Duality

1. I can’t whistle (though I finally learned to snap my fingers a year ago; right-hand only).
2. I can’t read resistor color codes without checking my notes or Google.
3. I have trouble talking and listening—and well, even just thinking—when face-to-face with someone else.
4. My right shoulder is significantly less stable than my left. I’m not sure why.
5. I can’t swallow pills. Penicillin and Amoxicillin both taste incredibly nasty, by the way.
6. I still don’t know the difference between Christianity and Catholicism (so forgive me if I ever confuse the two).
7. No matter how many times I check, I still get call and put mixed up.
8. I pick my nails—now more than ever.
9. I am chronically tardy—again, now more than ever.
10. I finally see failings of the middle class. All my life, I was taught that getting a good job was the key to financial security. But seeing my money slip through my fingers has made me realize that that’s all a lie: working for money will never set you free.

I wore a faint-white-grid-on-dark-red shirt with sorta-but-not-really-dark khakis in protest… ok, so that’s one of the usual combinations I wear to work.

I never really understood the whole “wear black on Valentine’s Day” thing. Then again, there’s a lot I don’t understand, like income taxes. That’s why I went to my company’s tax basics workshop today. And that’s why I dub today “Tax Basics Workshop Day.”

So get out your W-2’s, 1040’s, Schedule A’s, and Schedule D’s! It’s Tax Basics Workshop Day!

I have somewhere to go on Sunday. Seriously, writing vague comments here is the best way for me to remember things.

And just so the rest of you have something interesting to ponder…

Anyone know how to stave off food coma? Any lunch of decent proportions puts me out of commission for the next two hours. Seriously. Right now, I run up and down the stairs when I start nodding off, but I have to do it every 40 minutes or so and it doesn’t really keep my brain going.

I suppose I could eat less for lunch, but then I have to bring a snack to work otherwise I’ll get so hungry by the end of the day that I won’t be able to concentrate.

I knew the ASUC (student government at Cal) was planning to replace BEARcade with a Gelataria Naia (gelato shop which has another location on Shattuck). I’ve known for awhile, but after not hearing anything about it for months, I thought the deal was blocked. Nope, Bigi informed me a couple days ago during work; BEARcade is gone. I guess like other governments I know, ASUC can’t be talked out of a bad decision.

Immediately after Bigi broke the news, I went searching on Google. I didn’t know what I was looking for. What day BEARcade closed? What attempts were made to try and stop the closure? I wasn’t sure until I found this: a goodbye piece by BEARcade-regular Pat Miller.

Reading it brought back all of my memories of BEARcade—going there after ATDP in the summer to play DDR, bumming around there for hours during my freshman and sophomore years of college, stopping by for my post-work-out beatmania during my junior and senior years of college, and entering one of the summer GGXX tourneys with Bigi and getting our asses handed to us. BEARcade introduced me to some of my favorite games: GGXX, CvS2, drummania, and of course beatmania (5-key, IIDX, and III). BEARcade was where I learned to use a joystick and appreciate well-maintained machines. BEARcade was where I learned to appreciate high-level play and to stop playing (and thinking) like a scrub.

I don’t want to believe that BEARcade is gone. I don’t want to believe that ASUC would so easily dismiss the importance of having an arcade on campus for those that don’t want to hang out at frat parties or ice cream shops. I don’t want to believe that an arcade as well-managed as and as well-regarded as BEARcade was allowed to fade away.

So while I was thinking about considering to possible attempt to start to get ready to write this paper of mine, a friend of mine IM’d me and…well…hilarity ensued. It was too good a conversation, that I just couldn’t not post it for all of you to share. Enjoy! (Names have been changed to protect the innocent…or not so innocent)

R: ahoy hoy!

Xero: eek!

R: hahaha

Xero: hahaha

R: ok well that signals bedtime
R: nite nite

Xero: hahaha…that was quick
Xero: hi, then nothing, then bye?
Xero: i feel so…used

R: what?
R: i left the money on the dresser!

Xero: …*sniff*…its just not the same. i thought you’ld understand! *runs out crying*

R: god u always wanna cuddle afterwards
R: i hate that crap!
R: >(!

Xero: *sniff*

R: haha
R: well i found a new man now!

Xero: fine! well i dont need you! In fact, I’ve been sleeping with the senator this whole time!

R: ha i knew it!
R: cheating bitch!
R: *takes back money*
R: and im taking all the twinkies too!

Xero: *gasp* no! not my babies!

R: *munches frantically on twinkies*
R: ha ha!
R: take that!

Xero: NOOO!!! FRANKIE!!!!

