Wednesday, June 30, 2004

i'm da vinci, don't make me draw your pain...

...they call me 'scoe, short for roscoe p. coldchain...

yeah, i've got to start listening to calmer music on the way home.

kiss on me, baby
lick on me, baby
but you can't own me, baby
'cause i'm the shit...


anyway, so lunch... we get down to the lobby (where we were meeting at 11:45), and only angel and mark were there. i was so worried that everybody'd already left. but apparently we were just early. so we all meet up, and we figure everybody's there, and we start leaving... and steven (not panda) informs me that abdullah asked us to wait for him, since he was in a meeting with his mentor. um, okay... so we wait for like, 10 minutes, and he finally shows up... and the five of us pile into the van... and abdullah decides that he wants to drive himself. um, yeah. i drove him to his car, and then had to drive so that he could follow. again.

and... by the time we get there, the intern mob had already gotten food and relieved josh and linda of table-guarding duty... and they'd already made it halfway up the line. yeah, really late. by the time we got our food, geoff had already finished his.

chipotle's wasn't great. and josh was complaining about it, which was very strange to me because josh was the one that told everybody that we were going there... but apparently the other guys (masseh, stephen (panda steve!), mike... um... i forget the list...) were the ones that said chipotle's, and he just went along with it. like i said, we were crashing their party.

geoff left halfway through lunch, i started freezing. josh started complaining about being cold 'cause we were sitting where the draft came down, and stephen (panda) was perplexed... he said that he was hot, and couldn't see how we were cold. so i told him that he should come around the table and block the draft for us... and he started asking me what i was trying to say (he's a pretty broad guy, especially for an asian) ;p i tried to explain myself... "well, you're hot, so you'd *want* the a/c..." well, linda missed the conversation, and just heard "well, you're hot." oocq'd. just like steven (not panda) in line... saying "i'm gay, really!" i *think* there's a reason for that one ;p

a little late, but at least i got that extra 40 minutes...

so... i was awake at ~6:50 this morning (or something like that), and was still awake when my watch went off (7:00 by my watch, so, like... 6:56), but decided that i'd gone to bed too late to get up yet. even though i was awakish. something told me to go back so sleep, and i went back to sleep. yeah...

the next thing i knew, my dad was waking me up (which he does by opening my door quickly... oddly effective for someone who sleeps though earthquakes and hurricanes...) anyway, i'd managed to entangle myself in the cord of my phone charger. or i was cuddling with it. or something. but yeah, it was 7:40 by then, and it was time for me to leave by the time i got downstairs to eat breakfast. so i'm late here, but not actually by that much...

chipotle's lunch today =D

and, and, and... z's gonna come here sometime and we're gonna go to chicken out on my lunch break, 'cause she hasn't gone in like, two years <does happy dance>

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

boobs need clothes too!

okay, okay, maybe mine don't, but i'd prefer not to go bra-less anyway. so... went bra shopping today, and... the softcup is dead. everything either has a wire in it, or is padded, or both... or paper-thin. and even worse, there are bras that are made so that the top of the cup comes into your body at a nearly 90 degree angle. okay, so i'm exaggerating, but still... i can't imagine how that would be flattering on anybody. at all. or comfortable, for that matter. uuugh...

anyway, so i've decided that i need to abandon the "no false advertising" policy altogether. appended "except for when wearing dresses" a while ago... 'cause, well, most dresses look horrible without boobs. especially since i'm not tall enough to be leggy... well anyway... it's now impossible to buy bras that don't boost volume that aren't paper-thin. and i can't wear a paper-thin bra. and not 'cause of the size (or lack of size ;p) issue... um... yeah... moving on...

michael got me this wooden bead choker while they were on vacation last week. he's got a matching one, but the bead part on his is a lot shorter (he wears it so that the beads end before it goes around his neck, so there's a lot of black string showing. it's kinda cool, really). actually i think it's shorter in general, too, but he wears it longer than i do. it's so weird... definitely not something i would go and buy on my own, but i've worn it every day since he gave it to me. well, i didn't wear it to work today, but i'm wearing it now (don't ask me why... i'm not even sure). and we match =D

i hate that i have allergies now... i never had 'em before... it's annoying...

yeah, so tomorrow, intern lunch at chipotle's, thanks to josh =] well, maybe thanks to me accusing him of being antisocial ;p but hey, if he had plans with his girl last time, i'm not gonna hold it against him... i was just joshin' (ha! i'm so funny...)

and, and, and, <grrrrrr...> i can't believe they canceled the intern bbq without telling us why! it's so... sudden. and cong is still under the impression that it's happening because lance and ulyssees are mean and i can't ruin the joke.


i've had brain and it wasn't us stuck in my head all day. "it wasn't us" probably isn't all that appealing in writing, but... the second verse of "brain" just tickles me pink (not sure why i used that phrase, but that's how it's coming out in my head... <shrugs>) ;p and i'm not exactly the target audience for something like that...


and ps: we finished the modem racking today =] well, i did. the guys redid coax superstructure. i finished last =( gotta relabel stuff tomorrow (take off post-its and replace with real labels... yeah...)

pps: (i'll stop eventually; i promise) yeah, so coffee today... had caffeinated hazelnut. as opposed to the decaf hazelnut from yesterday. mmm... didn't seem to give me a headache or anything, so... we'll see. that machine will be the end of me...

actually, i don't think i've said anything about the machine yet. okay, we have this one-cup-at-a-time coffee machine at work that brews from k-cups (as if anybody who hasn't seen the machine knows what that is...) you put a sealed k-cup in there (think... sealed small plastic cup, about the size of a ketchup dipping thing), put a cup under the spout, and push a button... voila! coffee! and there are 8 or 10 types of coffee to choose from (i'm obviously not going to choose a dark or light roast, so i'm not going through that many different types, but still... it's lots), so... yeah... coffee for merc. world, watch out. withdrawls will ensue.

