Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Tim and Eric Direct a Ben Folds Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP9csWhlHWM

I'd embed it, but that feature has been disabled.

Also, I find that Eric is a more attractive man wife then Tim. But that's just my opinion.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Days Late

I'll admit my last post was harsh but it happens.
I wrote this post sunday night, but my net was out and couldn't post it.

----------------------------------------------------------------


Well this weekend was pretty neat.
Friday started out alright, Doe had gotten a job interview the night before at a Salon (Virgo) somewhere on the Burlington / Woburn Line as the receptionist. The manager loved her and basically asked Doe to come in the next day and sort of try it out. She worked Friday 1-5 and then Saturday 9-5. She's making as much as I do and she's working forty hours a week. It's really sweet!

This makes me think about couples who have some odd competition over who's more successful or who makes more money. I don't feel any of these feelings that I've heard of. In fact, if Doe somehow started making a million dollars I'd just quit my job and laze around for the rest of my life. Well I'd probably do the extracurricular activities I still do (video games, working out, hanging out) I'd probably do these more often. Basically I don't have any sort of desire to be the main provider (but I obviously don't care if I am) and I just want do to be as successful as she can be.

Anyways, so Doe has the job there and she is just a receptionist for now and her manager was basically saying that's all she's going to be because that's all they're looking for. Doe being persistent and charming told her manager that she likes the job so far and she likes all her co-workers but she knows she'll want to be a hair stylist and I guess her manager agreed that later in her career Doe will have a shot at it.

Since Doe had to work 9 on Saturday she decided not to go out with me on Friday night so I just went over to the Basement by myself. I found Jim, CP, Ryan and Natty laying in the movie room just having a chit-chat I suppose. We watched Tim and Eric's season finale and it was sort of disappointing compared to their other episodes but it still was worth watching. For the rest of the night I just hung out playing Street Fighter and just hanging I guess. Clark arrived at The Basement and as always was given a warm welcome. There was more Street Fighter play and more laughs. Towards the end of the night Dan Hall arrived with delicious treats to share. It's been a while since we've seen Clark or DH so it was an exciting night I suppose. I left later on around 2 or maybe three, I don't think it matters much.

The next morning I woke up around 10. This day we planned on driving to Winchendon, MA to check out an arcade that was having a special event for Street Fighter IV. I sat around until about 12 when Richard (A kid we met on 2DF) called and let me know he was leave to get to Wellington so CP and I could pick him up. I called CP to wake him up, but I felt bad since he didn't sleep much because he had to drive his parents to the air port at 5:30. Since Doe had my car CP was needed to get Rich.

Dipping into the Rich subject a bit, originally CP and I were going to meet Rich in Boston to escort him out because he was new to the city. The idea is rediculous! But me being me, I'm a push over and sometimes too accomindating. So when I told him at first he could either take the Lowell commuter to Wilmington, or we could pick him up at Wellington Station on the Orange Line he declined because 'he was new to the city and was going to get lost'. I tried to tell him it was easy but he denied the fact and just trying to be nice decided I'd just go in and basically hold his hand out of Boston. CP later helped me convince Rich that the idea of us spending money to go on the subway to help him to Wellington was a waste of our money and time. It's true, it's so easy to navigate the subways of Boston I don't know how you could. There are maps everywhere and I don't see how they could make it more clear about how to get around. After Rich gave CP a weak argument as to why we SHOULDN'T go into Boston to meet him, CP convinced him that he needs to meet us at Wellington. Thankfully for CP we saved some money and a useless trip.

Blah blah blah, Rich met The Basement people we hung out for a while (until 5:30) then left on our way to Winchendon to find the Arcade. Jim graciously volunteered to drive the other car and after an hour and some odd minutes (we sort of took some wrong turns) found the Arcade. I'd like to say that this Arcade couldn't have been placed in a more obscure location. Winchendon is in the middle of no where. I forget how desolate western Massachusetts can get, but I was reminded this Saturday. Either way, we got there and it was exciting to say the least. I'm not sure when the last time I was in a real arcade and to make things even more unique it was an 'authentic' Japanese arcade with Japanese machines and all that. I prefer them a whole lot compared to American made arcade machines. I won't go into detail.

The crowd wasn't at all what I had expected either. There was an overwhelming amount of minorities. Not just asians but I felt like I saw a lot of black people and hispanics. Also, no one was quiet as dorky/geeky ask I imagined either. Sure there was the occassionaly skinny, small kid with glasses and an awkward haircut - actually there was a shit load of dorky/geeky kids.

Now I recalled seeing a good amount of dirty Nu metal kids with large sweatshirts with skulls on them and large raver jeans that were tatters more and more towards the feet.

There were some gangster looking kids as well and I was pretty surprised to see them there and playing street fighter. There was some trendy looking kids there too, with their tight sweatshirts and tight jeans and hair delicately handled and combed to the side. Again I was surprised to see them playing as well.

I'd like to point out on asian I saw playing who fit my last descript (tight clothing, etc.) looked like he was having a geniuning good time. Like to described to Jim, I'd watch him playing Street Fighter III and he would just crack a smile here and there. I guess I thought it was cool how he looked like he enjoyed just playing. I imagined he was smiling about strategic moves that were just made and he just loved the challenge and over coming it! But that is just what I think. Basically I just enjoyed his love for Street Fighter, he was skilled as well.

Street Fighter IV was an awesome game! It's the newest edition to the Street Fighter series and Capcom really did an amazing job trying to revive the franchise. I won't bore you anymore about it, but I can't wait to play it agian.

later later later, we left around 12:00. I was surprisingly tired and didn't mind leaving. I had a good time at the arcade and would love to go back there and try to get better at using a joystick and whatever. It took us about 35 minutes to get back to Lowell where I stopped at iHOP to let make use the bathroom. It's late in the game, but I guess I should point out the group that went to the Arcade was, Me, CP, Jim, Lane, Mac, Clark and Rich.

