Finally today this girl is whooped. A 3 hour hike didn't do it. Then on the SAME day running on the beach didn't do it. It took her going to UCSB and swimming something like 40 laps in the regulation pool and then getting her ass handed to her by yours truly at tennis to get tired. We did some action pictures of her in the pool and aside from the harsh direct overhead sunlight, I'm confident some will come out well. She is graceful as hell swimming. No joke, just watching her turn around and change direction at the end of the pool made me feel like free willy when I swim. I've never watched any aquatic sports, save for diving. Cliff diving ROCKS! High divers rock too. After seeing her swim, I'm going to be a bit more open minded.
I was tired yesterday. I haven't done this much on consequetive days in a long ass time. And this girl is doing it without skipping a beat. I have to admit it feels great. Tonight, by request, I made this latin inspired chicken. Then I was asked how I did it. Uh. Hmm. My only response was, "by taste". If I'm cooking something impromptu, but know what flavors I'm shooting for, I'm good to go. I made a warm tomato salsa (also on the fly) a tad bit too hot. We were all red in the face by the time it was all said and done.
Her and I were supposed to go clubbing tonight, but it AIN'T gonna happen. We are both wasted and the adding a long ass drive to the mix would not help at all.
Someone is going to read this and see the coming pics and start to think something is going on. Why do people assume that all the time? Like whenever there are pics of women on my site people assume that I'm hooking up with one or all of them? She is dope, but WE ARE FRIENDS. Stop reliving When Harry Met Sally and thinking that men and women can't be just friends!
Before I left Santa Barbara I wanted to hike up to Inspiration Pointe one more time. If you live in the area or visit, you should go as it offers the most spectacular view of the city. On a clear day you can see as far as the channel islands. Today wasn't that clear, but the view was still worth it.
I headed up there with her around 3PM in an effort to 'beat the heat'. What the hell was I thinking?! It was hot as Hades in August!! Jeeezzuuus. First I have the altitude to deal with then. Then there's the damned heat. Oh yea, let's add on the fact that I hadn't done any hikes in a long ass time. Then top it off with lil Ms. Thang who was acting like a psycho motivational speaker who didn't understand that RESTING entailed more than stopping for 30 seconds! mwhaha!! All in all it was a great hike and as promised the view was freaking breath-taking. After the hike she wanted to bake. Where the hell does she get this energy??
Did I mention that Ms. Thang is Ms. Super athlete? That her body fat is probably 1/4 of mine? Oh yea, and that she only eats certain things? This is by no means a bitch fest - altho she can be demanding (and she'll own up to this), but she ALSO is a picky ass eater. So I had to learn how to cook low fat or else she wouldn't eat it. It turned out to be a really good excercise for me too, because it forced me to make food flavorful while, dare I say, "knocking out the fat" a la George Forman? I'm actually inspired (see the connection here? hehe!) to cook better for myself. I want to shed about 70 lbs. and part of that will have to do with my cooking habits. I cook about 10 times more often than I eat out and hence the source of most of my calories.
How would you like your ass served today? On a silver platter then? Excellent that is our specialty. After having JUST met my friend'd god-daughter she asks me to go on a run with her to the store. No, there was no motorized transporation taking us to the store: we hoofed it. She ran all the way there, a good 2.5 miles one way. When she got there and I was no where to be found, she started doing lunges on the sidewalk. I know this because I was hauling my fat ass in an effort to catch up with her and saw her doing this. We made this trip to get fixings for banana pudding...mmmm.
She is someone whom I met once before just in passing. She is staying with him before she heads back to school. At school she swims and it shows - the girl is freaking fit. Of course she is fine, but she more than anything she is sweet and considerate as hell. The first 12 hours were really weird because I thought NO ONE could be this genuinely nice. Something people have said about me on many occasions I may add. But after being around her awhile it seems that it is all real. I can count on one hand the amount of people, male or female, who are so openly considerate, altruistic, up front, honest and OFFERS to do things for you. In addition she has no shame to her game in making her wishes known. As she calls it, she can be a bit "demanding". Which isn't a bad thing per se, depending on the context.