Monday, June 28, 2004

i was just wondering what the inside of my thumb looked like...
i swear!

michael... yesterday... he was eating a sammich, and got mayonnaise on his cheek, so i told him, "you've got mayonnaise all over your face," and then he argued that it wasn't "all over," but just one spot on his cheek. point conceded... but then my dad says "you're a big disgrace." michael looks at him, and says "it's mayo, not mud." <sigh> my brother's so awesome =D

the idiot of the day was in a white corolla, but i can't remember what he did. definitely not as funny as the camry. the owner had pulled over and was reading the owner's manual ;p it was a late 90's model, but it had temp tags, so i assume the car was new to him... but... what part of the car do you need to operate that badly that you have to pull over on the parkway to read about? some people...

so i get to work, and i'm walking toward the stairs... and someone starts yelling for me. so weird. why would someone be yelling for me on the first floor? so i turn around, and steven's standing there. um... how'd he recognize the back of my head? anyway, apparently he started as the new intern today, and so he'll be around. yay for people i know ;p

i guess ulyssees and i telling everybody that the q-a lab was always open for a visit had its effect. steve (big steve, not new steve) dropped by in the morning for endless vendos, and then leah came and visited me while i was alphabetizing modems =] then, later, on my lunch break, abdullah brough steve (new steve) down for a bit. he told lance that i drove too fast or something like that... but, the thing is, i was driving slow the whole time he was following me. and i thought i was gonna lose him anyway. apparently so did he ;p

so busy today... there were viewpoint issues that we were looking at, but that got handed off after lance fixed one (supposedly) since apparently it wasn't a cabling problem... and ulyssees and i powered up some machines by hand (one of which had both its power cords pulled... i've no idea, but apparently it was supposed to be on...), and then... the cable modems. we pulled modems off of two racks, took down the 8-way splitters, chris put up 16-way splitters, we made new coax, recapped some cat5, alphabetized the modems, and put them back up... still not done with the modem thing yet, actually. will continue tomorrow...

anyway, so when i was recapping the ethernet... i used the scissors to cut off the old labels if they were in the way. i'd open them up and use one side as a blade to slice open the label, and then peel it off. well, i slipped once and sliced my thumb open instead. my reaction? "oops." just like that. lance told me that there was a first-aid kit in the kitchen, and i told him i'd use it if it looked like i was going to bleed on things. i never went for the kit. it's weird, i got a papercut last week, and i almost bled all over everything (got a tissue), but today, i sliced myself open with scissors, and... nothing. blood stayed in the cut.

coming home, though, i finished the noir ost (the first one, not the second one... don't really like the second one =/), and swapped to n*e*r*d. in search of... aah... so happy. i was in such a good mood when i got home, even though the modem work made me leave so late... yay for n*e*r*d =] can't wait to pick up fly or die this weekend =D

Sunday, June 27, 2004

to switch or not to switch?

i'm now a registered spymac member... so i have a spymac blog. but it's so... blech. but... it's spymac! either way, i've got two email accounts that max at a gig... and i don't use either of them (yet...)

so... lunch friday didn't exactly go as planned. we did the whole intern chat thing, but ulyssees's brother wanted to go for all-you-can-eat sushi... and then interns ended up voting bwf (because of me and lance, actually... yeah, i shouldn't vote to be funny anymore...), which meant that going to lunch with ulyssees and his brother was sounding better and better... so ulyssees and i ended up skipping out on the intern thing. brought ajax along, too... the interns took nearly 3 hours for lunch, though, so i guess it's better that we didn't go with them, since we didn't really have much free time in the afternoon...

yeah, friday was so busy for a friday... though i guess most of it wasn't my work (yeah, like i really had anything to do with moving the juniper), but still... we weren't at our desk(s?) most of the time. the time we did spend in the cube was mostly spent debating the weather for the afternoon with the other interns by im and email.

a bunch of our interns pulled out because of the possible weather situation, and more of the guests didn't come, including ajax (he said he might have something to do after work... i'm not sure what that's about). apparently, when we met in the lobby, heather asked steve for a ride to aol, but, when we left, she went with linda's manager (steve had already split... he went to pull the car around for heather because it was raining... aww). he wouldn't believe us when we told him that she'd already left, and nearly flipped out when he didn't see her when we showed up (heather apparently showed up long before we did). he was already blaming us for getting him fired ;p

the buses weren't around when we got there, and eventually todd called to find out what was going on... apparently, instead of sending the buses to the aol dulles center, they sent the buses to dulles airport. um, okay... anyway, they eventually showed up, and we only took one. why? we had 110 people originally... that's two buses exactly. we ended up with 52-53 people, so we only needed one bus. damn. we wanted the segregate the buses by company ;p

aol interns are so incredibly loud. they would yell and scream and clap for no apparent reason. the guys want to challenge them to something. i don't know what they're thinking, but we're way outnumbered. i hope we don't actually get into anything...

oh, so i met christina from tampa when we got to aol. she seemed cute, but i wasn't completely comfortable around her... probably because she was wearing a little much makeup for my taste. ah well... she seemed really nice and was kinda cute. too bad i didn't get to actually spend any time getting to know her...

on the ride there, leah kept saying that it looked like we were in blacksburg. cows. farm. yeah... oh, oh, and leah gave me chocolate =D she likes cadbury's too =] yay for leah ;p ulyssees was listening to his mp3s, but still managed to find time to talk and make fun of heather and stuff... heather kept getting phone calls, but it was her mom every time (supposedly), so we were making fun of her for being so popular... and accused her of using "mom" as a codename so she'd be able to talk to her boyfriend on the phone at work and not have anybody suspect what's going on. it was cute, really ;p she even let linda's manager (i keep forgetting his name! i really should know it...) call her house, but her brother picked up, so we're still not even sure if she was *really* talking to her mom...