In my car was Mac, CP and Rich. After stopping at iHOP I got back onto 495, to 93 to get Rich back home. Since it was after 12:45 the subways had stopped and we had to go into Boston by car and get him to his apartment. It was quite the annoying journey and I'm really glad CP and Mac went with me. We got to exit 26 which heads towards Storrow Drive. I'm familiar with the area because I drove there a lot to get Doe in the begining of our relationship. The google maps directions didn't fail to dissappoint and of course had flaws in the directions. It told me to take a right after being on Storrow Drive. I'd like to point out that at no time did I see a right that was labeled as google maps had labeled it. Luckily I skipped that step and just drove to Claredon St(sp?) which was the next road. I got there the only way I knew how. After that we drove around following the directions as best we could. Rich kept suggesting other ways to go, but I ignored his advice and just followed the directions. We did pretty well doing this, but after a while I did take Rich's advice because the directions fucked up. Anyways, when we got close to Rich's apartment he failed to tell me to take a left at a certain point. He mockingly said "Heh, uhh you're going the wrong way." and I responded, "What? Where was I suppose to go." I'm going to do this in an easier dialogue format.

Rich: Well I'm supposed to be over there (points across the road where I would have no way over getting over there because of mediums and bullshit)
Me: Alright, well I didn't know that.
CP: It probably would have helped if you told us.
Rich: Hah, well I just figured you'd know.
CP/ME: What?
Me: I've never been here before, how the hell am I supposed to know where I'm going.
There was just silence.

Me: I'm just going to turn here. (I was taking the first right off the road)
Mac and Rich told me not to, but I'm not sure why. No one knew where the current road was heading and it wasn't like they knew where this new one was going. Either way, it's a good thing I took the road. After a couple of turns I ended up at Rich's apartment even though I felt people doubt I knew where I was going. But I'd like to point out that I used common sense to figure it out and it wasn't at all that hard. Needless to say after we dropped Rich off we got even more lost. I ended up missing a vital left turn to get back to Storrow Drive and ended up heading into Club-ville. I underestimated the idiots that would be up at 2am in Boston. There was traffic because of drunk clubbers staggering across the street looking for taxi's. It was so annoying having to weave around people just walking in the middle of the street. I said plenty of times to Mac and CP that I wish I had a gun sometimes. CP jokingly turned my wish for an actual gun into a wish for some sort of fictional gun that teleports whatever I shot back to The Basement. So we discussed how I would shoot us back home, CP noted that I'd have to shoot us one at a time. First the car, then him, then Mac the myself. ANYWAYS, after I got back to Claredon St (the way we got into Boston) I remember along time ago I drove here to drop Doe off when she lived/worked around the area, in turn I remembered how to get out. Mac's friend was on the phone and as she was some help she didn't help us get back to Storrow Drive. But she still helped. Basically we got home and all was fine, whatever!

All in all I was annoyed I had to make the trip and how nice I was during the whole thing, especially for someone who hardly appreciates it and basically just demands and demands.

Oh well!

Sunday was me in bed with a headache, but I liked the time with Doe because I basically didn't see her for two days! I didn't like the headache, it felt like my left eye ball was being pushed out.

It's late! Trying to sleep but I took a nap from 4 - 7:30, good night. I don't look forward to working.

In my opinion, this was a wordy post and too hard for even me to follow.
Well, I'm pretty upset right now.

My mother is in one of her crazy moods where she doesn't speak to you and when she does shes just annoyed and spewing hateful things. Much of the things she says are most likely repressed feelings she has that she for some reason doesn't bother to say when she is in a better mood. For instance, she just told me it would be nice if someone vacuumed the house once in a while. That's fine, I don't give a shit. I'll vacuum whatever. But she doesn't say any of these things until she's pissed off. But then maybe that's what it takes for me to get up and do something.

So my mom is running around the house making loud noises whatever way she can, Doe is in the bathroom cutting Saman's hair. Originally, Doe was in the kitchen cutting her hair until my mom approached me in my room and asked "So Tom, what's for dinner?" I respond "I don't know, why?". I'd like to point out there was no hostility up until this point, my mother says "Well, I don't have my kitchen so I can't have dinner" or something stupid like that. First I thought why the fuck are you so immature and can't just ask Doe "Can you cut her hair in the bathroom so I can make myself dinner" it's just so annoying. She then throws one of our food boxes out into the hallway and says across the main hall "Take this down stairs please" at this point I'm boiling with annoyed rage so I walk aggressively down the hall, grab the box as hard as I can and basically jump down the stairs and bring the stupid box into the basment while my mother yells "Well if you don't want to live her you don't have to"

I think to myself, "You're a fucking bitch. I never said anything about moving. I want to move out but I can't afford to go anywhere else." I don't know what the hell my mother wants. Sometimes it seems like she'll die from loneliness if Doe and I move out, other times I feel like we're the burden of her life.

Basically I want to move out, I want to take all the cats so she'll be alone. She never has a obvious reason for being such a stupid bitch. She never talks about why she mad at us and then she gets mad at us and expects us to know what's wrong. She's fucking crazy. She doesn't even get mad at legitimate things, she gets mad over the smallest things. She'll see I left a spoon on the sink or something, but she doesn't see the spoon and instantly tells me "Hey, please put the spoon in the dishwasher next time." she just stores that memory away. This incident never happened but I'm sure something more ridiculous has happened where she's going to blow up at me.