Anyone who has read my introductions of people on my site know that I don't kiss ass. I don't outright bash people either, not my style. I call it like I see it.
What possesses people to get up at the butu crack of dawn everyday to run or workout? I'm very much NOT a morning person, but I like getting up early. For some reason, starting my day early gives me the impression that the rest of my day will be productive. Also crisp morning air is really awesome.
All that been said, I rather get up around 9-10 A.M. Still people get up extra early every morning get up and jog, bike, work out, read the paper or whatever. Why?? How do they get into such habits?? I wanna know.
Cami calls my leaving, their "son leaving the nest". Yesterday sucked ass because I had to leave. I really enjoyed staying with Cami, John, Mollie and Max. They were all down to earth low key. Cami said that I "blended in" with the family. I was sad the whole frickin' time loading stuff into my car and taking it to storage. For a short time it felt like a home, but I really did need to go.
Earlier in the day we went to this event Calgary Church puts on by the beach by the beach. John's band, he plays bass, was part of the lineup. They ALMOST didn't get to play as the fuel in the generator ran out and no one thought to bring extra. Someone then dragged this thick ass electrical cable over and they were up and running. When people heard the lead woman's voice, people started coming back to the event as it was 'officially' over.
There are 2 instruments I want to learn to play: the piano and guitar. With respect to the latter bass guitar would ROCK!
Today we went to the Carpenteria Beach festival, walked around and listend to pretty good music for the most part. There was this girl band called 'tito-phrenics' or something that was really mediocre. May be they were having a bad day or something, but they really did suck and suck hard. There were 2 girls playing the same guitar, singing the same parts and PLAYING the same parts up front. John said they were probably doing that because neither of them had learned how to play lead yet.
Then Dishwalla came on and they were really cool. Up till their performance, I may have known only 2 of their songs. After listening to them rock out live, I was feeling it. Cami could only tolerate them...haha! In additon there were people behind us smoking that really worked my nerves.
Last note: getting regular water at restaurants SUCKS ass. I hate it when you go to a restaurant and ask for water and it is the grossest thing ever! How can you mess up water? Then you get lemonade to avoid that liquid crap, only to taste the shitty water in that too. My stomach ended up feeling like crap for awhile after that.
The proceeding will no doubt contain very colourful metaphors. If you are easily offended, I suggest you leave now. Now that that is out of the way...
I am fucking pissed! To the fuckin' nth degree! On my way to my French final, I ran into this girl from the Stats class I was SUPPOSED to have been in this summer. Aside from the fact that she was a hot chica, replete with the lips, hips and all that goes with. She was hotness. Anyway, she got an A in the class. The teacher had set the class up so anyone who came to class, did their homework and went to labs would get an A. It would not have been that hard to have gotten a fuckin' A or a high B. Not to mention the other class I could have aced for sure, no thanks to financial aid or rather lack thereof!
Today was supposed to be my last day at UCSB! I was supposed to be DONE today with this French final! I keep kicking myself, wondering if I could have done something else, done something more, done whatever! Fuckin' A! Right now I don't care to look on the bright side in thinking that I am only 2 classes away from finishing. Fuck that. I want to be mad right now.
Oh yea on top of everything else, I woke up this morning to find there was no water in the house! The water district is doing maintenance or something and killed all the water in the neighborhood. So off I was to class sans shower or brushing my teeth and I HATE not brushing my teeth or not showering. I'm by no means a clean freak, but when it comes to those 2 things I do them religously.
Tonight I was thinking for someone who doesn't drink alcohol, I sure can cook with it! haha! Cami made pesto tonight and I prepped some chicken breasts to grill. I love it when you gotta throw some stuff together. So covered the chicken breasts in olive oil, lemon juice and zest, mexican oregano, basil, garlic and onion powder, and of course salt and pepper. However the piece de resistance, came when I looked under the bar and found some citron absolut vodka. I added a some of that too and let those suckers marinade for a couple of hours. The vodka added a really subtle flavor. I have to play a little more with different vodkas now.
