When I grow up

       I want to be retired...

 

eLogs Uno

02Oct03 - 07Sep04

Dormir Para Talvez Soñar - 02:44am 22Aug04
I don't dream often and whenever I do I hardly ever remember any details the next morning. Last week I had two dreams on the same night and I remember many of the details of both. I typed them out then, but because I've been somewhat busy lately, I'm just getting around to posting them here.

Both dreams involved death, interestingly enough. In the first one, I see myself driving down some unknown road late at night. For the most part, it's rather dark, but I remember seeing a few light posts. The next thing I remember is being headed straight into a large SUV. Next thing I know I'm in a place that's whiter than white. I find myself standing outside a wooden door and an old fella (St. Peter?) standing outside of it. He's looking over some papers while I try to admire the whiteness of it all. I figured I had died and gone to heaven, or about to go to heaven. At this point, I want to ask the dude if that's the case, but you know, I'm not ready to hear that I'm going hell. It's not like I think that's where I'm headed, you just never know and I just died so I'm not ready to hear more bad news. Nevertheless, I finally find the courage and ask, "Is that my life you're looking at?" "Yes," he replies. He continues to shuffle through them and he finally says, "Ah-huh! You're going back!" "Going back? To earth?" I ask. "Mm hmm," he says. He then proceeds to explain to me why I'm going back.

He tells me that they (heaven folks? God folks?) place every human being into one of three categories: 1) The good-hearted people (whether they're religious or not), 2) the bad people (whether they're religious or not), and 3) those in the middle. Those in category one always go to heaven. Those in category two always go back to earth and are given a life that will hopefully teach them what they need to learn in order to go to heaven (going to heaven is the ultimate goal, apparently, though I wasn't told nor did I ask why). Those in the middle sometimes go to heaven but most times go back to earth and are typically placed in life that they wish they had, had while alive (so that when they walk into heaven they can say, "I have lived a good life"). After he explains the categories, he tells me I fall in the third one. Turns out I need to go back because I "love doing nothing" too much (he even did the air quotes =P), but have not had enough of it.

He explains that I'll be placed in the life of some guy that cannot move because if he does he's bound to break a bone (think of the movie Unbreakable). So this guy spends his whole life in bed doing nothing, fed through a tube and generally taken care of. So, the dude (St. Peter) pats me on the back and says, "off you go!" Next thing I see is the guy lying on bed and that's when I woke up.

Jacked up? Eh, not so bad, but I figure this is a good time to redefine or just be more specific about what I mean by doing nothing. Just in case, you know. Anyway, wouldn't it be cool if this is how heaven really worked? Cool might not be the correct adjective I want to use, but you get the point. Think about it for a moment; what if a living person figured out that this is how things work and they decided to come up with a set of rules/guidelines (like the bible) in order to try to make everyone a good person? Crazy you say? Eh, you're probably right, since it's just one silly dream. But none of us will know until, umm, we know.

In the second dream, I'm walking down some unknown street and four guys stop me. They don't ask for my wallet, money, watch or anything; they just start beating the crap out of me. The next thing I remember is driving around in a huge SUV with Jay Garcia, Mike Gomez, James Kim and Zach Putman. I spot the four guys and point them out to the group. Next thing I know they're inside the car with us. This is where it gets trippy, really trippy. One of my guys, James, would not kill a fly, as those of you who know him very well know. In this dream, however, he goes medieval.

He asks the fools that beat me if they are responsible for the bruises on my face. They all nod yes. He then gets behind one of the guys and pulls out a butcher knife and puts it right on the guys throat. The posse and I look at each other and say out loud, "W.T.F?" James then whispers something in the guy's ear and proceeds to slice his throat. Yes, he sliced his throat without any hesitation. He didn't even blink! Anyway, the guy begins to bleed to death while James holds his head steady. At that moment, James looks up at us (my group) and says nothing. We all just sat quietly as the car came to a stop and he moved onto the next guy.