it was raining on the way there, and it was raining a little bit when we showed up. the driver told us which way to walk to get towards camden yards (we parked at the ravens' stadium: "wrong sport!"), and the interns start migrating in the wrong direction. todd tried to get them with "hey, guys!" but it didn't work. so i yelled "interns!" and they all turned around. apparently they identify themselves as interns. but heather and todd laughed at me anyway. because it's a funny thing to yell...

ulyssees and i were (i think) the only ones that ended up sitting in the seats we had tickets for. it didn't matter, really, 'cause we had an entire section. but we were told to move later because heather and (manager dude) wanted to sit with todd and family. so we moved down the row. and had to dry off new seats. abdullah took care of that for us, though ;p

lance called in the middle of the sixth inning, drunk, to ask if we were on the way home yet. he was surprised that the game wasn't called because it was t-storming when he showed up in baltimore (he showed up way earlier). he was also very drunk. and squeaky-sounding.

braves got shut out. which i guess isn't such a huge surprise, seeing as half the team i'd never even heard of (called up), and the other half was broken... but still. and then there's that idiot debut pitcher... yeah...

on the way home, ulyssees kept calling me "weird." actually he'd called me one in abdullah's car on the way to aol, commenting on me not *really* needing a bigger gap to change lanes in the odyssey than in the jetta. "that's because you're weird and won't cut people off like a good little asian girl." it's funny... when people call me weird, it usually doesn't feel like an insult.

anyway, mom bought new pants on saturday... stretchy jeans. saturday night, when i was drying my hair in the basement, i hear this knocking on the wall of the stairs... i look up, and see mom's jeans... but... they're on my dad. yeah. strange things in my house.

today, i went to mills and got a new bikini =] i got some other stuff too, but not really worth mentioning, i guess...


anyway... will be busy at work the beginning of this week. the lab was powered down, so we're anticipating some problems when we get in; we have a new test bed to set up (read: lots of coax to make); we still have to make the in-use labels, which means lance has to fix the two low-ends he messed up; and we'll probably have to pack up the junipers... so yes, busy. don't anticipate talking to me at work too much =/

Friday, June 25, 2004

parting is such sweet sorrow...

as most of you who talk to me often know, today is my last day with the jetta, and i'm getting so depressed about it... the drive into work this morning was so open... i got here in about half an hour including my stop for money on the way. i was signed on before 8:30... what happened to my stop and go driving?

oh, so idiot of the day... woman in a green nissan maxima. she wouldn't so much change lanes as drift between the two at will without signaling... which i wouldn't mind as much if she'd check before she did it. okay, even if she didn't check her blind spot... if she'd check her mirrors?!?! it was like everything behind the front bumper of her car (other than her) didn't exist. how the hell'd this lady pass her driving test?

also, heard on the way in that dmx got arrested for impersonating an fbi agent, stealing a car, and driving under the influence... how messed up would he have to be to think that was a good idea? 'cause i don't think that he'd be so stupid as to think he'd get away with it normally.


sooo... intern lunch today with christina from tampa, and then leaving for baltimore in the afternoon to watch the braves (yay for intern social functions) =] leaving work early and will be home late. if i'm mia, don't worry, i'm probably fine ;p

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

um... did i break it?

driving in this morning, i was going around a curve and was thinking... taking turns at those speeds in the jetta and odyssey is so much more comfortable than doing the same in the taurus. soft suspension, you know? eeeew...

it reminded me of a small "incident" i had on the way home, though... on my way back from work, i was going around that 25 mph turn at 55 (as i normally do in the jetta... no, it's not abnormal for people not me, either...), but the thing is... it's a blind turn. and someone had gone off the road earlier (pretty badly) and covered most of my lane with gravel. i, um... slid a bit (stayed in my lane, at least). was... yeah...

anyway, back to this morning... listening to the radio, there was some song that actually used the word "conversate." heh... apparently lissa was just ahead of her time ;p

at the merge lane for 66, there was this camry sitting at the belly of a tractor-trailer (near the back end), signaling to get out of the merge lane, while the tractor-trailer was signaling to get into the merge lane. uuuh... i don't claim to be an expert, but why would you keep going *with* the trailer? i mean... what did the lady expect? the trailer would split in half and let her in? seriously...

oh... and i got in this morning, turned on my machine, and got up to go put my food in the fridge... and i managed to catch my shoelace on the sunbox under my desk. and pull it with me, nearly falling into the wall. yeah... i'm smarteded...

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

busiest day of work so far, and we had lots of non-work planned...

coming home in the jetta... stop-and-go driving. clutch-gas, clutch-brake, clutch-gas, clutch-brake... wiggle the stick in between. soooo much fun... (yeah, i know, i'm psycho...)

so... i'm all alone now... but i didn't have to cook dinner tonight 'cause there was already food in the fridge =] which is good, 'cause i left work about half an hour late...

why? well... we went to make and run a bunch of coax... 16-splitters into 8-splitters (only 7 on each), and... we found out that the coax connected to the 16 splitters... not actually connected. just sitting there. so not only did we have to do our assignment, we had to twist all the little heads in... which is much more difficult when all the little heads in front of it are already sitting there. but whoever ran all that coax didn't do it... so we did.

oh, and did i mention that making coax hurts? i shoved on one cap, and shoved a second cap halfway on... and then i looked at my hand, and there was already a blister on my finger... yum.

so our executive speaker at 2... he seemed very... down to earth, i guess? he seemed like more of a normal guy than anything, but he seemed to be making a conscious effort to be more professional in his speech than he normally would be. i mean, todd called him "derrick" instead of "mr. frost," and had to correct himself. i mean, this guy's senior vp... anyway, other than that... i finally got an introduction to all the interns ;p though i still can't remember most of their names, i have a better idea of who's who (instead of just screen names to real names), and i found out who the interns were (instead of just walking by thinking that they're full employees). oh, and we lost the syracuse intern. yup. ezra was there, and then he wasn't. never came back...