R: *steps on empty box*
R: *runs away cackling*

Xero: ….you’ve made quite the enemy today…you shall rue this day! yes! start rueing!!

R: pfft
R: *pees in corner*
R: thats so u dont forget!!

Xero: *glares*

R: anyway

Xero: hahaha

R: nite nite for reals
R: and i didnt crush all of them

Xero: ‘night ;)

R: i saved this one for you!
R: *holds out*
R: *as xero reaches for it*

Xero: *gasp*…margret!

R: *squashes in hand*
R: ha ha!

Xero: NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…………………………….

R: hahahaha
R: hahahahaahahah
R: *excellent!*
R: *puff of smoke*
R: *gone*
R signed off at 11:51:49 PM.

And not so long after that, another friend of mine IM’d me. The following is the entire conversation. This is mostly an inside joke, but another perfect example of how me and my friends work. Randomly.

P: lol….mikes mom

Xero: hahahaha
Xero: such a whore

P: totally

I know as a PC guy, I shouldn’t be laughing, but this is way too funny. It’s true. Everything is bigger in New York. So laugh it up you Apple people ;)

I know a lot of you are, so Happy 20th Birthday Link! I’ve played several of the Zelda games, though only really enjoyed a few of them. A Link to the Past is definitely up there and so is Four Swords. The 3D versions, while enjoyable to watch my roommate play, never seemed very fun to me.

What are you’re favorite Zelda games?

So today I finally have the free time to drive all the way out to Sac to pick up whatever the hell this thing is and you know what they tell me when I get there? “Oh, were sorry. We’ve already sent that package back to its sender.” ….*sanity…snaps*…so I just spent the last week and a half trying to get this thing, drove for 45 minutes in complete gridlock, and now I don’t even get the f**king package? FedEx…I hope you burn for this…

Yesterday produced one of the greatest news article of all time. Let us all sit back and thank our individual gods that Uwe Boll has quit making video game based movies.

So someone (I still don’t know who) has apparently sent me a package. A package so important that no one outside of my apartment can sign for it (ie, they cant get the office to hold it)

Not expecting to receive a package, I came home last Wednesday to find a “Sorry we missed you” tag on my door. “We’ll try again tomorrow.” However, I couldn’t miss my classes that day so once again I came home to find another “Sorry we missed you” tag. “We’ll try again one more time tomorrow.” So Friday comes and I don’t have any classes. So I wait the whole day and wouldn’t you know, they didn’t show up! No “Sorry we missed you”, no nothing! The whole weekend goes by and I’m expecting them to attempt again on Monday.

So I skip my morning class to wait for this package. By the time 12:45 rolls around and I’ve got to leave for my afternoon class, there’s been no sign of FedEx. I open my door to leave and wtf? “Sorry we missed you”??? No one missed me, I’ve been here the whole time! Motherf’ing delivery people who don’t knock. So I call FedEx, and tell them what’s happened and they say they’ll have the delivery man return later that night. But by 6 o’clock no one has shown up. So once again I call FedEx and they say “Oh, he couldn’t make it out again. He’ll be there by 10:30 tomorrow morning, though.” Great, so I have to miss another class.

So I skip Tuesday morning and wait. 10:30 flies by, no deliveryman. 11 comes and I’m pissed. I call them again and here them say “Oh he’s running late, he’ll be there by noon.” Of course noon comes and goes and by 12:45, I have to leave again for classes. I call FedEx and demand that they have him deliver after 3:30, that way my roommate will be home and can sign for it. I come home to, you guessed it, “Sorry we missed you.” MOTHERF**KERS! I’m outraged now and call FedEx again. “Oh the deliveryman came at 2:07. We’re sorry. We’ll have him come out again tomorrow, but I don’t know when.” So now I have to miss even more class!

So now it’s ‘tomorrow’ and there’s been no delivery yet. Out of pure curiosity, I call FedEx again to see if they can tell me the status. “I’m sorry, but there’s no record of you ever calling last night and requesting the package to be delivered again today. It’s still in our warehouse. You’re more than welcome to come pick it up yourself.” … It took every ounce of my strength not to rip this woman to shreds. I hate FedEx with a passion. And throughout all this, I still don’t know who the heck this is from or what the hell it is. I would have figured whoever sent it would have called me by now asking if I’d received it yet, but no.

Nothing.

I.E., you may want to wait till you get home to check this out. Don’t ask me how I find these things (and no, I’m not googleing this stuff ;) but yeah…I mean, I may have a Cactaur tattooed into my back, but this guy is insane. Again, it may not be something you want others to see. ;)

While it may not be on the Revolution, Taito is actually making a cooking simulator for the DS. Thought you might just want to know. ;)