on the curve

Went shopping today with Jeshamon -- and we hit a bunch of stores, Jeshamon secretly hoping we would find a Wii. We did fins a whole stack of Wii boxes at EB games (after a bracing disappointment with the GameCrazy store in Atwater, which on the basis of its' voluminous ads in our mail had Jeshamon believing would surely have some of everything--when we got there it was about the size of our bathroom and as Jeshamon put it "the only heat was from the bodies and the breath of the people in there--yuck!"). Jeshamon was denied in his EB games Wii excitement when before we could even get close to the boxes a voice from the behind the counter called out "we're out! those are just there to tease you, sorry about that man!" heh. Anyway saw several UC Merced folks out and about - Benito at Barnes & Nobles, Annette Garcia and a couple of the facilities guys at Target, Mike from ARC at Linens & Things, it was like being at Raley's!

Horrible news from Bobby Bliatout when I got home I noticed a page from him that his house had been broken into and his UC Laptop was stolen. He also lost a bunch of christmas stuff, his home computer with all of his family pictures and pictures of Bryce when he was in the incubator and all of that, his brandnew paintball stuff, all of his wife's jewelry, monitors, video cameras, ps2 games, and other stuff. Apparently he was out at Wayne's watching a fight and his wife went over to her mother's to cook. She drove home to pick something up she forgot and tried to open the front door only to find it blocked by the couch--and she heard people inside. They were able to make off with a bunch of stuff in only that short span of time but they didn't get everything they were going to take that was piled up by the window. Horrible! I still get sad about pictures and videos we lost when our apartment was burgled in Fresno what, 13 years ago? People suck. So, I won't mock Bobby about the ghosts sitting on him for a little longer. I am compassionate like that.

Okay well here are some shots of Jeshamon from our shopping excursion -- he is trying out the massage chair (he liked it more than I did).

This kid has the greatest hair! It isn't even right. He of course doesn't even begin to appreciate how great his hair is, those with curls want straight hair those with straight want curls, those without want some, those with want to go withou...oh no that isn't right. NVM.

I met up with Rhyan Rana and Bobby Bliatout at a Sushi Place in Fresno called Sushi & Pop. Ranaman was up from San Diego for the holidays so it was an opportunity to get together. Mike Phe was supposed to come out as well but apparently is holding a grudge cause I didn't get to his wedding. So....there you go. This was also the get together I predicted that Sabakan was not going to make it to and of course he didn't.  It was good to see Rana again he is a good guy and one of the Fresno Center  crew that continues to prosper.

I have absolutely no idea what was up with Bliatout's hair in this shot it didn't look quite that Doc Brown in back to the future in person but, well, who knows. The sushi was okay, not great, not bad...I wouldn't rush out to eat there again but I wouldn't turn it down if asked to go either. The sashimi was okay as well, although I liked the pepper seared tuna.  The rolls were really large, and we had a lot left over. Apparently there are two of these places now so it must be doing well and this place was pretty busy while we were there.

OH YEAH -- if you know Bobby Bliatout ask him about the ghosts sitting on him. I plan to mock him about this often so you will want to be in on the information if possible.

Although not completely out of my bad mood, I stopped by Target on my way home and picked up Descent. Then I went home made a big pot of curve curry and read a little. Then I convinced Jeshamon and Acacia to watch the scary movie with me. What fun, they were both appropriately traumatized and the movie was as good as I remembered it to be and got me all tensed up and frightened like the first time. That is a quality piece of work--plus, watching it with the kids was loads of fun. Fortunately the outtakes were funny and showed one of the scary cave denizens doing a Mick Jagger impersonation so that helped take the edge off. The children are watching watership down right now to let them get some distance on the descent.
I am still a bit melancholy about friends and such...man I wish this year was over already.

Another craptacular day today, but it isn't over yet so who knows what wonderfulness awaits. Let's see...

Yet another gathering of 'friends' appears to be headed downhill. We shall see. There will definitely not be any updating on the engagement thing, and although I posted yesterday I didn't care anymore cause it had been so long, well that was because I assumed that too long would be taken care of today but, no, no one to be seen. Also per my prediction, someone isn't showing at the gathering of folks, so now I really don't care. Whatever I am over it.

Interesting event with some other friends added to the general awfulness, although I was just a bystander in this one, let's just say a small disagreement went awry and the conversation ended like this:

Not Sane Person: ...yammer yammer "I am not arguing with you! I am just saying [insert arguing here*]"

*note that Not Sane Person had absolutely no self-awareness of the ridiculousness of the above utterances. Not Sane person is generally very earnest and intense about things.

