Mama!

Ever had a random Thursday? Me neither. Until now. Working late? Yeah, it sucks. Dinner? Sure let’s go to Margaritas. Interesting décor in here. Camarones diablas is pretty spicy. Hmm any good movies out now? Mama? What’s that about? I wonder if it’ll be scary good or cheesy scary bad? OMG don’t open the closet door! Why are little white girls always so scary? Chop. Chop. Chop. Mama is angry. Mama is sad. Little girl is retarded. Um is anyone going to do anything about this? Guess not. That was… interesting. Time to go home and dream of happy puppies.

And All That Jazz

Ever had a random Wednesday? Me neither. Until now. Happy hour after work? Sure! Let’s go to a gastropub and try “bacon pretzels” and “short rib pasties.” Where’s the bacon? WTF is a short rib pastie? At least the beer is good. Walk downtown and watch people running around. Hmm what’s this? Blues jazz jam session at Club Fox? Sure why not! Damn there’s a lot of old white people in here. But the music is pretty awesome. Hmm it’s getting late and cold. Coffee? Starbucks open till 11? SCORE! Okay time to go home. Best. Wednesday. Ever? Heck. Yeah.

NERDS!!

I have always considered myself a nerd. When I was a kid I played Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon (GameBoy & trading card). I collected Marvel comic cards, and played with Pogs and yo-yos. As an adult I play video games and love Star Wars and shop at ThinkGeek. I considered myself to be pretty geeky. Then I watched King of the Nerds on TBS. OH. EM. GEE. Talk about the most extreme examples of nerdiness and geekiness. If you thought you were geeky before, watch the show, and afterwards you will think of yourself as an Alpha Beta jock.

Ouch

Can't. Move. Everything. Hurts. That right there pretty much sums up the aftermath of snowboarding. It was an interesting car ride home since I couldn't really sit without feeling pain. Good thing I planned ahead and called in sick at work. Took a nice lunch break in Sacramento, and then made the final trek back down to the south bay. I have been able to hit the slopes twice this month, which is more times than the past 4 or 5 years combined. I definitely want to go skiing/snowboarding more this season. Anyone up for hitting the slopes with me?

Snowboarding? Check. Soreness? Check.

Sunday morning we woke up to a snow covered Reno. Everything was covered in a few inches of white powder. Chains were required for a bit of the drive to Boreal. It has probably been seven years since I've last been snowboarding, and it felt good getting back onto the slopes. Tackled the bunnys, some greens and a few blues. Fell a bit, but really hurt my tailbone on a blue run. It hurts to sit or get up. Dinner was at the hotel buffet and afterwards we went drunk bowling which probably worsened our already sore muscles. WORTH IT.

Biggest Little City

Hooray for last minute trips! Friday night I crashed at a friend's place in Sac, and today a group of us headed to Reno and Tahoe for the weekend. The drive was a bit cramped (four people in the a Civic Coupe) but the view was beautiful. Checked into the Grand Sierra Resort Hotel and Casino and met up with two other people. Dinner was at an all-you-can-eat sushi place where I definitely ate my money's worth and then some (paid $30, ate $70 worth). Afterwards there were drinks and gambling at the slots and tables. Early sleep, early snowboarding!

Spartacus + Pocky = Spartocky

Well it’s Friday, and boy am I glad that it is. This week has dragged on a bit, even though it was a short one. Had a few back to back meetings and lots of tissue culture work. And I just ate nine Pocky sticks in less than a minute. Do you know what today is? The premiere of Spartacus: War of the Damned. HELL. YES. Even though I know what will eventually happen to all the slaves, it’s all about the adventure (and the boobs and gratuitous sex). I wish I had more Pocky. They really are too delicious.

Slow Clap

So I was watching Jeopardy the other day and I noticed sometime peculiar. There is always one person who jumps the gun and starts clapping at least a few seconds before everyone else. Who is this person? Why do they always have to start the clapping so early and sometimes even before Alex can finish his sentence. Now I want to go to a taping of Jeopardy just so I can beat this person. I will make it my mission to be the first person to start the clapping. Item #27 on my bucket list: Steal Jeopardy's premature clapper's thunder.

Nerdstalgia

So I went home tonight to clear some stuff out of my old room so my parents could put in a new bookshelf. And like always, as I was going through my old stuff, I ended up taking a trip down memory lane. What treasures did I find? My childhood nerd roots! I found an entire shoebox filled with Magic The Gathering cards. I also found some Pokemon cards and my collection of Marvel comic cards (Flair and Fleer). All that was missing was my Fireball yo-yo and my collection of Pogs and slammers. That's what women find sexy, right?

