I firmly believe this country may go the way of Sodom and Gamora, not because porn is so easily accessible and shared. Nor because our President is a functional illiterate. Rather America is taking a big fat dump because people are raising little self-centered, evil, spoiled little shits who thinks they are the only ones in the world.
May be it's because I woke up with a little head cold. May be it's because my roommate and his friends were assholes. May be it's because I witnessed an 8 year old boy, tell his mother to shut up and not die. No joke, this kid told his mom in a firm and serious tone to shut up and she took it. That little fucker is just one young example. We have a bunch of pampered adults, men and women alike, who no clue on how to operate in other people's personal spaces. Their idea of interaction is simply to encroach on another's space, because they feel like. Hey buddy, you can say excuse me on occasions other than when you expel a bodily gas. Hey miss, being chivalrous doesn't mean you're princess of the world. Hey kids, YOU shut the hell up and respect your elders; those presents you get are optional.
This was schedule today:
8:00AM: Anthro Final
9:30AM: LawSoc Final
2:30PM: Paper due
3:00PM: Suz arrives
- Tasha has now introduced a new term into our vernacular, which was most apropos for Suz' train trip: riff raff. Apperantly, the train was loaded with women headed to a bachelorette party and wedding in SB. In describing she mentioned 'squealing' and unless you're watching Deliverance or work on a farm of some sort...squealing can NOT be good.
Afterwards we went to the pier, a definite Santa Barbara thing to do. While at the pier I mentioned this hamburger joint here called Hamburger Habit. I mentioned their burgers are a close tie for first, but a definite 2nd to In-n-Out burgers. Given our loyalties to the Double-double this could be a serious issue. The kind of issue that sets brothers against brothers, and unites cats and dogs. She did have to agree it was a damned fin burger and worthy to be near the Double-double.
8:00PM dinner
Now onto the dinner course of the day. We had dinner at one of my favorite SB joints, Chad's, quite honestly because they have the most sinful Jack Daniels chocolate souflee'. The dinner was incredible, but the service sucked ass. Our waiter checked on us may be once between getting the order and taking the check. We got better service from the guy who brought the muffins and water.
9:30PM: Pool at Q's
And the hook up lives on! The bouncer, who is actually the manager, gave us a discount at the pool table. Man I like playing pool at Q's. Call me a snob, but I don't want to play pool at some dank, smoke filled hall. We arrived just in time for the music to start, so we had good music to boot!
The rest of the night was truly an homage to the dance scene on Hitch. There were people there doing the robot, vogueing, cabbage patchin', and one guy who was doing a single-man Re-Rerun revival. COM-E-DY! And the same go-go dancer was there, still having guys trying to get her attention. When will guys learn! This is gonna sound so 7th grade, but ignoring a dancer will get you more attention than not. According to Suz the guys around me were jealous because the go-go dancer would stoop down to talk to me. I'm not sure if that is a good thing! HAHA! She was LIT! And she was not a very good dancer either.
But dammit all to hell I shoulda brought my digital camera. Because both go-go stages had skanky dancers. The one 'official' go-go dancer was rocking some bikini/boy-shorts combo and having SERIOUS camel toe to the point of labia definition. Not to mention she would randomly bend over...sigh. On the other stage was this girl rocking this extra short jeans skirt - and a g-string. She didn't really seem to care, as she would put her leg up on the railing and grind up on other girls. It was, um, entertaining.
Oh yea, is SB the home of natural blonds or do the drug stores stock extra hair coloring? EVERYWHERE we went on State St. and at Chad's there were more blonds than you could shake a stick at!!
Home: 1:25AM
Bedtime: 1:55AM
::Added new pics to the Photo Gallery from my NYC visit in May under button 001 at the top.::
There's a friend of mine who is firm believer that there is a correlation between people's behavior and the advent of a full moon. Their theory is just as the moon affects tides, the moon can also affect the fluid in people's brains. Ultimately this is the reason why people act extra-specially dumb during a full moon.