as planned yesterday, a bunch of us went out to lunch before the meeting. i think the final count was 14, though 16 confirmed in chat (or, rather, got into chat for lunch and didn't say they weren't coming when asked), and that didn't include ulyssees, who went, so... yeah, dunno... anyway, there were obviously too many of us to all sit together, so we all split. i guess it was natural for us to sit in the groups in which we arrived (since that's how we got into line and that's how we filled out the tables), but i didn't get to talk to leah (the other vt gc chick intern) at all... so then i got an im from her later saying she was sorry we didn't get to talk today, and that we should talk some other time or something like that. i thought it was cute =] yay for leah =]

also, heather and todd were on the listserv too... todd said he was pulling for fuddrucker's (we ended up going to chicken out), and said he might join us next time if it's fuddrucker's. going to fuddrucker's with the big hr honcho. heh...

this morning, i made a tiny bit of progress on my flower ball (there are now three flowers... yeah, i know... long way to go), and then we started building out the client area. new mpc's. the "low end" mpc's... were 2.4 gig machines. ooh... low end... uh-huh... this is the area that still has a gumdrop imac with os 9 on it. yeah...


anyway... i've got a fever, so i'm going to bed... or, at least, getting ready for bed... blech...

doo dudoo dududoo... a-hop, hop, hop...

yes... so the bunny hopping isn't my fault... it's a fatigued engine mount. but it's not actually damaged, so... it's staying. just remembered about this driving in to work today (yesss... jettaaaaa....)

aaaand... i managed to forget my badge today. heather says i can get a temp badge for the day. hopefully. check on that later...

as it is, i'm somewhat immobile =/

Monday, June 21, 2004

life is a rollercoaster

i've been moody today, but i think it's got more to do with what's happening at the time than me just swinging, so... yeah...

anyway... i've put this off so long that i barely remember what i was going to put in here... oh well, if i miss something, and realize it, i'll come back to it. otherwise, it's not important...


first, i guess... the big news. my family is going on vacation from tomorrow until friday... as of today. but i will be going to work, so i'll be home alone for three nights and four days (i'm not really coming home on friday, though, so i guess three nights and three days). i get to play grownup =]


hmm... other stuff... lightning bugs/fire flies =] i was on the phone in my room, with the lights off and the window open, and, there was this one in the tree outside my window that would light back at me when it saw my phone light. it was incredibly cute =]

also, i pulled one off the odyssey's window yesterday morning, and it didn't want to leave me. they normally fly away when they find the highest point, but this one... kept spinning in circles on the tip of my finger, probably looking for a higher point. it was kinda funny...

and then this morning, when i was leaving... one was on the window again. welcoming me to the car =] they're so much better than cidadas ;p

which reminds me... the cidadas... wreaked havoc on the trees, but it looks so neat. yeah, someone remind me to take pictures... plus, it's like natural pruning =]


i got to work this morning, and everything's all fine... until i got bored and decided to make origami boxes. my mousepad is a legal pad, but it had writing on the first three pages... i went to rip out the fourth page, and i got a papercut on my pinky. pretty bad for a papercut, but it's still just a papercut. i was sucking on the cut to keep the blood from getting all over everything until i got sick of the taste of blood, and i had to get a tissue... i didn't want the blood on my boxes...

i felt like such a wuss, nursing a papercut with a tissue...


later in the day, lance decided argue with me about electronics... we're missing the charger for the cable testers... and we were talking about buying a replacement converter, so i read the symbol on it and told them what kind we needed... and then chris mentions something about the amperage rating... and i said, "it shouldn't be that high, i doubt it'll be a problem"

so then chris said "yeah, i don't want to get something with too much amperage; i don't want to blow them out." i explained what the rating meant, and lance tried to argue with me that it still mattered because "some devices are designed to draw as much amps as they can"... which is stupid because 1) they would then blow out whatever supply they were plugged into, and 2) that would be a hell of a varistor...

anyway... so i explained that all electronic devices could be represented by a thevenin equivalent, which is a voltage source and a resistor in series... and that the current is inversely perportional to the supply voltage, and as long as the voltage is the same voltage, it's the same current... but we kept arguing until chris yells across the divider "yi-ru... you're cool," because apparently he's never heard a girl talk about electronics before, much less argue about 'em (though i thought he was just trying to shut us up)... and ulyssees says he's never heard anybody argue about electronics...

i suddenly realized what a dork my major's made me...

Saturday, June 19, 2004

reaction time down, brain function decreased

heh... when i'm tired, i do strange things... yesterday, made rollover by accident, then cut off the cap i'd crimped correctly... then, on the way home, i somehow thought i was in neutral when i was actually in 4th (was stopping at a light)... didn't realize i was wrong until car started bunny hopping (slightly... not really noticeable from outside, i don't think)... thing is... why would i be consciously thinking that the car wasn't in gear when i hadn't touched the stick? so lost...

also, when i got to work, i was playing with the reaction time thingy posted on the gl (in sofis's thread), and my average was 0.23-something, and my fastest was 0.183... the later in the day it got, the slower my reactions were... i thought it was supposed to improve my reflexes over time, no? what? drowsiness has an effect? driving tired is like driving drunk...?

... oh...

Friday, June 18, 2004

vrooooom... change of plans...

yeah, so much for "don't call me, i won't have the phone 'cause i won't be driving and mom and dad both will." poor little michael =( he's got a fever, so mom's staying home with him and therefore... i have dad's car. yeah, dad took the odyssey to new york...

so not only do i get my phone when i get home, i have it now...

i'm not sure what happened, but i got here in 35-40 minutes... it's not like i changed lanes *that* much more in the jetta... and i don't drive that slow in the odyssey, so... iunno?

alright, back to wandering the web...

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

what's up, doc?

doc rivers hasn't a clue. first he says that ben wallace has issues dunking and the like because he has small hands and can't really palm the ball... then he says that he can clear the boards so well because he has "huge hands." um... huh? and then that call on james... the blocking foul. he said it was "real close" to a charging foul... so he requests a replay, and... james's foot isn't even on the ground yet. yeah. *real* close...

it's not exactly right after the game, but it still sucks... i can't even be happy for the pistons 'cause i'm too busy sulking for the lakers. great...


coming home today took about 40 minutes... i was kinda hoping i'd get to listen to more n*e*r*d... =/ (come on, come on, baby shake it up...)

working with guys...