Cooking with alcohol adds a completely different dimension to food. Wine in tomato sauces heightens the sugars in the tomatoes. Brandy with meats does something similar. So does tequila. Contrary to what Emril sometimes says, you can actually over do it with the alcohol in food. I had an idea for marinating some peaches and apricots in either peach schnapps and/or triple sec, with a little lime juice and brown sugar and then grilling them.
Ps. Cami, hands down, makes the BEST pesto I have ever had! One time I asked where she had bought her pesto, and she cooly replied that she makes it from scratch every time. So, so gooooood!
Tonight Nada came over and we hung out in the jacuzzi talking and catching up. Her dumbass boyfriend dumped her, for reasons that do not make ANY sense whatsoever. Anyway it was good to see her again. We have the best conversations. Much love to you Nada
Vindication!
When my friends got back from vacation, where I was house sitting, their computer started acting really screwy. I told them that I hadn't messed with it because I physically removed their computer and installed my computer in its place. I did this because a) my computer is setup the way I like and b) all of my resumes, links, et al that I am using for my job hunting is on their. It just made life a lot easier to job hunt and have access to all that stuff.
Anyway, I got blamed for why their computer was experiencing a rash of pop ups. I tried to reassure them that I didn't do anything on their computer, but they weren't having it. The theory was offered that whatever I was doing, using their IP address painted their computer as a target when they reconnected. This theory didn't sit well with me for some reason and I couldn't figure out why.
Then I talked to an online associate who broke it wide open for me: spyware and adware! I totally forgot about those 2 classes of computer nuisances! And it should have dawned on me too because while my computer was JUST on and sitting there, with no programs in use, not even chat, when my NAV reported half a dozen attempts to hack my computer. This was never an issues at my old house because I insisted that we get a router with a hardware based firewall and I made damned sure that the firmware was always current. Needless to say at my friend's place there is no firewall and that is problem number 1.
On advice of my chat buddy, I installed and ran a spybot and low and behold there were over 400 instances of software tracking/hacking/generating popups and you name it on their computer. Most of the culprits belong to Kazaa Media Desktop. 2 other things I hadn't thought about as well! First MONTHS ago I installed a spybot on my computer that searches and destroys all tracking software on my computer everytime I reboot. It happens behind the scenes and I don't think about it. Second, I replaced Kazaa Media Desktop with KazaaLite around the same time. Needless to say my computer doesn't experience the kind of pop up madness they were experiencing.
Armed with the evidence, including the ability to see that some of that pop up stuff was installed BEFORE they went on vacation, I wrote them a note enumerating all the problems. At the end of it, I listed a number of fixes they can do to help reduce future intrusions, including upgrading to Win2K/XP, adding a firewall, adding an active spybot, installing Kazaa Lite etc. I told them that I had never used Kazaa or for that matter allowed for ANY apps to be installed on their computer. I also reminded them their computer was reconnected and in use a full day before they got back from vacation, but I wasn't the one using it.
At the very LEAST anyone with a broadband connection should have a firewall and a current anti-virus engine. Just having recent anti-virus updates isn't enough, you have to have the current engine to go along with it to deal with new threats.
Righteous.
The weekend was pretty chill, but ythere was a lot of studying done. You gotta love that feeling when you spend 10 hours studying and then look up to find the plethora of other shit you have to do. It's all good in da hood
Sunday I volunteered to help out with a friend of mine's party, by doing most of the grilling action. Tony The Griller would probably be my mafia name. I'd be known for grilling my victims body parts and mailing them to the next of kin with a bottle of AI. hahah! Ironically I did hear somewhere that smoking meats did originate from dealing with preparing the toughest of meats: human flesh. hahaha!! After that I was thinking it'd be dope, to actually cook for a living. It is something I love to do and do it for hours and still love it.
