Daily Update

As work was finishing yesterday I was talking with the team a bit. I was trying to
get Julianne to translate a bunch of stuff into chinese for me. Turns out its
easier to get children to take medicine. She drinks loads of Giggle-Juice for lunch
every day, or hard liquor. So then I turned to the Thai's and they started helping
me. (its just that I wasnt' planning on carving Thai into my Man-Box. I guess they
have dragons in Thailand too...) but We started translating everyones name. like
Smith, Anderson, Feldman, or the like. It was fun and informative. My friend
here, he goes by Ta. We started looking for a good replacement name, cause when
vendors come in and ask for our names so they can report to their superiors about
how great we are we give our proper names; for example I'd tell them James instead
of Jim. Ta on the otherhand confuses them a little bit. his full first name is
Yuthadanai. We were looking thru baby names that would start with a Y, but there
wernt' any easier names, so I think we're sticking with Ta for now.

It was supposed to be TV night. It was a Thursday afterall. The Office was
supposed to be on, the internet said so. But when the time came, nothing. A dumb
episode of My name is Earl instead. I decided to write a complaint letter to Jeff
Zucker. He's an old buddy of mine (CEO of NBC/Universal). We just can't be having
irresponsable television programming like this. Who cares about that silly
basketball tournament, we the people need our usual programming!

So our UPS guy is my buddy now. Every time he comes in he yells my name from behind
our entry wall (wether I'm there or not). Ya, I think its a little weird too. So
do my co-workers. I keep teasing Julianne that I'm going to introduce her to him,
she sits three desks away from me, but I'm pretty sure that would just be a funny
disaster. He's down with that stylish hip-hop lingo and slang. Yesterday he kept
calling me 'Player'. Maybe next time he comes in I'll try to find out his name.

I'm listening to Pearl Jam.

Lunch was sponsored by 'India's Oven'.

Daily Update

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but as I was driving back from my late night USC
trip; I was waiting at a red light at the corner of Sawtelle and Santa Monica Blvd.
The left turn arrow turned green. I was in the lane next to that. the car turning
left proceeded. The white lexus to the right of me also decided to precede. Being
very consious and alert I immediatly told myself something bad was about to happen.
The car driving in the opposite direction, who had the green arrow also proceeded.
The white lexus must not have been watching the traffic, lights, or anything else,
but he decided to get right in the path of the oncoming car. the other car turning
left, crossing our lanes, also must not have been watching the retared lexus cause
they really smacked eachother, which left him laying right in front of me. I also
had flashbacks from last Feb 7th; I got really nervous, the shakes, cold sweat, etc.
I decided to avoid the whole scene and turn left myself and use the neighborhoods.
Was that wrong not to leave my information? I only would have been telling the cops
how dumb the white lexus was. Later I remembered Evan's incident and changed my
mind about what I did. I don't like thinking about car wrecks.

So I went running last night. It wasn't my normal schedule, but I was feeling
lucky.
It was weird, but I could tell this story two different ways. The night was like a
bonsi tree. The shape of the tree crown is sculpted completely differently than the
wooden structure. Now, on the surface it was a typical wonderful run. I was strong
and graceful. When people were watching I was spectacular. I contiously worked on
my form and technque. Thats what my buddy Carl Lewis told me to do. I even passed
Pony-tail girl and Hot-pants. I can't relate to the animals of the safari this
time, because deep down i was still recovering from last weeks injurys, as well as
from a solid five days of lots of sugar and food. I started as more of a victory
lap from last week's triumph, but ended quickly. The metal plate in my leg began to
ache, as well as my calf as I began running. I think in the beautiful display of
athleticism last thursday I over extrenuated the tolerance levels of that muscle,
so now I pay the price; I'm either leaping to high when I spring from step to step,
or the muscle is growing to quickly, which I can do nothing about. It was even
difficult to start, because they were filming a movie on all surrounding streets, so
they were all closed. I did pound one cookie from Diddy Reese before, but it felt
like I had just eaten a full meal after a few minutes. the only reason I can think
of is the ultra late start that I got. My hypothisis is that the level of running
skill is much like a bell curve. Although the only times I feel I have time to run
are at the beginning and end of day, a run in the middle of the day might be so
overpowering, it would be to much for words. I will put that to the test in the
following weeks.

