’t like physical contact. I observed her interacting with a few guys that she apparently knew and they were prodding her to give them a hug or at least a hi-five. She would do neither. I’m not sure what that is all about or if she was even telling the truth. I say that because I’m suspect of her answer to her favorite music. Now I’m not trying to stereotype, but the few Asian women I have hung out with and have seen at clubs tend to listen to Hip-Hop. Her answer was classical. When I asked her her favorite classical composer she replies Choppin (I’m spelling it phonetically, how she said it, not as it is actually spelled or pronounced). Then I think she said something about Back also (again phonetic spelling). Now her English is pretty good, I really don’t think she has much of an accent, so I question if she was not being serious about liking classical music. I also noticed that when she left she was blasting some Hip-Hop in her car on the getaway. So I don’t know. Maybe she is just a smart ass.

I haven’t really posted much on what has been going on this week. I guess I’m in a bit of a quandary on whether I should post certain things on here as I know it is possible that some of the people that they may be about may also be reading this. Not that I have anything bad or damaging to say, I just don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea about me.

Well, fuck it. I guess I will find out who actually reads this if I post something that they do not like. Anyway….

I wrote this a few years ago and just came across it when I was organizing some files. I still need to write a brigde and/or chorus to it and of course the music as well. Maybe I will work on it with Chris and Cedrick. Here it is:

I wanted to give you everything
You choose nothing
Now I feel nothing
I am empty

I don’t know that I can ever love again in this capacity
I went after you with such tenacity
And I was met with nothing but audacity
Even though I was turned on by your generosity

You have a kind soul
But a wicked heart
One that broke my soul
And made it smart

You say you feel nothing
But you never let it start
I had no chance
And yet you let me dance

I would have given you romance
And the key to my heart
But all you did was tear me apart
And make me distant

I hold my head in shame
Because I played your game
I lost myself and I’m the one to blame
I will never be the same

So, yesterday I ended up organizing some pictures on my laptop and re-installing Windows XP on my music recording computer. I really haven’t used that machine much since I built it last year. I had only experimented with various flavors of Windows and Linux on it. Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP 64 bit aren’t very recording software friendly. There is also limited driver support for some of the components in the machine also. And of course, Linux won’t run these applications either. I’m sure I could setup virtual machines on it, but that is just too much work. I’m also not versed enough in Linux to get around it comfortably either. I guess I’m bored with computer tweaking anymore. I just want it to work.

I also went through a rat’s nest of random audio, video and computer cables. So, my bedroom is finally just about as organized as I like it to be. Now I just need to get my turntables, sampler, and V-Synth all cabled up to the PC and then Cedrick and Chris can come over and start working on some songs with me.

I made some crab stuffed sole and stuffed baked potatoes from Omaha Steaks for dinner. Thanks Emily! That is quite a great gift from my sis. I had some salad with it also. I went to Trader Joe’s to pickup some groceries while the stuff was baking. I made it back in just under 40 mins. Perfect! Leave it to a great meal to make your day. Ha Ha!

Kim called me when I was eating to see what I was doing for the evening. She wanted to go have a beer and watch the UFC fight. So I Googled it and found that Yankee Doodles had it on. So we paid a $5 cover as the fight was almost over. We saw the last 3 mins of it. Not really worth 5 bucks, but I was just there for beer and socializing. So we went to the other half of the bar after the fight. They have a dance club on the fight side normally. The other side has arcade games, darts and pool tables. So I was sitting there chatting with Kim and I noticed a hot Asian woman walked in. She went to an empty pool table and started playing by herself. So I commented on that to Kim and she said, hey go play, I’m cool to hang out. So I went and got another beer. I then made my way over to ask her is she was waiting for someone. She said no, just having a bad day and relieving some stress. So, I asked her if i could join her. She said, can you beat me? I and said I can try. So we played 5 games. She was really good. I beat her once and she lost 2 because she scratched on the 8 ball. So, of course it was hard to hold a conversation this whole time because I pretty much lost my voice. But, I was able to find out she works there and doesn’t like motorcycles. Oh well, at least she is a good competitor for pool. So I asked her if she’d call me if I gave her my number. She handed me her phone and said do whatever you want and walked away. So I put my number in her contacts and walked over and gave it back to her. I said bye, then Kim and I left. We hung out with Kim’s roommates in their garage. I needed to sober up a bit before I drove home, so I ended up just relaxing there listening to the Sublime 40oz of Freedom CD with them. So, around 2 am, Suzie, the pool girl texted me and said, “good night! nice meeting you!”. So I was stoked that she actually contacted me so soon. I didn’t bother to get her number when I had her phone. No worries though. So I will send her a message asking when she wants to kick my ass in pool again.

I feel like shit. Last night my voice started to go. It was quite difficult to carry a conversation with Jenny-Marie and Erik. We did plenty of drinking though. I’m sure that doesn’t help my current condition either. We played some Wii bowling and then unlocked a few games on Wii Play. The tank game on there is pretty fun. It is tough also.

So, today, my vocal capacity is no better. Oh well. I don’t really feel like talking to anyone anyway. Erik did show me how to make this elixir to soothe the throat. It actually was pretty cool. Use equal parts of honey, lemon juice and alcohol (rum, brandy & whiskey are best). I made mine with some 92 proof Sailor Jerry’s spiced rum. It was pretty damn good and it works too! I need to go make some more for today.

So, Rich called me at 7:51 am to wake me up to play disc golf at 10. I hate it when he does that. Why don’t you call me the night before to make plans? Either way, I don’t think I’m gonna go. My right shoulder is still sore and I don’t want to irritate it. Not to mention my legs are sore, my throat is not happy either and I’m a tad hungover. Stupid alcohol.

So, just another day at work. Pretty uneventful. Had to argue with a customer for a bit about his fucking warranty. So that was really the only excitement so far.

Jenny-Marie and Erik are coming over to do some drinking and Wii bowling tonight. Yay!

And, I’m still workin on the soup. A 20oz bag of beans, pound of ham, 3 quarts of water and other goodies makes about a gallon of soup. Good thing I have roommates to help me eat it all.