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What a lazy weekend- I must have slept through a good 4/7 of it.

Today I tried to grab a late breakfast at a nearby restaurant, but with a line out the door I settled on Burger King. Get this- a steak, crispy onions, cheese, and mashed potatoes with bacon bits, all together in a bun.

It was such a disgusting commentary that I had to try it. Very filling. Thank God for Fast Metabolisms.

Took an IQ test the other day. I don't put much stock in them, but it was nice seeing that I gained a few points since the last time I took one- the Sudoku must be paying off. Heh, now my satirical self proclamations of "I'm a Genius!" actually have a little merit. Guess I'll have to stop saying it now- it's only funny if it's not true :)

Made a new addition to the list of things I used to hate but have come around to, like Beer and Spicy Foods. I've started listening to Techno/Trance etc.

I never understood it before (and I still don't) and found it somewhat grating, but I discovered that the rhythmic beats helped me focus while I was "coding". Then I kept it on during a break. And while I surfed the web. Now I'm pretty much listening to it all the time. As a side effect, it seems to be awakening in me a desire to learn to dance, which I've always hated.

Makes me wonder what I'll start liking next. Polo? Leaf Pressing? Ugh, let's hope not.

Whew

Wow, the past week just flew by. (That tends to happen when the boss goes out of town.)

Nothing new really going on. It was just a pleasant, relaxed week.

The Date is in LA, working on his project for Google. We might get together next weekend.

Last night turned into Girl's Night Out somehow, when dinner with The Vegan expanded to include her roommate and ex-girlfriend. And then Emmy called out of the blue and showed up too. After which, we all saw a late show of 'Sex and the City'.

Oh God. I had absolutely no interest in seeing it, but everyone else was going and I didn't want to be the wet blanket of the group like usual. The three lemon drops I had beforehand helped.

But God, 2 1/2 hours- ughhhh. I kept hoping Batman would show up. Batman or Ironman should make an appearance in every movie ever made from now on. Maybe even digitally add them to old movies, too. 'Casablanca' with Ironman- the Nazis wouldn't know what hit em'.

*sigh* Young Love...

Boy, I love my new iPhone. On paper it's not that different, but it
transcends that.

I had preferred the aluminum back, but after owning it for a couple of
days, I'm a convert. It really does feel even better in your hand!

Hmm, I just realized- in all likelihood I'll be using an Apple made
phone for the rest of my life. That's rather comforting. No matter
what happens, I've got that phone thing taken care of. That's done.

(I am Jack's raging consumeristic lust.)

So, let me change the subject before I frighten people anymore than I
already have.

My Date called the other night. He was picking some friends up at the
airport, but the flight was delayed and he had a couple of hours to
kill, so he wanted to get together.

I was too exhausted though. The previous night (technically earlier
that morning) I had saw a 1AM 'Dark Knight' showing and didn't get
home until 4. (Fantastic movie, by the way) And the graveyard worker
called in sick, so I started work a couple of hours early, getting
about a 45 minute nap in beforehand.

And then after work, I met up with Emmy to pay her back the money she
had loaned me for my surgery. We ended up getting some Vietnamese
soup, so I didn't get back home until 7PM.

By now I wasn't THAT tired- my horoscope had said I'd be bursting with
energy, and it was right. But I wanted to ease into a semi-early
bedtime, not use the last of my reserves painting the town red.

So we talked about maybe getting together next week, before he goes to
LA for a project he's working on.

Well, we'll see how it goes.

Monk's Back!

And I can watch it online at www.usanetwork.com/fullepisodes/

Whoop!

Finally!

Buying a new Apple product is almost like a Hero's Trial. You need to suffer and persevere before you can claim victory.

Yesterday, having just taken my paycheck to the bank, I saw the line in front of the Apple Store and decided on the spur of the moment to start waiting.

And wait I did, for 3 1/2 hours. It was freezing and windy, and I looked a fright once I finally made it inside. After another 1/2 hour I finally made it to the front of the line, but was told they were out of stock of the black 16gb, which is what I wanted.

I was ready to settle for the white one just because I was exhausted and I wanted to get home, change into my Flash tee and crawl into my warm, warm bed.

But the guy said that if I really wanted it, they'd have more in stock the next day and I could get a ticket that would get me to the front of the line. If I had suffered that long, I figured I might as well get what I want, so I took the ticket.

Not wanting them to run out of stock again, I got someone to cover for me at work and I returned to the cave, slayed the dragon, and returned scarred, but victorious, clutching the svelte heart of the beast in my frigid hands.

Bring on the ale and wenches!

Ah-choo

My colds always seem to follow the same stages- First I get a sore throat, when that goes away I develop a cough, and when that lets up I get a runny nose and start sneezing a lot. I'm in stage III now, so hopefully recovery is right around the corner.

Blowing ones nose every five minutes isn't exactly sexy, as I mentioned before.