Sane person 1: "good night"

Not sane person: "yeah goodnight stupid b*tch"  [this was not in a kidding around ' love ya' tone, this NSP was serious]

Me: "woah!"

Others: <.....>

Sane person 1: "I better get an apology" 

Not Sane person: "don't bother, f*ck off"

Sane Person 1: ...

Sane person 2: "okay take care of yourself"

Not Sane Person: "yeah have a nice life"

Me: "um can we all take a breath and calm down?"

Not Sane Person: "I don't expect that level of fairness from anyone...doesn't matter I was tired of all of you anyway"

[exit]

Everyone witnessing this bizarreness: "?"

So yeah...interesting bit of drama that. People are crazy. But also, relationships are fleeting and there you go...reconnecting with old friends is fantastic, getting to see current friends is great, realizing that all of this is just, well, fleeting isn't really the word --tenuous? Intangible? Meaningless? Well something like that. I am not in a good mood and have that whole "people are selfish bastards and will just walk out in the end so don't invest yourself and get hurt" feeling right about now. I will get over it. Bleah. This week sucks.

Sooooo...leave the bad evening at work to head out to the car. Immediately hit by the arctic icy gale force winds sweeping across the prairie. What is this Kansas all of a sudden? What is with the Midwestern windstorm? So, no problem I will just warm the car up so it will be toasty by the time I get to it. Click Click -- nothing...okay remote start acting up, try again, click click, nothing. uhoh. Closer I get. Try to remote unlock. Nothing. CRAP. Left the stupid fog lights on again. They didn't wire them right so they aren't connected to the beeping you left your lights on, oh well I will turn them off for you alarm so drained my battery. Okay fine. I call up Mazda Road-side service and arrange to have someone come to give me a jump. 60 minutes. SO back up to my office. I lock the door and get out, close the door, oh no. Yep. Left the keys in the car and now I am locked out as well. Great. Call Mazda back ....so I need to up date my ticket, yeah now I locked myself out as well. They are very very nice. Sometime later the tow-truck shows up. The guy, Mel is his name, very helpful although very very scary with the unlocking of the door and the inserting of the gas bladder in the window crack and the bending it out and the handmade bent rod to unlock the door. But there you go. Unlocked, jumped, and after driving around for 45 minutes to make sure the damn thing starts tomorrow I am home. Sheesh. I hate the Mazda dealership! HATE THEM! Hate them with the fire of a thousand burning nuns...grrrrr. Now I have to get them to fix the foglights so they don't drain my battery because I can't tell when they are on cause there is no indicator -- I am fairly certain that isn't correct. oh well. Another crappy day done with.

Sitting at work not enjoying myself. Must resist urge to make passive aggressive posts on the blog. I am still not updated on the engagement, and I have now decided it has been so long that it doesn't matter anymore. Screw it.

I did get invited somewhere where folks would be chilling playing xbox and barbecuing or some such thing. Not only does that not sound fun in the remotest it really doesn't sound fun with the company involved, ooops, didn't resist the urge. OH well. I am too old to go spend time with people I don't want to spend time with at places I don't want to be doing things I don't want to do. Especially when I am not being paid for it. So there. So anyway I am in a mood and it isnt' a good one.

Had a couple of chances to see some folks in Fresno over the weekend and actualy was able to capitalize on one of them. I was able to see Jana and Clari and Tim and Tracie C and Eric Day and Mike Reeves and Paul and Jana's cousin Brainal (who you see looking all ghost-like in this picture) and others (dave mckenzie lookalike guy whose name excapes me at the moment, Willie, brainals assorted Portland hangers-on, some random dfriend of Jana's named Aaron who looked EXACTLY like a 6'3" Daniel Radcliffe -- moaning myrtle indeed). It was fun and strange and Tower-district like. I remember how much I dislike Livingstone's even though it is no different than it ever was (did we ever like that place--or is it just open and convenient?). I hadn't been in Fresno in forever so it was nice to revisit old places with old friends. We traveled from 'stones to the Landmark where there was some live music (the band called it jazz but it was mostly just self-indulgent 70's blaxploitation soundtrack-sounding  freeform--not good. Guitar, Bass, Drums, lots of closing of the eyes and grimacing of the face while playing not terribly dificult stuff--wanking. At one point the leader turned to the other two guys and closed his eyes in this drug induced way and said "let's do, uh, you know, bum ba ba dee duh" the bassist was all "oh yeah cool man" I then knew everything I needed to know about those two. Apparently they had done Girl from Ipanema before  walked in, sorry to have missed that). Anyway if you know Tracie Cisneros, do me a favor and ask her to marry you -- don't ask why just do it -- it will be funny. Trust me. I want to get everyone I know to ask her at least once -- several of us have already done it so you wouldn't want to miss out. If you don't know her, tell me and I will give you her number so you can ask her to marry you anyway

Missed my second opportunity to see old friends tonight -- Marie and Tria and Jana and Marie's fiancee Jim and I am sure others were gathering at Livingstone's again (ugh) but I was planning on going anyway but the kidlings and the wife are all down with something gaggy and sticky and coughish and fluish, and I am dealing with less severe symptoms of the same thing so I did a grocery run and stayed in. I was very sorry to have missed it.

