Tomorrow I get on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit for the uninitiated) to go to the airport and then get on a plane to fly to LA. I have to get all my stuff from LA and then head up to SB to get the rest of my stuff from storage. The thought of this trip has me filled with mixed feelings. First of all BART is a train. A train that goes UNDERGROUND. Need I mention that I'm a tad claustrophobic?? I haven't been on BART since I was here for 9th grade. Gawd. The other thing is this is my first plane ride since 9/11. I'm not really worried about something happening on the flight, but I am NOT looking forward to going through all that security shit. Oh well. It will be a safer flight. I probably won't be doing any updating till I get back after Sunday. Sunday I will be back with a truckload of my stuff and I will be happier!! It means I can cook! Im sick of eating out! Fast food sucks ass when consumed too often!
The other thing that has been on my mind is a conversation that I had with someone I met when I first moved to SB. I've had several people give me shit about my personality being strong and how it can effect them. This harkens back to when I dated Julie and this other woman were giving me shit about my 'effect' on people. One example of this is my 'enthusiasm' about things. One of my friends broke down to me how my enthusiasm about people could be perceived. She was saying how some (women mainly) could take it as me trying to get at/with them, even though my intentions may be totally platonic. And it makes sense that if someone doesn't know me, they would assume the common possible thing associated with that kinda behavior - guy trying to get a girl.
Honestly, I am charismatic and I do manipulate situations and people. Sometimes that manipulation is intentional and other times it isn't. Nonetheless, I do it. But who doesn't? I run hot and cold about most things. And even that can wax and wane depending on the period in time. It doesn't mean that I loose love/like for a person/thing or that I automatically fall for a person/thing either.
Bottom line, I guess I should do a better job of trying to see things through other peoples eyes. My intentionsEarent enough and may be Im not the angel I think myself to be. Bleh. To my friend in SB, you know who you are Etruly sorry I couldnt learn this sooner.
Today after running my errands, I went car shopping with Kim. Ok, that means exactly what it says: we went around LOOKING at cars to possible buy for her. As much as I love Kim, she can be QUITE indecisive about stuff and I told her on a few occasions that dayEwhaha! Two remarkable stories pop into my head: this one guy at the Honda dealership; young cat, seemed new and had all the car sales guy lines memorized, had NO frigginEpatience for us. At one point I told the guy to back off and give us a second alone. I am NOT looking forward to buying a new car anytime soon! However went to look at a sweeeet Chrysler Sebring that was totally decked out and loaded to the hilt. The price was right, they seemed to be very willing to close a deal in Kims favor and it was all looking good. Then the effinEsales manager, head honcho, whatever you wanna call him opened his mouth. Totally screwed the pooch there. The sales people were working with were dope, but not pressuring us to run numbers, et al. And this asshole comes along and starts messing with things. He should have gotten a clue. But she loved the car and the deal would have been really sweet, and I think the sales people smelt blood in the water. At which point we HAD to leave. Sometime I will have to do a rant on car sales/leasing. Fucking games.
Remember me? The absentee landlord of this domain a.k.a. Tony? I have been so busy it's ridiculous. Most of my time has been occupied painting and cleaning my place. The carpet went it and that contributed to it looking that much better.
Updates to here will come sporadically so bare with me.
Good news: my whole apartment looks 1000% times better with a fresh coat of paint on it. Bad news: no furniture as of yet, but that I'm going to get that out of storage come Sunday. In the grand scheme of things that is the least of my worries.
On the upside, I have been spending a lot of time with my little brother. He's been teaching me chess, and me teaching him Monopoly. That doesn't sound like an even trade...mwhaha! It's been great hanging out with him. My mom and I have been talking almost daily too and although different, it's been very cool.
Today I looked at some of the ways people have been getting to my site and some of the searches have been very, very interesting indeed. Obviously some come directly by going to the web address. Some get to my site from some link out there in cyberspace. And then there are the search engines searches. Now those are really funny! One person did a search for talk shitEin Yahoo. What could this person have been looking for?? Haha! Another did a search for Antigua whoresE- WTF?? I checked my site and those 2 words are not together haha! Antigua relates to an adventure I had as a kid, and whore to an entry about the VH1s Fabulously Rich special. Too funny! And for those of you STILL getting to my site by putting it into a search engine: people, hello, the web addy is eeeaaaasssssy! It just rolls of the finger tips: tonystreehouse.com. mwhaha! The Treehouse is not a high traffic site, and was never intended to be. For a hot second, I had aspirations of getting tens of thousands of hits a month and somehow profiting from it. I chucked it because a) it would be a pain in the ass keeping the content always fresh b) that was not the original intent of the Treehouse and lastly c) I would see it like inviting a bunch of people to your party you didnt know, only to get the presents. Which goes back to the whole bullshit about that litigation. Fucking moron.