"at least the act of starting up your computer isn't called 'bating'"
-jon, commenting on lance's usage of master booter

"angry horny bees"
-lance, trying to say "angry honey bees"

Monday, June 14, 2004

as i fumble through the day...

well, first day of work's over... i spent most of today playing with my security badge... it's on this little reel-ish thing, and i was pulling at it all day... like... a yo-yo ball ;p

anyway, for lunch, lance and i trek all over town so he can pick up his new laptop, and then we go to mcdonald's to grab food on the way back so i could make orientation in time. the drive-thru was backed up, so we decided to go in... when i ordered, the guy behind the counter started picking on me... and then he asked if lance and i were together... lance said "no" before i got a chance to process what exactly he was asking... and then the guy was unusually friendly while i was waiting for food =/ (which, by the way, took way longer than it should have...)

after all this, and getting back across town, i was five minutes late for orientation... yes, good, make a good impression... yes...

but orientation was just a really long "work for us" pitch... and i really needed to pee. well, not right when i got there, but... i was there for an hour and a half, and i think i really needed to pee for 45 min of that... and then i had to go to heather's office with her because my email had not been set up yet, and some information never got to me... mostly because my email had not been set up...

i did, however, find out that they're taking the interns to the orioles-braves game next friday. hope i can take daddy ;p

i listened to neptunes present: the clones to and from work... there's a line in the clipse song that says something like "i'm feeling clutch like the lakers' horry." except... horry's not a laker anymore. <ROAR> damn lakers.

oh, and it seems that everybody (with the exception of z) watched last night's game. and most made fun of me for it. thanks guys. really.


oh... and after dinner, i opened up the glass door to yell something at michael as he rode off, and a praying mantis lands on my head. and stays there. hmm... thanks, but no thanks. i don't need a new buddy...


and, in case you're wondering why i was cooking dinner at matt's house... matt had volunteered me to cook dinner because he wanted to cook together, because it made him feel like we were a couple... <sigh> too bad he never consulted with me =/

work?

i'm at work now, with the fuzziest monitor i've ever seen (probably swap it out later... will need help for that, though, 'cause i'm a weak little girl, and i don't have a key to the storage room...) until then, i'm ruining my eyes...

don't listen to matt; he lies. *i* cooked dinner friday night. he just chopped up half of the carrots and half of the peppers (yes, half. maybe more of the carrots, but i'm sure i chopped half of the peppers... plus, i halved and cleaned all of them, so... he didn't even do half of that...), and washed some of the napa. oh! and he cooked the rice. that's always his job, 'cause i don't do long grain... mmhmm. but that made me burn the napa (napa got uncentered on the front burner when he put the rice on the back burner... and it wasn't even cooking!), so... yeah... *i* cooked! matt put rice on water (and mismeasured, at that... ended up making the entire box of rice), and put it on the stove. mmhmm...

on a side note... frozen meat is so much easier to work with than frozen-then-thawed meat. that pork was the ugliest i'd ever cut in my life... fat strips, thin strips, kinda-chunks... yeah, at least it all tastes like pork...

as promised...

yeah, so matt goes to take a shower last night, and this is what he finds when he finishes...

game tonight... one of the more exiciting games. close most of the time... but sad. yeah. i hate peyton. and medvedenko... needs anger management. whyyyyy did he have to throw that elbow at rasheed? (don't start no shit, won't be no shit...)

anyway... work tomorrow, so i should go bed...

Sunday, June 13, 2004

deeeetroit basket baaaaall

quick post at halftime... this weekend was fun. didn't get to see the sheep, but i bought amy two bettas for graduation. we also saw the sweetest lop. it just let amy hold it and pet it... didn't struggle or anything. but amy's not allowed to get any more bunnies (not that she spends much time with the bunnies she already has anyway, i guess... but the bunny was adorable)

amy's graduation got postponed from friday evening to saturday afternoon. i got baked. was a little sick on saturday night... there's a picture of me sleeping with precious as a result of that, though ;p (will be posted later)

work tomorrow, have new cds, driving minivan with cd player... looking forward to morning nerd. mmhmm...



when i got home, the mood was a little strange. michael was normal, but mom seemed strangely cheerful (not completely convincingly), and dad was... quiet.

i find out after dinner... that my great uncle died this morning. the funeral's on friday, and dad's probably making a day trip to new york, by himself. which means i need to find a ride to work, unless mom's going too (which i doubt she is). and it also means i'm probably going to surrender my phone... if i'm riding to work, and mom's driving to work, and dad's driving to new york... i think i need the phone least. so yeah, no phone calls on friday unless i saw otherwise later.

back to the game...

Thursday, June 10, 2004

drowning

let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the... (two beats) FLOOR

wading through a sea of words and lies, and i'm wondering... why?

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

at least there's no game tonight...

so tired... last night, joe sent me this article thing... adventures in institutions and stuff... anyway, this thing was *long*, and i didn't bother to start it until after matt went to bed. and i didn't know how long it was. anyway, i was about to give up and go to bed when matt got back online to "clear his mind." and, as it turns out, i was only halfway through the stories at the time...

so i didn't get to bed until near 5, and i've no idea when matt got to bed, but i got up at 9 to finish up the paperwork for monday and mail it back in... and michael was home. he had a headache in the morning (not just a normal headache... michael gets nauseating headaches), and so he went back to sleep when my parents went off to work. i asked him if he'd had breakfast yet, and he said no. it wasn't until after he finished his cereal, and i'd made him chocolate milk, as well as poured myself a glass of milk that he realized that he had breakfast before our parents left. hmm... two glasses of milk for merc.