That's all for now. My life is very unexciting at the moment. School, dips in the pool, studying and oh yea the occasional cooking. :)
Yesterday was my first Frech midterm and I think I did pretty well on it. Whoever thought up the idea of allowing students to knock out their foreign language requirement all in one fell swoop during summer is a frickin' genius. Summer Session rocks as the classes are indeed smaller as advertised, and they are usually taught by really passionate lecturers (read that as grad students who actually give a shit rather than Professors who just give lectures on automatic.) The other dope thing is for over 2.5 hours each day we speak nothing but French in class. I remember waaaaay back in the day when I first learned to read, age 2.5 or something and then later in elementary school when began learning how to read and write better, how thrilling that whole process was.
I hate watching TV, about as much as I watch it too much. I find myself channel surfing for something new or familiar to dull my mind. It's the 'newness' that I crave and school offers that. There are some days when I wake up and school effin' terrifies me, especially stuff that's totally new. But once I am THERE, it all subsides and I'm like a pig in slop and happy as hell. I'm going to make myself study more french before I move onto other languages. At some point I will be learning Italian, Spanish and may be even an asian language. Germanic dialects sounds too much alike, that's to say they sound like you're hocking up a lugee.
My hair is getting hella (see what even just ONE year in the bay area will do for your vocabulary??) long. I'm gonna let it keep on growing and hopefully it will result in some tight (literally) dreads. I saw a lady on campus whose dreads were small and really tight and hope that mine end up like that. It'd be cool too if they were a lighter color in some places too.
So Ronald Regan was a fair to middlin' hack western actor before became governor and later President of the United States right? So why am I have such a big deal wrapping my mind around the concept of Ah-nold running for public office? The guy has been politically and philanthropically active, putting his political huevos on the line for years now. And this has been going on for a long ass time, so what's the big whoop?
May be it's because I can't get images of him blowing guys to bits in Commando, slicing and dicing infidels in Conan the Barbarian (Librarian?), and weilding double rail guns in Eraser? All the while dropping the corniest one-liners. Still he is making some valid points and trying to back it up. Furthermore, if he can indeed remain true to his policy of not taking money from anyone and as a result dodge their political influence, I think he could be a force to be reckoned with, date I say a la Total Recall?
On a different side of the Ah-nold story, I awake every morning to this radio show on 107.7 (the only station my old POS clock radio will pick up) to the DJ's doing prank calls using different sound bites of Arnold in his movies. At first it was really annoying, but I have to admit it's getting pretty damned funny! They're using clips like "Who's your daddy?!", "You son-of-a-bitch!!!", "I want to talk to your mother." They must have different one qued up, for different responses people have, but overall it's so damned funny!!
Last night Anne and I had a really long and interesting discussion on "selling out" capitalistic style. After I told her that money does matter with respect to securing one's financial future, travelling, et al. I was accused of buying into the capitalist schema. I didn't take offense to this at all.
But, let's be honest there are those of us (capitalists) who live for the money and will do anything to get it; sell their soul, dog, and/or mother for a group discount rate. I've done the work thing just for money, and it wasn't worth it. It wasn't for a great deal of money, but it wasn't worth it at all. May be for some obscene amount of money I'd do something I dated - for awhile. Then I'd have to bail
Why can't a person be chill with the fact that without money you can't do the things one dreams of? I'm not advocating Indonesian child labor to make JLo's latest. Or sweat shops in madarin China to make the latest Tommy gear. However, to live we need money. Rather to live we need to produce something that we can trade for the goods, services, necessities, and dare I say the occasion luxuries of life? Trade for these things to obtain whatever one needs to becomes truly happy. Whether that happiness is contrived or real is a disussion for another time.
Anne, shorty got love for ya! Keep the debate action coming! Oh yea, one groovy thing that did happen was Anne sent me a care package of CDs and some stuff Oregonian. Lately, I've been developing a fetish for the Oregon coast. No one, other than family, has sent me a care package...wooohaaa!!!
Today I packed up my stuff from Peters, grabbed some needed stuff from storage and headed to Oakland. Gawd. On the way up, I couldnt find a single damned CD that was worth listening to. On the drive up, I ended up listening to a few of my personal mixes over and over again. About half way to Oakland one of my favorite all time songs came on, Sybils cover of Isaac HayesEWalk On ByE That totally made my day. That song is so damned dope its not even funny.
