Impending Doom

Damn it, damn it, damn it, I'm heading back to the northeast next Saturday (10/24/15). I can't find decent work in the LA area and by decent I mean anything that I'd want to do. And everything is so damn expensive that if I have to take some shit job I don't know if it would be viable to do it in such an expensive place. I've spent the last year or so of my life preparing to get out of the shit hole that is the northeast only to head back there after just 2 months right in time for the shitstorm that is winter.

The thing that's difficult for me is that I absolutely hate the weather in New England, but all my friends are there. I hate the fall, winter, and spring. I could give a shit about the changing seasons, I want warm sunshine. It's so depressing knowing that once I get back it won't be nice until next June, and that's not even guaranteed. I remember a June a few years back where it rained almost every single day and was overall very, very shitty. I would imagine the horrid weather is why, in my opinion, New England is filled with miserable f**ks. I mean, that's what I feel like when I'm there. I know most of the country hates LA, but at least there's a good variety of stuff to do here besides going to bars and shoveling snow.

At some point this past April I'd had enough and rage quit my job (which I was not happy at) and left for LA a few months later. Since I've been out here the weather has been nothing short of amazingly nice and it has even precipitated for a few brief instances. I just can't find a decent job and what is really frustrating is I know I'm going to have that problem once I get back to Massachusetts. My job experience is not very good and I've only been working for 3 years, so I don't really have all that much experience any way, not to mention that I haven't worked since June. My main concern is going back home, getting another shit job, and continue the unhappiness. I haven't been satisfied with anything that has happened since I graduated college. I haven't liked either of the two jobs I've had and the weather from October until June makes me want to inflict pain on myself so I can be distracted from awfully depressing it is.

I've had some people ask me if something in particular happened that made me want to leave, like a bad experience or something. You know what the answer to that is? Yes, something has happened, and it's been mounting over the years, I hate New England, Why is that so hard to understand? Sure some things have happened in life that I don't particularly like, but those things fade with time. You know what's not going to go away? The shitty weather, that's permanent. I think it's dumb to have regrets in life because you can't go back and change anything, but if I were to change one thing in my life, I would have gone somewhere nice to go to college. That way I could have made connections somewhere nice and hopefully obtained work somewhere nice. I don't know what I'm going to do when I get back home. My worst nightmare is to sentence myself to more fall/winter/springs in New England. I also have experience to go off here. I have lived and worked in Massachusetts and I hated it, that's what pushed me to come to LA. Now that I'm going back to Massachusetts, what's going to be different?

Prediction time. I predict that about two hours after landing at Logan in Boston I'll regret going back. Here's the true dilemma, though. What really sucks is that I have (had? I don't know what the hell I'm doing) to chose between to shitty things. This isn't a win/win situation. I either have to live in a place I hate and have a bunch of great, already established friends to do stuff with, or I live in a place that I like and have no established friends to do stuff with. Both have potential to cause unhappiness and over the past few weeks I've been attempting to decide which would be more miserable. I still don't have an answer. All I know is that I was not happy doing what I was doing. I can't even begin to describe how unhappy I've been over the past few years. I feel that over the past 4 years I've been becoming slightly more bitter with each passing month. I just don't think that going back to the same situation I was immensely unhappy with is going to solve any problems. I really like Southern California, it's an interesting place with a lot of variety. I like outdoor things, like running, biking, and playing sports. These types of things are greatly hindered in New England by the cold weather. I think the main thing that killed my excursion to California was simply location. I'm not a huge fan of large cities, in the sense that everything is super dense, there are lots of homeless people always begging for money, and bad traffic. I would rather live on the outskirts of a large city and work either in the city or also on the outskirts. I have had very limited transportation available to me and LA's public transportation can only get you so far. Not to mention the horrid experience I had dealing with a temporary employment agency out here.

The bad experience I had with the temp agency was all one particular dude's fault, this guy single-handedly tanked most of my hope of finding some kind of work to test what living and working in Southern California would be like. I think part of the problem was that I wasn't specific enough with what I was looking for, but this guy just called me up and told me to show up at a job without consulting me about the position before hand. He did this to me twice. The first time he sent me to what looked like a sweatshop, I don't know for sure because I was only there for 3 or 4 hours one day. After that day the employer wanted to cancel the arrangement which was fine by me. Then a few days later I was once again called by this guy and told to report to another job, again without providing me any details on what the position entailed or what company it was for. I told him I didn't want to commit to this job because I was working on another lead I had garnered on my own, but he told me I had to show up because he already told the client I was coming. It would be unprofessional to change anything now. Well, what do you call promising my arrival at the job without ever consulting me? I knew absolutely nothing until they called me. I would categorize that in the "unprofessional" family.

This whole situation culminated with me leaving this job after 3 weeks because it isn't what I wanted to be doing or with a company that I had any interest in working for. This could have been avoided by communicating with me before telling me to show up there, so I don't feel bad at all for leaving and at this point I was done working with this agency. I was going to try to do it on my own. However this agency has multiple branches and another of the branches that had no knowledge of what transpired over the last few weeks contacted me about another position. I received a voicemail about something that might "fit me." My first reaction was that I wasn't even going to call them back and I think that's exactly what I should have done. Instead I called them back and drove another nail into my hopes of finding a job I wanted. I agreed to a phone interview and did some research on the company. Again, it was something I'm not terribly interested in. So I went through the phone interview, not interested, hoping they wouldn't select me, but planning to reject if they did. A few hours later I got a call from the temp agency and they told me their client wanted me to start tomorrow, in this moment of shock and after a pause I said I'd go. That was a huge mistake. I got the confirmation email, looked at it briefly and then broke into a massive fit of rage that involved me yelling and swearing at myself while pounding repeatedly on my thigh. I decided to eat lunch and think about it. I didn't want to go, so I responded to the email and told them couldn't commit because I was waiting back for the final word from an interview I had the previous week. This is true, I was waiting to hear back on a job I actually wanted. After sending the email I decided to shut everything down, I didn't respond to any phone calls, voicemails, text messages, or emails from the agency. I was done, still angry and fed up with this agency.

The next week I heard back on the job I put everything on hold for. It took them 15 days to tell me they didn't choose to pursue my candidacy for the role any further. So here I was with no work and no leads. I had been applying to other jobs while waiting to hear back and continued to apply for jobs. So far the only one I've heard back from is the one that eventually decided not to go with me. I have learned that I'm really good at obtaining jobs I have no interest in. So there's that.

Now the best solution I've come up with is going back to Massachusetts and let the misery fester! I hated living there before, so I'm going to go do that again, how logical! Living there is like having an abusive partner. I don't know why people stay with abusive partners, much like I don't know why I'm going back to Massachusetts.

I consider the end of the baseball season until the beginning of the next baseball season the dark ages because I absolutely hate that time. I guess I may as well couple the dark ages with the shit-tastic place that is New England to make the perfect shitstorm.

The Near Future, It's Uncertain

Two weeks ago I had an interview for a job that I believe would do me some positive things for my "career," or whatever I should call it at this point. As of now, 8:40 p.m. on the fourteenth day since that interview, the phone has been silent, the email has been receiving messages, just not from the interviewing company. So what's next? I have no idea, but I'd really like to know if I'm still a potential candidate for the job or not. I'll be realistic, they don't want to hire me, which taking a realistic approach again, I can't really blame them for. Let's take a brief look at my so-called career so far. After college, I spent 8 months basically paying bills, then for the next 2 and a quarter years I basically called people and told them the owed money to the company I worked for. What great experience!

Honestly, I feel like my intellect has been insulted since joining the world that exists after education. Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm a dumb shit, but what I've been doing is mind numbing and down right insulting. That is why I left my two previous jobs and why I am search of something that doesn't make me want to physically harm myself every day because of how stupid it is. So at this point I've been out in Southern California for about a month and a half, it's almost October and the weather is great, but I have some issues. The first issue was the unpleasant experience I had with a temp agency that I have since cut ties with and the lack of success I've had applying to jobs on my own. It's looking increasingly like I might need to work another shitty job for a while, hopefully one that at least has valuable experience, but now the question is where do I want to do that?