anyway, so i got through all of this, called up heather and asked her about the paperwork, and finished it up as instructed (apparently i don't need a witness present when i sign the contract that must be witnessed...)... then i had to beg michael to get dressed so we could go out to fedex for me to drop it off... we do that, and, on the way back, i realize that my mom's name is also on my bank account (for two reasons... it makes my account a premier member's account, so i don't have to pay monthly fees on the money market savings account, and... so she can transfer funds in if i ever need it... not that it looks like i will...), and she didn't sign the direct deposit form. hopefully i can get that fixed...


michael realized later that he missed a field trip. to pick up garbage. but he's upset 'cause he would have been doing it with his friends, so... i remember how special field trips were... then again, i never went on one to pick up garbage...


about an hour ago, i picked up the splinter cell box and pulled out the booklet... barely got to the controls when michael asked to see it... apparently he never learned them... anyway, i put my head down on the armrest, and... the next thing i know, michael's telling me that my parents are home. it was a rather strange statement to occur at that point in the dream (which i can't remember now 'cause i didn't think about it all that much), and it jolted me a bit... they got home a bit early, though... presumably because they didn't have to pick michael up...


anyway, that's where i am now... don't have to watch michael anymore, really tired... and phil's the only one online. well, "online" is a relative term. he's here, he's talking... and he's got an away message up. at least he's not one of the people that complains i never initiate conversations (i initiate them when i'm looking for someone to talk to, thank you...).

but yeah... at least i won't be up watching a game tonight...

LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKE! =D

i know i've said before that i'd think that he's hot if only he didn't remind me so much of his dad... i take that back. he's yum. but still reminds me of his dad. <shudders>

and i know you're thinking that i'm just saying this 'cause he did well tonight, but... the truth is, i'm saying this because he did well tonight which made them show him more, which made me realize that his looks triumph over the ill legacy of bill walton. luke is his own man. but he made his daddy beam =]

i think... that kobe's clutch three... is the only big shot that has *ever* made me sigh in relief. not sigh, really... breathe again. yeah...

kobe took over ot. i'm not sure i liked that. i mean, i love watching him play... the cuts he makes... impossible. completely. yet somehow, he makes them. but... yeah... ball hog...

george kinda played the tree-shooting big man. didn't like that.

i really wish i'd heard dave's call... would have been nice to talk to someone in the same boat ;p besides family, of course... dad and i don't talk about games once they're over (unless we're explaining to mom), and mom... yeah... she didn't stay up for the end of the game anyway...

it's been over an hour since the game ended, and i'm still really hyped... <ROAR>

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

gator intimidator makes its appearance

finally got around to cropping, resizing, and uploading, so...

intimidator and crew - left to right: michael, david, ben
the men behind the boat - josh and the boys
again, with the boat - the man on the left is david's dad
into the water - jumping in at the start of the race
first out - boys get to the buoy first
can't cut 'em off - the fu fighters get pushed back and turned around after trying to cut the boys off at the buoy ;p
still trying to impede motion - fu fighters just can't win =]
home free - the boys come loose, and there's nothing in their way
almost there - the smell of victory wafting their way
celebratory pic - darren's the other big guy, george is the other kid
who's green? - my favorite pic of the day, i think ;p

Monday, June 07, 2004

i know what i'm doing this summer...

i'm working at roadrunner! okay, okay, time-warner. broadband division. yup. networking and stuff. =D

i don't start until monday, so i will be in attendance at amy's graduation. winchester, here i come...

i managed to pull a muscle in my side (or at least cramp it up), while trying to look at something on the floor... because apparently i can't drop my chest next to my foot anymore. who knew? maybe someday i'll work on getting my flexibility back... but as of now, i'm still more flexible than most people so... eh...

of course, that's my excuse for not doing a lot of stuff to fix me...

i'm extraordinarily frustrated today, and i can't really figure out why. i need to go for a long drive, and i've got no car. i'd take the odyssey, but it's not mine, and gas, and... stuff... so yeah... but mostly 'cause i've got no excuse to drive it other than "i wanted to go for a drive." so it sits in the driveway.

unmuted: seeing red

the gray goes in and out, and, apparently, so do the colors now. earlier today, they were a little too vivid. how's that for swinging?

anyway... somehow the phrase "seeing red" popped into my head (though i'm not really raging right now, not that i know of), and of all the songs with the phrase, the unwritten law version takes over my head. only, the lyrics have been jumbled up:

i'm seein' red
i don't know what to make of all of this mess
and now it's time to make a choice...
and all i want to hear is your voice


hmm... way to twist things, brain.

exaustion!

yeah, i'm spent. the regatta took much more out of me than i expected. i'm lacking sleep. my headache's dulled, but i'm pretty sure it's not gone...

<sigh>
no phone call tonight. i should have known better...

Sunday, June 06, 2004

muted

lakers lost. somewhat painful, i guess... all the paid analysts came into this series saying that it was just a question of how many games it would take the lakers to win... probably don't think that anymore...

so weird... want the lakers to win, but don't want the pistons to lose... disappointed that big ben wallace isn't doing better, but hoping that he won't... love and hate prince at the same time... yeah, this will be a fun series =(


been feeling somewhat grayish lately. finally started seeing in muted colors tonight. we'll see where this goes...

it ain't easy being green

yes, i'm green. the gator intimdator was green. painted green with washable paint. yes.

that was sooooo much more fun than i had anticipated. there were snags... like that bitch from orange hunt trying to stick her kids in michael's boat 'cause they had too many kids. how did we find this out? we got back to the boat, and this fat kid was sitting in it.