The next guy gets stabbed on his stomach first. (This portion gets a little gross.) James then makes an "X" on the guy's stomach, puts his hand deep in there and pulls out the guy's guts. Little by little, he carved out all the guy's intestines, carefully, setting them on the seat next to him. The guy's suffering is obvious, but we're all in shock and too scared to do anything. When James is done, he again whispers something on the guy's ear and slices his throat. He keeps going until he's sliced all four guys' throats, each guy suffering more than the previous, each guy hearing something from James before dying.

When he was done with the fourth guy, I ran out of the car and went home. By the time I got there I was out of breadth and looking at my watch. The next thing I remember is walking on some street (presumably later that day) and telling someone the time. When I told him the time, he gave me an odd look. The news was out that some guys had been murdered and that I was seen earlier that day getting my butt kicked by those same guys.

I was confronted by another random person on the street regarding my involvement in the murders. I started to shake and all I could get out was "James." It seems that from this bit, James got to thinking that I had ratted him out when in fact it was the other guys who had talked to the cops. So, the cops were already looking for him, but that didn't stop him from looking for me.

He finds me near a car body shop. As he gets closer he pulls out a shotgun. At that point my body completely freezes. He asks why I ratted him out when all he was doing was protecting me. I want to say something but I can't. Nothing comes out of my mouth. He then points the shotgun at me and cocks it. At that very moment the cops get there and ask him to put the gun down and all that jazz. James then looks at me and says, "I see myself in you, but it is you I shall end." I couldn't help but to laugh before he shot me on my chest, at which point I woke up.

Jacked up? Yes! Especially since I remember most of the gory stuff very vividly. Jiminy Christmas! Jamesie, Jamesie! Anyway, I wonder if what James said to me before he shot me is what he whispered to the dudes before he killed them. I'm pretty sure that's the case, but I still don't know why I laughed when he said it to me. Is it because it's kind of corny? Or, is it because it was coming from James? Who knows. Some other details are still fuzzy as well, but I don't think I can figure those out either. Trippy, trippy.

To sleep, perchance to have trippy dreams.

King of Diamonds, Four of Spades...I'll Stay, Thanks! - 08:47pm 14Jul04
All right, so my vacation is officially over. I spent the first portion of it in Vegas, which was loads of fun. In terms of gambling I was up and down the whole weekend and by the time I left I was even. I also attended a gentlemen's "club" for the first time, as did Zach and pretty much all the girls. A girl named "Tawny," the prettiest girl there (second if you ask Thinh), umm, danced for me. At first I was feeling very uncomfortable because of multiple reasons, the biggest of which was the girl's thingies on my face with about 10 other people I know staring at me and/or (most likely) the thingies on my face - either way, it spelled out "uncomfy." I think she saw the uncomfyness on my face and started talking to me about random things. Soon after I was having a nifty time and the only other uncomfy moment was when she accidently swung her hair up my nose. Zach went through the same uncomfyness during his first dance of the night.

As I mentioned above, it was Zach's first time as well, though he went all out and had himself two. According to me, he had second prettiest girl there (prettiest if you ask Thinh) give him his first dance. His second dance was given by Tawny. (Come to think of it, Tawny danced for about half of our group, including one of the girls, Jane.) Anyway, Thinh picked the girls for Zach and told the first one that it was the boy's first time. So she sat on his lap and just talked to him for what seemed a long, long time. Apparently, she was calming him down, relaxing him if you will. I suppose it worked because once she started dancing Zach seemed to enjoy it. So, since Zach had Tawny as well, he was in a good position to say which girl was better looking. Even though he didn't really answer, I could tell his, umm, heart lies with Tawny.

Two of the girls from our group, Jane and Lucy, got their groove on as well. We would have gotten one for Grace but she had to go back to her hotel room due to unforeseen (or foreseen, depending on who you ask) problems with her digestive system. Amy was also going to get one, but in the end Thinh and I decided that she seemed pretty serious when she kept saying, "no." Lucy was the first of the group to get one. Her girl was pretty cute and very outgoing. She even encouraged Lucy to, umm, tap her rear end. I'm pretty sure Lucy enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed watching the girl dance for her.