I love the weather in Southern California, but now I'm beginning to doubt the decision to move out here, at least at this time. California might be too far away from New England, where I for the most part grew up, for me right now. The largest problem I have with the distance is actually the time zone differential. A three hour difference from the east coast is rather large and even with the awesome technology at our disposal, that can't reduce the time difference in these two regions. Having said that, I do not want to go back to living in the northeast. Going back to live in the northeast is low on my personally made option list. However, I would consider going back east except to a central/southern state, somewhere like North or South Carolina. I don't know how feasible that is right now. For me, the locations of California and New England are very unfortunate. I hate the cold and snow, but I also don't like the pacific time zone. I feel like the pacific time zone is behind the rest of the country and it makes it rather difficult to stay in touch with my friends the way I'd like, but damn the weather out here is nice. It still feels like the middle of summer and it's September 30th!

On a positive note, I have discovered a talent of mine! I have found that I am good at getting job offers for jobs I don't want. A lot of the displeasure I mentioned with the temp agency had to do with the assignments they were giving to me. This is partly my fault because I could have been more specific on what I was looking for. However, I can't do anything when the agency calls me up and tells me to report to a job without consulting me, telling me what the job is, or giving me any information at all. And according to them, I have to go because it would be unprofessional for me not to show up because they already told the client I would be there... without consulting me. That doesn't sit well with me and it pissed me off to the point that our relationship had to be severed.

Well, I've got some thinking to do! I've left the northeast and gone to Southern California, but I still have no idea what I'm doing with my life. Hooray for indecision!

New Things in a New Place

Ten days ago, August 14th of 2015, the day I finally made the move to Southern California. Feels like I've been bitching about the weather in the northeast for an eternity and talked about moving to California for about as long. How long this experiment will last, I know not. I might be here for a month, I might be here for years, there are a lot of factors at work. Now I've only been here for ten days, but I've already been called an ugly faced MFer by a presumably homeless man, seen a guy getting a blow job in his car, and met some dude on the street who said he was known as Batman and he's been prowling the streets of LA for twenty-seven years. That's longer than I've been alive. But let's talk about the guy who was getting a blowjob.

This morning I was on the way to my first assignment job thingy. Assignment job thingy is my way of describing my work life right now. I'm using a temp agency to find work since I was too stupid in college to secure myself a good job upon graduation. So I was in one of the many LA public buses minding my own business en route to the industrial sector of the city (not my choice). While stopped at a red light, I glanced out the window to my left and couldn't help but notice what was going on in the car stopped along side the bus. This guy was straight chilling in the driver seat while the woman in the passenger seat was bent over giving him a quickie in the car. At first I did a double take because I've heard of this, but this was my first time seeing it take place. So naturally I stared. Not really, though. I only glanced over a few times in an effort to not be creepy. Then the light changed and the bus started moving before the car, but when the car caught up I could see she was still down there as they took a left at the next intersection. Now I have no idea what that guy does for a living and I have no idea who the woman was next to him, but this guy was getting his dick sucked on a Monday morning in one of the biggest cities in the US. This guy must be doing something right. What an inspirational sighting.

Then I got to the assignment job thingy, sat around for four hours and did basically nothing, then happily found out later that this particular company didn't want to extend my temporary work assignment there because I didn't speak Spanish. This was news to my ears because this job was honestly embarrassingly below my intellect, not that I'm smart, but this job was painfully boring and required no thought. However, I received this news a few hours too late. I have some moments of extreme anger and the continuous search to find a good job has driven me mad many times. Today was one of those days that it got the best of me. In a fit of rage, I punched my knee with my right fist, which I've done many times, but this time I had the unfortunate bad luck of hitting my knee right on the cap which has bruised the bottom of my right hand. I don't think I broke anything and will continue to hope that it is just swollen. I wish I hadn't done that, but I just get so damn angry sometimes.

Well, I have new assignment job thingy to interview for tomorrow and I'm happy to an actual interview. The thing I went to today was one of those suspect no interview deals. Anyways, I'm in LA and attempting to look for a way to make a living. Until next time...

It's Not All Bad

Now that the new job feeling has worn off, life has gone back to what it has been for the last few years: a seemingly endless attempt to find things to do with people who never seem to have the time to do anything. Seriously, though, I can't find people to do much of anything except have a few drinks on the weekends. It's really lame. I've just gotten used to telling myself, "f*ck it, I'll just go fist myself then." Short story short, I'm really bored most of the time. My coworkers often ask me if I did anything fun over the weekend. Well, if fisting myself is fun, then I have a blast every weekend! But, hey, it's not all bad. I'm going to see Dave Chappelle perform live in September!!! Talk about things I never thought I'd get the chance to do! Going to a comedy festival headlined by Chappelle and Flight of the Conchords is most definitely going to be a great time! Can't wait for that date!

I've also been thinking about that sleazeball from the other temp agency and that text he sent me. Now that it has been more than 3 months, I can honestly say that I made the right decision. This time he can go fist himself. Enough about that, I think I'm going to start covering current events of my choice. Such as what happened in this video below:




When I first saw this video on the news I didn't really register how hilarious it was. Then while I was driving into work that morning and I heard the sound clip again and thought about it... well let's just say this made my day. I can't believe that there are people out there who claim this offends them. What a bunch of garbage. This is just straight up funny. If I was Asian and I had the exact same personality, I would laugh. Moreover, I wonder how the guy who submitted this to news reacted when they actually put it on live television. If it was me, I don't think I would be able to stop hysterically laughing for several moments. Aren't there people who screen this stuff? I'm glad it got through, though. It certainly put a smile on my face for the day, and that alone makes it worth it in my eyes. Go ahead and insert another Asian joke now. Regarding eyes, just in case you didn't quite get it.

See, it's not all that bad. There are things to smile about in life, including, but not limited to harmless things that "offend" people. And going to see Dave Chappelle! I really did think Chappelle would be on the list of things I would unfortunately never see, along with seeing Rage Against the Machine in concert, seeing George Carlin perform stand-up, and watching R9, Il Fenomeno play soccer live.

Well, I have nothing left. I could sit here and bitch about shit for paragraph after paragraph, hour after hour, but I don't feel like it right now. Keeping this one short, going to see Chappelle soon!

Where Am I Now?

Well, I'd say it's about time for an update on life. In particular, my life, especially since that's the only one I really have a qualified knowledge on. I'm now 23 years old and still alive. That's about it, I'll catch up with you next time here on Sycophantic Laughter. Feel free to stop reading at this point because it's probably not going to get any more interesting for you. I've been out of college for over a year now and I've been working full time since July 17th of the year two-thousand and twelve. I still live at home and I'm below average social status. I live one day to the next and most days seem like the last. Mix that in with a little bit of nothing and you've basically found the recipe for my life.

Apparently I still look young, I was asked last Friday if I was still in high school and one of my coworkers said she had shoes older than me. My youngness is only accentuated when I shave, getting rid of that facial hair makes me look a week or two younger. I haven't committed a felony, but I have been given a twenty dollar speeding ticket. I don't do drugs and I drink more alcohol than I did in college. I eat vegetables but I'm not fond of tomatoes. Potatoes are better than sweet potatoes and I like pop music but I dislike pop culture.

I still work out, but my days as an athlete are most likely numbered. I usually don't remember dreams, but at least I'm not getting chased by giant rats anymore. I don't have a girlfriend, but that seems to be a what lots of people are interested in. My love for the game of soccer has regrown exponentially since sophomore year of college; I'm super excited to see Jose Mourinho back in Premier League next year, right where he wants to be! I really like comedy and many things in life have become one overlapping giant joke to me. I tend to belittle anything I accomplish, but it's all in good humor.

