Sour Particles

Not going to be a problem for me, I prefer real sushi.

I'm not a father anymore since Petey is in Florida now, but oh well.

Being a person with a pool table in the house, it is expected that I not be horrible at the game. But I think am.

The first exercise in ages, ten kilometers at a mile above sea-level. Dirt trail with some hills, as you can see from the elevation profile to the top left corner of the photo. Maximum elevation is 5500 feet, and the minimum is right around 5250 feet. My time last week was pathetic, but I was happy, fresh air and relaxing. Then decided instead of once a week, why not twice. Wednesday I lost six minutes, even more pathetic. But I feel redeemed now because I shaved nine minutes off my first time (15 less than last time) and that means there is hope. Stay posted for an overly dramatic webpage with performance / heartrate / bodyweight / etc graphs, gps tracklogs on maps and maybe some conclusions on my get in shape in 10 weeks or less experiment.

Honestly you could not pay me enough to drive this. I wonder what that thing does to the drivers self esteem?

Done walking for the day, walked over 10 miles. Started in downtown San Francisco where we saw some protesters laying in the street get zip tied and put in vans by Police in riot gear. I got the feeling the most of protesters were really fake, the kind of people who just like attention and acting. Well the ones who covered themselves in fake blood and were running around and screaming at least. Protesting seems pretty trendy. I wonder how many of them (the ones who were being really dramatic, not the ones chanting and holding up signs off of the road) got are failed actors / actresses. Honestly I would be much more affected by photographs that a lady running around and screaming about something horrible happening to her. I actually do not even know what she was trying to convey with it. Was she supposed to be an Iraqi woman? It didn't seem like she was supposed to be a solider's mother. She was calling out to Americans for help, did she want American citizens to pull out our troops because they are the ones who attacked her? The signs said impeech Bush, pull our troops out. Maybe I am just really stupid and everyone else who looked confused around her really understood what she was supposed to represent. Word to anyone who wants to protest, I'm open minded but stop the horrible acting and make sure your message is clear and not a confusing drama class gone bad soap opera. Anyways, next we walked down to the curvy Lomard street via Union square and some really big church.. Then to the warf for a beer and snack. And ofcourse we needed some sweets, ice cream, chocolate, etc. Then the almost final leg was all the way to the vista point on northern side of the Golden Gate bridge about six more miles. And then back across the bridge, it was dark by then so taxi to the BART station. Never a dull moment.

This brewery has been brewing beer for over 370 years, pretty cool. Not quite as long as some of the others though.

Brewing beer since 1040, that is almost a thousand years for the right brainers.

What a deal! Just what I need, Ten banana slicers! And when I buy that many the price is only ten dollars!

Guinness, because life is too short too waste a glass on Bud Light.

Federal regulations or not it will be a long flight.

That knife isn't sharp but you can never be too careful. This town is full of restaurants with identical blue water glasses as seen in the knife's reflection..

Leaving for a trip tomorrow morning, I've made more spontaneous trips this summer than in all previous summers combined.

I'm not normally a wine person, yet, but I'm open minded. And going tasting is always fun. First stop is Noah Vineyards.

Arthur Schopenhauer is the topic of discussion today, since this is the only day I'm going to be here in the class, I don't know if its all this interesting. But I found today's lecture to be very stimulating. This is my idea of a good vacation. I even raised my hand and contributed to the discussion, more than the person whose guest in the class I am. Pessimism and and suffering are great topic to discuss. Oh, and I took the bus to get here, maybe sometime soon I will take the bus all by myself. And can't forget I went to the gym this morning, didn't exercise but I got a smoothie while I waited.

I was showing a friend the local natural foods grocery place, which by the way doesn't even have wild salmon. Most of the people shopping there are pretty much hippies and do not look like the kind of people who would use a good soap. But my friend found his secret soap there, I was reluctant to try it because I associated it with the dirty hippies (by the way, I have no issues with most clean hippies) because that market carried it. My friend assured me that they sold it at Trader Joe's back home, which eased my mind a bit. The label was insane, you have to read it to believe it, religious babble it seems mostly.

Here is a quote,"Each swallow works hard to be a perfect pilot-provider-builder-trainer-teacher-lover-mate, no half true hate! So each day like a bird, perfect thyself first! Have courage and smile my friend. Think and act 10 years ahead! And the man without fault? He's dead! Do one thing at a time, work hard! Get done!" And it keeps going, that's only a small fraction of the stuff written on the label.