"why are you in our boat?"
"this is our boat."
"not it's not"
"we're supposed to be in this boat."
"we built this boat."

so josh comes in and tries to straighten things out. well, figure things out. the orange hunt chick tells him that she just put her kids in not-their-boat because they had too many kids, and kings glen (michael's group) only had three. and he accepts it. 'cause she's a director (like a center head), and he's just... a guy. poor guy. "i'm sorry guys, i can't do anything about it."

yeah, darren (the kings glen director) fixed it later ;p

(not green anymore... and finished dinner...)

and then... michael anchored to victory =] okay, it wasn't all him, but he was the one steering most of the time... and then the "fu fighers" tried to cut them off at the relay buoy... they had a bigger boat, more people... and they paid for the collision. instead of pushing the boys back around the buoy and going around themselves, the fu fighers met with enough resistance to turn them around (back toward the shore), and the buoy got moved. slightly. we were done taking victory pics before the other boats were out of the water. go michael =] they set the sacc record of the day ;p


and by the way... first game of the finals tonight... i've put up an appropriate profile pic (don't worry, it'll come down... it's a pretty old picture anyway... high school graduation ;p)

does it look funny?

there are little people (two is sill plural! misleading, but true...) in my house getting ready for the regatta. the cardboard boat regatta. or, as my dad managed to say it, the "cardboat box regatta." hehe ;p

my left eye is bloodshot. it itches, so i rub it, so it itches... yeah, i suck. but the white is so irritated and unlubricated right now that it looks like i'm wearing a contact.

i wish i could use my headphones...

aand... i'm in trouble again... for phone usage... late at night... yeah...

the music in my head...

haven't heard days of the new in forever, but... "the down town" is stuck in my head now...

i know a town, where people are running (runnee-eee-ing)
away from life, it seems always, funny...
they think they are smart, don't doubt what they saaaaaay-ay-ay-aaay
afraid of a change; existing only

to-ooooo
bring me down, bring me dow-own...
bring me down, bring me, dow-ow-owow-own,
down...



yeah, and fergie (of the black eyed peas) may be hot, but she's still no more than a gwen wannabe! (la la la la laaaaaaaaa)


on a different note completely... changes need to be made. and i'm afraid of them, kinda... but they will be made. i promise...

Saturday, June 05, 2004

if you would like to make a call, please hang up and dial again...

been offline for two days... busy signals when i try to dial up (i'd complain, but it's free access). so no, i'm not dead. yesterday, got text messages in lieu of instant messages, though ;p (and found out that my phone does this weird thing... it reads the first word of the message as the sender if that field is left blank... or maybe verizon does that...)

anyway, so... not quite remembering much of yesterday. saw bad boyz ii. uuh, yeah... that's how crime is fought in fantastical land. mmhmm...

oh, and i managed to get woken up by lightning... not thunder, lightning. yeah. so weird. and this is after i nearly fell asleep on the phone ;p (yeah, me... ;p)

saw the new harry potter this afternoon. it's tradition for me to see them with my family over thanksgiving break, but... it didn't come out then =/ anyway, it wasn't too bad, though chunks of it were missing, and it left so much unexplained that i'm sure someone who didn't read the book will be... slightly lost. but having read the book kinda ruins the movie, so... pick your poison...

i liked most of hermione's clothes... especially that pink hooded zip thing... her pants were way too low by the end of the movie, though. if you're going to wear pants that low, at least get pants where the fly won't reach the middle of your thighs... (yeah, yeah, i'm exaggerating...)

also, dementors. anybody else reminded of the grim reaper in the adventures of baron munchausen? expecially in the scene with sirius. yeah.

played phone tag with z for a few hours today... yeah, that was fun. but at least i actually got to talk to her a bit this time ;p

Thursday, June 03, 2004

having issues...

well... as it turns out, shaving this morning was a mistake. i'm wearing pants today anyway, and i wasn't awake enough when i did it or something. there are cuts and some chunks of missing skin all over my hands. heh... as far as i can tell (right now), my legs are perfectly fine... it's all my hands... (huh? i dunno)

matt and i are fighting again... it happens pretty often now, i guess. i can't tell anymore if he's actually being more of an asshole, or if i just have a shorter temper. well, actually, i'm pretty sure it's both. he wasn't like this a while ago, and i would have dealt with this "better" a while ago. but i no longer see it as my responsibility to keep the peace. because it shouldn't have been in the first place.


ps: christina ricci is yum... no, i didn't say hot. there's just something about her that i like.

hey pretty... don't you wanna take a ride with me?

woke up at 7:30 this morning to the sound of michael's voice downstairs. for some reason, i thought it was much later than it actually was, and i was trying to get out of bed... i never really got back to sleep after that; just kinda, half-asleep until 11. started waking myself up around then, and was in the shower by 11:30-ish. matt called while i was in the shower, and didn't seem too happy with me... maybe because i was on the phone with z when he went to bed last night. he didn't give me a chance to get off the phone and call him before he just left, though, so... i don't know...

anyway... when i was getting ready, i got a voicemail message. i didn't get a missed call, just a message. a blank message. so i messaged matt and asked him if he called me, and he said no. he still didn't seem happy with me. but while i was trying to figure this out, my dad called (apparently he was the one that called in the first place), and told me that the package was at the door... so i check, and sure enough, there's this box on our porch. so dad told me to bring the box in and check on the contents...

i bring it in, and i'm looking for a blade to open it up with, and dad calls back, for a few reasons. first of all, hide the headphones. got it. and... there are two remotes... oookay, didn't know that, but that's a check. third... i should be leaving for my interview. it was like an hour before my interview, but... okay? he presses the issue a bit, and i start panicking a bit, 'cause my hair wasn't even dry. so i go running around the house trying to get everything together and get my hair dry, call lance for directions so i can avoid the toll road ('cause the directions i got from the company were for those coming from dc...), and i leave a while later (my hair wasn't completely dry, but i did make a bit of an effort). then, i get there 20 min early. yeah. panicking was worth it.

driving there was kinda fun, though. i hardly ever get to drive anymore. not that i really drove that much in the first place, but... yeah... and, plus, the odyssey's a lot more fun now that i'm not afraid of it. sure, it's big, but... not so big that it's awkward. and it's a lot easier to park than i expected. not the ideal vehicle, but i'll take it over nothing. well, i'd take it over a lot of other things, too.