I needed some time away from the college set for awhile and went to the Elephant Bar for a burger and beer. Saddled up the bar for a Santa Barbara burger, err, yea burger with avacado and cheese. Washed that down with a 23 oz. Samuel Adams, while talking shit with the bartender. He had me rolling because he had no shame to his game in expressing his feelings about the wait staff.
It was about 10:45PM and figured what the hell, let's see what State St. is like on a Friday night in the summer because a) I haven't been on State St. at night in over 2 years and b) Suz and I were goign to be heading there next week after my first summer session section was over. It's definitely a lot tamer during the summer than when the school year is on. Some bars have changed names, but are in the same places. I walked up and down State St. and settled on Q's, as that used to be my spot to shake my ass. The SAME head bouncer was at the club and he actually remembered me! We talked it up for a bit, talking about what's changed and what's different over the years.
I ended up dancing with this girl, who looked like she came there with someone else. Nope, I didn't seek out this woman. Tonight was all about getting my groove on, not trying to pick anyone up. She came over and planted herself next to me, and she started ripping people a new one. It was great! If someone came up and danced in front of her, she'd just unceremoniously move them aside. She was talking more shit about people than me! Oh yea, she came with someone who didn't look none too happy to see her talking to me. Which was the KEY point, I was NOT trying to talk to her. She was talking to me. Anyway, she was fun to dance with. And she was tall!!! At least 5'10!! Tall chicks rock!
Here are my observations for the night:
1) Camel toe will never go into style! What's worse is when the go-go dancer is sporting camel toe that's visible from most of the people on the dance floor. NOT HOT!
2) Old guys in Hawaiian shirts trying to dance to Ciara, Nelly, and house music is fun no matter what!
3) Being trim, clean cut, and well dressed does NOT entitle you to game. This girl obviously inviting this guy to the club, and asked him to bring a friend for her girlfriend. The girlfriend was more interesting in texting on her celly, than giving the pretty-boy duo any attention. Awww.
4) Low rise jeans on chicks, can actually get TOO low. This chick's jeans were so low when she walked away we could all see she wasn't wearing any underwear. This could be hot in some situations, but not in a club.
5) The Robot dance move is dead. We had a meeting, unanimously passed the resolution and laid that dance to bed. And trying to pull off some lame ass R.E.M. imitation thing does NOT count.
6) Women, your make up should look like it was spackled with a trowel from Home Depot. I'll tell you why: a) most guys WILL wonder what the hell you are trying to hide with all that make up. b) all that make gets on clothes and shit! This chick looked she took a trowel and caked her make up on. Her whole face was the same color make up.
7) The hills have eyes!!! I'm talking about those ghouls who sit off to the side and who creepily stare into the crowd. They stand their with their drinks, not really dancing and just scanning. This one guy, me and my random dance buddy were trying to figure out if he was straight and who the HELL he was staring at so intently?!
...you know that title doesn't seem right. I am NOT that old g-dammit! I haven't been to Tae Kwon Do in about a week, and boy oh boy it was showing tonight! I'm going to be hurting tomorrow but it's all good.
Most bloggers have some random daily thing they comment on and use as fodder for an entry. And tonight I got nothing. Well, almost nothing. I went to class, got another midterm back. I went from second highest grade on the first midterm to middle of the road, on the second one! WTF! For the final I may mess up the curve, because I am taking NO chances with that.
Back to Tae Kwon Do...sweating is good. If you're not sweating, you're not doing anything. That goes for working out, dancing, and well some other physical activities I won't mention here. Suz and I were talking about one her recent visit to a Salsa club...on this note I must say I am so proud of my gurl doing Salsa!! We tried to Salsa once, and only once. Remember Albert from that movie Hitch? Well that was me, but with Tito Puente playing in the background instead of Usher. Anyway, she said she left the club drenched in sweat...as how it SHOULD be! If you go to a dance club...salsa, tango, hip hop, whatever...and you leave there as pristine as you walked into the joint - you wasted your money. You should at least get a contact sweat going from hanging around everyone else! The ultimate is when you leave a club sore and soaked in sweat - then your ass REALLY did something.
Ps. Malibu and coke is gooooood.