Sometimes she complains about us using too much water, or not using the electricity efficiently. Why the fuck does she care? I pay the water and the electricity bills. I wish I could move out so badly so I didn't have to deal with this shit. I wish I could kill someone so my mom could see how crazy I'm going. I want to destroy this house and make my mother scared of me so she'll never talk to me. I'm so fucking pissed and upset right now I want to do something terrible to someone.

I can't handle it. I just need to move out.

Friday, September 26, 2008

It'll Be Alright

I remember one time driving from Market Basket back to The Basement,

Jim said to me: "It'll be alright"

I forget what were talking about but I do recall feeling powerful, reassurance wash all over me.
Thanks Jim! You probably don't remember because it was definitely a long time ago, but I do.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Mid-Day Randomness

I'm at work trying to figure frustrating things out.

Other then that I'm listening to Ben Folds (it's putting me in an amazing mood)
and I stumbled upon a couple of notable quotes from the movie Ghost World (which I haven't finished but I like what I've seen a whole lot)

Enid(Thora Birch): We need to find a place where you can go to meet women who share your interests.
Seymour(Steve Buscemi): Maybe I don't want to meet someone who shares my interests. I hate my interests.

Enid(Thora Birch): Are you into girls with big tits?
Seymour(Steve Buscemi): As long as she's not a complete imbecile and she's even remotely attractive.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Going On

Well I'm back a couple days late.

First I'd like to say I'm in fact living pay check to pay check and it's a terrible feeling. I need to stop doing a lot of things but I don't want to. I hope the money situation gets better when Doe finally finds a place that is looking for employees and give her good hours.

The thing I had on my mind yesterday were just old thoughts about myself and meeting new people. I love meeting new people but then I don't. I like the 'thrill' of change and just having something new in the mix, but then there are a few things that making meeting new people for me a bit of a hassle. I'm sure I've already said these things to someone and I might have already posted about it earlier in my life.

1. When I meet new people, lets say from the Internet (myspace, facebook, whatever) I'm in no way the same person I am online. I'm quiet, struggling for something to say and terribly awkward. Which is how I was around Doe the first time I met her. I remember walking up to her at the Alewife train station and she was fiddling with her phone and listening to her iPOD. I was pretty nervous but I sat down next to her and said hello. Thinking back I think I looked like an idiot and my posture was probably awful. I probably looked like an idiot because I feel like I was trying to come off cool and suave. Either way, we walked to my car and she wanted a hug immediately because prior to meeting she talked about how she loved giving/receiving hugs and how she sort of got a feeling for a person based on this hug. Needless to say we hugged and I hate to even think about it now because of how terrible I acted, ha! It was a short hug and I don't think I knew what to do with myself. I remember her being disappointed because I told her how awkward I was going to be and she was hoping she'd be a different story.

Taking a moment to think about that, I don't think I'll ever meet anyone for the first time and not be awkward. There's too much to think about and there's too much to find out about this person. It's so different with friends I've known for years, I can just sit next to them and not say a word for hours and it would never be awkward. I wish I could feel this way with everyone I meet but it's just something that I need to develop over time. But I guess they do say "It's only awkward if you make it awkward" and I never fail to make it awkward.

Anyways, continuing, the ride from Alewife back to Wilmington was filled with awkward exchanges between Doe and myself, mostly from myself because Doe doesn't seem to ever get awkward. I felt more comfortable after she called me out for being so awkward, which is something I try to do whenever I hit an awkward hump. If I run into an old acquaintance and there's a moment of awkward silence during our quick 'catching up' conversation, I just tell them it has gotten awkward and end our verbal exchange. I find that this method really can go two ways. One, I can say "well this has gotten awkward" and people will laugh and think it's hilarious and it gets really less awkward. Or I can say it, and everyone laughs uncomfortable and the awkwardness continues because no one knows what to do. Or maybe it's the same result every time but I for some reason warp specific bad ones into good ones. Oh well.

There was going to be a 2 and 3 on the subject, but who cares!



I get asked a lot by my co-worker and various others, "How's the married life?"

It's good for the hundredth time and probably not the last time.

To be honest, there isn't any blaring difference about being married and being boyfriend and girlfriend. Especially living together. The thing that scares or excites people about being married in my eyes is the permanence of it. I enjoy it. I think it's hard to explain, but I know I'm not scared about it. I hear a lot of the time that it's weird to have to spend the rest of your life with one person, or you're only going to be able to sleep with this one person for the rest of your life. Well I suppose those are the scared people. I'm sure it helps I'm indifferent to basically 70% of the things that come into my life, but I know I'm happy with my decisions (well my academic decisions could have been more thought out) and I love that Doe.

This is just banter again. It sure does not help I've been writing this on and off for two days. I feel like my thoughts are scattered and not making much sense!

I'm in a good mood right now, so I'll leave this off saying:
Life is good or at least all right. I'm in good health, I have a loving wife, three kittens who sleep on me and my bed, awesome/fun friends, and I have a really good time everyday.

Sure, my job isn't great and I have no clear direction (just like everyone else) and there's a good chance I'll end up here working this job I don't want to for the rest of my life. But I'm strangely content. Or maybe I feel content because I'm going to stop doing it and do something fulfilling. But then again, what is fulfilling to me is lifting a lot weight one day and beating some strange kid in Brazil in a Street Fighter Alpha 3 game the next day. I'm sure your fulfillment standards aren't much different.

I also find it fulfilling sleeping next to Doe and three cats.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Real Quick

Presenting this epic piece of work. I have another one I'm keeping secret for the time being.
Artist: Horiyoshi III
Photobucket

I was going to write about two things, but I can't remember them. I think one was about, oh yes! One was about meeting new people and the other one is something that is drifting around the back of my brain and I'm sure I'll never recover it.

I'll be back later.