Ways To Say Goodbye

She went down in an airplane
Fried getting suntanned
Fell in a cement mixer fulla quicksand
Help me, help me, I'm no good at goodbyes!
She met a shark under water
Fell and no one caught her
I returned everything I ever bought her
She was caught in a mudslide
Eaten by a lion
Got run over by a crappy purple Scion
Help me, help me, I'm no good at goodbyes!
She dried up in the desert
Drowned in a hot tub
Danced to death at an east side night club
Help me, help me, I'm all out of lies

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Ugh why do I always eat the most unhealthy foods when I am feeling down. There is this place nearby that specializes in Philly cheesesteaks and chicken wings. Their wings are delicious. Better than Wingstop because they are normal sized chicken wings and drumettes. My favorite flavors are either cajun, habanero, or sweet chili glazed. With cajun fries. And ranch dressing dip. And a 10 inch philly with extra mushrooms and garlic and bacon. This is why I'm fat. But it is so tasty. I can't help myself. Great now I want chicken wings. Thanks a lot imagination. Dumb jerk.

What Was I Saying?

Who's got it better than us? Well a lot of people actually. But yay for the Niners! It's exciting to have a west coast team going to the Super Bowl. It has been a good year for San Francisco teams. First the Giants, now the Niners. If only SF had another sports team, they could triple crown it. Oakland was so close, and by that I mean the A's. The Raiders were nowhere near being close. Meow. The surface area of an average sized brick is seventy nine centimeters squared. The most common name in the world is Mohammed. McLovin.

I Am Spartacus

Ain't no party like a Spartacus party cause a Spartacus party don't stop. So this weekend I went over to a friend's apartment and we had a Spartacus: Vengeance marathon in preparation for season three. Apparently they are very into the spirit of the show, and had both Carlo Rossi sangria (for the slaves wine) and honeyed wine (representing the wine drunk by the Romans). They also banned all lights and we watched the season via candlelight. When they throw a Spartacus party, they really know how to sparty. Wine and boobs for everybody! Hell yeah my kind of party.

One Of Those Days

So it’s been a pretty rough day. I’m tired. Physically and mentally. I found out today that people refer to me as an extension of my boss. For example, if my boss was named Jane, and my name is Dave, I would be referred to as Jane’s Dave. Not Dave. Jane’s Dave. Like I’m some kind of tool. I also got two more rejection letters from med schools. Same cookie cutter reponse. And to top it all off, my goldfish died. Game over man, I’m done for the day. Time to pack up and go home. I need a beer.

iPod Adventure

Ever feel like your iPod knows how you’re feeling and picks songs accordingly? Here’s what my iPod decided to play back to back.

I Will Always Love You – Whitney Houston
Unfaithful – Rhianna
Where Is The Love – Black Eyed Peas
Giving In – Adema
Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father) – Lindsay Lohan
Dreaming Of You – Selena
With You – Jessica Simpson
Barracuda – Fergie
Don’t Turn Around – Ace of Base
I’ll Stand By You – The Pretenders
Lips of an Angel – Hinder
Ghost Ride It – Mistah F.A.B.

My iPod either knows me too well or I need to listen to some better music.

Wikipedia Adventure

Pathway:

Random article, Operation Salaam, Desert Warfare, Iraq War, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA Memorial Wall, Air America, Bell 47, Museum of Modern Art, Water Lilies, Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas, Claude Monet, Art Forgery, X-Ray Crystallography, Bragg’s Law, Frequency Domain, Time Domain, Telecommunications Engineering, Optical Fiber Cable, Laser Safety, Blink, Tourette Syndrome, Coprolalia, Botulinum Toxin, Bioterrorism, Anthrax, Raxibacumab, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Sildenafil, Jet Lag, Circadian Rhythm, Zeitgeber, Entrainment (Chronobiology), Hypothalamus, Arginine Vasopressin, Ethanol, Flash Point, Jet Fuel, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, Stealth Technology, NASA, Curiosity Rover, Marshmallow, S’more, Girl Scouts of the USA, Girl Scout Cookie, Kellogg Company, Frosted Flakes, Tony the Tiger.

Anybody home?

Sometimes I hate relying on other people. Especially people who are either absent minded, or who are just dumb. I talked to the animal facility guy on Friday and put in an order for a spleen. He said no problem. 10am I asked? Sure thing, he said. 10:15 no answer. 10:30 no answer. 11:30 no answer. Noon rolls around "oh yeah I totally forgot. Let me go get that for you." YOU SON OF A BITCH (spoken in Arnold's voice). If I had access to the vivarium I could have been in and out with a spleen in 5 minutes.

Internet Advice

You'll feel sad for awhile, but one day that moment will come when you know you're fine without her. Until then take some time to be upset but not too much, think of your feelings as a leaf on a stream, the stream goes round in a massive circle but you only focus on the leaf that is floating past now, let it pass and float downstream until you can't see it, it will come back but not for a while, minutes, hours, days, then look for the next leaf, a positive leaf about something you at looking forward too.