Now I'm going to take a step back and reflect more on one of the things I've said about myself. Often when I see someone I haven't seen for a long time or I'm getting acquainted to new people, such as new coworkers, I'm asked if I have a girlfriend. I don't, but I don't blame any females I've met. Trust me, I probably wouldn't want to date anyone that would want to date a guy like me. I don't know what that means, but it sounds interesting. I also stole that idea from Woody Allen who said he wouldn't want to belong to a club who had a member like him. The same coworker that told me she had shoes older than me asked if I had a girlfriend because she has some daughters she said she would introduce me to. I thought that comment was really funny. Even earlier today when one of our interns came in, she introduced me and said I was available. But if I really wanted that kind of help, I'd just tweet at Kim from the band Matt & Kim. Apparently this is the time of life when people kind of expect you to be involved in some kind of relationship. I'm below average social status, though, so I wouldn't expect anything different from myself. I've given up on a few girls that have given up on me. I'm not keeping my options open or any bullshit like that. It simply hasn't worked out yet. As I see it, I don't know what I'm missing, and they don't know what they're missing, so I'd say it's even.

Kim is a wild woman

And now for something completely different. Can I first point out that I can no longer watch any news broadcast anymore without thinking about Monty Python? The news really is a bunch of randomly put together stories of varying severity and interest that can only be transitioned from one to another with the phrase "and now for something completely different." In this case, the completely different thing is planning a trip to Brazil next summer to go see some of the World Cup! I'm looking to make it happen, so I'll wish myself good luck because no one else should give a damn!

Setting the Record Straight

Accidentally I have created a monstrosity that could potentially turn into a real atrocity. Allow me to set the record straight and avoid a dreadful (not really) fate. I like to have fun, especially through horrible pun, but I don't like to excessively drink, rather I prefer to incessantly think. However, what I say could get misconstrued in a confusing way. Alcohol is not so bad, though in the past it has driven me mad. I admit I was wrong, but I still wouldn't touch a bong. In fact I would rather whack my dong. A strict alcohol policy I followed left me with memories hollowed. I must say I'm beginning to come around, but you'll never find me passed out on the ground. I don't believe it's too late, I've always been on the late bloomer slate.

I can say the same for a certain book, though I don't believe it deserves the obscene amount of looks. I don't hate because I'm overly irate. I guess I'm just a little old fashioned, I'd rather get the info from the source with all the passion (or lack thereof). It's not all bad, it just feels like a terribly long lasting fad. Can't we all communicate face to face instead of in cyber space?

I'm penning this piece to set the record straight and lift the figurative massive weight. Fun is measured in many different ways, only depending on how the mind sways. No longer is alcohol something I'm against, certainly it can be a worthy expense (cost to have fun?). However, I have no intentions of getting belligerent, that would just be ignant (said like Michael Jackson in South Park). So cheers to my peers.

P.S.
I didn't intentionally make this rhyme, do you think I have that kind of time?

P.S.S.
In case you were confused by the rhyme scheme (if that's even what you would call it) in the beginning of this post, what I'm saying is that it's ok to drink some alcohol. I'm not totally against it like I was in the past. The same is true about online social networking. It's not that bad, basically it's just that the people who are annoying as f**k in real life are just as annoying online. I think that's an easy enough concept. As for the alcohol part, there's nothing wrong with having some adult beverages. What I don't understand is having so much that it negatively affects the person drinking it. That sounds terrible to me. Now that I've got all that off my chest, I'm going to go get f**ked up, so I'll catch you later!

A few hours later...

I didn't really go anywhere or drink anything. Just in case you were wondering.

Hey Man, Who Cares

This past Friday I went into Boston to see the Red Sox play against the Atlanta Braves. I haven't been to a Red Sox game in a few years, I think the last one I went to was in the summer of 2009 and Brad Penny was pitching for the Red Sox. Needless to say, the Red Sox lost that one. Seeing them play the Braves was great because that's a team that doesn't come to Fenway very often. I got to see Dan Uggla and his huge biceps in person! Going into the city is always a welcome idea to me, the atmosphere is great and there is actually stuff going on at night. After soccer, baseball is my second favorite sport to follow so I'm decently aware of what's going on in the MLB, and in my opinion, one thing that is greatly missing from the league right now is the absence of Manny Ramirez. Yes, he's getting old and will most likely retire for good soon, but I always enjoyed Manny and his antics. In fact, I think everyone can learn something from Manny. While Manny was a wiseguy and didn't always get things done in a conventional way, he did his job and I think he enjoyed it. When something doesn't go your way, I think everyone should take it like Manny, "hey man, who cares."

Unfortunately not everything goes the way I would ideally like, but you have to shake it off. The Manny line I'm referring to (hey man, who cares) was what Manny said to a reporter following a playoff loss while he was on the Red Sox. The Red Sox went on to win the World Series that year. I had a job interview last Friday before the game. The interview went well and I liked the people that I spoke with during the interrogation (it wasn't really an interrogation). However, later on in the afternoon, while I was watching Germany open up a can of something on Greece in the Euro Cup, I was notified that I didn't get the job. So, hey man, who cares. On to the next. The whole thing was kind of funny actually. When I got the call they were telling me that everything went well and they had nothing bad to say about me, but I could tell by the tone where this was going. They don't need to sugar coat it or anything, just tell me. This whole getting a job thing makes me laugh when I think about it because I have trouble finding a job because I lack experience, but I lack experience because I can't get a job.

That news didn't ruin my day by any stretch, it was merely another event in my life with no fruition, I've gotten quite used to that lately. I will say that the weather was on my side and delayed the Red Sox game for about an hour, which is almost precisely when I got to Fenway Park. For every year, with the exception of one, since sophomore year of high school I have competed in a summer sports event in the state which I live (at least for now), Massachusetts. Of course I compete in the track and field portion of it and the qualifier happened to be that same Friday as the game. As I mentioned before, I'm not quite done with track yet, so of course I was going. The qualifier started at 5:30, though, close to the scheduled time of the Red Sox game, and I live about an hour away from Boston. But the weather was on my side and delayed the Red Sox game while I competed in the hurdles for the first time in about a month.

At this type of meet you never know how many competitors are going to show up. I was glad to see two other names on the hurdle sheet by the time I signed up, I knew I was actually going to get to race some people. In the end it turned out to be just me and the two other people, but I could deal with that. So I was warming up and minding my own business when a younger hurdler came over to talk to me. He had just finished his freshman year in high school and was asking me about the hurdles and my times. He asked me what I ran for times as a freshman in high school and I felt kind of bad telling him because in all honesty, his times weren't very good. But he did seem to like the event and I encouraged him to stick with it. Then this other hurdler in the same age division as me came over and started talking to us about the hurdles. This guy clearly thought he was the man. I could tell by the way he was talking that he thought he had a lock on winning the race. I'm not that good at the hurdles, but I do know that I can beat a lot of the people in my area of the state. To say the least, I was ecstatic to race this guy because he had no idea who I was. I watched him take a few runs at the hurdles and he wasn't bad, but I've seen much better. But he definitely thought he was going to win. I knew this would be a fun race.

The hurdles were set up and I set the blocks the way I like them. There were only four of us in total, three of us in the open division and the high schooler I had spoken to in the scholastic division, so we all ran at the same time. The guy who was talking like he was the man was in the lane to my left, perfect. The gun went off, and despite not getting the best start, I beat this clown to the first hurdle, immediately putting him under pressure far too intense for him to overcome. He came in second place by ended up winning by about a second, which is a ton of time in a 110 meter long race. Basically, I accomplished what I wanted, but I can definitely go faster. I actually felt a bit slow, probably because I've done absolutely zero speed work since leaving school. My hamstrings are kind of sore today though! I felt like I was back at a dual meet senior year of high school: I showed up, I raced, I dusted my opponents, and had a great time. Maybe at some point I'll make a post about all the things I really enjoy about track along with the things I don't like about the sport. I also should make a post about my senior year in high school track, so many great memories. In outdoor track senior year, I didn't lose an individual race until All-States, oh the nostalgia. What happened!

