Ray Charles Wit' It, Doing the Damn Mess Around

Wacky week. Late night vc tonight which should put me home around 1am. Came in at noon today but somehow its not making up for it. Coming in at noon tomorrow, but I feel like my sleep schedule for the week is just going to be chalked up as a loss. Did get to go to a pizza party though which was fun. If we had some game tokens and some pitchers of mixed soda from all of the fountains (which is apparently called a "Suicide") it would have been a real party though. Lots going on at work this week despite the shortened week because of the 4th of the July holiday.
Some major accomplishments this weekend. Bought groceries for the second weekend in a row at Whole Foods for the whole week. I shouldn't have done the math on what the groceries cost me vs. eating out. Essentially, I could eat out every meal for roughly the same price. None the less, groceries were purchased. Kia had to work on Sunday for a couple of hours which meant video games were played roughly the entire time she was at work. I got a glimpse of my life without marriage. It was a scary vision. That said, I did beat Resistance: Fall of Man which I had been stuck on for many months and managed to finally get to Dr. Doom on Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, he's hard....
Watched the first four episodes of The Wire Season 3 which is bad ass. I also watched Fool's Gold (yes, the Matthew McConaughey/Kate Hudson romp where they search for sunken treasure) and it was bad (not bad ass). Donald Sutherland was in it. I hope he got paid enough for the movie to pay for floor seats at the Staples Center for the rest of his life because there is no other excuse. Come to think of it, he was hiding behind his sunglasses at the games a little more than normal during the playoffs.
20 minutes until my meeting. Going to go prep on my speech which will likely consist of me going in front of our global team and saying "uhhh" and then sitting down. Its late here.
Going to make some notes so that I don't stammer too much.
Uh bye.

Eatin' Croutons All In Your Futon

Hiero y'all





Couldn't find an unedited version of that one, sorry, its still sick.

I hate to admit it, but I hadn't heard either of these before today's commute. I need to step my game up.
Traffic sucked, YouTube helped. Spent the majority of the commute going through some old school videos. A little Redman, some more recent Sean Price albums. Those guys are monsters. Get familiar.
OK, hopping the shuttle.

If You're Causing No Harm, Then You're Alright With Me

Traffic is nightmarish. This is the second day in a row that heading north has been excruciating. Yesterday the driver took a detour off of the freeway which took the bus alongside the bay for a ways. I don't know if it helped but it made me feel like he was being proactive about the situation. Today he has decided to stick with the freeway. Probably the same damned difference anyway. The hills, which are probably about a mile away, are hazy. Not a single cloud in the sky and the sun is still well in the sky, but the lighting is very much like dusk. There are apparently tons of wildfires going but it doesn't really smell like smoke right now. We have wildfires in Alaska but we also have volcanoes (jeez, volcanoes, earthquakes, wildfires, bears, mosquitoes, Ted Stevens, my father - quite a treacherous state) which from what I remember did a much more comprehensive job of darkening the sunlight when they spewed out toxic ash. Snowing ash, I actually have memories of that growing up.
NBA draft is going on right now but my lack of following college basketball hinders any excitement around draft day. Lets see how NCAA Championship hero Mario Chalmers fares.
A couple of Duckdown videos which are awesome for completely different reasons:



Sean Price killing it. Low cost production video and for some reason he decides to take his shirt off. I guess when you rap like that you can do whatever you want.



Buckshot featuring (I guess featuring, though he doesn't really perform on the song) Charlie Murphy. The bit about Charlie Murphy creating backpack rap is pretty awesome but dancing in the video is a bit much. Even 9th Wonder only danced for like a second and he made the damn beat.
The Wire Season 3 showed up yesterday so I'm going to try and watch some of that in the coming days. Fool's Gold also arrived (yes, the Kate Hudson/Matthew McConaughey movie where they are searching for lost treasure) so there may be negotiations with the wifey on what we watch.
I re-signed up for Gamefly today which I have been meaning to do, but didn't see much point while I was neck deep in GTAIV. Threw Drakes Fortune on the top of the queue. The demo for that game was pretty awesome. We'll see.
OK about to hop off the shuttle 1.5 hours on the freeway today - sheesh.
Grind hard.

Ben Davis, Cognac in My Cup

About to get to the city. The commute has been taken up with mostly doing data analysis. I actually kind of enjoy doing the analysis but sifting through data on multiple tabs of excel is a challenge for me. I need to figure out better ways to organize my data.
I got a couple comments today at work regarding the tone of my blog. Mostly from Dougherty and Nelson who I kind of view as
a. looking kind of similar
and b. being overly sensitive about my blog rants
I do want to point out that I am a fan of the internship program in general and I have met some very astute, self-conscious interns in my day. Just not this morning.
I added a disclaimer to my blog which should absolve my employer from any potential outfall from the wildly stupid things that I post about.
Made some potato salad a couple nights ago to eat with the bbq chicken I made. I made a ton of the potato salad and we are working our way through it. I bought some $10 brownie mix last night and made some brownies. I was hesitant to buy the mix but also intrigued based on the price. Is $10 brownie mix worth the money? Yes, yes it is.
Still need to watch The Bucket List, maybe tonight. I also need to get another hoodie or two because my brown one isn't coordinating well with all of my outfits.
Oh yeah, getting crazy.