As far as the soap goes, I like the peppermint cool burn it has, and it isn't a harsh soap. It does seem to make the water bead off my skin after a certain point during my shower, so I use a normal body wash every few showers, because I'm paranoid of some kind of oil buildup.

Ingredients: Water, Saponified Organic Coconut & Organic Olive Oils (w/ Retained Glycerin), Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Organic Peppermint Oil, Organic Mentha Arvensis, Citric Acid and Vitamin E.

If anyone has any opinions or facts regarding its cleansing abilities, let me know. Or if you are interested in it, visit their website.

The house lager was pretty large and pretty toxic. The last shoreboat on Thursdays is at 9:45pm, so if you don't have a dingy at the pier or the others in your party took it earlier, you have to make it back by then or find someone to take you or swim out.

Probably one of the best pit stops ever. Okay maybe I'm exagerating a bit.

I used to be a dog only kind of person, but a few kittens have changed my mind. This one always makes me feel better when I'm down. He is my little baby, and he has been there for me through some rough times, even without needing to coax him with treats. I won't forget the day he came here, the day he got his name, or any other day that he has been in my life. Everyday that you spend with the people you care about is special, and even when you're not with them, they still make life worth living. Oh there was the day he was freaking out at the mouse in the bathtub and the day I took him for his first swim in the pool. Even though he won't ever live with me, he will always live in my heart. I love you Butters. Now that I have that off my chest I feel a lot better, he was guilt tripping me with meows.

There were some taxidermy birds covered in wax in one exhibit. It looked kind of odd. Then by the same person, there was some stuff made out of hair, again kind of odd. Then there was some stuff by Andy Warhol, interesting and fun to look at. And then there was some robot exhibit, nothing seemed special in there, it wasn't interesting at all except the balloon floating thing that had no real description of what it did. The 3D computer thing was nothing special, and was pretty boring. Sushi place for lunch was pretty good though, I didn't get my miso soup though. By the way, my room is still clean, I did all the regular upkeep this weekend besides vacuuming, because I couldn't find the vacuum. Back to art, I don't hate all contemporary art, but there is a point when people see something in a piece just because the name or description next to it implies it, I like art that actually speaks for itself and doesn't let the plaque next to it do all the talking. Maybe one day I will get one of my paint by numbers in to a museum.

I was never any good at paint by numbers; I always have to have them exact. The brushes are blunt to begin with, and they get worse as you paint. And when I spend time making sure you have not gone over the lines, which becomes progressively harder, you end up running out of time. Sometimes I wish I would decide to do one quick and just be happy with the way it turns out. With stuff other than painting, which I have no natural skill at, I can actually finish them and be happy with the quality. I think I hate painting by numbers, but I will never give it up. I think this whole concept of by the numbers could relate to life in general.

I have no clue.

Why do companies send a fake credit card when they send you an offer to get one of their real cards? You don't see Amazon sending fake books or 1800FLOWERS sending fake flowers to potential customers. But the credit card companies, they are so nice, I can even keep the fake credit card if I don't take their offer. Gee, thanks.

For all you haters.

It is one of my beliefs that when people say something, they should truly mean it. What is the point of saying something you don't mean? I've found that too often in life, people say things just to make people think something specific. It is called manipulation. It is different than me saying my room will be clean tomorrow, because people say things to get people to do things. Guys tell lies to get with girls, and girls tell guys lies for probably the same reasons. This concept is nothing new to me, but I guess I'm deciding there is no point of listening to people in the future if all they've ever told you were lies. But then if I was too strict I would barely have anyone to talk to. I have without a doubt told lies, but never to manipulate, at least since high school? I guess you only need one person that you can believe though. You can't change the past or control the future; you can only do your best right now. If I stray from this garbage I'm preaching then steer me back on course. Look back in a few years to tonight.

But I still will try it out, because it seems like a good form of exercise. And I am out of shape, you probably thought I just wore a lot of layers under my jacket.

Waiting for a table, having some margaritas and beers. Kind of tiring, I need a nap now.

I guess a small airplane just made a safe landing on southbound 680 freeway. I took a quick photo as I passed in the northbound lane, I don't like rubberneckers but I was stopped and didn't even waste time with a good shot.