Chance number 3 happens this Friday when Phraug Ranaman and others will gather for sushi and drinks in Fresburg. No idea yet where exactly or who all will be there -- supposed to be Bobby and perhaps Edson (although I suspect he will opt out) -- I will go when given the details.

Interesting potential on the theatrical front -- I am still pondering things so I will leave it at that for now...but here is a hint "would you the supervisor, behold her topp'd?"

 So -- those of you who know me well will recognize this symbol. Those of you who don't should--the logo of the South African Communist Party, an organization I very much admire. If you ever find yourself so inclined visit their website and ponder their historical and current fight against injustice alongside the ANC and COSATU. The South African Communist Party Website. Also of interest the ANC celebrates their 95th anniversary in January 2007. The African National Congress Website is a very worthwhile visit. The more you know!

This is a picture I shot of Edson a few years ago...well more like, what, four/five years ago? He was at the Fresno Center and hanging at the front desk. Not to be all sentimental and such but it has now been 8 years that I have had the great pleasure of knowing Edson and although I say it a bunch he is just one of my favorite people. Edson took a major life step this past weekend and actually asked the lovely and lucky Danielle to be his wife. The smart girl proved her smartness by saying yes! Congratulations to them both! Future's so bright they should both be wearing shades and all of that rigmarole. I need to get a picture of Danielle to post here so you can see how lucky Edson is...it is apparent how lucky Danielle is so...anyway. Looking forward to the wedding whenever that might be, well actually I am looking forward to just being updated about the actual proposal process, the details, etcetera. Edson has not yet fully cured himself of that major flaw that diminishes his awesomeness. So although I post about it you have as much information about the whole thing as I do, which as you well know burns me up. No one should have just as much info as I do...I should always have just that little more info because I am obsessive like that. Or so they say. But I know better, or more, or well whatever. It is what it is.

Learning the lessons from the master! Snickerdoodle University

Ashan wanted in on the picture taking action...

So the little ham wanted me to take another picture. CUTE!

Jeshamon is getting to be such a teenager! Definitely one of my favorite people, Jeshamon is funny as all get out and just a generally good kid. Love him to death!

So, I was finally updated by Edson about the whole asking the parents for their daughters' hand in marriage thing. Such a great story, although unbeknownst to me--since Edson does not keep me as updated as he should, a serious lapse that I have previously discussed--that all the time last night when I was stalking about wondering what in the heck was going on, well he had asked them at lunchtime and the whole thing was darn well over by the time I asked for my first update. Apparently our boy Edson was quite the charmer, had the mom in tears just walking into the restaurant (they so totally knew what was up and like the wise people they must be they said yes, there was a nice little story about how they had preplanned to mess with Edson and one of them agree and the other say no, but they got so caught up in the moment, and I am sure Edson was just so darned pathetically earnest and an emotional wreck that they forgot about messing with him and just went with it --opportunities missed there future Edson In-laws! You only had one chance to mess with him as he asked for her hand and you let it pass you by. Next time call me, we will work something out).  At any rate, they are playing along with the "we won't let Danielle in on the fact that Edson is going to ask her to marry him this weekend" but from the way Edson is telling it they are just a little over-the-top with the whole wink-wink smile way too broadly isn't he just the cutest damn thing you ever saw action and we will all be lucky if Danielle doesn't catch on.

At any rate, Edson is just a mess and Danielle and he are both just about the luckiest suckers in the world cause they are both just too great. So much fun. Misery loves company, and so on behalf of the married folks in the world -- welcome soon-to-be-aboard ex-playah! We are happy to have you!

All of this contrasts nicely with the completely stupid and ridiculous behavior that is going on at the home of the fairy shrimp UCM. I don't want to get into it all right now, but suffice it to say that no one is bothering to let facts, reality, or god forbid even the slightest bit of common sense get in the way of decision making par excellence. Always remember, when seeking information and making decisions under no circumstances should you ask the people who are responsible for the areas affected by your decisions, under no circumstances should you let any information that contradicts your preconceived and wrong notions get into your decision making process, and if all else fails avoid and lie. Ah yes, academic leadership at its very best! As always it is almost entertaining watching people pull crap that would absolutely cause nuclear explosions and complete hair-on-fire histrionics if ever pulled on them. It is almost entertaining because one, it is just too completely pathetic; and two, the crap is being pulled on us. But other than those two items...good times, good times.