Monday, September 22, 2008

A Little Here and There

10:34am
So to start off this regular Monday morning, I want a tattoo.
Yes, it's heavily because Lane got a tattoo but not because he got a tattoo. It's because his tattoo was so ideal as to what I want and because we'd talked about getting these Japanese demons for about two years. But the artist he found was truly a master of his work. Not his tattoo artist but the Japanese artist Horiyoshi III and I'm sure I'll be looking to him for some inspiration. As I've mentioned in my other post about wanting a tattoo, I said I wanted to draw it myself. Well, after some fiddling around and just sort of trying to emulate the old masters, I found I couldn't. Which is fine with me. I'm not an illustrator. I used to want to be, but don't really care for it. So basically I'm going to do what everyone else does and get someone else to do it for me. I'd rather have a sweet looking tattoo that someone else drew out for me instead of a shitty looking tattoo that looks like a three year old threw up. But I'm still looking into it.

I feel like there's been a lot of bumdogging going around lately. Which is fine. I wish I could do something about it, but I feel like I always wish I could do something. Either way, there's a lot of times I don't know why people are in bad moods or what I can do to help. I don't ask them though. When I'm in a bad mood in public I prefer to keep to myself and don't really want anyone to ask me why I'm in a bad mood. So I assume everyone wants the same. This doesn't mean I don't want to know whats wrong, I'm just not coming to get the information. Which might make me sound like a bad friend. Well this thought is over.

I recently heard from one of our friends that they hate the blogging that has started amongst the friends. I'm not sure how truthful this statement really is but I don't see any validation to it if it is true. I didn't think this is some fad like we play WoW or any other fads that appear in the basement. Sure blogging will die as it has died before, but I don't blog so I can talk to Lane, Jim, CP, Ryan, and Dan about what we blogged about the night before. I like to blog because like I said to CP, a blog is candid reasoning and sincere thoughts. For the most part. I just like rambling about nothing to no one because it's not something I do with anyone. Ah well, it doesn't really matter though!

I recently downloaded this program by my Bosses request. It's a program called Jing. Basically it's a program that allows you to capture a certain part of your computer screen and either take a screen shot of it and instantly write an explanation or take a video screen capture and actively record voice instructions (if you have a mic on hand). I think it's really cool and as funny as it may sound look forward to using it for random people on www.2dfighter.com or randoms on the Internet who have no idea what they're doing and need help with something that text doesn't explain well enough. It's a weird thing to be excited for, but what isn't.

12:46pm
So I guess I'm just writing here and there because after writing a series of random thoughts I don't feel like posting what I have because I don't think it's finished. I also like the idea of just writing randomly throughout the day. It's 12:46 like I said and I'm no where near hungry. I think it's because of the big breakfast I treated myself to that was really cheap. I wasn't planning on getting breakfast but as I entered work the kid, Cory, who goes and gets the food in the morning asked if I wanted anything. It didn't take much convincing for me to say "Get me whatever you are getting."

I read Ryan's blog yesterday morning! BOY was that a bumdog fest. I was going to leave something like "It's alright" or something like that, but 1. It never sounds sincere even if it is, and 2. he specifically noted that he doesn't not want anyone to try and comfort him about anything. But more importantly he wrote about being a hobbit and how his mama didn't think he'd do so well without technology. He believes he'd be fine without it which would probably be true. I thought if I'd be fine without it. And I too believe I would be. Sure, I love the Internet and all of it's information and I love street fighter and whatever video games I like to play at the time but everyone I know could survive without technology. I use it because it's available. If we were to move out into the middle of the forest with no intentions of coming back to a civilized world I'd sure miss the luxuries of the Internet, my laptop, phone whatever else i like to use. But I'd be perfectly content with the people and my cats! But, I guess we won't know for sure if I could really 'survive' until it actually happens.

I believe a good amount of people who read my blog also follow Geekologie. Even if you don't, they had this article about some site saying text messaging lowers a person's IQ by 10. I didn't actually read the FULL article because I didn't think it was worth my time. Geekologie pulled out this highlight which is all I think you need.

"The act of texting automatically removes 10 I.Q. points. "The truth of the matter is there are hobbies that are incompatible. You don't want to do mushroom-hunting and bird-watching at the same time, and it is the same with texting and other activities. We have all seen people walk into parking meters or walk into traffic and seem startled by oncoming cars."

Now the people this article are referring to are morons. I text with a number of activities all the time. If you don't have the brain power text and roam your streets safely then you should realize you're a retard. As unsafe as it is, I'll text while driving. I've been doing it for years and it's only unsafe if I decide to dedicate more time to texting them driving. I'm not retarded so I would never do that. This article is like saying video games and television make kids bring guns into schools and kill people. Kids bring guns into schools and kill people because they're parents leave guns around the house and they are murderers. Basically, multi-tasking is easy. I wouldn't recommend texting while driving or while doing anything because sometimes I think I look rude.

3:40pm
Well this day has been flying by in my opinion. I'm wondering how Doe is doing right now. At noon she went to basically try out at the Salon she applied at. I'm sure she's going to get the job, I'm just worried about conflicting schedules since it seems like she might be getting part-time hours. Hours I predict are like 3-7 and I'll have to look for a ride. But I guess she'll at least have some income.

I've been thinking seriously about A. Going back to school (night classes) B. Getting a second job (just to make more money) and C. Moving out of my house.

A. Really no reason then making more money at my current job. Also, I'm so tired of my relatives telling me I should go back to school. I appreciate the push, but I heard you the first 100 times. I'm just not feeling school. Which is worrying me because maybe I'll never feel school and never go back. But what if I work my way up here and I just never need to go to college? Would there be an issue? But then like I've said before I don't want to work here forever. Night Classes wouldn't kill me.