Jane wanted a dance from this girl named Jade. Jade is a very pretty girl but we were unable to catch her during some free time to dance for Jane. So after Jane saw that she couldn't get Jade and how pretty Tawny was, she went for Tawny. While it looked like Jane was very uncomfortable while Tawny performed for her, she says she enjoyed it very much. (As a matter of fact, they traded compliments, telling each other how pretty they are). As I expected, watching the ladies dance for Jane and Lucy was more fun than having a lady actually dance for me (though it's a close call).

When we got back that night (the last night), we started gambling pretty much right away. When we started gambling night (late morning), I was down about $65 and it didn't want to get any better. But right before we were going up to our rooms, down more than $100, I pulled a few of my now famous double-my-chips moves. Betting most of the the chips I had left (around $45), within three blackjack hands I was back in the green in the amount of $25. At about 4AM I walked away, temporarily, with that much. Instead of calling it a nice trip with that much I stayed in the casino floor with Thihn and managed to gamble my winnings away.

Thinh and I decided we would just stay up the whole night, but we had to figure out how to kill about three and half hours. Gambling seemed like a fine idea, but neither Thinh or myself wanted to lose any more money than we already had. Thinh was down when we started gambling. I'm sorry to say that instead of stopping him, I encouraged him to keep on playing. Anyway, for the first hour or so, I watched Thinh play Paigow. The second hour we both played Blackjack, where I lost my $25 winnings from earlier. Next we hit the slots. I won $12 in my first try. I bet that $12 in one hand of Blackjack and lost it. Back to the slots! This time I went up about $20 but lost that in a heartbeat. About even and with still a little more than an hour to kill I convinced Thinh to go play Blackjack again. I quickly lost $50 and the remainder of the hour was me trying to earn that back. I did, on my last hand. I laid down $45, keeping $5 in my hands to tip the dealer no matter how my hand turned out. Well, it looked awful at first, as I was dealt a 16. But the dealer busted at 22 and I got my money back. W00t!

And that was Vegas. Even the rides (there and back), despite the legnth, were fun, too, thanks to Grace and her crew. Anyway, check out the pictures. They'll give you an idea of what went on. (I'm sorry to say that they did not allow us to take pictures at the gentlemen's club.) One thing you will not be able to get a feel for in the pictures is the heat. Jiminy Christmas!!! The heat! That is one aspect of the trip that will not be missed. I don't think it was ever below 95, even late at night. February trips are much better. Next time.

Anyway, I didn't do much after I got back from Vegas. I did get a taste of what it's like to do nothing. And I must say, it was great. I usually got up at at the crack of noon, showered shortly after and got something to eat. It was great not having to do anything else the rest of the day =). But all that goodness has come to an end as I went back to work Monday morning. It was fantastico while it lasted.

Plankton is the Key - 06:51pm 18Jun04
Now that the basketball season is over, my life can go back to being "normal." But, man, it feels like I am one of the players going home empty handed. You know, I didn't want to talk about the opportunity the Lakers let slip by (especially since no one wants to relive the losses), but I have to mention one thing that I have not heard/read the sports media comment on (though I'm sure every Lakers fan knows about what I'm going to say).

The impact of the Lakers injuries. People have talked about Malone's injury and how his "sacrifice season" came to an unfortunate end. However, no one has talked about the impact Malone would have had in the Pistons series. Think about this: Malone played well enough to contain (I say contain because he never really stopped them) last year's MPV (Duncan) and this year's MPV (Garnett). Can anyone contest that had it not been for his knee injury Malone would not have contained the Wallaces? The rebounding alone would have done wonders, not to mention his offense (remember the Rockets series?). Injuries to Fisher and Fox also slowed the Lakers attack.