Ive been hating that I left Santa Barbara without being totally done; albeit there are only 2 classes remaining that I will doing at a JC. That will pass and those classes will get done. Then its off to culinary school next year. Oh my ever-loving God I can not WAIT to go and do that! One of the schools Im looking at is in the Bay area and they have a 99% placement rate. How dope is that? One guy from last term got placed at the Bellagio in Las Vegas making 433K! That is really rare, but its fairly common for sous and line chefs (what I would be doing after culinary school) to make close or well into 6 figures. To do what you love and get paid. Daddy like.
The last few months have been an emotional roller coaster and I think Ive learned a lot of things. First of all, keeping the faith is important even when you dont know whats ahead. Yes and by this I mean believe in God! Second, I cant do everything myself and need to drop that notion that I can do it all myself. This has been huge lesson in humility. Third, letting stuff go is a good thing. I hold onto way too much crap. This include people. Lastly, you gotta treasure and look after you family even during after shit goes down. Because you never know when you will need them or they will need you and you gotta put that stuff aside.
For now Im staying with Tashas. Thank you woman!! I also get to have my computer on DSL!! Woohaa!!! And she has a router with a hardware based firewall Ewhew! For the next couple of weeks I will be staying with Ms. T. and working on my apartment. God. My apartment. Saying that is just a damned trip, but its going to be awesome! My OWN place with no roommates flipping out over trivial shit, where I can walk around in my boxers or whatever else. Its behind my moms place, which puts me near my brother and her so Im hoping it will all work out. Woohaa!!
Special shout outs to my mother, John, Cami, Mollie, Max, Peter, Tasha and Special K. Gotta give props to Special K for at least those 3 or 4 days, she helped kept me sane, taught me a bunch of nutrition stuff, and good company all around, otherwise I would have lost my mind.
It's interesting since I don't have access to a computer 24/7 that's online like I am used to, I haven't bveen tracking my thoughts as much as I would have like. The last few days have been fun, one reason being it is really awesome to be able to get up and go for a swim. My French class is kicking my ass as I added it late AND it's going at a really fast pace. This is a good and bad thing. Good in that, I'm getting it done, but bad because I feel absofuckinglutely inundated with work. At least today, I got a big chunk of it taken care of.
Max manages to chip his tooth (picture Dumb and Dumber) while diving into the pool. Smooth move on his part. The managed to reattach it the next day, but not before John got a really funny pic of it.
Oh yea, my effin' case has yet to be settled yet! It's been over 16 months and they're still sitting on their asses. I've had my father get in their faces about wrapping things up. One of the things he is notorious for is negotiating and leaning on people. God help them. Mwhahaha!!!
The Treehouse is back, but will be undergoing some growing pains over the next several weeks. Me and the Treehouse alike! Lets get the mundane out of the way: the Treehouse has been down, but brought back to like thanks to my friend Nils. After 20 some odd years, he proves himself as to why he is my best friend.
The Treehouse is going to be moving servers shortly. With it will come some more changes. First there will be yet another blog system employed. This after spending like a week getting the first one to work! Im not all to happy about that, but what the hell it gives an excuse to learn another technology. Second, I have a new layout in mind. The current one is the longest running and its about time for it to go!
One class down and 3 to go to be done with school. However, there was a wrinkle thrown in the mix. Fucktard financial aid messed up, and Ive been doing this summer with no aid whatsoever. So instead of completing the 4 classes I had intended, Im only doing 2. The other 2 will have to wait till the Fall. No Im not at all happy, but with this other class Im doing, Im that much closer to being done. So I cant complain. This is the price of paying for school by yourself, and not having mommy and daddy paying for everything.
Ive been house sitting for my friends, and they have 2 dogs. A chow that is kinda older and a Dalmatian that is about a year. The latter is dumb as a door nail! Not to mention she threw up and crapped all over the living room! I dont think I will ever get a pet bigger than a gold fish! Anyway, Max and Mollie finally came home and I dont have to deal with dogs anymore!! Good god! I thanked each profusely!