Finally, why is it that people who you completely despise and who trash you to others want to act all nice to your face? What is that about? I am fine with the cordial collegial working relationships and refraining from the all-out fistfights at work and such, but don't go out of your way to be a complete ass to me, talk much smack in email, talk much more smack to others, (note to people in general, just cause someone listens to you talk trash does not mean that those someones are not going to completely turn around and go tell the person about whom you are talking said smack everything you said) and then go and try to give someone a gift of say candy or something. Because that? Not appreciated. And really, don't be surprised when the candy you left on my desk while I was gone gets back to you via interoffice mail with a small note saying "thanks for the thought, but not necessary." I don't feel like pretending you aren't a complete jerk. Shall we be adults at work? Yes. Shall I accept gifts from you? no. Bite me with your feeble attempts at assuaging your own asshattedness. And there it is...

This is Edson at Cool Hand Luke's doing his best Jawa impersonation. He is a bit tall for it but he has the ankles, and of course he has that dress he calls a 'robe' but we all know what it really is. He also has that big ole stick, it doesn't do him any good on the golf course so he might as well get some use out of it.

Where am I? This picture is the end result of the "We are too cheap to actually put a real surface on the road so we will use free peach pits instead" decision at UC Merced. I am unable to show the other images because the side panels of my vehicle made me ill to look at them...oh well.

Sooo it is freakishly cold in Cali right around now. Well relatively freakish, for California anyway. And you all know how I don't like to be outside when it is below 50 so my natural urge is to just crawl under the down comforter and toast a bit, which is actually what I am doing right now, but not what I was doing earlier which is actually the point of all of this. Anyway, so I go to the store and again icy cold with the frost on the ground and on the car (Aozame!) and such. As I leave the store with my purchases a homeless guy asks me for some cash, and since I only carry plastic with me I can actually say I don't have any cash on me and not be lying. So then the guy totally throws me for a loop and says "well some food would be okay" and I just stand there all "wait a minute, aren't these guys all just after booze?' [sidebar: case in point : while I am at Food4less--which I hate by the way--some homeless guy comes up to me in the breakfast food aisle, and asks me for 2.75--very specific that amount--with an actual 40 ounce tucked under his arm! No ambiguity bout what he was going for there! :end sidebar] so of course it is freezing and I am actually now thinking things through with this homeless guy but, as I look in my basket I realize I have purchased Milk, and 7 or 8 different varieties of frozen food. Not exactly what you want to be handing the homeless guy on the freakishly frostladen night "here have a frozen eggroll' so I mumble something completely stupid about only having frozen food, well stupid and true that, and off to the car I go. Then after putting the frozen groceries and icy cold milk in the car, I get all guilt pangy (or perhaps it was the windchill) but I go back in the store and get the guy a big ole deli sandwich bring it to him and then feeling all warm and well not really warm cause it is so damn cold, but feeling less guilty I get into the ole Aozame and head for home. Did I mention it was dam cold?

While driving home I was thinking about a statistic I heard on NPR yesterday afternoon about how 1 in 6 people in the world live in a slum. How completely unsettling is that? What is wrong with the world where that is true?

On a different note, Edson is asking his girlfriend's parents for their daughter's hand in marriage...well asked actually cause he did it earlier tonight...but I have no idea how it went because the bastard has not updated me since he was sitting down to dinner with them. Despite my multiple texts chastising him for not pdating me I am updateless. No, I did not expect him to send me updates during the dinner but and I waited until after 11 to begin the haranguing sms' but he has not responded and I am not happy with him. I love him dearly and he is one of my very favorite people but he needs to feel a smiting for not keeping me current. And how completely adorable is it that he is asking for permission to ask their daughter? Edson is just the nicest young man, I hope the girlfriend's parents realize how lucky they are that he is so awesome. Even though he is veryvery not awesome with the no updates thing. So he has the one flaw. And we must agree it is a not insignificant flaw and that Edson shall need to fix this flaw with a quickness. But still, Edson as your son-in-law? Priceless.

So the ever popular Thinh Nguyen came down friday for the rendezvoux, but where was Bewtox? Missing and deservedly much maligned. Thinh was waiting out the network crisis we found ourselves mired in before we headed out for shushi (tm thinh) at King's. As usual a good time was had by the diehard crew hines, nguyen, volkerts. The rest of em can stuff it.

A tossaway shot of Thinh that actually came out kind of cool...sort of postmodern headshotish...cameraphone at its best.