We Gonna Roll Like Mickey and Mal

Headed north on the 101 right now. The shuttle is conspicuously empty. This means one of a few things
1. that people are bouncing from work earlier because its summer
2. that my normal 9 hour workday (plus shuttle time) is no longer cutting it
3. there is an mba event this evening so the n00bs filling my bus in the morning are not filling it up this evening
I am guessing its number 3.
Work day was fairly legitimate. Still going on really, answering IMs as I shuttle north.
On a somewhat related note, Sara is heading back to the bay area and El Goog in August. I am pretty excited that she is coming back but I am nervous that her leave has made her painfully optimistic and my incessant bitching will be met with responses like "have you thought about that situation from their perspective" or "why don't you just tell that person how you feel, we are all just people here". Good God. Welcome back Sara!
The bus driver is giving me the audio cues that it is about time to hop the shuttle. This driver likes to remind everyone to bring their personal items and enjoy their evenings.
Oh, I will.

We Comrades, and That's 'Til The End

Rolling past San Bruno right now. As the shuttle was driving past Monster Park the smell of fire wildfires was amazingly strong. Did a quick news search and it turns out that there are some grass fires burning and encroaching on South San Francisco. Tried to get a look at them from the bus but the mountains are pretty fogged in at this point. I suppose that should help with the firefighting.
On a related note, while I was craning my neck to look at the fire I managed to induce some uncomfortable shifts in my neighbors. I need a haircut and a beard trim, I am looking a little too much like someone who just crawled out from underneath a lean-to after three months of evading the police. Actually, screw it.
The workweek is going to be relatively ape shit.
The weekend was good. Relatively low key. Watched some The Wire, finished season two which I thought was pretty bad ass. Still haven't watched The Bucket List which my elderly cat lady neighbor forcibly lent me. I'm thinking about watching it in fast-forward. I wish my DVD player had that feature where it plays it at like 1.5-2x and speeds up the voices. Actually, maybe the PS3 does. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Jack Nicholson: "We're old, and going to die, lets do some wacky stuff."
Morgan Freeman: "Oh (Jack Nicholson character), you are too crazy, but OK this is going to be a wild romp!"

Above dialog would be better in a chipmunk voice.
Went out for dinner on Saturday for the anniversary. Went to Pacific Cafe because its good and because it doesn't require reservations. I have probably blogged about Pacific Cafe before, but it is worth mentioning again. Besides having some of the best seafood anywhere, their wait policy is awesome. First come, first serve, put your name on the list and wait for your bottomless glass of wine to arrive. We showed up at 8:30pm were like 10th on the list and drank wine for 40 min on the house while we waited for our seat.
Finished GTAIV yesterday afternoon. The story ending was pretty good, overall the game is pretty well done in my opinion. I still need to go back and play the side missions and games and I still haven't gotten the online play thing going.
OK, hopping off the shuttle.

Nowadays I Don't Do It For The Mics 'Cause They Pay For Them Things

Week done. It was a bit of a struggle I am afraid. I found myself in the last meeting of the week daydreaming and not paying attention. If you work with me, do yourself a favor and don't schedule a meeting with me after 3:30 on a Friday because I am not paying attention.
Wedding anniversary this weekend. Saturday June 21st to be specific. 7 years of marriage. One of my coworkers said "good job" when I told her earlier today that my 7th anniversary was upcoming. Good job, not particularly romantic or sentimental but perhaps a reasonable way to congratulate such a milestone. I feel pretty damned lucky to be married so long to Kia. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am quite the catch, but those who know me best will know that my wife has to have the patience of a saint to put up with me on the daily. Maybe a hike tomorrow and some a movie and some dinner after. We will see what we are in the mood for.
We've been watching The Wire Season 2 recently and while people I have talked to complain that this particular season of The Wire is relatively slow, I have been enjoying it. There are a couple of characters that I can't get enough of, Bunk and Omar, man, those guys are well written. Omar just got done with the his testimony in Wee-Bey's trial, that was sick.
Traffic up the 101 right now is painful. Fridays are the worst.
Got to commute with the Marbin clan. The highlights of the car ride to Mountain View included my admission that I have a baby-like whine as I fall asleep and Marbin telling me the story of his daughter's Exxon/Mobil onesy.
So it turns out that this is my 100th published blog post. 100 posts. I can't help but feel that my time could have been better spent. That said, more recently my blog posts have been generated during my commute which means I could have been working, sleeping, playing psp or struggling through some YouTube videos on the slow shuttle connection. Sara just blogged that she has reached her 1000th post on her blog.
Dave just called and said that there is a Blackstar reunion concert at the Mezzanine tomorrow evening. May or may not go but good looking out on the heads up Dave.
The lady across from me on the shuttle is doing a video chat on her mac and without audio she is mostly making thumbs up at the person on the other end. She is pretty enthusiastic about it though, good for her.
Just passed Civic Center on the way to Sac and Gough. City is hopping, looks like there is a symphony performance or something tonight.
Go stupid this weekend.