I asked someone a week or so ago, why I don't get more hits. Some personal blogs get thousands of hits a month, whereas I may get merely hundreds of hits. One of the possible answers that arose was that I don't write enough. To my own chagrin, yes, I must admit I do not write a lot on my site at times. For example before this entry, almost a full week has passed since the last entry.
There is an interesting corrolary here though: less blog writing on my part usually is proportional to much more real life activities as well. For that, I have no complaints! I am a closet workaholic. What's the point in finding balance in one's life, is the scales are constantly skewed to nothing. Which I am guilty of big time! For those who read my site and check back to see what's new in my life: I thank. Your patience is rewarded with the 3 or 4 days of back filled entries I am about to pen. Yes, that's right, today's Monday entry probably won't be the "newest" per se, as I will be filling in from Thursday to today.
One cool thing that happened today was I got a midterm back and was pleasantly surprised with the grade I got on it. I was stressing big time because for the life of me, I could not figure out what the professor was looking for. After class I did soem MUCH needed grocery shopping. I didn't have ANY food or water (literally) to speak of.
The supermarket trips lets me segue into a social custom that bugs me: lack of manners in shopping situations. You know what I'm talking about! When people pass mere inches away from you, without saying excuse me or anything. Kids that need to be on a leash, as their parents are engrossed in the label of some dumb product, and those same kids are taking the opp to run wild. WTF! How about the person who insists on staying towards the end of the EMPTY conveyor thingy, while you're holding a shit load of groceries, and not moving forward. Come on people!
I am not a huge country music fan, but I have to give Kenny Rogers his props. The man can sing a catchy tune. Today I left Oakland after hanging with Tasha. Our interactions can be pretty damned amusing. Reminds me of the Honeymooners, only difference is we actually do sometimes hit each other. haha!
The drive back to Santa Barbara was uneventful and fairly quick. I didn't lay into the gas too much as I was actually interested in the scenery that was going by. I MUST do the coast route before I leave. If anyone reading is wondering if PCH aka Highway 1 is worth the extra time, the answer is HELL YES! I don't know about all of PCH, but the stretch between Santa Barbara and San Francisco is breahtaking. One should leave early enough in the day to get as much daylight as possible. PCH can go from beautiful to treacherous in a heartbeat with no light and a heavy fog rolling in from the ocean.
And fog is exactly what was to be had when I entered Pismo to have dinner with an old friend. We met up at Marie Callender's and like the complete dork I am, I got excited because there are no Marie Callender's near me on the East Coast. Sigh, yes, I am easy to please. haha!
Total miles on the odometer for this trip: 924.
My cousin's car show was pretty cool, but I have to admit that I am a bit of snob. If your car is dripping with neon lights, big ass wings, 18" rims, custom glossy paint job, loud muffler and more LCD screens than my local Circuit City - but is no faster than how it was when it rolled off the showroom floor, you're a little misguided. All that 'show' and no 'go' is a bit silly. I shouldn't be able to pull up to a tricked out Civic/Integra/Accord/Sentra/whatever with all that on it and still smoke it in my 10 year old Grand Prix. Performance components, read that as stuff that makes your car go FAST, should be considered with all that ice.
Talked to Suz for a bit on the way to Oakland and it came up that I wasn't able to get online to chat, check email or anything since Thursday. How sad is that, that I go into withdrawal after only 48 hours of being unplugged??? Is there an Internet Anonymous group out there?
"Hi, my name is Tony and I'm addicted to Internet."
"Hi Tony!"
Tasha and I went for sushi at this cool ass place in downtown Oakland. Rather she took ME to sushi. Thanks shorty!! We had some amazing ass sushi! The stuff was fresh and on point! Also had us some hot sake!! In deference to my gurl Suz who HATES it when people pronounce it 'sah-kee', I now pronounce it 'sah-kay', as it's supposed to be pronounced. This only after watching her cringe every time me or someone else butchers it! haha!
Tasha went and got herself a damned fine new toy! She went and got herself a friggin' 50" Samsung DLP! It is PIMP! All you people feanin' over plasmas - you're wasting good money!