Anyways, that's what I did right before making the trip into Boston. The Red Sox did not win the game, but it was still enjoyable. The only thing that disgusted me happened when I was walking back to the car after the game was over. Just outside Fenway, some guy walking on the sidewalk very close to me was speaking and I overheard a few lines. He said "I don't know why Apple doesn't put a better GPS in the iPhone. It doesn't even give you turn-by-turn directions." Apparently the GPS that tells you where you are and shows you how to get to other destinations is not good enough for this guy. Also, I highly doubt he moves fast enough to need turn-by-turn directions, but I guess looking at the line that leads from the current position to the destination is far too hard to interpret. I've personally used the iPhone's GPS to find a theater in Boston and it worked wonderfully. I followed the line and I think that guy could, too. But hey man, who cares what that guy does.




If you noticed earlier in the post I mentioned that I live in Massachusetts, but I wrote at least for now. When I think about the future I don't think I want to stay in the northeast because the weather up here sucks. I very well might stay here, but I've contemplated moving somewhere where the weather is almost always nice, like San Diego. My sister went to USC (the University of Southern California) which I applied to as well, but I was too stupid to get in. I still could have gone to college in California because I did get accepted to a school out there, but obviously I did not end up choosing it. I've never regretted not going to that school out west, but I think I should have applied to more schools out that way because I really like warm weather and my family has lived in California before. College, from my experience, is kind of a luck of the draw. No one really knows what school will be a good fit for them, that's why people transfer (who would have guessed!). I thought about transferring after my freshman year of college, but in the end I think I was actually too lazy to really look into it. However, had I the knowledge I have now, I might have chosen to attend a different school for a college education. Not because the one I went to is bad or anything, it's a good school, but I wasn't particularly satisfied there. Mainly freshman and senior year come to mind, I spent many long months those two years not very happy, but I think I'll elaborate on that in a different post because this one would be long as shit if  I started ranting here. Rather, in this post I would like to look toward the future. What's next?

The first step is getting a job, which I'm making progress on, but I still don't know exactly what I want to do. After getting a job I want to save up some money so I can live on my own. Ideally this would be with some friends, too. Then I will begin to seriously contemplate relocating, hopefully out to the San Diego area! Actually maybe to some place between San Diego and L.A., there's something for everyone in that area I think. At this point I have nothing holding me back from any of this, so I'm in good shape. Just like JQ, I have no baggage, maybe the two of us can work something out, at some point of course. For now, it's simple, get a job.

This has nothing to do with anything I've written about in this post, but I think I'm about due for a rant. I haven't let loose on a hell-bent rampage in way too long. You know what really was a horrible side-effect of the advancement of technology with smart phones? The ability for people to access social networking sites from smart phones. I think that will be my next rant, a rant that is way overdue. I don't know where to go from here, so I'll go off in another completely random direction. I've never actually played any Resident Evil video games, but I think the creepy merchant dude should exist behind every cash register. Imagine every time you were about to purchase anything you heard that creepy voice saying "what are you buying, stranger?"




I hope everyone is having a good day, we shall meet again... or maybe not, but hey man, who cares?

JQ

Honesty and respect are two of the most important aspects of people. Saying that, I think that sometimes people have trouble staying honest with themselves. I'm not going to lie, I haven't been too happy recently, but luckily I tend to write most passionately when something is bothering me. However, today (I'm speaking of Saturday since it's technically Sunday when I'm writing this) was an exceptional day. I would also like to thank Chase Robertson for watching a bunch of Euro Cup games with me over the past week, it's always good to see you, buddy. Today was so great because I got a familiar, but old taste of the what my life used to be like. Chase and two other friends of mine from home and I simply went to a baseball field and screwed around. When most people think of me athletically now they think track. But before I was a track runner I was a baseball player. I played shortstop for most of my organized baseball career, but I was always an outfielder at heart. Why? Well because I really enjoy running down fly balls. That's exactly what I did today with some great friends.

The idea to go to the field to hit and shag flies was brought up by JQ, my longest standing friend. Unfortunately I had not seen JQ since I returned from the west coast about two weeks ago I believe. Spending time with JQ always makes me feel great because of the history that we've built together. As a young child I lived in two different states and two different countries. I was born on the east coast of the United States, but my family soon relocated to California and eventually to Brazil. Our frequent moving made for an interesting childhood. I don't have any friends that I've known since kindergarten or anything like that because I attended kindergarten in California, but then went from first to third grade in Brazil. Moving does not make for easy friend retention. However, when we came back to the United States from Brazil we happened to move into the same neighborhood as my uncle. At the end of each summer my uncle has an end of the summer barbecue party. At the first end of the summer barbecue party I met JQ. Little did I know that JQ would turn into such an important person in my life. We've been friends since the fourth grade and we've had some great times. Here's a little look at how our friendship has developed over the past decade or so.

 I'll start at the beginning, when we were very young. One memory that stands out occurred on a nice day when JQ invited me to play some basketball at a nearby neighbor's basketball hoop. I went and we got into some type of verbal altercation. I have no memory of what this altercation was about, but we ended up leaving unhappy. I remember eating dinner after that when the phone rang. It was none other than JQ offering for me to come over to his house after dinner so we could make up for the incident. You have to remember that this was circa fourth or fifth grade. What a classy move for such a young age. I went over and everything was fine. I also know for a fact that we have never fought about anything since then. At the time I didn't really think much of the event, but that was such a nice thing to do.

The following years, the middle school days, JQ and I spent almost everyday together. I actually remember him telling me one time that we weren't going to hang out for a week because he wanted to show his sister that we did more than just hang out. I miss those days when JQ and I would hang out and play the first Halo. We actually beat that entire game on Legendary, the hardest difficulty. I can recall playing the same parts of the game what seemed like hundreds of times until we finally made it through one time. The part that really stands out was near the beginning of the third level when you first get on the space ship and there are invisible elites with swords. For those of you who don't play video games or are unfamiliar with Halo, the swords are a one hit kill. I think JQ and I played that part 1,000 times, getting killed by one of those invisible bastards 999 of those times.

In middle school we had two hand touch football games at the bus stop practically every single day. Our neighborhood had a decent amount of people my year in it and the year ahead of me in it. So we usually just played sixth graders vs. seventh graders (and seventh graders vs. eighth graders the following year). This was around the time when I began to realize that I had some speed, especially when I could outrun the older kids! Anyways, JQ was our quarterback and I was the go to receiver. We played with the rules that each team has four downs to score a touchdown. JQ and I had a set play for third down that we would just look at each other and say third down and we knew what was coming. The play was basically a post pattern. When JQ hiked the ball I would run straight at a decent pace, but after about four or five steps I would cut toward the middle of the field and burn in a diagonal toward the end zone. JQ would just throw the ball up in the air and I would go get it. We actually had a pretty damn good success rate on this play because I could get by anyone covering me and as long as JQ got the ball in the air somewhere where I could run it down we were good. I must add that JQ was quite good at it.

JQ and I entered high school as extremely good friends. This one time we were hanging out at his house after school, I believe it was sophomore year. For some reason we were sharing the nightmares we had in our youth. I'll never forget his reaction after I told him about one of the most common nightmares I used to have. When I was very young I used to have nightmares where I was in a building. The building was some type of warehouse that had wooden boxes everywhere. The building was not well lit, I must have been there at night. I know not why I was in this warehouse, but I do know that I was running away from giant rats. When I was in the process of telling JQ about this dream I didn't really think much of it. I was merely recounting a nightmare that I used to have. I've never seen someone laugh so hard and for so long as JQ did. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that he might have been laughing loudly and genuinely for about ten minutes. It was one of those moments where I began to laugh loudly, too simply because he was. He was just sitting there laughing hysterically, commenting "maybe that's why you're so fast!"

