Monthly Archives: January 2004

The Gallery was the High School English Poem and Art book that got published every year. Nothing like teen angst and the best of bad poetry in High School. Anyway, I’d had forgotten how many poems that Ivan had in this thing. All autographed too. Hmm. A number of other bastards poems and stories are included. Then there is this awful gem…

Chinese Zodiac

The jungles of Asia are where I tread.
I walk the jungle in my cloak of tan.
And when I am enraged, All lower with dread’
For I am the Tiger, king of the land.

You are the princess of the wind and air
High above in the clouds thus do you fly
You glide in the heavens without a care;
For you are the Dragon, angel of the sky

We see each other from the lands we command;
I from the ground, you from the sky that is yours.
We meet midway, far from our domains.
And with one small brief glance, our passion soared.

Unfortunately we grew apart from each other,
And we went away’ never again to see one another.

I think they included it just to meet their minority quota.

Gong Hay Fat Choy and Saehae Bok Mani Paduseyo!!!

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year…Lunar New Year to be PC about it since not just China celebrates it. The new year is the Year of the Wood Monkey. This is what the new year hold for me according to my
Chinese astrology book:

**update** The parade isn’t until February. I forgot that the parade is usually a couple weeks after the actual new years

From Chinese Astrology: Strange how you always think it’s your year. You get all excited and buoyed up – but it’s the monkey’s year; don’t forget it.

From The Handbook Of Chinese Astrology: The year of the Monkey may present setbacks and some difficulties for the Tiger native. This may be because the Tiger is used to having his way and tends to be short on patience and endurance. The Monkey is the ultimate showman, and extremely competitive, and the Tiger native may feel intimidated by the many challenges the Monkey year brings. This is not the time to let his impulses lead the Tiger into making rash decisions. A good strategy would be for the Tiger to refrain from making quick or long-term commitments unless he gets all the information on the whole picture. Seeking counsel as well as shelter when things get out of hand would be the smartest thing for the Tiger native to do this year. If the Tiger-born refuses to play by the Monkey’s rules or succumb to the Monkey’s ingenious mind games, then he will not become involved in complicated capers that Tigers may not be adept at handling because of their temperament. Can the Tiger resist danger? He must, or the Monkey wins.

From The New Chinese Astrology: You are going to love this year. It’s action packed with changes and surprises. Besides, the Monkey really admires your pep and secretly giggles in complicity behind his paw at your incessant shenanigans. He’s a good ally for you so you can go ahead this year with your crazy outlandish plans and your endless plots and schemes. The Monkey’s atmosphere is there to assist you in becoming a better leader. But don’t push this Monkey year’s good nature because his involvement in your plans will be superficial. This year people will willingly give you a hand or even a leg-up but they won’t invest in your enterprises. Go it alone. And hurry!

From Chinese Horoscope For Lovers: Despite some financial problems and the odd unexpected hurdle, there’ll be plenty of scope and opportunities for the Tiger to make fair progress this year. Emotionally, it’s a time for compromise since people and events will sorely try your patience. Year Trend: Watch out for gremlins.

Will probably head out to the Chinese New Year Parade once again this year, even though it is suppose to be cloudy and a chance of rain. All I need to do is to get sick right before school starts again. I already have enough of an headache going on with the first day of school.

One of the best parts of living in Pacifica is the drive home. I just love the view that I have driving home has I cross over Skyline Blvd on Hwy 1 and head down the hill to the town. A beautiful view of the ocean, the waves crashing onto the pier and the beach, the sun a rosy orange setting in the horizon, the surfers out in the water catching a last wave. And if the right song is playing in the car, the inspirational effect climbs up another notch.
Mark, the new guy, was over to give Barbara a deposit for the room. I’m glad that she finally found someone to rent the second room out, has it will help her out alot. He’s not moving in until February, so that gives me time to clear my stuff off of the shelves and make room for him. Barbara’s daughter is also coming up to spend the weekend. That will good for Barbara, since she wasn’t able to go down to LA to see her for Xmas.

So I should be asleep, but the cats are running qualifying laps for the Pacifica 200 that they are planning on having this weekend.
So yeah, the cats are racing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. All of a sudden, there is this double thud on my door. It’s quiet for a moment, and then the back and forth continues.
Those crazy cats…
**update** Just heard Barbara get up. Guess she is going to raise the black flag and end the races.

Finish reading the two Christian books that Lesa let me borrow. Actually, it was just kind of a forced read just in order to say that I read them. Which means that I need to read them again.
I got some things out of the two books, but not what I wanted to get. Not sure if it was what I needed to get either. I get the point that God sent Jesus to die on the cross to save us and to forgive our sins. And that everything in the Old Testament is superseded by whatever was written in the New Testament. And that Jews, Muslims, and even Catholics are going to hell.
Yeah, I got alot of rereading to do.
I guess it come down to is that I don’t have faith in God/Jesus (I’m still kinda confused on that whole issue too, but I’ll save that for later, I guess). Am I being too arrogant in the fact that I would like God/Jesus/Angel/cherub/Saint to talk to me in person, or send me a clear sign? Am I just too pigheaded/arrogant to hear them talk to me? I am quite willing to be struck by something, whether it is a lighting bolt, or a big white holy bible, in order to knock something into me.
I probably should goto a Bible Study somewhere; that might get some of my questions answered. But it was weird enough going to a church by myself.
Maybe I am just destined to goto hell? Maybe that’s what I need, a sign from the Devil confirming my spot in hell. At least I would know, right?
**sigh**
I need to take some Nyquil and goto sleep.