B. I don't have to at all. It's really just a fantasy but not the good kind of fantasy. Just really wondering I guess. I could work some shitty retail job at the mall from 5-9 and make a little of a hundred a week. The only way I'd really consider doing this is if lets say Luis Alverado, Lane, Mandy all worked at Spencer's again. I'd be down for that. It was a breeze and wasn't much like working at all. I think I'd be going to Night Classes before I get a new job.

C. Moving out. It's change. Not much more to it.

I'm smelling some serious shit in the trash here at work. It smells like rotting banana's but I can't find it anywhere. Also, I need to piss but someone is in the bathroom I prefer. It's not well known, but I can't shit anywhere but my own bathroom at home.

4:23pm

I'm going to turn this post in like a late paper.

Thanks for reading whatever I thought.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Good Afternoon and Happy Friday!

It's also 4:20 at the time I'm started to type this post up, but it'll be well past this time when I actually post the document.

A couple things that I'm going to start off with.
1.Yes, I'm at work, yes I have work to do. But right now my work is dependant on someone else responding to me about certain files so I have a bit of downtime.

2.I hate the phrase "Happy Friday" and I hate when people say it. I don't hate it, but I don't like it. It seems to bring too much importance to a normal day. It makes the people who say it even more mundane then they probably already are. (No offense to any co-workers who may read this and say it. You can't disagree. You can, but you shouldn't.)

So as I've stated before my cats get to be free around the house. It's really nice being greeting by three little faces when I come home and each one of the cats looking for some sort of affection from me. My favorite part is bed time when the cats are usually at the peak of their craziness. They're chasing each other, running around, and attacking our feat as they shift under the bed covers. Their craziness isn't my favorite part, I meant the part after the craziness when they're all tired. Noa I believe sleeps under our bed for some reason and Konrad likes to sleep either between Doe and myself or right on top of me. Doe has been opening a draw just for Bradley that he likes to curl up in a ball in. Last night actually, Bradley was curled up in his open drawer and Konrad poked his head in to see what the deal was. At this moment, Bradley put one arm around Konrad's next and Konrad jump into the draw curling up next to Bradley. Then they proceeded to lick each other affectionately until they both fell asleep. It was an amazingly cute little event. When I woke up in the morning, Noa and Konrad were sleeping by my feet which I always enjoy.

Exciting news to me, my company is moving buildings! I think they are, nothing is in stone. But I got to check the building out this afternoon. It was like an actual office building. It reminded me a lot of my mothers old office building in Lexington when I was a kid so that was exciting to me by itself. The building is brick, it is only five seconds away from where I work now so the drive might actually be shorter for me depending the route I take. The only downside is there are no longer food stores in walking distance but I don't really give a shit. Hopefully there's a walker cooler I can stand around and talk to people as they get water with me.
That's another thing, with this expansion we're expanding our employees. Right now it looks like developers are the only thing being hired since I haven't heard anything about Graphic Designers/Marketers coming in for interviews.
a) I'm excited to see new faces
b) I wouldn't call myself a graphic designer at this point with the small amount of graphic design I do.

I'll enlighten you as to what I do.
I use this program that works in Indesign (a layout program) that basically allows Graphic Designers to merge a data list with it and then output a print file. So basically making mailers are really easy.
I don't even do any designing I get layouts and documents from other companies who already designed their pieces and they send it to me to be tagged and merged with these variables. It's not hard at all. This makes me fear for my job security. But then I'm not really all that scared since I don't want to do this for the rest of my life. Which I think I've said before. Either way, I wouldn't call myself a Graphic Designer or Graphic Artist I don't know what I would call myself. But I'll call myself a Graphic Designer because it's easier that way.

One thing I really enjoy doing is helping people with questions but only through text. So if you have some question for me, I don't want to explain it to you over the phone or in person. I want to write you a explanation. I find it really fun and I do it a lot online in forums and (not recently) on yahoo.answers.com. I do it occasionally at work, but a lot of customers NEED someone telling them each step for some reason. This of course I'm terrible at because I stutter or get too wordy and just end up confusing the both of us. I also can't tell them "I'll write you a detailed step-by-step tutorial of how to run through this site" because I for some reason think it'll reflect badly on my company.

I also don't like getting help on the phone. I would rather customer service respond to me in e-mails or text based. I love text based help.

I'm losing steam and it's 5:00. Also, don't think I wrote from 4:20 to 5:00. Work interrupted my thoughts many times.

New Blogs If You Didn't Know
laneislame.blogspot.com
letmecp.blogspot.com

Also
This made me laugh.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Couple Things in the Head:

The past few days has been good.

On to more important things!

In the last couple of days, I've sort of hated things as they appeared to me. First thing that comes to mind is hunting. This thought came to me as I was up late one night and a deer hunting show was on some odd channel and it featured a white man with a rifle and a half-Asian elderly man. They were both skulking around trees and bushes stalking two bucks that were just minding their own business in the woods. The Asian man told the impatient and eager white man to wait since he was sure they could find better, more impressive bucks further in the wilderness. The first part to annoy me was when the white man happily whispered "This is SO good." That for some reason bothered me. To try and explain it would probably be to say that his eagerness to kill animals was sort of bothersome. I'll leave that like that, since I guess it might be the closest I can get to explaining it. But it does not explain it.
Going on, after jumping channels a couple of times I came back to find the two hunters in some brush looking towards an open field with bucks and does grazing. Skipping their chatter, the white man took aim and shot one shot into a large bucks chest. Cut to the hunters on the dead buck: the men were now feeling up the bucks antlers and basically having an orgasm over their victory. It was ridiculous. As many will agree, hunting is fine if you need to eat or wear some pelts for warmth. Hunting is a faggot-pussy sport for faggots who want dead animal heads to fap to in the middle of the night. That's another thing, when the white guy was checking the antlers out, he was stroking his hands sensually up and down the antlers just muttering how beautiful it was.
Hunting is stupid and same goes for anyone who enjoys killing defenseless animals who wouldn't go near you if you were covered in delicious deer-exclusive herbs. If you're going to hunt, do it with a spear and hunt an animal worth hunting like a bear or cougar.