I went over to he greenfield girls' place to watch tv and pound more sugar. I don't
know why I mess around with cookies or brownies. I'm just going to start sniffing
it or just injecting syrup into my arms.

Tomorrow i want to fly a kite. It will be fun. I will tell you all about it. You
will like it too.

Lunch was sponsored by Jamba Juice. (Breakfast was sponsored by Ralph's Bakery.)

I'm listening to The Living End currently.

Daily Update

Last night I went to the Cheesecake Factory with my friends that are in town from
the Big Apple. Wow was it good. Jeff came with too. While there I apparently was
obnoxious. Morgan, the waitress, was really nice... but a little slow. Then there
was me, just goofing off, had to get her attention a few times so I would either
stand and wave for up to a full 60 seconds at a time, or plant my chair right in the
middle of the asile. then when one of the servers would be running around the
corner they would run into my chair and then try to excuse themselves for running
into me. "Oh, no worries, but now that I have your attention..." then I'd ask for
stuff. that way I could be involved with the conversation and get peoples
attention. two birds, one stone. I would also yell across the resturant for Morgan
to come over at times. But thats what you're supposed to do right? Rich, one
friend with us, reminded the group of the first time I met his wife. Now this is
all from Rich, cause I've chosen to forget it, but according to him upon him
introducing his wife to me I said "Hi, nice to meet you,... nice berret", (she was
wearing a berret at the time) then I rolled my eyes, turned my head and acted like I
had just been grossed out. (a reference to Caddyshack: hat/free bowl of soup
scene). It was in a school setting so I was feeling pretty comfortable I might add.
I don't remember acting that annoying, but apparently I was. She was pretty
suprised having just met me; and trying to recover, I tried to explain that it
wasn't her, it was just the hat and if she knew french people Like I knew them, she
too would understand. Luckily Rich was there to smooth things over for me.
Immediatly after that Mark wanted to add in that he and his wife had similar
experiences with me at school. I allegedly would never refer to her by name, only
Mrs. Mark. And I would ask him questions about her when she was right there. Stuff
like: "Does it bother Mrs. Mark of I do this?", or "Do you or Mrs. Mark want
anything from the store?". Innocent stuff right? Well, I was funnier then.

So I was unable to go running last night due to the special circumstances at the
eatery. I figure a day or two wouldn't hurt me seeing how well that I've been
doing. Maybe tonight I can re-prove myself. I think this next time I'm going to
tie ribbons to my arms and lower legs and forehead. I will be a one man parade.

I started painting again last night. It has been a while. I have been bottling up
most of my creative juices for this such an occasion. I have about 4 painting ideas
that need to be worked out all inside of the next month, hopfully. And I can not
neglect my responsibilities to the Man-Box project. So don't tell the others about
the painting stuff. Wow, we havent worked on the Man-Boxes for a few weeks now.
All I can say is that they are going to be so freaking cool!

I had do make a late night trip down town to SC's campus again.

I practiced my yodeling late into the night as I responded to a bunch of emails.
The neighbors are going to love me.

Did I tell you about the flock of killer Seagulls that tried to attack me yesterday?
well, they did. In my parking lot at work there were like 20-30 seagulls waiting
for me by my parking spot as I arrived. I think the ninja that have after me put
them up to it.

i'M listening to Pink floyd right now. I'll admit, its a little weird.

Lunch was sponsored by Cheesecake Factory's Spicy Cashew Chicken (Leftovers).

Daily Update

Another Beautiful European day. Overcast sky's, cool breezes, Rain drizzling
sporadically. Ahhh, I can't wait till September.

So last night, I was trying to support the local FHE group by showing up to the
activity. where it first went wrong was when the other ward showed up. You know,
there may be some cool people over there, or very well the whole group, its just
that the one or two people who speak on behalf of that ward are complete morons. I
mean real block heads! (One of these retards almost knocked over a girl at the st.
Patrick's day party, so thus I almost threw his fat can off the balcony.) The other
one is a complete 'Negedor' (nerd-geek-dork)! I'm sure he loves math equations more
than girls. So anyway, We watched The Karate Kid at FHE. I don't know why it took
so long to start the movie, the Negedor wanted to make a big discussion about it, so
I kept screaming under my breath to "start the movie", "it the play button", "get
off the stage", etc. I did that quite a few times. The Guy was real annoying, but
I showed him. Watching that movie reminded me of my violent childhood; Joe, you
know what I'm talking about. Everyday was a fight to escape the violent grip of a
vicious older brother.