Sophomore year of high school was when I was beginning to notice that maybe I did have some sort of track talent. I came in second in both hurdle events at leagues outdoors that year and eventually qualified for states. I think those are decent accomplishments for someone in their third season of track. Obviously JQ was aware of the success I was having because we spoke all the time and he was also friends with other people on the track team, too, our high school wasn't that big. We still played sports outside of school, frisbee, wiffle ball, football, and occasionally basketball or something else. Starting sometime during sophomore year and stretching to senior year, every time we had a pickup game and I was involved in some type of physical contact JQ would always yell at the person who came into contact with me, saying "hey, he's valuable to LHS!" I got a kick out of it every time he would say it. I know neither he nor anyone we were playing with would intentionally try to hurt me or anyone else we were playing with, but he would let them know. It was almost like a joke within itself because I would always say that no one gave a shit about the track team anyway, which actually did have some truth to it.

Even when we both went off to college JQ and I have always been in touch. There have been some long lapses of communication, but that has not damaged our friendship at all. The summer after freshman year, which I think was the best summer of my life to this point, started out with a classic JQ memory. One day we were at the grocery store and there was a deal for ice cream, something like buy one and get one free. So JQ and I decided to each get a half gallon of ice cream and take advantage of the deal. We went back to JQ's house and we were playing some NBA 2K8 or 9 given the time frame. We were playing with the stacked legends (or something teams), don't think I don't remember dominating with Patrick Ewing, JQ! We were eating the ice cream while playing. I somehow was managing to dominate at the game with Patrick Ewing, but after a few games JQ looked into my carton of ice cream and realized that I had eaten almost all of it. "Oh my God!!! Do you have a stomach ache?!?!" Another classic reaction there. Luckily I did not have a stomach ache despite consuming an entire half gallon of ice cream in one sitting. That ice cream did not go to waste, not on my watch.

The ice cream, it's all gone!

To say the very least, seeing JQ and hanging out with him today was a real treat. I plan on seeing much more of him in the very near future. That's one of the few things that I can control in the future. My mood has definitely been lifted after today. The end of my college career did not going very much as I would have liked it for a few reasons, which is why I haven't been too happy as of late. One of the things bothering me is track. Track has been such a large part of my life for the last eight years, but I don't think I'm ready to call it quits on the sport just yet. My collegiate track career ended with me feeling very frustrated. Why was I frustrated? Well I've been a hurdler since I began running freshman year of high school, but I've never actually had a coach who knows hurdles. My high school coach, despite claiming that he was a former hurdler, did not offer much insight. He even told me during practice for the indoor New England Championship meet (a practice that consisted of me and him since I was the only one on the team still competing) that I probably knew more than he did at that point. Then freshman year of college my coach told me that he had no expertise in the hurdles, that he was unfamiliar with the event. Our new coach this past year was no different.

What frustrated me was the fact that I rarely ever got to practice the high hurdles. My coach planned almost all of my practices around training for the 400 meter hurdles. I have no problem practicing for the event, but seriously, I need practice in the highs, too. At the end of the season I was actually doing no high hurdle work. At conferences I made the final in the high hurdles, but I was the last qualifier. I didn't qualify for the finals in the 400 hurdles, I only missed by .17 seconds I think, but the hard fact is that I didn't make it. So let's get this straight, I qualified in the event I spent almost no time training for. I did just get in though and when I was back over where our team was sitting my coach started talking to me about how my trail leg was slow. I looked at him in disbelief and said "I never practice it." Then I walked away thinking what the hell do you expect. He could tell I didn't like what he said to me and later on told me he didn't have me practicing the highs because I was getting faster in the event without practicing. Well that was true for a few weeks, but leading into conferences I ran one of my slowest times of the season.

Before the New England Championships, the week after conferences I did no high hurdle stuff again except for when I had a free day to do whatever I wanted. I was ready to go for that meet. I was right next to the fastest high hurdler in New England. I got out of the blocks very well and was with the number one seed at the first hurdle. He got over much quicker than me, but I was having a good race. At the seventh hurdle, I nailed the hurdle with my lead leg and stumbled which threw off my whole race. I decided to finish up the race anyways but I recorded my worst time in the event ever. That includes in high school, too, where the hurdles are 3 inches shorter. I am no satisfied with that. Luckily there are track meets quite often, you just have to look for them. I plan on competing again. I don't know how much more, but I just don't think I'm done with the sport yet. That ending has just been bothering me, I can't let it end like that. I did run my best time in the 400 hurdles later that same day, but it did little to relieve the disappointment I felt from the previous race. Here's why: I spent practically the entirety of my senior year training for the 400 meter hurdles. At the end of the year I had run my best time, but it was best time by .26 seconds. I barely trained for the high hurdles, but in the 110 high hurdles I improved by .39 seconds, which is a great deal in that race. To put it in perspective, I came in second at the New England Championships my senior year of high school and was beat by .40 seconds. You can see what that looks like for yourself in the video below. I'm in the blue shorts and white top in lane 5.

Watch more video of New England Interscholastic Spring Track and Field Championship Meet on flotrack.org

Another thing that has been bothering me is lacking a job. I've been bored out of my mind and am growing tired of searching for a job. However I finally have an interview on Monday. I really hope that turns into something, I'm staying positive about it. This was an exceptionally great day, though. I got to spend some time with three of my closest friends and run around like a lunatic for a bit. I plan on having many more days like this over the summer. I'm coming back to my normal self after a few uncomfortable nights. And remember, be champions.

What do I do now?

My family and I have been back home from Seattle for a week now and it only took that week for me to get bored out of my mind. Luckily I was able to spend some time with good friends the last two nights which has greatly helped me ease the boredom to some extent. Yesterday I was gone most of the day for a family get together. During this get together I found myself come to a realization. From my point of view, my life, as well as most people when I come to think about it, revolves around sitting in some place to getting up and going to sit in another place. Call me crazy, but I honestly feel like that's what's going on. Yesterday for example, at my grandmother's 80th birthday party. My family and I got to the restaurant and sat down and ate. Once all that was finished we got walked back to the car and sat in it until we arrived back at her house where we proceeded to sit down inside. Then once everyone was like screw sitting inside, let's go outside because it's so nice. So we all got up and walked outside to sit down. After sitting there for a while it was time for us to make our way home, so we got back in the car and sat there for about another hour and a half.

I don't mean to take anything away from family gatherings, I think they're a good thing as long as they don't last too long. I am merely pointing out how life just revolves around going places to sit down. The same was true in school, whether high school, college, any type of education. You show up to class and sit down and listen to someone, sometimes a huge clown, teach, or in some cases "teach," for a predetermined amount of time. Once that amount of time expires, it's on to the next class or it's time to go sit in the cafeteria or it's time to go sit in your dorm or something. I think this holds true for practically every situation. You go out to a bar and sit down, or maybe you stand around, but I think it's along the same idea. You go to a sporting event and you sit down and watch. You go to work where most professional jobs include lots of sitting and sedentary action.

My sister and I with the Freemont Troll in Seattle!

 Personally, I like to stay active. I like moving around and partaking in physical activity. This is probably why I ended up running track and very much enjoy playing pickup games of frisbee. I usually find myself happiest when running around like a lunatic. Unfortunately as my friends and I get older it gets increasingly difficult each year to play sports because people are busy or lazy and sometimes a combination of both. I also find that most people just want to go to bars and drink or just drink in general. I don't mind doing this sometimes, but I'm definitely not one to go out and drink on an extremely regular basis. I think that right there immediately cuts my options of things to do with people by a lot. Pair the sedentary style of life with no job and I find myself bored out of my mind.

Right now the main goal for me is to find a job. I've submitted my resume to a few places and I'm continuing to search for opportunities while I wait to hear back. The annoying thing is that if the places I've applied to aren't interested in what I have to offer, they probably won't even get back to me so I'll have no idea if I'm still in consideration or not. I'm really hoping that if I can find a job I'll be a lot happier, because I'm already sick of where I'm at now.

At this point I'm just going to continue searching for work and spend time with some of my longest standing friends. Speaking of which, I also had another revelation, something that I've actually known all along, but for some reason took me a while to realize. Actually, I think I always did know it, but I didn't want to be a huge dick, but I now I do. If you are familiar with me, or this blog, you know that I'm not a supporter of Facebook. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then look at the labels section on the right side of the blog and click on "Facebook." Then you can see me bitch and piss myself into a puddle of my own rage. When I was writing about the social networking site that has become a large part of practically everyone's life my age or around it, I was quick to blame the site for allowing people to do all the annoying things that piss me off. However, I was wrong to blame Facebook, it's not the site's fault, rather it is the people on it. There you go, very simply put, the way people use Facebook, and other social media sites, annoys the piss out of me.