This next one could insult peepz i know, but I doubt it.

People who pronouce the word huge like uge. Is uge the proper way to say it? It's usually old people who say uge. When I was growing up I was never informed the h in huge was a silent h. Don't get me wrong, I pronouce my fair share of words wrong. But they're usually odd words. Like years ago I said cam-bridge and not came-bridge. How was I suppose to know? I just feel common words like huge, which is as common as words can get, should be pronouced in the uniform way that people are taught.
This annoyance is so small and so stupid that I don't think it was worth mentioning.


My kittens have been granted the privilage of being able to roam my house freely. I couldn't be happier. The boys, Konrad and Bradley seem to love each other. Konrad follows Bradley around like Bradley's his big brother and I guess Bradley just does whatever he wants ha. Noa likes to keep to herself unfortunately. She seems to only like me, which I guess I don't mind. I remember picking her when we went to check out the kittens. I wonder if she knows I picked her which is why she likes me. Who knows. Either way, it's a very pleasant thing to wake up in the morning and to have kittens curled up along your body looking for some warmth.

Kittens are cool. Cats are cool. I'm a crazy cat lady.

peace!

Oh, side note: Street Fighter is cool.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

College: Art Institute of Boston 2006 - Part III

Well this next Foundations piece is from April 20th 2006. After reading it, there's an whole bunch of errors in wording and all that good stuff. I want to say it's because I got more comfortable with ranting nonsense. This paper is truly nonsense too. I also laughed at myself in the beginning of the paper. To think that I was writing so openly! I'm sure I'd do it again.

----------------------------------------
Tom Hoang
The Internet

The internet? Well what about the internet really, what am I writing this
reponse about? Well to be quite honest, the internet has 3 things.
Pornography, and well I guess that's all I can really think about, call me a
creep. Sure it's not 3 things, but theres enough about it on the internet to
make up 3 things. Well I guess for a second theres information. Whether it
be reliable, shakey, or just plain fake information, it's still on the
internet at anyones disposal. People use the internet for lots of things
like playing video games, talking with people who could possibly be light
years away, or just surfing the web because they have nothing better to do.
That's very interesting, communication though digital wires and basically
0's and 1's. It's like the matrix kinda. It'd sure be something to actually
be in the internet. Physically. I'm sure scandalus, creeps would have a ball
with that, as well as gamers. Put you in the action without you actually
having to face the dangers or anything like that.
I'm not sure how I feel about internet service. I don't know about anyone
elses, but mine is really shakey. Sometimes it's working, sometimes it's
not. It's really very annoying. I don't know how I put up with it. As sad as
it might sound I spend a lot of time on the internet, just playing games or
looking at whats new in the technology world. But I'm not by any means
'computer savy' I just like being on it. It's weird how you could be all
alone in your dark, dungeon of a room but still be communicating with all
the world. Weird I mean because you're all alone but then you're not. I
heard that people were thinking about wiping the internet and starting from
scratching. Say that the internet has gotten too curropt and infected with
countless hackers and viruses. That's weird to think, having no internet for
an X amount of time because they're I 'rebooting' the whole damn thing.
Also, why do people out there hack into accounts or create viruses. I don't
see the point, I don't think I could find it fun at all. You're just being
an annoying bastard who is destroying someones computer and even valuable
information. The internet seems like a bad place to me, but even so I spend
much time there. It's probably the most entertaining thing around right now.
TV or the internet? Tough choice for some, but I really haven't watched TV
in weeks. But being on the internet makes up for that. I'm a big computer
geek.


----------------------------------------

I'd say now I'm somewhat more computer savvy. But everyone learns in time. One thing I can't remember is if the teacher ever really commented back on the things we ranted about. I'm actually not sure if any of my class mates ranted. I'd like to see what they wrote.

I'm going to go for now.

Friday, September 5, 2008

College: Art Institute of Boston 2006 - Part II

This next little paper was short and I'm sure i didn't put much time into it, just judging by it's length. I think I really like writing these papers because I felt like it was my open opinion on whatever the subject was and it was cool writing something like that for school.

Anyways, this paper is a short one as I just mentioned and I believe it was right after me, Pam and Shannon went to a contemporary art exhibit. It was of course a class assignment. I don't think the three of us really had a burning passion for art that would push us to go to any art exhibit by our own volition.

I'm also not exactly sure when I wrote this, judging by the time I sent it to myself I think it was around April or May 2006.

Well I'll let the paper do the rest. Until next time.

-------------------------------------------

Tom Hoang
Living in motion

Well we went to the Institute of Contemporary Art and look at the "Living in
Motion" exhibit. I have to say it was pretty interesting. Just looking at
all the ways that people can come up with different furniture or clothing or
even housing. I think the one that caught my eye most was the giant aluminum
portable home. It's a simply designed shelter that one could simply set up
where ever they desired (and if the law permitted) them to set up their
little portable home. It didn't look comfortable, but it looks a lot better
then a card board box. Finding the museum was a pretty rough trip as well.
Well it wasn't rough, but I'm glad the others were with me. Probably
wouldn't have gotten there on time, although we were probably 10 minutes
late anyways. The weather is pretty horrible as well. I hate rainy days, it
really effects the mood. Especially when it rains, that's when I'd want a
portable home, if I was homeless anyways. Although I didn't see the home
when it was all compacted, so judging by the size of it I think it'd be a
pretty aweful thing to lug around the city. I'm not sure I could ever really
create those sort of abstract but also I suppose functional items that the
artists did so well. Well many of the items were more practical. Or maybe
I'm looking for the word convienent. Things like a backpack that also is
home to an umbrella just so you have free hands to do things like what? Hold
you're Mcdonalds. I guess the exhibit was very interesting, but maybe it was
for the lazy as well. America's obese as it is, we don't need to make life
easy for us. But I guess many of the artists weren't from America. But then
a lot of the furniture look heavy, maybe we'll get a work out lifting it
around. Well although the art was interesting and fun to look at, maybe we
should look around first, see if it best for the society. But on the other
hand, i haven't seen a multiposition chair in any homes. That's what I
think.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