So, my first date with a boy.

The weather was great, for once. We met up in Chinatown and walked around, eventually grabbing some lunch at a Dim Sum place.

He was nice, very well mannered and courteous. We talked a lot, chatting about this and that. He has some interesting projects in the works, and he has a lot of friends in the tech community so it was cool talking about gadgets and future technologies and such.


After lunch we walked around trying to find a bar with a view, the ones at the top of nice hotels, but the first one didn't open until after 5, and the second was no longer available to the public.

So he drove me to 'The Cliff House', a restaurant and bar at the top of a cliff overlooking the Pacific. The view was beautiful.

I saw a cocktail called 'Vesper' on the menu, and as I read the ingredients I realized it was the one James Bond had special ordered in 'Casino Royale', down to the lemon twist, so I geeked out and ordered that. It was pretty good, though I prefer drinks a little sweeter.

So by now we had spent almost five hours together, and I had to be getting back to work to take care of some little things before the boss went out of town. He drove me back, and um, yeah, we kissed.

It was a small, shy kiss, and I actually made the first move, which surprised me. Maybe that Vesper was stronger than I thought.

We're probably going to get together sometime again soon.

Blech

Ugh, I have a bit of a cold that I've been fighting. A tad of a sore throat and a little cough- definitely not sexy.

Which is unfortunate, because I kinda sorta have a date today. With a boy.

Well, I had told him right off the bat that this was new for me, and I'd like to try being friends first

So, it's really more of a hanging out kind of thing. We're going to take a walk through Chinatown and maybe grab some lunch.

I'm a bit nervous. This really is a whole new dynamic for me. At 25 and a 1/2, I have a lot of catching up to do.

Whoops

Sorry for the delay. I was only kidding about disappearing, but oooh boy, it's easy to slip down the rabbit hole when you're "coding". Or learning and practicing, in this case.

I'm starting with Python, and dabbling in C. C is cool because my robot reads it, and it's neat to type in a few esoteric commands and see it take off across the floor as it follows them.

This is all part of a larger project that should last the next year or so, and might end up in a bit of prize money. And even if it doesn't, well, it's something to do. I'll keep you updated on that.

Today is July 11th, AKA "The 2nd Coming", AKA iPhone 3G Release day!

Unfortunately, I don't get paid til' next week :( And I'm still debating whether to pick it up. (Gasp!) On the one hand, I already have a great, fully capable phone. a 32gb iPhone 3G will probably be released around the holidays. The service contract is more expensive.

On the other hand... I really want one! Now!

History has shown that my gadget lust often trumps my logic, but we'll see.

Happy 4th!

Greetings from the trenches of the Graveyard Shift, something I'll be working the next couple of nights because two of our employees are on Vacation.

We've been pretty busy, but with only a few rooms left to rent hopefully it'll be pretty quiet and I can surf the internet and shut out the world in peace.

Saw 'Hancock' today. Wow, I'm seeing a bunch of movies lately, now that I have some money. It wasn't fantastically great, but it was watchable. I always like when reality is mixed with fantasy.

Speaking of money, isn't it funny how the World works? No sooner do I pay off that huge bill I mentioned before that an old hospital bill I forgot about came in. Hil-ar-i-ous.

I think it was during that bad Ecstasy trip a few years ago. Luckily my insurance paid off some of it, for some odd reason, since I didn't have insurance back then. Well, I'm not complaining. It's manageable, and I'll take care of that AFTER I get some needed equipment. They've waited this long- what's a few more weeks?

Hmmmm, what else... I've always considered myself a Hardware person ("Hey, don't blame me- that's a software problem.") but my projects are starting to require programming skills, so I'm (slowly) learning a variant of C.

And you thought I was geeky before... If you don't hear from me for a couple of months, call the Police. They'll probably find me sealed up in my room by a tower of Pizza boxes and Bawls bottles.

Mmmm, Pizza.... Hey, that's not a bad idea.

Ta ta for now.

Four Eyes

My new glasses came today! My other glasses were OK, but after years of use the lenses have become a bit foggy with scratches, and the hinges are loose and floppy. (That's what SHE said! ...or whatever the kids are saying nowadays.)

One can't probably tell the difference, but they are a little smaller, and I like em'.

I saw Wanted last night, and The Vegan loved it. Funny how her argument against WALL-E was how unrealistic it is, yet she doesn't seem to mind people jumping out a window and flying a few hundred feet to the next building, shooting five or six in the head (one was around a corner and the bullet curved around).

Unrealistic as it may be, it was still an ok mindless action movie.

And of course Angelina Jolie was really hot.

So it comes, so it goes

Guess you can say that about pretty much everything.

Paycheck came, paid off that bill, and now hopefully I'm free.

Just two more weeks to go and I can buy the equipment I need to continue my experiments.

Oh, and here's my new T-Shirt! If I could have one superpower, controlling the "Speed Force" would certainly be it.