Well, at least it helps me get over the losses a bit easier. Can you imagine what players are going through though? Especially Kobe, you know, given that many times it seemed he was more committed to winning his first Finals' MPV rather than winning his fourth Finals' ring. No bling, bling this year, kids. No bling.

All in all, I don't want to diminish the Pistons team accomplishments nor the Lakers poor play, but lets be honest people, things would have been different.

Anyway, as many of you know, whenever things go south, I think/talk about plankton. With all the Lakers losses lately, I've said/read a lot about plankton. I also encourage this practice, you know, instead of yelling and screaming - talk/think plankton. So, I'd like to share some plankton facts with you (some of which you may have heard/read about alrady) to get you started. (Note that all plankton facts were reproduced with permission from here.) Anyway, here you go:

  • Plankton account for some of the smallest living creatures on Earth, and yet without them the food chain would collapse.
  • The name 'plankton' comes from the Greek word 'planktos' meaning wandering or drifting.
  • Most plankton have little or no swimming ability and so they rely on the ocean currents and tides for transport.
  • Plankton can be plants or animals. Planktonic plants (known as phytoplankton) create energy by photosynthesis, just like land plants. Planktonic animals (known as zooplankton) feed on phytoplankton (herbiovorous) or on other zooplankton (carnivorous), just like land animals.
  • Planktonic organisms range in size from miniscule microbes, invisible to the naked eye, to giant jellyfish several meters long.
  • Apart from bacteria, planktonic organisms are the most abundant life form on earth.
  • The weight of all the plankton in the oceans is greater than that of all the dolphins, fish and whales put together.

There's always next season...

Wait, wait, whaaat? - 01:41am 15May04
Vegas! I'm going to Vegas on the 4th of July weekend. It's been a while since my last visit (close to a year and half ago). It should be oH-sAM! I mean, it should be pretty cool, you know? The gambling, the booze, the gambling and the gambling. Speaking of gambling, I scored about $150 during March madness. I'll add another $100 from my pocket and that will be my gambling money. I'm going to try to stick to this even if I have to play video poker half of the time.

Anyway, only a few folks are are a 'go' at this point, so not exactly sure who the posse will consist of. If you're interested, let me know, or talk to Gracie since she's planning the whole thing.

p.s. If you're wondering why this page was gone for a few days, it was because I accidently deleted the index file =P. I had an old copy of it on my Mac but found the most recent one in my PC's cache file. So there you have it.

eZThinking - 12:09am 05Apr04
So my roommmate, Zach, and I have decided to go into business together. We do not know what we're going to make, how we're going to make it or whom we're going to sell it to. Those are minor details at this point =P, so don't ask. (Did you know that the dudes who invented kazaa didn't know what they were going to make when they decided to start their own business? Yup. They just decided to do it. Quit their silly jobs and went for it). The point is that we're taking the leap. Going from being those who say "what happened" to actually "making it happen". We're pimps, really. And we're going to become pimpier - no doubt. Real soon now. Really, not kidding.

Stay tuned.

eTopia - 12:07am 20Feb04
Sometimes I wish things in life were as simple as I am. If things were up to me there wouldn't be any back door shenanigans...if you know what I mean. Simplicity is key. To this end, I've begun working on my utopia. I don't have many details yet but it's coming along. Here is what I have so far:

  • First things first, the name . I've decided to call it e_topia. It is my utopia after all =P.
  • Our national anthem will be Snoop - Ain't No Fun. Now, I plan to have femmes at e_topia and they might have a problem with Ain't No Fun being our anthem. So to them I say too bad. Deal with it. I've had to listen to the backstreet boys before. I don't see why they wouldn't be able to stand tall, put their hands on their chest and listen to Snoop tell it like it is =P.
  • Work is a big deal in everyone's lives. In e_topia I will be retired of course, but for the poor saps that will have to work for a living I've set the following guidelines: (1) the working week will be Tuesday through Friday; (2) on Tuesday, the working day will begin at 11am, on Wednesday at 10am, etc., and all working days will end at 4pm; and finally (3) lunch will be two hours long, the first half of which will be used to eat and the last 1.5 hours to nap, talk, basically, do as you please.
  • I don't much care about food. There are very few things I have eaten that I find really tasty (frankly, I eat because I have to). Most (as in not all) tasty food items for me are breakfast foods. To this end, in e_topia breakfast will be eaten in the evening and dinner will be eaten in the morning. Cannot beat getting some rest after a tasty meal. What's tastier at 11pm than some eggs, toast, pancakes (with some whip cream on top) and OJ?
  • Sports will be just as big in e_topia. Very few things will change, one of them being that in e_topia Shaq will make his free throws =P.

Not too shabby if I may say so. It'll only get better too. Think simple people, think simple.

I'm Back Mofos! - 9:43pm 05Feb04
I'm back mofos! I came back only a month ago but it feels like I've been back for ages - almost as if I never went. I had a lot of fun despite only being there a short time. I visited most family members I have back there. I didn't get to see as many friends as I thought I would but hung out with some. All in all, it was a good trip.

A few awkward moments did occur though. For one, 90% of the people didn't recognize me and of the 10% that did, I only recognized about half of them. This equals a lot of awkward moments. Also, since I had not been there in 10,000 years pretty much everyone treated me like a tourist (i.e., giving me directions, who to ask and how to ask for things, etc.). At first I was bothered a bit because as you know I'm all about The Motherland. And I know my Motherland. But once I started to see all these places I had never been to before, I started to understand why they were treating me that way.

One thing I'm pretty thankful for is that I didn't get sick. A friend was there at the same time I was and she got sick pretty much right when she got there. Something she ate got to her. I thought that the climate change would jack me over but got used to the heat pretty quickly. Besides, on most days, right around 5 a breeze would come through and cool everything down. Pretty pimpy.

Something family members in the states were worried about was me getting "home sick." Pff, I was going home! Heh. I wish I had not gone alone but I don't think I missed the states (all that much). What was there to miss? Lets see, I had internet (granted it was dial-up); I had cable TV...with HBO...in English with Spanish subtitles; everywhere I went people were doing stuff for me (i.e., feeding me, giving me free stuff, etc.) and no work! Pff, miss the states my butt.

Anyway, like I said earlier, all in all, a great trip. Can't wait to do it again...this summer I hope.

Speaking of work, for the past month or so, the office has been my home. In other words, work has been, to put it lightly, a biatch. Last month I worked 20 days straight (29 out of the last 32 days as of today). During the 20 days, my average workday was about 14 hours (on weekends the days tended to be around 10 hours long). Things are back to 'normal' but my body still hurts. I need to retire...and soon.

Going Back - 10:31pm 18Nov03
I'm going back to the Motherland this holiday season. If my skin color is any indicaltion, it's been 10,000 years since I last went back. I'm a bit excited, to say the least. Some of my close friends have been able to visit us here in the States but most I haven't seen since I was last there, so l'm looking forward to that.

One thing I remember from the times I used to go annually is how much things used to change in just one year. It's going to feel like an etirely different place when I go this time. New shops, new people, different faces, kiddies from back in the day are now going to be old kiddies; the list of changes goes on and on. One thing that has changed for the worst is the amount of hoodlums everywhere. Family members have been telling me to off my tail and let my hair grow a bit so they don't think I'm there to cause them trouble. What does that say about me? What does that say how my family feels about my looks? Shish. Anyway, the time hasn't come for my tail to be cut or for my hair to grow more than half an inch so I'll go ahead and risk it. What's the worst that can happen? I end up getting my ass kicked...a few times? Pff, like that's never happened before.

Anyway, about the femmes I tend to like and how young they might appear to be (see below), take this silly test and see how you do. (18Nov03_update: I added pictures of the femmes I mention below.)