College: Art Institute of Boston 2006

I was looking through my hotmail account when I stumbled upon a "school" folder. Out of curiosity I went into the folder and discovered some papers I had sent to myself to probably be printed at home or at school. Either way, I present them to you errors and all for no real reason.

The following 'paper' was for my Studio Arts Foundation Class. This class was basically a discussion class where the teacher tried to make us think outside the box and find new, innovative ways to create art. After each class he'd had out a paper with a question on it and he'd expect us to answer the question and freely as we'd like. I can't remember exactly what the question was, but I believe I state the question in my first

---------------------------------------
Tom Hoang
Page 349, #1
2/15/06

A time in my life when I had to go into a new community would be in high
school. My high school was a vocational high school, where students from
five neighboring towns came together. I only had a few friends in the early
stages of my freshman year. I only knew them from middle school back in my
hometown. The first year of high school really just felt hard,
uncomfortable, and awkward. Towards the end of the freshmen year, students
were put into their career designated ‘shops’ that they had picked earlier
throughout the year. The students would be in these shops for the rest of
their high school careers. This was just another level of having to be put
into a new community with new people and new surroundings.
Sophomore year I still felt very uncomfortable, I felt as if I didn’t stand
out at all nor did I have a sense of myself, I was simply just there. As
Bateson “felt invisible, non person” (341), I felt the same way. But
sophomore year is when bonds in the shop began to form between the students.
Slowly during the year everyone got to know each other very well and by
junior year everyone couldn’t ask for better classmates. Even the teachers
said they’d never seen a class as close as ours. And in that instance, for
the first time other than in my home or family, I felt accepted and I felt
like I was a part of something. My entire person changed in those two years.
I changed from a very quiet, polite boy, to a very open, almost obnoxious
kid who was happier than he’d ever been.
Everyone in our shop soon began to share the same sense of humor, and we all
just got extremely comfortable with each other. These kids that just a
couple of years ago I was so distant and new to became the people I couldn’t
live without. They gave me a tremendous amount of confidence and security.
“Membership in a human family or community is an artifact, something that
has to be made” (Bateson 339). This quote from Bateson’s article is what
happened with my class and me. We all made ourselves part of the shop
community. We made relationships between one another, we made connections,
and we made memberships. Each of our memberships are indeed artifacts, I
hold each of these connections very close and I hope that they never cease
to exist.
Every one of those classmates added something to me. Some influenced my
taste in music, movies, and art. And others influenced my opinions on
different things such as people, work ethic, and humor. Every one as a whole
shaped who I am as a person. I know that without them I would still be a
somewhat quiet person who had a small amount of friends and never took a
chance in the world.
During senior year was when I was most comfortable. This is why I was very
upset to see my classmates choosing different colleges. At the time I
suppose I was excited, this was a chance for change and opportunity to meet
new people. But now that it is not the case. Without the familiarity and
comfort of my old high school friends I find myself feeling very lost and
sometimes a bit depressed. This shows me that I have become very dependant
on my friends.
In closing, I feel that my adaptation through high school did help me
develop my ‘self’. I change considerably, having developed more confidence
in myself. My self did change into something somewhat dependant on my
friends. I feel as if without my friends, I have no sense of myself.
---------------------------------------

It's debatable if I still feel this way now. It was two years ago, coming close to three.

There are more papers I found that I'll most likely feature again next time.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

It just so happens...

Random thoughts that come to me as I sit here waiting for work-related files to upload.

1. I Hate The Use of the Ellipsis.
Now it's not the general use of the ellipsis that hate, like "I'm a bit ... sick" but I hate when people use it as it is "...". Mainly I feel it's people who are trying to say "You're stupid" as vague and condescending as they possibly can. Furthermore, I hate when people use it and don't even know that's what it's called. So they look at me like I'm insane when I tell them their use of an ellipsis is inappropriate and they just stare and ask "A what?". The same goes for stand alone question marks (?) which bothers me so much I'm going to start a new paragraph.

In times of great frustration I sometimes simply type shift+/ > enter producing another online type pet peeve, the lone question mark. Now what really bothers me about this when someone sends it to me is: What are you questioning? What are you asking? An example would be, lets say I suggest "we meet up at the local diner at around 7:30pm" and in response all I get is a "?". What am I suppose to take from that? I again feel it's another way of trying to tell someone, "you're stupid" as vaguely as humanly possible. I think this because usually the question mark is followed by some sort of explanation revealing why my suggestion was a bad idea. It is at this point in the conversation that I'm annoyed and I wonder why was the "?" necessary and why couldn't they just ask question that the question mark is supposed to represent?

2. Education
My boss, John Foley, the CEO of my company was talking to Jaclyn today about her going back to school and her classes and that sort of thing and he turned to me and asked what I was going to do? I appreciate that he's trying to make me pursue some sort of college education, even though I hate when my relatives tell me I should. He suggested Middlesex community college where I know Ryan is starting at sometimes this week, maybe he started yesterday? Either way, John suggested I look at night classes. So I started thinking maybe I will. A couple nights a week to maybe a history class or even a science class. Basically, I want it to be as general as it can be. I have no idea what I want to do for the rest of my life and I can't see myself committing to any specific subject like Graphic Design or whatever. Although, the graphic design program would probably be terribly easy and they do have some drawing classes that I think I might enjoy.