Its only noon and I know what to do squat today. Most of the painting on the apartment is practically done. The porch got its first coat yesterday and its gonna get at least one more before the carpet people arrive on Tuesday. If it looks like crap its gonna get another one. Then theres a matter of cleaning up the kitchen appliances and bathroom. It hit me this morning that, I gotta leave Tashas soon. Sigh. Its been great hanging out with her, even if were on our computers or watching movies most of the time. Prior to this, we talked online practically everyday. Now we talk IRL everyday, and to borrow a line from Tashas Ethats [been] really cool.
Houston we have carpet. For the average bear this little event may not mean much, but for me this is a huge. The carpet at my place sucks huge, hairy, monkey balls. It is about 15 years old, stained with some sort of black splotches here and there, and the biggest eye sore at the apartment. My moms co-worker gave her a tip on this place off the freeway that has great deals on carpet. We drove up there and picked a carpet that wasnt the cheapest, but would feels good and looks good. The guy also upgraded the install for us. Tuesday the carpet arrives!! Woohaaa!!
While thinking about whats next to do at the apartment, it hit me that I need to do something about that outdoor lighting situation. We suspect a homeless person may be trying to get into the basement and sleep there at night. This will not do. I will not tolerate someone jeopardizing my safety or that of my family. If lights arent a strong enough deterrent, I will not hesitate to take further action.
Started reading The Left Hand of Darkness, and boy howdy is that a great book already! One of the things that has drawn me is in the environment. When author uses the setting to pull you into a story, it is a truly awesome. Left Hand of Darkness is set on this desolate planet (at least thus far) and shaping up to be a great book. Tasha and I ended up staying up late listening to music and talking sci-fi. Shes having a hard time with book, because the society in it is vastly different from anything we know. The temptation to compare it to what we know is right there, but we have to resist that temptation. She passed out (quite literally) because she had her little brothers over and they wore her out. You know, little brothers can definitely do that!
I could not believe that John Ritter has passed away. I grew up watching reruns of Threes Company. Mmm, those roommates in short-shorts, but I digress. Hes also done a number of other memorable comedic and dramatic roles, and well hell I DO felt like I grew up with him! You will be missed Mr. Ritter.
I knew what today would be when I went to bed. When I woke up I just lied there remembering seeing on the news what had transpired and the utter disgust in the pit of my stomach. We were watching two movies lately that had scenes with the WTC towers in them, and I dont think I will ever get used to not seeing them. The movies were Armageddon and Loving Jezebel. Armageddon had one of the 2 towers smoldering after the meteor shower in the opening scene. Loving Jezebel had the towers in the background during a black and white montage. I hope no film makers go back to old movies and remove scenes that had the towers in them. That would be stupid and tarnish the memories of the towers.
Im a firm believer that if youre gonna pay someone to do something, you should try doing it yourself at least once. There is a whole host of things which one needs specialized equipment to do that would make this impractical, but on the other hand a number of tools can perform a myriad of tasks. These things include, but not limited to: minor car repair and maintenance such as oil changers, tire rotations, brake jobs and minor tune ups. Granted cars today are a lot more sophisticated these days and anything more than simple task would require official training. Ive installed audio stuff on cars, rotated tires (big whoop!
The next class of tasks I think we should all at least attempt to do is home improvement. Some painting, tiling, lighting, and even plumbing could be done by the average person armed with enough information. This is NOT to say that I was armed with all the right information when I started my little project! Haha! I must have painted the walls like 4 times before I could get the stroke or whatever you call it right. The bedroom I think is 90% done, unless I go back tomorrow and find huge patches that need to be redone. Tomorrow I tackle the hall and bathroom.
I love doing manual labor. It makes you feel like you did something. After I painted and it was cooler out, I did some work in the yard. Oh yea, as soon as this is posted, you best believe Im gonna chill out. I wonder if there are places, where you can get a massage in your home Elegally! Haha!
The stuff I did today wasnt as remarkable as what I did at the end of the day Eplaying the game Monopoly with my little brother! This time I beat him, but as we played I gave him pointers and strategy. He has already memorized just about all the rents with AND without houses! He is so smartEehe. At the end of the night, he asked me to tuck him in. That right there reminded why I moved up here and it felt so awesome.
Oh yea, during the day I devoted to job searching. I went to all of those job sites that had my old contact info and changed them. Then it was off to update ALL of my resumes on those sites and on my computer. And then actually applying for jobs. Hopefully now that Im in the area, the searches will yield better results. Theres still a matter or re-contacting the 15 staffers I contacted a month ago.
Today I ran an errand with my mom which was totally weird, because usually she is a few hundred miles away. But it was cool because, she was getting results back from a test and she wanted my support. So that was dope being needed. Good news is the doctor actually had something to offer. And no its not terminal, but personal so I wont get into it. Afterwards we went to lunch at this Chinese place in Piedmont where we always eat at. Their food is so bomb its ridiculous! The freshness is so there.
