Sour Particles

First off, I have been known to like candy. Second off, Starburst is totally an awesome name for a candy. But I must say this, I tend to favor Mamba over Starburst. Still I never turn down Starburst... ...unless it is yellow. And I know I'm not alone on this, nobody seems to like yellow Starbursts, I don't mind yellow Mamba. But for some reason yellow Starbursts, no matter if they are lemon, pineapple or whatever, never get my approval. I've always been partial to the pink, which in my opion has the best flavors.

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.

I don't know how I will survive 24 hours with just a shirt, a pair of socks, my wallet and my cell phone.

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.

As always there is not enough space in the overhead bins, this brings up an important issue. Why do people bring huge bags that obviously are way over the size limit on to the plane, yet when people with bags that are barely over the limit to to get on, they make those people check the barely over the limit bags. I was boarding group B, and early in it, so I found space for my within the size limit bag quickly. Its not the danger of hitting the ground that scares me, its the collective IQ of the general population, including me, that scares me. Who knows what will happen because of us, during and after the flight. Taking off.

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.

Between the zero visibility dust and rock storms, roadrunner that came within inches of his death, flying tumble weeds from hell stuck in to the car, heavy rains in heavy traffic. Weel, I'm just really quite amazed at how smooth this weekend is going for being unplanned, even though I've know about it for months. Last night, in Santa Monica, was a nice change from the usual Thursday, which this week was pretty good actually. All I have to do is a bit of shopping here and make it an hour north in about an eight hour time span. Wish me luck.

I don't know what to call this, so I called it a "clover print." This is even more classy than PBR in a can.

I've always wanted two of these beanie Peeps, I just didn't know it until today when I saw them at the store. They are made of really soft cloth and filed with beanie stuff. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. If nothing else I'm sure somebody I know would like them. I actually made progress on the room, and its not just in my head, people have noticed. I'm turning a new leaf or page or something. Anyways, it should be interesting around here.

It feels like it should be Friday, but it is only Wednesday. I am not feeling very motivated, but after a long vacation you will have some coverage of the progress I make organizing my room. It will be almost like an early Christmas, but without a tree. On a different note, have you ever felt like you made a big circle in life but this time something was different? I know I make mistakes on each loop I make, but hopefully less of the same ones and not too many new ones. I'm really stubborn though sometimes. Actually quite often, maybe I can change that this time around. Today revolved around food, but if not food, what then? Banana cream pie shakes are perhaps one of the best fast food items ever produced.

I don't think anyone will figure out on their own what this photo is. But that doesn't matter because I know, and knowing is half the battle, or so I was taught when I was younger by cartoons. It's kind of hard for me to come to terms with how much has happened since then, since I was what I now consider as "young," check back in twenty years for a post referring to myself as young currently. Anyways, the TV had a dial, VCRs and stereos ate your favorite tapes for lunch, and nothing besides how the answering machine you just took apart worked internally was complicated. Or maybe that's an over simplification of it. But it sure feels that way sometimes.

I was happy to to just have the souffle rise up in the oven. Even if it just made it that far along, I would have been proud of it. I made it with: butter, cream cheese, chocolate, cream, eggs, Grand Marnier, sugar and water. It didn't taste too bad to me, and people said it actually tasted good. But, you never know if they just bit the bullet and ate it even though it tasted atrocious. At any rate I don't think souffles are my thing, at least to eat, but they are fun to make. Oh, Christmas was fun, wet but fun.

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.

My room is still a complete mess. In fact it is pretty much a lost cause, but you know me, I love lost causes. After my fairly probable crappy morning, I will start the relief effort.

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.

My room has seen better days and not too many worse days. It is not rock bottom yet either though. There is hope, a light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Do you ever order something online, and they brag about three day shipping being standard. But they do not ship your order which is in stock and they say time to shipping is one to three business days. And you want to get a hold of them because you want to know what's happening, but they have no real way to contact them, but they are the best bet place to order that thing from. So you eventually get tired and want to take your business elsewhere, but you can't even cancel your order. Weeks go by. I hate that.

Friday had some pinetar, but the waitress said the growler size was illegal to serve there and was only for taking home. It has got nitrogen not carbon dioxide though, so I'm not sure about it. If you have any input on the subject let me know.

I am so tired, I think it will be nap time as soon as the drive is done. I know you are looking forward to seeing some new photos of my clean room, right? All the newly released movies this weekend, and none seemed to be getting good reviews from critics and frends alike, so we ended up watching Red-Eye, and it inspired me to write a suspenseful scary movie, I know I could do a better job, check back for progress on this new venture.

It is about time to pack up the car and start the long journey once again. I can't really even make an estimate to how much stuff I will bring with me. I don't know if I will take more stuff than I brought, or less stuff than I brought. Life is funny like that.

Those monkeys sure do keep their cages clean, I don't know how they do it. I will try and get some inspiration to clean later this weekend. Throwing feces is always fun too.

My room here at home is pretty clean, but other than hanging around the house and going to eat I didn't do much today. Watched some O.C., some South Park, Desperate Housewives, some Office, and a little bit of American Dad. Good day, ready to party the rest of the weekend! Or maybe just take it easy. Who knows?

If you forget memories, what will you have to talk about when you are old, besides how rock music makes kids do drugs. Something I didn't learn until it was too late was that if you give up what you believe in you are left with a bunch of stuff that you don't believe in and it is hard to convince yourself that they matter. You can never control what happens in life, but you can control your actions, sometimes it is just hard, but you will thank yourself later. My next action is sleep, I bet you expected me to say I was going to clean my room, but that will have to wait because I have to pack now, but I will try to clean as pack, because it's what I do, i'm a neat freak, ask anyone I know.

I can now make it to the back of my closet. Found some interesting stuff I had forgotten about. I know its not "clean" yet, but I really will finish it by friday. I would keep working on it, but I have a lot of other work which has to be done before Monday and Wednesday. Now it is time to relax a bit, I am exhausted.

The week was so long that it was actually more than a week. I did quite a few things while I was here, lots of suprises, lots of rain, lots of fun. I was actually semi productive, but eaisly distracted. I feel like I have more direction now than I had before, and actually more than I've had in as long as I can remember, but you never know what the future will be like until you are there, but what you do at this exact moment as you read this will change your life forever, it changed mine too..

I love being tired halfway through the day and falling down on my nice pillows. Taking an unscheduled nap with the sun filling my room and some nice music in the background. Most of all I have to be laying down on my bed crooked or with at least thirty percent of my body either hanging off the bed or on top of random things left on my bed. Oh, and for sure the nap has to be one where I didn't know it was happening until I wake up, and then I keep laying there and snooze a little longer. Oh well, nap time is over!

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...

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