You Said it Neil

Don't take your love away from me
Don't you leave my heart in misery
If you go then I'll be blue
'Cause breaking up his hard to do

Remember when you held me tight
And you kissed me all through the night
Think of all that we've been through
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

They say that breaking up is hard to do
Now I know, I know that it's true
Don't say that this is the end
Instead of breaking up I wish that we were making up again

I beg of you, don't say goodbye
Can't we

Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword

Karma – the belief that whatever you do comes back to you. What goes around comes around. You reap what you sow. There are times where I believe karma exists and there are times where I think it’s another construct of the human mind so that we all treat each other with kindness. I wonder if the crap that has happened to me in my life is a direct result of the crap I have done to others. Then again, karma could just be a meaningless fantasy, subject to a person’s own definition. Actually, karma is most likely catnip for Redditors.

Fiscal Cliff

I am not a very political person. I tend to stay away from huge political debates with people and generally keep my political views to myself. So when the whole “fiscal cliff” fiasco was looming, I didn’t pay much attention to it. Until now. Guess who has a smaller paycheck now? THIS GUY. Sure it’s not that much of a deduction in the grand scheme of things but still Z0MG TEH GUBMINT TOOK MY MONIES! Honestly though, I my attention span is like a goldfish. I give it two more paychecks before I stop caring or realizing what’s going on.

This Means War

Work drama is no fun. My boss has been venting her frustration quite vocally about how she is a scientist yet doesn't have an office like some of the others. She has already switched cubes before, but is now unsatisfied at her current location. Instead of talking directly to my coworker about switching cubes, my boss went to the VP of the department to get her to "ask" my coworker to move cubes so that my boss could take my coworker's larger cube by the window. My boss pulled rank and now her RA hates her. Shoulda stayed in Tahoe.

Home Sweet Home

There's nothing like coming home after a nice vacation. Everything seems so new yet so comfortable. It's like finding that favorite sweater of yours and putting it on and sinking into its warm and delicate embrace. And just as you're about to relax and enjoy being home, you realize that giant mound of dirty clothes is not going to wash itself and that you have to get your shit together because you have work the next day. You also have a mini presentation that you need to give when you get back. And you should really clean the fish tank.

These Boots Are Made For Walking

I now know what ski poles are really intended for: aiding you in traversing down stairs. If you've ever walked around in ski boots, you know exactly what I’m talking about. They are great when you are on the mountain slopes, but when you are walking through a café or lodge they are pretty much the worst thing ever. I felt like a toddler when walking as I had to take each step one at a time. Despite the impediment, each step did give a satisfactory deep “thunk”, so I guess ski boots have that small thing going for them.

There's no I in Ski...

Today was my first time skiing. I must admit I was a bit hesitant to learn skiing because I always imagined that if I lost control my legs would go in opposite directions and I’d end up crotch planting in the snow and end up flailing about down the mountain. Perhaps it was my previous snowboarding experience, or just my dumb luck, but my skiing experience went well with zero falls and only one or two close calls. The instructor said I use too much edge when turning. I guess that’s my inner snowboarder trying to ride the fresh powder.

Squaw + Sushi = Squshi

Location, location, location. One of the best things about staying at a ski resort is that everything is within walking distance. One of the worst things is the inflated prices that restaurants and shops will charge because they can get away with it. Mamasake in The Village at Squaw Valley is no exception. $13.50 for veggie tempura? $16.75 for a tempura shrimp, spicy tuna, and avocado roll? Yikes. In addition, the place was so small and the tables so awkwardly placed near the bar, that I had a gentleman’s ass in my face and on my food the entire night.

The "US" in Trust

What do you do when trust is broken? How do you go about fixing it? Can it even be fixed? Or is trust one of those things that once it has been broken, no matter what you do, there’s no going back to the way things were. Will there always be that doubt that lingers in the back of your mind? How will you know if they are lying to you or not? Trust is like a mirror; once it’s shattered, even if you put all the pieces back together, you’ll never believe that what you’re looking at is real.

Numbers

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one, twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty, thirty one, thirty two, thirty three, thirty four, thirty five, thirty six, thirty seven, thirty eight, thirty nine, forty, forty one, forty two, forty three, forty four, forty five, forty six, forty seven forty eight, forty nine, fifty, fifty one, fifty two, fifty three, fifty four, fifty five, fifty six, fifty seven, fifty eight, fifty nine, sixty, sixty one, sixty two

#'s

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100.

...Very Small Beginnings

Okay I admit, I may not have thought this all the way through. 100 words is not a lot of real estate to work with. Yet someone once said that creativity is born from constraints. I guess it’s my job to keep the posts brief yet somewhat entertaining. No promises though. The only rule is 100 words, everything else is fair game.

I can’t believe it’s January already. Where has the time gone? I’m trying to look back on 2012 to see what my accomplishments were. So far, I’m drawing a blank. Here’s to hoping 2013 is much much better.

Big Things Have Small Beginnings...

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2013! We survived the Mayan apocalypse! The world didn't end, and a new year began instead. With every new year comes new beginnings, and 2013 is no different. Every year I make a resolution to start some grandiose project that will keep me busy and happy, and every year I fail miserably. This year I think I will start small. I am initiating the 100 Word Project. The basis of the project is to write one entry a day using only 100 words. No more, no less. Even if that means stopping the entry mid