In the evening Tasha, Kim, and I went over to Thys for dinner. Again another thing that I will have to get used to, because usually when I see them it entails a 4.5 hour drive and not a jaunt over to the Bay Bridge. I ended up being the only guy there and promptly announced at my arrival that if any talk of boysEor feminine productsEtakes place EIm getting the hell out of Dodge! Mwhaha! None of that thankfully happened. Although an interesting discussion of boobs took places; I was feeling that. Mwhaha! Dinner was great and everyone there was a pleasure to talk to.
One of the girls (actually a woman who looked nothing like her alleged age) there said that my mannerisms and inflections reminded her of David Allan Grier. WTF?! Haha! In the 28 years I have been alive, I have NEVER been told that. Wasnt quite sure how to take that, but at the same David Allan Grier is freakinEfunny. Some of his best work was done on In Living Colour, so I guess it was a compliment.
Tomorrow I get to hang out with my little bro! Woohaaa!!!
Today for the first time, I was threatened with legal action by the father of someone for mentioning their child (legal young adult) on my web site. Read the comments from the entry entitled Inspiration PointeEfor the DL. Mind you any legal action would be baseless, so making the threat was totally unnecessary. What judge in California (or any other state with even the vaguest grasp of intellectual property), in federal or state court, would let such a case proceed given the facts? Please. It is so typical to instead of simply asking for xyx, people to resort to the legal system or the threat of it. Fucking pathetic. In the almost 2 years Tonys Treehouse has been up and running no such thing has EVER happened. A few times people have expressed not wanting to be mentioned on the site by name, and I abided by those wishes out of respect. I dont PRESUME people want to be mentioned or seen on the web.
Needless to say I am very irked by this. The main reason why Im pissed off is because it was PRESUMED that I didnt obtain permission prior. No, the first communication was a demand, followed up with a threat of legal action. What kind of shit is that? Why couldnt someone ask me what was up and the person in question? The implication is that I run some sort of disreputable site and some how would be taking advantage of this individual. I wonder if they even bothered reading EVERYthing I wrote or just zeroed in on what they considered problematic.
So like DMX says, lets analyze the factors:
a) I DID receive oral consent for using their name and image (which now will not appear). I distinctly remember the conversation because I asked flat out, would you mind being mentioned by name and in picture, and they said no, that it was ok. Apparently no one thought to ask the person in question as far as I was informed.
b) The person in question is NOT a minor. This is to say, if they decided to do something as innocuous of getting props by name, whats the big deal? The implication here is the individual isnt capable of making their own decisions
c) There is not enough information to trace back to who this person is, as I never gave a lot of detail about them. What, is that implication then that some random person is going to put this ONE name together with some random detail in a search engine, then extrapolate using Monk-like precision who this person is out of the 20 billion+ web sites on the I-Net???
d) There is NO libel or slander taken place as I dont bash or lie about the person. I didnt talk shit, mention a great deal of detail, or anything of the sort. So any legal action would be a waste of time and money.
Yes and I am very pissed. First off, they chose to post on my site this malarkey about legal action. And oh yes, I am leaving that comment on there for everyone to see. Furthermore, they made the comment using their PERSONAL email address. Tisk, tisk. I noted it and cleaned that up, dare I risk reprisalEfor that too. My email address is splashed all over my site, so why couldnt I just have been emailed directly about this? Not to mention there is a degree of separation they could have EASILY gotten a hold of me. And then doing the saber rattling of pursuing legal actionE I would never have thought critical legal studies would have come in handy, but in this case it helped me smell the bull. The changes were made out of respect for two people in particular, whom for aforementioned reasons I can not mention. The changes were NOT made because I was scared of getting sued. Any hack IP lawyer would have had a field day with the case.
WTF? In their illustrious words, as far as I am concerned this matter is now closed.E
Today was my first official full day in Oakland and jeezus I hope this isnt a prelude of things to come! First I headed down to San Mateo to meet up with Jay and Allison. They took to lunch at this Korean BBQ place. The BBQ was awesome!! The marinades were kick ass and cooking the food at the table only added to the coolness factor. Afterwards, we went for a walk along the bay. There were these monstrous power lines about 40 feet away from shore connected by these rickety plank bridges. Allison and I walked out to them, till we came to the last one. Allison chickened out because a bird shat, and it floated right in front of her haha! I went out though to the very end and looked around. One of the damned supports for the bridge was swinging in the water!! Also a lot of the planks were flexing A LOT under our weight. It was quite disconcerting. Jay chickened out though and didnt come out with us...hehe.
Then I drove back to Oakland to meet Tasha and Kim at one of their friendsEbirthday party. Needless to say I was freaking whooped. Oh yea, driving to Jay & Allisons reminded me how much I HATE getting around in the Bay Area! There are bridge tolls EVERYwhere! Tomorrow I get to see my mother and little brother! Im so damned excited its ridiculous!