i ran into dan's dad in the lobby, and he seemed really surprised to see me. he thought i had graduated, and was there for an interview for a real job. hmm... yeah, not quite yet. even farther off if i continue as i am (with *two* majors... ugh... i wish i could figure myself out...). so... yeah, apparently he knows keith as well, and wanted to go talk me up or something... if people keep talking me up, i'm not going to live up to the hype. i can't live up to hype as it is...

anyway, he goes off and heather shows up to walk me up to keith's office. the interview was really short, and then he took me on a tour of the lab... kinda fun, kinda exciting... a bit messier than i expected. so we finish up with that, and we go talk to lance (the other intern had gone home to burn a cd for the boss-man... yeah...). keith was talking as if i was on orientation "you'll be...," "you'll have..." we'll see how this goes. i'm supposed to hear back by monday. <crosses fingers>

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

is it... suggesting something?

well, google-powered blogs mean google-powered ads... in case you haven't noticed, mine were (before this post, at least) basketball, fishing, and knot tying (i assume it has something to do with the fishing).

after i noticed my own, i checked on matt's... and his ad had me in tears ("i cry easily" - mike)

common misconception...?

yeah, so i was talking to matt....

matt (4:11:51 PM): I wish I wasn't an ass
merc (4:12:00 PM): ...?
matt (4:12:09 PM)
: I listened to some NERD today
merc (4:12:34 PM): okay...?
matt (4:12:44 PM)
: I kinda liked it
merc (4:13:06 PM): what? did you think i just liked it 'cause of pharrell?
matt (4:13:17 PM)
: ... yeah ...

does everybody think this...?

oh, and kinda just an excuse for a plug... ;p
YUM...

am i high?
no... not anymore...

i don't even know where to start. the 'fro was back. the prince was in the palace. everything was good...

... and then the game started. pacers took the early lead, and just would not let go. there were ugly times when neither team could score... and it was *not* the defense. missed dunks... missed layups (and i don't mean the blocked ones). uncontested shots that weren't even close... the teams were in a slump, and it was ugly.

but... the pace picked up... pistons made a run, which was then stopped by 1) halftime, and 2) croshere's buzzer-beating three. okay, so they made a three before that, but croshere's kinda stuck with you a bit through halftime. just punctuation on one of the worst halves ever (record-breaking low-scoring half for playoffs, i believe... and again, it wasn't all the defense this time).

and the pistons came back ("and the cat came back, the very next day..."), and took the lead for the first time in the game... how? artest got mad that hamilton bumped him (i bet you let those other niggas jerk you...), so he hacked hamilton. away from the ball. intentionally. while staring at the ref. while the game was tied. smart one. (i never said i was an angel...)

it wasn't a pretty game, but it was so much more emotional than the one the night before... i guess i'm kinda jaded with the lakers... mom didn't even bother to stay up and watch that game. the w is kinda just... assumed. is that cocky or what?

it's all worn off already, though... am i high? nooooo... now i'm just... wondering what i'll do at night from now until sunday (finals!).

you should be paranoid without me, and with me feel a buzz...
... this sounds like deep lust to me, but i get high on your love...



anyway... phone rings this morning, and caller id is blocked... i pick up, and the woman says she's calling from time-warner. "great," i think, "i've got telemarketer calls to my cell now. at least i can go off on her for calling, since it's a cell." well, good thing i didn't... she was calling about that resume i dropped to lance a while ago... i have an interview tomorrow ;p


dad messaged me a bit ago... have the tracking number for my headphones =] which is the same tracking number for the coolest remote in the world. okay, not as cool as those touch-screen, control-your-house remotes, but... we don't have enough to control with that anyway... that, and i like to be able to use the remote without looking at it, and a touch screen... well, you can't feel your way through the "buttons," now can you ;p

it's 2nd day air, and tracking information started yesterday, but it's not scheduled to get here until friday... even though it got to kentucky this morning... i'm not quite sure what's going on, but i'm hoping it'll get here tomorrow ;p

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

what a rush!

it happens every year. big games come around, and the calls just... don't make sense. they come in favor of the trailing team. i think they're are trying to draw it out, so there will be more games (more money, no?). players get fouled and then *get called* for the foul. players like szczerbiak get what they want... speaking of szczerbiak... i hate him. he's so dirty. like divac.

and don't tell me that i was just frustrated that my team lost an early lead. everybody's talking about it...

but the lakers closed out tonight, at home... kareem rush... amazing. SIX treys. how many tries? seven. yeah, what a lift off the bench, huh? hope that got fisher's knee a bit of a break ;p

oh, oh, and the commentators continue to piss me off... marv alberts is an idiot. he doesn't know what he's talking about. he can't read refs' signals, and then tells us that the call was *changed.* as my dad says, "he's just trying to cover his ass." what do you expect from a guy that can't figure out that dental impressions can come from bite marks? bastard. can't count, can't read, can't talk... but he's good at spewing bs. so he's still on tv. aarugh!


didn't go fishing this morning... went after lunch instead. michael managed to hook a sunfish from the side. he cast the lure, and it landed on the fish. talk about a lucky shot ;p mom got one hooked from the outside in. me? i get a small hook to go in a tiny fish's mouth and out through it's eye socket =/

and it seems that tying leads while dead tired wasn't a good idea... one hook simply disappeared (my guess is that i snipped part of the knot when i trimmed the end of the line), and one lead came undone at the top after getting hooked to a leaf... not sure that i was the one that tied that one, but... it seems likely, considering the first one was mine... at least it wasn't a fish, i guess =/

didn't do nearly as bad today... only cast into the trees on my first side cast of the day... and then i only lost a hook when i lost a chunk of line (it fell off the spool while short-casting... someone didn't keep tension on the line when reeling in somewhere along the way)... i couldn't get the line straightened out before my hook got swallowed. that's what i get for fishing in a nursery, i guess (nothing but baby fish...)


oh, oh, and these will probably be ordered tomorrow... yay =D