Running around like a lunatic at an early age!

The one thing that annoys me the most on Facebook is that you can tell when people blow you off. I don't really feel like getting into too much depth on this subject because it will just end with a whole lot of unpleasant thoughts, but it does really annoy me. I also think that this has gotten much, much worse since people have been able to use Facebook on mobile devices.

So I have no job and very little to do. I'm bored to say the least. That's about all I have to say for now. I'll leave you with this short film that one of my friends made this past semester in school.

Roommates: The Last Words

I've been a huge slacker on the blogging front lately, but now finals are over and I have no class to go to or job to show up for, so that creates time for blogging! This is going to be an interesting time in my life because undergraduate school and collegiate track are both over for me. I still have the actual graduation ceremony to go to this Saturday, which happens to be the same day as the Champions League final unfortunately, but it is strange to think college is done. I have to say I feel much the same way I did in high school, there were some fun times, but I'm ready to get the hell out of there and go do something different. I'm really hoping that finding a job won't be a huge pain in the ass, but if it is, I'm sure I'll at least get some good stories out of it. Looking back at the past four years I've spent in college I can see how my life has changed and how the people who are important to me have changed. For the most part I still stay in touch with my close friends from high school, which I am very pleased about, but the vast majority of people I knew then I rarely communicate with now. That might sound depressing, but it's not, because there are many new people that have worked their way into the closer circle of friends.

While I don't have 1,983,435 friends, the ones I have kept in touch with and the ones I have developed at school are relatively strong friendships, especially with a small group people (from high school and college) that I consider my best friends whom I will probably have communication with for the rest of life. What I'm not going to miss is tests, crappy group projects, and excessive alcohol/drug use. This brings me back to my roommates. I have been preparing for quite some time the last installment of the stupid shit that my roommates say, which can be found a little further down on this post. This installment is rather long, but it's the last one and I am so happy that I won't be subject to this stupid conversation any longer. I guess I do have to go back for one night before graduation, but it's basically over, thankfully.

In efforts to ignore the dumb conversations, I frequently listen to comedians.  Recently I've been listening to a larger variety of comedians including Luis CK. Louis is a funny guy, but one of his jokes summed up my roommates very accurately which made it particularly funny to me. Below is the joke, listen to it and you will understand my roommates better.



Annnnd here they are, the last contributions to the mini-series:

Actually I just jacked off... so I just gave up.

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna f**k her.

It was just me and three freshman girls just rollin' up joints. It doesn't matter who's on campus.

Definitely shouldn't trust me.

Yo, I'm not pissed, but did one of you house my Butterfingers?

I might have messed this up if this girl thinks I'm lookin' at porn all the time. Which I might ... but this is not good.

It's gonna be so funny when I bang her and stop hittin' her up.

I hooked up with her once and now she won't talk to me.

I've made out with a girl 'til 5 or 6 in the morning. I just try to keep takin' her panties off. She kept sayin' no, but it only takes one yes.

My plan for tonight is to wait 'til like 10 and pound SoCo... and just get belligerently drunk.

Man, I skipped like mad classes this week. I wasn't even tryna skip.

What's that saying again? Beer before liquor get drunk quicker?

Honestly, she was talkin' like she just wanted to get dicked up

Dude, what do you think of these two girls? It's not usually my style, but look at that black girl's ass. It's actually kinda gross.

I have to keep my reputation as a douche bag.

That chick **** had no intentions of hookin' up with me. What a waste of time.

She won't sleep with me because I banged her f**ckin' roommate.

You wanna see this cannon we're about to smoke?

So pretty much, I'm gonna lose 20% of my grade.

I could call up that freshman chick ***. I don't think she likes me at all.

Does nap equal sex?

The plan was to let her smoke as much weed as she wanted... and that's it.

I've been real paranoid the last couple days. I was sittin' here on Saturday and a car pulled up to the fire lane and took a picture of the house.

I hate multiple choice because I can usually bullshit on a normal test.

Yo, you think I'm gonna be dirty now that I have golf shoes? (hooray for a different subject!)

I'm not smokin' 'til 4/20 so I can get super high.

Good luck not smokin'.

I think I'm done. I just don't feel like being this paranoid all the time.

Dude, I'm broke, I have no money. And my parents don't just give me money. (maybe I'll explain why this is funny, or you can just wonder)

My goal is to make it to last call at Rente's. I want to pick up some drunk sluts.

This girl, ****, wants me so bad. At first she wasn't texting me at all, but now she is all the time.

I am his mom. I'm Wiz's mom and dad.

Just don't do what I did, spend all your money and smoke a ton of weed.

Yo, Mike, where do you think would be a good place to find some sluts? ..... No, those are whores. I want sluts.

Dude, **** was givin' me some dirty looks in class today.

Her vagina is gross, too, it has some real disgusting parts.

I saw ****'s ex-boyfriend today and I'm even more perplexed. I don't understand why she won't f**k me.

I got a movie quote for you: "knock knock. Who's there? Go f**k yourself."

**** ruined my nest egg. She smoked my retirement fund.

Do you think that girls really have guy friends? Because she texts me like every day. Maybe I just come from a different class of guys.

Dude, be careful because I have a feelin' DPS is pullin' a raid on me on 4/20. If they raid me, it will be at like 5 in the morning, so we can smoke all day.

This girl is the biggest cockblock of all time. I think she's part clueless and part c**t.

What she said to me was I'm too nice. What I said to that: "wow, don't get that too often."

It really sucks, dude, cus you're gettin' pussy. So you can just wait it out. I'm not, so I'm just wasting time. It's just that... every time she texts me, I think I'm in.

You think you hooked up with a girl when she had a boyfriend? Yeah buddy!

Dude, India has nuclear bombs? Awww shit.

Those guys in the Middle East would, they're retards.

Damn, look at these f**kin' hot sluts.

No, I just wanna bang her. (answering the question "do you like her?")

I'm gonna shower and get ready for the day. Hit me up later. (at 6:57 PM)

You stayin' here tonight, ***? (Yeah.) We gotta find some sluts, dude.

I'm honest with girls. I don't want a relationship. Don't want 'em, don't like 'em.

I'll be out of the friend zone when I put it in her. I can tell she wants dick.

I don't smoke cigs. I only smoke cigs when I'm drunk.

I'm not a stoner.

My dick is sore from dry humping.

I got half a boner, I just woke up, and you're like "let's go to the gym, let's go to the gym."

If it doesn't go down tonight my balls are gonna be bluer than that solo cup.

I saw her come over here with that beer in her hand and I was like oh yes. Yes, yes, yes.

I was spitting some ferocious game that night.

I actually am gonna bust in like 2 minutes because I'm so built up.

I'm not gonna be real good at sex right now, but that's your fault.

How fast you bust depends on how into the girl you are.

This girl is gonna be devastated after I f**k her and I don't call her back. I don't give a f**k, there are only two weeks of school left.

I'm just tryna go to bed... and smash ... and not hang out.

I'm in my prime. I'm bangin' sluts all the time. Make-outs are in the hundreds.

Dude, it is so expensive to f**k.

You still tryna do coke tonight?

That's actually why I go to the library, to see if there are any girls I know. Hey, how you doin'? Can I sit here?

Yo, what's up baby? Can you suck my c**k tonight, please?

I'm gonna go all out. I'm gonna smoke up this girl **** on like 1,000 blunts and just f**k her. I gotta start goin' to the gym.

She looked really f**ked up. That's good right? I heard sex on vikenin is the best.

Check out this new cut I gave my pubes. It's stylin'.

Like last night I was pretending to study, but I was thinking I really want to f**k this girl.

It's gonna suck getting written up as an alumni.