3. Doe Getting Work
Doe has started looking around for a job. She's going to go through state boards (for her cosmetologist license essentially) this Saturday, good luck Doe! And then she'll be getting a job somewhere. She'll most likely be going to a salon somewhere near by but I guess I'd rather her get a job that she'll have fun with. Sure she'd do great in a salon washing, cutting and dying women's hair, but I know she'd rather be doing more 'glamorous' work as a make up artist in movies, models, etc. But realistically she probably does need to get a job right now. We have bills to pay and I feel like I never have more then $100 dollars even though I believe I make around $1200 a month (after taxes). Which isn't a lot to begin with, but I feel like I should have more then $100 dollars at a time! So as much as I want Doe to be happy with her work and not be like everyone else who dreads waking up in the morning to go back to their soul crushing office job or whatever other kinds of jobs that crushes souls, she just needs to start making money so we can be okay financially.

4. Commas and Parenthesis
I'm pretty sure I use these two symbols too much and inappropriately. I find sometimes I toss commas into my sentences left and right just wherever I feel. Would it have been inappropriate to toss a comma in there? There = "...I toss commas into my sentences left and right , just where I feel." I think it would have been after retyping it with a comma. I'm going to wiki the definition and usage of commas later.
Parenthesis. I use these when I could easily just use commas. It's as simple as that (I think, lol).

5. Mundane Thoughts
It's mundane thoughts like number 4. that make me think why my blogs could be a lot less interesting then say, Dan Halls, Doe's or Jimca's blogs. They talk about things usually near and dear to their hearts and I like to basically make this a long stream of consciousness. I have/had another blog where it's a 'bitchfest' as Jimmy put it (he didn't call mine a bitchfest, he just used that word). And maybe I'm just trying to keep those thoughts separated from this area.

Well the files have finished their lengthy uploads and I think it's time I concluded this for now.

(I've signed up for mobile uploading on my youtube account, so get ready for some shitty/short cell phone youtube videos being uploaded)

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Bllllarrrrg!

I got pretty ill sunday night and not the good kind of ill.

Sunday night I went to bed around 1:30am feeling pretty normal.

I woke up probably around 4 or 5 and I was shivering like crazy. I was in between sleep and conciousness because I was shivering but in my dreams I was either a squid or I was disecting a squid, it's too hard to remember. I just know it was cold. When I was finally awake I was just trying to wrap my arms around my torso because I was so cold. I didn't know why I was shivering and freezing so bad, I just was. I desperately tried to get back to bed so I could be unconcious and not have to deal with it but I just kept shaking and shivering so bad I couldn't fall asleep. Doe woke up a couple times and just asked if I was alright and I told her I was just cold and I believe she went back to sleep rather quickly because she wasn't really awake. After the third time she asked I was okay (by this time she was just annoyed, ha) she felt my body/head and said I was really hot and I definitely had a fever. I told her I didn't have a fever and I was fine and I was just cold. She started getting really worried and said I could die, have a seizure or whatever else comes with fevers. She wanted to take me to the emergency room but I wouldn't do that. She couldn't find a thermometer and we weren't about to wake my mother. Doe got up to get some medicine for me to take, I'm not sure what the medicine was. But she came back to the room with water, milk and the pills. She got the milk so my body had substance for the pills. Well, I hate milk so I just drank the milk as quickly and painlessly as I could and I guess thatw as a mistake. Seconds after finishing the milk I felt like I was going to throw up. Doe got off the bed and ran around the room looking for a bucket or bag (I spotted a lot of bags but I guess they weren't alright to throw up in). While she ran around I sat on the bed concentrating on keeping my body from throwing up. It was a good 10 seconds that I kept it down, but then I felt it coming up indefinitely. I held my hands over my mouth and leaned forward as throw up came spewing out of my mouth and in between my fingers. I was on the ground infront of my bed just projecting a mixture of stomach juice, green/red peppers, onions, bread and sausage bits. Doe put old sweat pants she was throwing away infront of me which I continued to throw up into. Before I knew it a little pool of vomit had formed infront of me hah. While throwing up I was answering questions Doe was asking. One I especially remember was "Are you throwing up blood?" and I quickly respond "No, it's sausages" before the next wave came through my throat. After I was finished with that I had vomit all over my hands, arms and I assume my face so I hoped in the shower real quick, but not before trying to clean up the mess I had made on the floor.

It was terrible experience and in the shower I may have wasted the throw up off of my body but I neglected to really scrub the contact areas because I found after the shower my hands still reaked of vomit.

It was the first time in a very long time I had actually thrown up. After vomitting I felt a lot better and less cold. Doe still wanted to go to the emergency room but I still didn't want to. I hate hospitals and doctors and everything. I also learned I think I'd rather die then have to go there. Because while I was shivering in bed and thinking about what could have caused my illness I realized I do not want to go to the emergency room or the doctors for this. I was really concerned about Doe and my mother having to pay my bills. Oh well, ha! Nothing too serious that I couldn't overcome!

I laid in bed the following day with a headache. Today I'm very dizzy and I don't know why. I'll be going to Lane's to work out, but I might just sit and make conversation. I wanted to squat/lift yesterday but I just couldn't in the state I was in. I'd very much like to work out because last week I felt like I pushed myself a lot to accomplish weight I didn't know I could do and I'm hoping me being sick makes me weaker because I couldn't lift.

Done for now, more later in the day?