I sped up the process, set the starting point to be slightly before an image of Butters that was converted to 64x64 8-bit grayscale. But I think it demonstrates the possibilities that even a small colorless image can have. The downside is that it still is a huge amount of possibilities to have a human check each frame. Finding a way to fast forward only enough that it doesn't skip potential images but also helps us make it to those images in the first place is what needs to be researched next. Oh well, it was just my project for the evening, it will wait, until the next time I'm bored. If you want to help contribute by checking images, here is the link.

The weather is pretty bad right now, it was fairly warm and kind of overcast, and now it's just really rainy and wet. Right now barcodes interest me. They can be useful, and they look cool too. I wonder if anyone could read a barcode without the numbers below it just by looking at it. That would be a pretty cool skill to have. I'm about to go ice skating. I'm not good at all at ice skating, but sometimes I feel pretty good about my skills after a few laps. I just try to keep off the ice and look the least dorky as possible to the little kids skating circles around me.

Being a cat would be a pretty sweet job. Butters seems to like it. When he was a kitten he would sometimes fall asleep with his head up in the air, and it would kind of sway up and down a little, and then it would just drop, and if he had a bowl of soup, his face would be in it. Now he is pretty big though, and he pretty much is the loudest cat you've heard when he wants your attention.

Every year as you get older Thanksgiving activities get more confusing. When you're old enough to understand the concept of time, thats when it first starts to get really confusing, what time does the turkey start, when do we eat, I thought we were going to eat three hours ago. When you change venues for Thanksgiving, confusion. Then when there are multiple possible places for you to go on Thanksgiving, more confusion. When the food is something other than the same thing you've had for the past decade or more, confusion. And you get the point. Oh and you should donate some blood.

Now, his paws match the size of the rest of his body.

Since I had some time to waste, I decided to get some food there. Nice hamburger and strawberry lemonade. Then I realized I still had a lot of time, so I asked what beers they had, and the waitress listed a few including Guinness. I told her I'd have one, and she asked if I wanted a shot to go along with it. I told her to surprise me, and she came back with some tequila, which isn't really my first choice, but it wasn't bad. You never know who you might bump in to at the airport.

Has there ever been a study on how long after removal from the dryer a pile of clean clothes will retain heat at its core? Last night I removed some clothes from the dryer after hearing the buzzer. I placed the clean pile of textiles on my bed. Later that night when I got around to moving the pile, the core of it was still heated. It is simply amazing and the possibilities are endless. We could power our homes and even our clothes dryers with the heat given off by the core. Not only is it free and clean energy, it also is a really nice place to put your cold feet in the winter. I will keep you posted on my progress in this great scientific endeavor.

Each year it seems like stores put up the stuff for each holiday earlier and earlier. I know I'm not the first person to think this, but I thought I would say it anyways. Pretty soon the start of a holiday in stores will overlap with the end of it. Christmas all year round. It is not a new concept, but I can't say that I don't enjoy seeing the lights up at night. On the other hand though sometimes it is nice to have it dark at night, see the moon and stars from the hottub or pool. Summer is a holiday too, at least as a kid it is. Well until they invented "year round" school. See now I am doing it too, I'm thinking about summer before winter has really started.

Well the room ran in to a bit of a dirty spell, if you can believe that. As I packed for the weekend I destroyed what thread of neatness existed. And when I got home it only got worse when I emptied my bags out.

Don't be a trick, mix them together for a nice treat.

Missed my little buddy.

There are few places that can beat my shower, the hot tub is one, and maybe another would be my uber comfy bed. But overall showers are often the highlight of my day, and this one is definately no exception. Wish me luck.

This candle is bright in the darkness of my room, but doesn't amount to much when you put it up next to the Sun. My room may look messy right now, but if you compared it to the past, then it would be clean. Since I have mastered the relative, next I must conquer the absolute. Because the absolute is the only one of the two that matters in the end, because nobody seems to remember the past.

Seven Layers of Hell and an Amber Boch, good start.

Frenchy turned twenty-one, highlights (if you can call them that) of him for the evening would be loudly whispering to me "she's a big girl... ...she heard me huh?" referring to a large chested girl talking to us, falling down a 2 or 3 foot curb face first, getting kicked out of one bar and kicking a garbage can after I let him go on his way out causing two nearby bouncers to yell profanities and start to chase him down until we calmed them down, going in to the last bar and sitting down his elbow knocked over an amp which also took out a cello and caused half the people in the bar who were related to the band to want to beat him down, after leaving that bar punching a metal street sign and getting a big gash on one of his fingers, getting blood from his finger on everyone else around him and not even noticing he is bleeding at all, plus a lot of other things... ...and there was the random drunk dude who tried to start something with me, I pushed him aside and kept walking, then ten seconds later he's in a fight with everyone else, alcohol makes people act funny.