Manliest Man - 10:56pm 21Oct03
I'm the manliest man most of you know. I'm Latino so, naturally, I'm very macho. I even have a mustache to prove it. I also watch sports like a madman. Sometimes I even watch golf...and don't mind it. I'm just a manly man. However, recently I've noticed a pattern on the tv shows I've been watching. I'll list some of the shows:

  • Everwood
  • Gilmore Girls
  • One Tree Hill
  • Smallville
  • Friends

You probably haven't heard of half of these shows so I'll tell what they are. Chick Shows. Plain and simple. Now I hear you saying, "dude, you're such a girl, man." At first, I was saying the same thing to myself so I started to wonder why I, the manliest man you and I know, was watching these shows. For those of you who have seen them, you know they are not that great. Four of them are a very small network, so it's not like they follow established popular shows. So what could it be? It only took a few seconds to come up with the correct explanation: the girls. Have you seen the chicks that star in these shows? In Everwood there is the girl that one kid likes and the babysitter; in Gilmore Girls there is ...actually, this show is just funny; in One Tree Hill, cheerleader one and cheerleader two; in Smallville, the girl that plays lana lang and that other newspaper girl; and in Friends there's the rachel character. I don't actually pay that much attention to the stories, only enough to know what's going on, but a whole lot of attention to the screen when these ladies are on. It reminds me of when Brittney Spears' career started with that one video in the classroom. That video kicked ass with mute on. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go set my vcr to record Smallville tomorrow, just in case I don't get back in time from work. Then, of course, SportsCenter.

Early X-Mas - 10:21pm 16Oct03
Christmas is just around the corner, so here are a few items I really, really want:

On another note, this year, every team I've rooted for, in a playoff series, has lost with only one exception (that I can remember): the Mavericks in the NBA division series earlier this year. So, you want a particular team to win? Let me know and I'll just root for the other team. That means an instant win for your team!

Forgotten Music - 11:41pm 13Oct03
I have about 17 GBs of music, all in mp3s. Space-wise, the bulk are DJ mixes that I've acquired since I got broadband back in '99. My play lists consist of those mixes and current "popular" music in the different genres I keep track of, i.e., Hip Hop, Alternative, Trance and of course Drum & Bass. The other day though, by accident actually, I starting playing music from my master play list. As the name implies, it has every single mp3 I own. Well, sh!t, it turns I have some pretty good music I don't remember ever listening to or even downlo, er, buying. I even found some of my own mixes from back in the mid '90s. I think it's time you pull out those old mp3s/CDs and give them a listen. Who knows, you might find something you really like.

Anyway, quickly, Gracie Liao is planning a Vegas trip for early January during Marthin Luther King, Jr.'s holiday (1/16/04 - 1/19/04). More details to come in a mass email and on here. Hope I have everyone's email addresses.

Redesign, Again - 10:27pm 12Oct03
I decided to redesign the site, again. But this time I chose not to do it by hand as I had before. Instead I used one of the templates that came with the demo of Dreamweaver, which is why the site looks very much like Macromedia's - well, at least the backgroud does. I'll have the demo for 30 days and not a day longer because no piece of software is worth $400. After that, it's back to writing code by hand. So, I hope you find the new design more appealing even though it looks kind of empty right now. Suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Can't Get No Sleep - 4:14am 05Oct03
I can't fall asleep. Although I don't think I'm trying hard enough. Anyway, with the extra time I've been able to catch up with all the Laker news. Kobe is back with the team and terrified of the whole trial thingie-maging. Given that a possible outcome is a lifetime term in jail, if I were him I would be terrified too.

Anyway, listen to this gem I found while, uhh, shopping for mash-ups. It's not a mash-up, but cool nevertheless. I should probably get some rest. There's a lot of football to be watched in just a few more hours...

The Rose - 11:45pm 02Oct03
Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack
in the concrete
Proving nature's laws wrong it learned 2 walk
without having feet
Funny it seems but by keeping its dreams
it learned 2 breath fresh air
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared!
 -Tupac Shakur

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