What happens when you put 2 very loud, outspoken Carribean men on grills to cook food for a party? You get nonstop trash-talking! Duane and I talked shit the WHOLE time we were getting ready for the party. It probably didn't help one bit that we were knocking down beers the whole time. It's amazing none of the food was charred beyond recognition. Mwhahaa!
We had all kinds of food! It was friggin' off da chain. Grandma did a lot of cooking and prepping. Nuff said. We had bbq chicken, bbq ribs, jerk chicken, salmon, battered and fried tilapia, cole slaw, potato salad, drinks and wine galore. One of the highlights for me though was seeing Juliette from back home. She used to live on the same street, and I hadn't seen her since high school at least!
Abrianna...that girl had me rolling. 4 years old and she already has the head nod down. It's that thing people do when you lift your head quickly to acknowledge someone or something. That girl has it down pat already! I waved at her, and she'd do the nod. It was so freaking funny!
Took my cultural anthro midterm this morning and quickly got my stuff together for the drive up to Sacramento. I couldn't sleep last night for nothing, the excitement was just coursing through me! I haven't seen my folks from back hom in way too long! I was so excited to go that I goofed the driving instructions 45 minutes out of Santa Barbara...haha! A quick call to Tasha helped me fix that.
Let me just say this about the area where my aunt lives up there: the street signs and lighting of those signs SUCK ASS! No wait, those signs suck big hairy baboon balls!! Dude! I would've been there 15 minutes sooner if I wasn't driving back and forth looking for the street sign that was TOTALLY blacked out.
Anyway, got there and lost my mind! My g-ma!! Woohaa!! My g-ma, both of them for that matter, can do no wrong. They could kill somebody, admit to the killing, and they could still do no wrong. Met my newest cousin too, lil Ms. Abrianna. Kids must be getting spunkier or something. She is the most assertive, no BS 4 yr old I have EVER met.
Oddly enough everyone was saying that I had grown since the last time they saw me. I thought boys stopped growing after 17 or something, but allegedly I got an extra couple of inches in height. Hell I'll take it! And almost all of us have our hair in a natural hair style, save for my one other aunt. Man, it was good to be around family.
For the life of me I could not sleep last night. Dammit, where's the Nyquil when you need it?! Reminds me of a very funny Lewis Black skit, where he celebrated the coming of Nyquil. He then proceeds to call Benadryl "non-narchotic sissy pansy bullshit". Mwhaha! I'm not sure if it has something to do with my bed, which is a generous description for the contraption the UC has people sleeping on. You'd think between rent and tuition, they could afford better beds. Oh and yet, the Governator can cut 400 million in education, but yet our school finds ways to stuff a new building into every friggin' square foot of open space on campus.
By the time I got to sleep it was 4something in the morning. And of course my phone rings no less than 4 times 2 hours later. WTF!?
I came across the following quote on a site one of my roommates recommended. Whoever originally wrote this is a friggin' genius!
A woman has a close male friend. This means that he is probably interested in her, which is why he hangs around so much. She sees him strictly as a friend. This always starts out with, you're a great guy, but I don't like you in that way. This is roughly the equivalent for the guy of going to a job interview and the company saying, You have a great resume, you have all the qualifications we are looking for, but we're not going to hire you. We will, however, use your resume as the basis for comparison for all other applicants. But, we're going to hire somebody who is far less qualified and is probably an alcoholic. And if he doesn't work out, we'll hire somebody else, but still not you. In fact, we will never hire you. But we will call you from time to time to complain about the person that we hired.
The amount of times this has happened to me is ridiculous. Now, I am more apt to quite frankly leave the friendship than try to put feelings aside and maintain things. Shit happens. What's the alternative, the girl IF she's considerate won't blather left and right about whatever new flavor of the month. If she's inconsiderate the guy has to deal with the patterns of bullshit, and there are generally very predictable patterns of bullshit. A veritable trail of bullshit leading from one doomed relationship to the next. Or you have to interact with someone, oft times rather closely who doesn't feel the same way you do. And that sucks ass. What's worse a broken heart every time you meet, one last breaking of the heart when you part ways.