That's what my dick was like when I was f**kin' that chick, not hard, but not soft.

Bozo's Sidekick

Yeah, *** still won't f**k me. I would do whatever I have to.

I don't know how I got so drunk last night.

My bad tryna fight that kid, I don't know what I was thinkin'.

I couldn't get the job done last night. Hopefully bang her next time.

Dude, I'm doin' so bad in school right now. I just got a 68 on my paper.

I thought when girls were on the rebound they just wanted ...

She fell asleep in the bed in her clothes, so I asked her to leave. (Did you bang her?) No, that's why I asked her to leave.

I skipped class, but I had a chance for some morning sex.

It's kind of funny to think about how much it costs to bang out chicks.

Doesn't it suck that it's harder to get a girl to f**k you if they actually like you?

I would also like to point out that roommate number two, Bozo's sidekick, or whatever you want to refer to him as, had a falling out with the person he was going to go to senior ball with. The falling out was because she wouldn't have sex with him. Last I knew he was just not going to go, but who knows what has happened since then. What a guy! To say the least, I am very glad to know that my time living in that house is coming to an end.

What's up next I don't entirely know. My family and I are going (we went out, I just haven't blogged in so long that I wrote this portion before we left) out to Washington (the state) to visit my sister who has been living out there for a little over a year now. Then I guess I'll be looking for a job. I'm excited to see what transpires, this is the time of life when you really start becoming independent. I think ideally I would get a job and live at home for a little while, if possible, to save money. I would like to get a job in the city and eventually get an apartment or something with some friends, that would be the ideal situation. Which city, I do not know, but I think the most important thing is to just get a job at this point.

Enough of this gay banter, though, there are more interesting things to contemplate. Actually, maybe there isn't. All I do know is that I don't have a job, this means that I have no income right now (thankfully I have actually managed to save some money over the years!) and my days are wide open. I can do whatever I want practically whenever I want. Yes, that does include looking for a job, though. Now that I think of it, my entire life is wide open right now. I don't have a job, so that means I have the freedom to apply to jobs wherever because I don't have any reason to stay here or go to any particular place. The other thing is that I have no girlfriend either. I have (or had, I'm not sure what tense to put this sentence in) a good thing going with a girl at school, but due to some circumstances (good circumstances if you care) I haven't been able to see her much and that's not going to change for a while at least, and possible forever. I might get into this topic some more given all the free time I'm going to have. So if you're at all interested be sure to check back. So at this point I have no idea what's going to happen in my life, but I plan on making it a fun ride!

The coolest Chinese Man ever!

Since I cannot go to sleep, which is why I decided to finish this at 2 in the morning despite the draft sitting in the post list for probably almost two months now (meaning why the hell haven't I finished this yet!), I'm probably going to start an article for Penultimate Round Pick on the man pictured above, Liu Xiang!

A Pleasantly Delightful Weekend

This past weekend was a breath of fresh air despite not feeling the greatest because of a lame cold. I went home for the weekend for Easter and the first thing I did upon arrival was chill with my dad and watch some weird programming on the television. I didn't realize until recently how strange the History Channel is. I have seen the memes making fun of the History Channel guy linking everything to aliens, but that's only part of the story. My dad and I stumbled across a show about the anti-Christ and how the type of development we are experiencing in the world is all part of the anti-Christ's master plan. What kind of crack are these guys smoking? You know these people are full of shit when they link information technology (IT) to the anti-Christ because everyone knows that's skynet. The anti-Christ believers need to get their heads out of their asses and realize that technology could potentially be a threat to mankind, but not because of the anti-Christ, because technology could become self-aware. Haven't these morons seen The Terminator? We had enough of that and switched the channel to another lackluster show that is basically a ripoff of Cesar Milan where some guy attempts to solve people's cat problems. The guy was convinced that the cat was peeing all over the house in an attempt to mark its territory. He brought a black light into the couple's bedroom and shower and revealed stains all over the bed and shower. He confirmed his belief that the cat was marking territory, but they never showed any proof that the stains revealed by the black light was cat piss...

So that was the start to the weekend, a nice paranoia spreading television program. Who would have thought that the media could control thought? Then when my mom got home we went out for dinner. I got the fish and chips because it was the last Friday of lent and I knew that I would instantly go to hell if I ate red meat. I think that's proven in a science book somewhere. The meal was delicious though and I always enjoy eating out as a vessel to fulfill the extreme enjoyment I get in people watching. There were two fat people sitting at the table opposite my parents and I. The two people looked like a mother and her son, both of which could use some time working out. They were sitting on opposite sides of the table, which is what I would have expected, but then I noticed that the little fat ass had ear buds lodged into his ears. Apparently pork chop was not interested in interacting with his mother who was also almost certainly paying for the meal that would definitely not fill his over-sized stomach. When I'm out in the world experiencing the general public I am always thankful that I was born into the family that I was. I like to remind myself of this, which is probably a big reason why I like people watching so much. Everyone should give people watching some time, I think it's one of the most entertaining things to do. You're certainly welcome to join me!

After dinner we went home and watched some baseball while conversing. I'm really happy that baseball is back. Soccer and baseball are my two favorite sports and now both are in season! Eventually my parents went to bed and I stayed up to watch Albert Pujols' first game as a member of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, talk to Chase (on AIM!), and finish More Crap My Roommate Says. So basically I talked to Chase and finished the post and didn't really watch the baseball game because I was extremely distracted by the two other things. I did finish that post and I think you should check it out! And if you already looked at it, thank you and I hope it marginally entertained you at the least.

I didn't do much during the day on Saturday. I got up later than usual because I wanted to sleep in and give myself a chance to rest and fight off the common cold that I contracted during the middle part of the week and was still forced to run an 800 (half a mile for non-track oriented people) on Wednesday when I could not breathe properly and felt like shit. And yes, I did ask to not do it, but apparently that doesn't matter. Later on in the day I got together with two friends and we got dinner at D'Angelo's. I got the steak and cheese sub because it is one of the most delicious things I have ever had. Steak and cheese is definitely one of the greatest inventions of all time. Screw sliced bread, the saying should be "(insert word here) is the best thing since the steak and cheese sub." Yes, you do need sliced bread to make a steak and cheese, but the creation of a steak and cheese sub is way greater than slicing bread, which requires a sharp object.

After dinner we went to a local bar, something I don't do much, but that's more because I don't have a group of friends at college who I'm inclined to go out with. Again, if you read my posts about the shit that my roommate talks about, I think you can see where I'm coming from. If not, then you're probably like him and I probably don't want anything to do with you. It was a good time though, we just chilled and met up with one another one of my very good friends when he got out of work. I think it's fun to do stuff like that occasionally and with the right people. I saw some people from high school that I haven't seen in a very long time, too, which was entertaining to some extent. Some of the people I honestly never thought I would see or talk to again. The end result was a good night.

I wasn't sure what to expect of Easter Sunday since that day constitutes an extended family get together. Extended family get togethers get old rather fast once you get older, but this one was not too bad. After we had lunch I basically just talked to my cousin the entire time. She's around the same age, just one year younger in school than me, so we have a lot of common things to discuss. We ended up staying at my grandma's house, where the festivities were held, for over four hours, which was very surprising to me. What's funny about family gatherings on my mom's side of the family, which was the case for this past Easter, is the topic of discussion among her family. I'm from a a moderately sized town, but it's one of those places where practically everyone knows everyone. I hate it, but that's the way it is. My mom's family is always talking about so-and-so and who they're related to, how much their house is selling for, how much personal trouble they are having, how much of an asshole they are/what a great person they are, or how they can hook someone else they know up. I'll mention that I was with one of my friends and they'll ask me if they're related to so-and-so and go up and down the family tree. I have no idea, they're just my friend!