A Penelope Pit Stop, You Can't Duplicate the Picture, Or Record This Hip Hop!

Hurtling towards San Francisco at this point. Came in early today. Actually, came in early twice in a row, unnecessarily, I managed to screw up my schedule yesterday and headed in for an 8am meeting which was moved to today. Sweet.
Today was legitimate, busy, hot, but relatively productive and mildly entertaining. There was a bbq at work which meant long lines in the heat but also brisket and pulled pork mmmmmmm. They even had corn bread, damn, it was tasty too.
Went to the Oakland Zoo yesterday as a part of a community service day out at work. It was hot as hell which is my least favorite environment to do manual labor. Actually, no, the worst is chipping dog pee off of dog houses in Nome, Alaska in the middle of the winter. The only reason this is worse is because the dog pee chips are frozen and subsequently fly everywhere, including your face which happens to be one of the only parts of your body warm enough to melt the dog pee chips. Ah Alaska, its a magical land. Anyway, the zoo was pretty cool, we got to roam around a bit in restricted areas which was interesting and I developed a fairly serious (and likely healthy) fear of elephants based on the comment: "This is the one that will kill all of you given the opportunity" from the zoo keeper pointing at the elephant pushing its head through a couple of (what appeared to be) highly stressed metal cables. Yikes.
It was 93 degrees in Mountain View when we left there about 45 minutes ago at roughly 5pm. It says its 84 in San Francisco, but it tends to cool down a bit by the time I hop off the shuttle. We will see.
My battery is about to die. I am getting pretty pumped for Pineapple Express which is coming out in August. I think it could be great. It could also be painfully horrible so I am trying to not get overly hopeful. I have posted the video previously, but why should you have to dig through my archives to find it if you are a new reader (or just a lazy person who likes this trailer)?

I guess you could have gone to youtube like I just did to pull this down. Whatever, now you don't have to - you're welcome.
Oh, sports notes, Celtics won - it was anti-climactic but better than the Lakers winning anyway. Lincecum beat Verlander the other day and Zito got slammed last night, surprise surprise. Jesus, that guy is a train wreck at this point. My hope is that the Giants can hold their record near .500 before the trade deadline and then scoop up some bats. Don't bet on it.

A Keen Drum Machine Buff, Who Fieds For More Green Stuff

Doom. These lyrics are insane, I am posting all of them:

Dangerdoom - Crosshairs
[MF Doom]

The fat is in the fire, a fryer made of chicken wire
Gettin sick and tired of a friggin liar
Pelican, with some very soft mangoes
A closet full of skeletons and terry cloth Kangols
Flew the coop, before you hit it let me warn you
She did a cool hula-hoop, but don't get any on you
It's all a big scam, to make y'all eat pig ham
When he's on the mic he's like the triggerman, fig jam
Doom, not to be confused with nobody
Especially, since the flows he used was so nutty
Never too woozy to go study, crews got no clues
Like old cruddy Officer McGillicuddy
Watch your six, he got a lot of more tricks
Lyrics, bricks, on sticks sure got raw-nytics
It's a gift, don't get shot for kicks
With the same slick used to plot sick vicks with
Spotted at a chick flick, holdin hands
The other one on his swollen glands, a golden chance
That's why he kept them holes in his pants
Rollin in a old van, is what he told his stolen fans
Is that you true? Matched from hat to shoe
Snafu, snatch any brew, LaBatt's Blue
Black jew like that's new, patch me through
No latch attached, skat shoo, catch twenty-two
Super, he's loaded dice nice
And overpriced, a arm and a leg; homey life or your ice
Villain, nag a grieving old hag
Snag a bragger by his mic cord and leave him holding the bag
Come clean, a bunch of dumb mean cream puffs
A keen drum machine buff, who fiends for more green stuff
Instead of starvin there be problems by the goo gobs
Aight - somebody's robbin Lou Dobbs and them tonight
And he's on the next flight, moon bound
And makes it a point to stay away from the goon pound
Got some peers, that's gone in the lost years
Tears and cheers, born in the crosshairs

{*Thundercleese sings*}

[Brak]
Hey Mr. Thundercleese!
What's that you were singing?