The internet has been wanky all night long. So has my keyboard/mouse. Granted, I’m at the 3 foot limit with the input devices, but still. I wonder if I should have spent the extra money for the Bluetooth version with the longer range. Naw, I really can’t read what’s on the computer from more than 3 feet away (although I would be able to play Serious Sam, Ms. Pac Man, Diablo II, or Zuma from that distance.)
Watched the State of the Union tonight. Bush did nothing to comfort me about the future of the country, both domestic wise or overseas. There was no new information or anything about was is going on overseas. Yeah, the state of the union is probably not the best choice for info. But I wanted some reassurances, a plan of action. I didn’t get that, I got that we still don’t know what we are doing overseas, but we are America, so we will throw some money at it and it will be all alright. Oh yeah, we are building/funding a TV station for the Middle East.
Domestic wise, the speech was even worse. Maybe I’m being narrow minded by just looking around and at the people that I know, but I see lots of people with no jobs, unemployed for months, or low paying jobs. I don’t see the economy picking up. Granted, I’m in the Bay Area and not Texas or Arkansas or where ever. But still. And this whole amnesty program for illegal immigrants and increasing more visa for foreign workers. I think that is just wrong, esp. when companies are outsourcing jobs overseas. Actually, I feel…weird, in a bad way…due to the fact that I’ve started to become an isolationist. However, I look at all of the homeless and jobless people here, esp. in S.F. and just wonder why do we need more people to come into the country and why do we need to send jobs overseas when there are people here that can do the jobs.
It was funny when the Democrats cheered at that one part in his speech when he was talking about the Patriot Act.
I was surprising that he didn’t mention anything about NASA or the space program.
And I should have known that he would bring up the same-sex issue. The thing is that I do agree with him in the fact that marriage is something between a man and a women according to the major religions. I don’t think that the government has the right to force the church to perform gay marriages. On the other hand, I do think that the government should recognize same sex relationships and unions and that these couples should get the same benefits has “traditional” couples. I am strongly against a Constitutional Amendment about the issue.
What else? Blame athletes for kids doing drugs….going to cut the deficit in half by not raising taxes….blah, blah, blah.
Was it just me, or did the military people that were guests not real happy/enthused about being there?

I’m pretty sure that today was a holiday for me. If it wasn’t, then I guess no one missed me cause I didn’t get a call or anything.

Anyway, spent a little part of the day being sick. I didn’t take Nyquil last night, and therefore didn’t get much sleep. When I finally got my sick ass out of bed, I decided that I would clean my room, and move stuff from the drawers in my closet to the drawer underneath my bed. That turned into a small reorganization and cleaning of my entire room. I guess it was good; I got all of my wires and computer stuff wrapped and organized. I have a shitload of extension cords, speaker cables, and CAT5 cable.

I also started cleaning out my memento stuff, going through it deciding what need to be given away, what need to be shipped up to Washington to join the rest of it, and what I’m going to keep. I decided that I will share some of it and tell stories behind it. Maybe. Some of it need not explanation, and some of it I might show you, the reader, and let you come up with your own conclusion.

So lets start with what I did on January 16, 2000….

On this day, I went out with Amber and her boyfriend at the time Aaron to see the greatest group to come out of Canada, The Kids In The Hall. I met Amber and Aaron downtown and we went to the Starlight Room on top of the Sir Frances Drake Hotel. This was
weird because 1)I was def. not dressed for the Starlight Room and totally felt it. 2) The last time I was at the Starlight Room was when I was 19 and at the 1993 Senior Prom that was held there. Among the other things that went on that night, everybody was trying to sneak up to the higher levels of the hotel. We went down to the service area and found the elevator. however, everyone chickened out except for Jesse and I. And so we took the elevator to the top and we went to the Starlight Room. I vaguely remember that we weren’t immediately carded and I think we sat down for a bit at the bar before we left/got kicked out. Anyway, back to the story. After some drinks we went back to the Warfield and watched the show. OMG, it was such a good show. It was a mix of their old standards and new stuff with a S.F. flair to it. These guys are so funny, I honestly can’t pick my favorite. Like I’m torn between Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, and Scott Thompsom. However, Kevin McDonald and Mark McKinney aren’t far behind. I think we ended the night at
Denny’s talking about…don’t remember. I do remember that Aaron was really good looking and smart. Probably my favorite out of Amber’s boyfriends that I’ve met. Anyway, now that the first season is FINALLY out on DVD, I need to find it and buy it.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been to the Popcap game site, and now I know why.

OOOGA, OOOGA, OOOGA!!!! ZUMA!!!