But The Musketeers left right after Danielson started waxing cars. We went for Ice
Cream. We tried this place called 'pinkberry'. Its pretty metro. I think we were
the only straight guys there. because the validation only lasted 15 min. We went
across the street to hang out. We hung out with some of the local bums.

After that we were trying to go back home, when Athos and Porthos decided that Tommy
burger sounded like a nice treat, you know, something to wash down all that ice
cream that we just pounded. So our adventure continued for a while more.

This morning I shopped online, via the internet; Its on computers now. It was
exciting. (I can't tell you what I am purchasing until after the Gong Show.)

I'm listening to Niel Diamond.

Lunch was sponsored by In N' Out Burgers.

Daily Update

Friday night I started hanging out with the fellas. As usual hunger was setting in,
so I asked the guys if they wanted to go somewhere. The first mistake. Then a
philosophical discussion came up hunger and why it sets it. What drives hunger,
what would a person would do while in this hunger state? Then we discussed where
'Favorite foods' came from. Oh my hell! Then we dove into the discussion of what
we wanted then. Usually its not that tough, cause I usually just show up and
announce that I want Panda Express, or whatever, and ask if they want to go. But
no, not this time. This time it was different. Then we(they) started discussion
great foods from 'the mission'. Then we had to start looking up on the internet
where these foods can be purchased. Josh suggested that we find a place over by
USC. I hadn't heard of it, so we looked it up. Turns out, sure its closer to USC
than where we live, but its also closer to the Watts Towers than to USC. Now I'm
not racist at all (unlike my dad) but I know where white people shouldn't go after
dark, so I was very against going there. Its a safety issue. And the most un-funny
part of this is that I'm not exaggerating at all. So after all that drama, we
decided to go to Tommy Burgers. On the way out the door. I suggested we invite the
neighbor girls, so then we go over there, invite them, spent another 10 minutes
waiting while they get ready and come with. So by now it had been an hour since we
first discussed eating. I think next time I'll call them from a restaurant and tell
them all to come over. I wonder how that will work. Then we watched a movie then
hung out, then I don't remember cause it was really really late.

On saturday we had to get up super early (four hours of sleep) for our beach clean
up service project. I show up at the church super tired, and I'm met by a bunch of
green food. I know that the theme was 'green egg's and ham'. But honestly, eggs
and never meant to be a green color, Milk as well is better White than green! And
the cream cheese looked like frosting... which I guess wasn't bad at all. Its just
that at that hour, for me, I wasn't awake enough to be hungry.

At the beach there were lots of kids there to pick up trash. We were just chillin
when I noticed Arnold walking by. It was funny. I should have tried talking German
to him. But usually I can only think of mocking people in german, so it might be
good that I didn't.

In the afternoon we helped the greenfield girls move...again. we moved heavy stuff
this time; stuff like washers, dryers, tables, chairs, I think a gun safe, and an
antique weight set. Emily also had us move her designer brick collection. And I
thought that I was the only one with one of those. I think jeff was most excited to
have someone to talk with about 'Washers & Dryers' with.

There was a st. patrick's day party at some girls house. If I were to give that
party a theme, I would have called it "Lame-As-We-Can-Be Party". I knew about 4% of
the people there. Everyone else was REALLY into it. Luckily we decided to leave
about the same time that I started smelling Booze.

So on Sunday morning Some friends from New York came into town. I know them from
Utah. I tried giving them directions to a place about two blocks away. Apparently
I don't know the neighborhood as well as I thought.

After church, there was a house warming gathering @ the greenfield estate. There
was more sugar there than at a grocery store! I had to brush my teeth twice that
night. It was fun, but I did learn two things, invite more girls, and tell people
to bring healthy stuff too. at 9pm I ran home to let my friends into my apartment,
I got there, was on the phone with Joe for like 45 min. friends didn't show up so I
went back to the estate. meanwhile I called my friends and found out that they were
already inside the whole time. funny.

Dancing with the Stars starts tonight. Oh ya.

Lunch was sponsored by South Street, courtesy of Ryan Plewe.

I'm listening to Blink-182 right now. Flogging Molly is coming up next.