I've read in health magazines for years how drinking has ill effects on when you work out. Even when you're not totally hung over, it can stiff have some effect. Mainly that it will slow you down, sapping energy. Well last night I drank, and today I was totally effected. During Tae Kwon Do, I was sluggish as hell. During the warm ups, I had NO energy. I was flopping around like a freshly bagged tuna on deck. Tonight we were rushing through our forms and basics so we could get to the fun stuff: board breaking! Boards don't hit back, but they're fun to hit nonetheless. The adage that it's all in your head is so true when it comes to this excercise. Let's see how many pop culture references I can use:
A)"Fear, doubt, and disbelief, you have to let it all go."
"Don't think you are, know you are."
- The Matrix
B) "There is no try, only do!"
- Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Breaking 1-2 boards is simply a matter of speed and accuracy, with almost any technique you employ. Hitting "through" the board rather than "at" the board is another key. Also if you have doubt about if you can do it, depending on how much doubt, you will fail. Take a strong practitioner (male or female doesn't matter), put him up agaist 4 or 5 boards, and then let doubt creep into their head...black, brown, whatever belt...they will fail.
Tonight I did one board with a knife hand. Our teacher warned me that I'm stronger than I think I am, and just wailing at the board would actually hurt more with my hand bouncing off the brace than actually breaking the board. I set up, drew my hand back about 6 inches away from the board, and practiced hitting dead center. Hitting off center can be very painful, even with one board. Been there done that. After sizing up the target, my hand came back, rigid hard, and then I snapped it at the board and it cleanly broke in two. Damned gratifying if I do say so myself.
Human bones in a lot of cases don't require much pressure to break. Some bones are even desinged to break, as to reduce the damage to the rest of the body. For example, the bones of the wrist are supposed to give way before the actual forearm. It's a helluva cushion, hurts like hell, but it works. It doesn't take much pressure to break wrists, clavicals, and ribs.
Tip for anyone fighting a larger opponent, be it a woman or a many who's been outsize: stomp the knee cap. Seriously if they are standing and looking to come at you, lift your leg, and drive the heel of your foot through the knee cap. Same goes if you're on the ground and they're coming at you. Doesn't matter how big and bad ass they are, that knee will give. Fight's over.
Not implying by this heading I had a near death experience. Quiete the contrary I have been feeling quite alive lately. I REALLY need to take my digital camera with me more often! Sigh. So much to do.
Rather than go through the litany of things I did this week I'm gonna do some blog cramming. Today I ran errands and went to one of my favorite places to for a walk. It's really not fair calling it a 'hike' because the route is really laid back. However, the scenery friggin' awesome. I caught myself going, to think this is in the MIDDLE of Santa Barbara!
::/ Last Saturday I hung out with one of my very good friend Ris. Had a great lunch at Brophy Brothers and did a bunch of catching up. The weather was on point, food was awesome and fresh, and it was good to see my friend again.
::/ Last Monday met up with Alana for dinner at Enterprise Fish Company. I'm starting to see a seafood theme with me. My girl has changed some much it's incredible. Most of that change is internal, save for the radical new hair cut, which she rocks so very well.
::/ Last Wednesday night was Tae Kwon Do and the teacher who normally teaches it finally showed. I ran up to him and looked him in the face and he did NOT recognize me for a bit. haha! Class was great. He was giving me a hard time because I wasn't throwing good round hosue kicks, which if I do say so, I can do pretty damn good. Had to fess up to him the cargo pants I was wearing were not conducive to flexibility. At 6'1, I can easily and forcefully kick over my head, but with the shorts on my kicks were barely going above my waist.
::/ Last Thursday night I went to one of the hip hop classes at Alana's studio. That was off da chain! It was taught by this tall and pretty damn fine girl, that would bust out with the craziest jokes. The class is just the workout I needed, and I managed to pick up some new moves. I was so hurtin' after that class!
::/ Last Friday was my first midterm. I did alright. Definitely didn't fail it, but didn't get an A either. Which made me MAD! I had studied my ass for that midterm! I don't know when I turned into perfectionist, but next time I will be much better prepared.