It's just one of those places where everyone really does know everyone else in some way. I somehow managed to not meet a lot of people in my graduating class which is quite an accomplishment, but it was mainly because our paths didn't cross resulting from the small schools initiative that reduced class sizes by 0%, thanks El Gordo! I don't know why, but I find the everyone knowing or knowing of everyone else kind of annoying. I think a little bit of anonymity is a good thing, but I didn't have to worry about that because I wasn't on the football team in high school so very few people knew who I was. You know what else annoys me, people that suck at merging onto the highway. The people who slow down and/or come to a complete stop on the on ramp when no one is in the right lane. That's annoying and so is the constant fear my roommates live in for partaking in activities against the rules of the university. Apparently when I let a group member borrow a book and showed our house to juniors selecting housing for next year I should have told my roommates that people would be knocking on the door because they got really nervous because they thought it was DPS both times. I didn't realize that I can't have people come over without telling anyone but it's fine to have people come pick up in the wee hours of the morning when I'm trying to sleep or come back at 1:00 am after drinking on Thursday night and playing loud, shitty music. That's ok, but when there's going to be a knock on the door, I should probably let them know. After all, it is definitely my problem that they partake in frowned upon and punishable activities.

I should just start knocking on the door every time I'm walking in the house. I would think it's funny, and that's all I really care about. Living in this situation is only lasting a little longer and the memories will be priceless. I'm going to have fun looking back at these posts and reminisce on my time in college and all the clowns I knew. Regardless, the weekend was great and I'm looking forward to the next part of my life, life after graduation. Hopefully someone will be watching my career with great interest, and of course, I wish the same for my readers.

Look, I Made a Post

December of 2011 marked a low point with merely one post. I have been busy with finals, track, and holiday festivities as well as hanging out with my family. Now most of the festivities have come to an end and I've had enough relaxation time away from school work to have some blogging fun. For the most part I haven't done anything of much importance for the last few weeks, but I'll discuss this time frame regardless. I would also like to point out that my post about how life is like Mario Party/Fuzion Frenzy has been put on a huge delay, we can all thank finals for that. BUT, I will get back to that at some point, I just do not want to rush it. And I need to read everything that I previously wrote and pick up where I left off, such unfortunate timing really, I finally had a good, unique idea, and....... finals!

And now for something completely different: my return to the cinema to work. Yes, for the first time in my life I have worked during winter break. I don't mind, though, I will only work for a few short weeks and I actually don't mind most of the people that I work with. When I went in for duty on Saturday my manager had not told my fellow coworkers that I was back, so my arrival was a complete surprise which was actually very nice, better than if they had all known. I received lots of handshakes and hugs. Surprise reactions are always the best. After I said hello to the coworkers who were in the front lobby, I headed to the ushers' closet to put my coat somewhere (this is the first time I've every worn a coat to work). One of my other coworkers happened to be eating lunch in the back lobby, where I was headed. She didn't look my way as I walked over, so I said "hi." She responded with a disinterested "hey." That is until she looked up. Classic surprise reaction once she looked up. She bolted out of the chair to give me a hug when she realized it was me. These types of reactions from the people I work with are the reason I go back. I'm very different than my coworkers, but they are certainly not a bad group. I would have to say that my first day back on the job surprised my coworkers in about the same fashion that Chelsea fans and players get surprised when Fernando Torres scores a goal. Unlike Torres, mt surprise was worth the wait.

I know, I didn't score the goal

While on the subject of work, I would also like to point out that on Sunday I popped popcorn (not pupcorn) for about four and a half hours. This was the first time I have performed this task, so it really wasn't that bad, but I can see how it can get annoying very quickly. Besides work, which has only been two days, I've spent my time training, hanging out with family members, and playing video games. Training is always interesting at this time of year. The weather is frigid and facilities are lacking, so that means I do the vast majority of training for track outside in the cold. I want to perform well this year in track, but I really don't think my goals/ views meet what the new sprints coach has in mind for me. This brings about an interesting situation. As I mentioned before, actually in the previous post, I have been a hurdler throughout my track career and have achieved some level of success in the event. However, I honestly think that the new sprint coach would rather me drop everything and run the 800 (that's a half mile for people not track inclined). So I guess we'll just wait and see what happens, and I should probably stop blogging about this before it ends up as a controversy on Sports Center (because that could totally happen).

In other breaking news, I am apparently four classes (sometime referred to as courses) away from eligibility to partake in "professional" work. More like after sitting in a classroom for a certain amount of hours I will be deemed capable and well rounded. Educational institutes have an affinity with the phrase "well rounded." Educators are quite sure that beating knowledge into the nation's youth creates a well rounded person. So, come May of 2012, just a few months away now, my life is probably going to change significantly. I think there are four possible scenarios:

1. I don't graduate and have to continue taking undergrad classes (I really hope this doesn't happen)
2. I graduate and manage to find a job
3. I graduate and join unemployment
4. I graduate, but decide to go to graduate school

All of those scenarios sound quite thrilling. Actually, that brings me to something I've been thinking about for a little while. The way wealth works sucks. When you're young and have energy and the motivation to go do fun and exciting things you have barely any money. Most people don't have a decent amount of money to do fun and exciting things until they're old, out of shape, fat, and on six different drugs. All of which are symptoms of work. Screw that, I want to go do things now, when I am still physically capable of wiping my own ass without hurting my back. However, I lack the funds to do much of anything, what a wonderfully implemented system. Work, a fun suppressor, prevents many people from having a good time.

At least she can retire at the ripe age of 70!

At the end of this summer I had planned in my mind to write about how dumb and stupid field goals in football are once the National Football League (I did that just for the National Football League expert Jaworski) season started. I still haven't done that and the playoffs are starting this weekend. So I'm either putting that off for another year or doing it in the next couple of days/weeks. I also think that football practices score inflation. I determine football scores by taking the number of points a team has scored and dividing by six, that gives you the score with inflation calculated out of it. For example, if the scoreboard reads 27-17, the actual score of the game is 4.5-2.8333333333333.

Apparently I can't form a cohesive post anymore. According Blogger, I started this post on December 29, 2011 and I'm still working on it now in 2012. The post also has no clear thought process, so I'm not even going to bother to read what I have previously written and just start up again, right here, right now. I am currently in the latter part of winter break, it's almost time to for knowledge beating again. Once again, I can proudly say that I have done a whole lot of nothing. I just thought about ending the post with the previous sentence, but then I remembered that I don't have anything else to do right now, so I'll just keep typing away. I'll do a recap of winter break so far.

My winter break began when I ended a torturous final and drove home and ate dinner with my mom. My dad and sister arrived in that order in the next two days and I got to see them for the first time in a long time. That first week I was back I had the opportunity to see some of my friends and we went to the mall. That is also the last time I saw most of those people. I have gone back to work for a few short shifts, so I've probably made about ten dollars over break. I went to a mini-meet and ran the 400. And over the last week or so, I have unsuccessfully, at least for the most part, attempted to hang out with various friends. I'll probably give it one more shot before I decide it is no longer worth the time or effort. And now I'm here.

I watched this movie called 12 Monkeys last night. I enjoyed it, I recommend it to whoever reads this. Then I watched most of the BCS National Championship game for College football. Holy shit that game sucked in my estimation. From my point of view, the score to that game was 1-0 in favor of Alabama. Alabama only scored once, field goals are stupid and don't count. In other sporting news, Lionel Messi won the prestigious Ballon d'or award yesterday, crowning him the best soccer player this past year. In the days leading up to the event, I found all the people predicting him as the winner quite comical. No shit, anyone could have predicted that. That's like predicting the square root of nine.

Did I mention that there is a severe lack of anything to do? Over the past two years I've experienced rapidly increasing levels of apathy toward many things. I don't even expect positive responses to hanging out anymore, from most people that is. The whole situation creates what I like to call the "Fat Bastard" syndrome. I took an interpersonal communication class this past semester, a class that I really enjoyed because I like observing people and their behaviors. One of my favorite theories was the one that described why we maintain some relationships and let others dissolve. In the theory's simplest terms, the two main factors are cost and reward. We like to stay in relationships that offer more rewards than cost. I think that is true, and unfortunately I have many high bills.

It's not all lame, though, hats off to those of you that I have seen.............. STEVE HOLT!!