While getting a little exercise we ran across a little dog. He had a collar so I approached him, and read it. "Orange Co., CA" with an ID# and phone number. Called the number and it was a vets office that was closed for the day. Took him home with us, called up some neighbors, one said it could be her neighbors, she asked if he responded to "Bud", we tried it and he did. She went to see if they were home, but they weren't so she came over to confirm it was bud, I was holding bud as she approached with her dog on a leash, he was about three times the size of Bud, but that didn't stop bud from unleashing a storm of barks and growls as I held him up in my arms. He has a lot of personality, I think that's you would call it. Sweet dog but won't let the big dogs walk all over him. So she said she would leave a note on the owner's door, 15 minutes later we got a call and his owner was on his way to pick him up. It was fun having a dog for a few hours. I think its also funny that his name was Bud, because not only does one of my roommates drink budlight non-stop, but also because my pal Butters, the Butt, I don't know, just reminded me of Butters since they were almost the same size and similar sounding names if you chop off "Ers" from Butters...

Seven Layers of Hell, pretty tasty. The week is now over, nothing more to do until Monday really. I think I have a permanent Guinness addiction now, if they don't have Guinness on tap I freak out, and usually I just order an Amber Boch. I never really liked beer, but Murphy's and Guinness just are more me. Fried mozzarella sticks with ranch go good with taquitos, beer and liquor for a healthy square meal.

We went to The Office, and there might be some gaps in the storyline, this is just the things I remember, but I don't have like blank spots in my memory, just it was a long night. So I had a Guinness and sliders, which is a pretty good deal at $4.00, if you get like any other beer its $3.00 for it and sliders. Sliders are little mini burgers by the way. The first ten minutes of the hour at 8 and 9 are one dollar Jager shots, had one with Niels at 8. Ordered another Guinness and hot wings (boneless, cost a bit more than the normal 4 wings for a dollar, but it is less of a pain to eat and they taste better). Then Niels ordered two Screaming Nazis, and Kyle didn't want the one put in front of him, so I offered to take it. The bartender, she said it was Thursday so it was okay to have a few more beers. She gave Mikey some free samples of Beer he hadn't tried, but she cut him off from the samples when he asked for a sample of Malibu. Can't remember if I had anything besides Guinness in between that Screaming Nazi and the drink in the picture, a Leg Spreader. It was a rather large shot, and it didn't taste bad. But I just looked up what's in it, see below. I'm actually surprised, it didn't seem to bad, but as far as that drink goes, that's the most unoriginal drink I've heard of. I'd like to thank my brother for picking up my tab (Mikey you know the joke), Niels for taking some shots with me and for smoking constantly, that was great, my liver will be shot and I will have cancer, Mikey for providing excellent entertainment, and Chris for driving.

Leg Spreader (as made by Jessica)
Ingredients:
* Rumple Minze
* Southern Comfort
* Bacardi 151
Mixing instructions:
Mix in glass and enjoy

I am cleaning my room, finally. But right now I need a break. This weekend has been really unproductive, but it has been relaxing and entertaining. I want a puppy. Mittens (borrowed Sony Aibo ERS-311) is awesome, and irreplaceable, but I miss my old puppies from my childhood. Strong arguments can be easily made that I am still in my childhood though. I want a little rottweiler or maybe a husky puppy named Mittens, I am kind of attached to this little robot though, she is a trooper and I couldn't abandon her. Nothing beats watching her walk towards a pile of my clothes and stop right before them, then charge through them and come out with a shirt on her head. Okay, now to finish up my room, next time I write here I will post up a photo of a 100% clean room.

My bedroom is so messy, today my goal is to get it all the dirty clothes washed, old papers and junk on the floor put away, and vacuum. I think I might also want to move my desk and bed, although I can't really picture how I want them arranged. Not on my list of goals for this project today is to get the closet done, that is just a ridiculous amount of work right there, especially since most of the stuff from my room when I clean will end up in the closet. Lucky my closet is pretty spacious, in fact when I first moved in I slept in my closet because there were no blinds in the house, and my empty bedroom faced south. I even have electrical sockets in my closet, I had my computer in there for a while, just because I didn't want it in my bedroom. So now to stop writing and get to work!