[Thundercleese]
It is the Robotic Hymn of Doom

[Brak]
Well I always say
Nuttin livens up a Robotic Hymn of Doom
better than AN AMAZING PAIR OF JUGS!
[ Crosshairs Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]

But then, some of you aren't interested in the lyrics - just looking out the windows at some trees going by. Speaking of which, its about time for another Man Trip - "not it" on organizing this one.
Monday, it was a workday. Got to talk to my dad yesterday though he broke protocol and called me. I managed to make him feel guilty for this by stating that he took away my ability to prove that I didn't forget it was Father's Day. This is how we celebrate father's day in my family, with guilt. This Father's Day I won.
Did some unpacking which is about two months overdue, but felt good none the less. At some point we will be moved into this apartment fully, probably at the point we decide to move apartments. It was pretty funny though, Kia and I just spent the majority of the time we were unpacking saying how nice it was to be in our new apartment, its true, this stupid apartment is so much more relaxing to be in than the old one.
Lakers scraped by last night. I have to hand it to them though, they did it without Kobe completely running the game. Lamar Odom was looking pretty legitimate (I still like the fact that Phil Jackson likened him to a puppy - dumb but hard to get mad at). Speaking of basketball - the team that lets me play with them won today which puts their (our) season record at 5-1. Not bad. Don't ask me how many points I have scored (0). Jerk, I said not to ask.
About to hop off the shuttle at Civic Center. Wifey is going to scoop me up and maybe a walk tonight. Trying to get back down to fighting weight. Speaking of which, Kia bought the Perfect Push Up things:
Which are pretty cool, mostly because doing push ups with my hands flat on the ground is impossible for me because of my non-flexible wrists. Uh, can you say hulked up? Man, I wish I had that image of The Hulk Leotta photoshopped my head onto, that would be perfect for this post.
OK, keep it grimey.

Fist'll Do Little, You Tickle, You Typical

Man, traffic sucks. Friday night. Maybe we can make a rule that you can't drive into San Francisco until after 7pm on Fridays unless you live there. We could set up a checkpoint and all the breeders in the South bay can have some margaritas (and endless chips and salsa) at Chevy's while they wait for the freeway to open up to them.
Have I mentioned lately how much I like Casual from Hieroglyphics? Let me reiterate, dude is sick. I got the Truck Driver album recently and its ape shit. The album was apparently originally released only on the web (according to wikipedia) but I scooped it up at Amoeba. I wasn't a big Fear Itself fan when that came out waaay back when but Casual kills it. I should give that album another couple go-arounds.
Oh and while we are on the subject of hip hop albums that are on rotation on the ipod lets give a shout out to RA the Rugged Man who is bad as hell and follows my favorite rapper genre of self-deprication (why I can't get enough of Sean P.). If you are at all interested RA's wikipedia entry is a damn good read. RA has the multisyllabic style down pat and it reminds me a ton of Big Pun.
The week is over and that's about all I have to say about that. Work kicked my ass this week... but I've got get-back.
Weekend plans are limited at this point. Hopefully I can get a little extra sleep the next couple days and bang out this cold. Man party on Sunday. There was some talk of buying my boy Kev some manties but its going to take more nerve than I have to walk into a room full of dudes I kind of half know with some questionable drawers.
Oh yeah, it appears my previous mid-game blog post about the Celtics/Lakers game had a tone of impending doom which was apparently unwarranted. I managed to not watch the game though because of the 24 point score spread in the second quarter - uh oops. Going to save my comments on the Lakers at this point but the article I was reading on espn.com was calling out the fans at the Staples Center for not rallying for the team. Dan pointed out that Bill Simmons is from Boston which is fair but come on, 40k for floor seats? Those aren't your "I am going to drink uncontrollably and scream at KG until I lose my voice" fans. Those are your "I am here because I want to sit next to Justin Timberlake" fans.
OK, riding through the city on my way to Carl and Cole.
Holla atcha frog.

Get Bruised 'Til You're The Color Of The Lakers Logo

Lakers are up 28-12 right now over the Celtics. Ugh.
My cold keeps lingering though the symptoms through the day have subsided and I am primarily dealing with coughing up nastiness and dealing with a sore throat in the mornings and evenings. It should be whipped into shape by this weekend. Hopefully, it will be wiped by Sunday so I can go to my boy Kevin's man-shower. It was supposed to be last Sunday, but on Saturday his bride-to-be had a bridal shower which (prior to leaving for the bar) managed to set the porch on fire. Apparently women can come to the man-shower but have to wear mustaches. Hot.
Started the second season of The Wire and so far I have watched two episodes. Its not as engaging as the first season but I will give it another few episodes before I start bitching incessantly. I just got the first season of Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia, which in my opinion is one of the funniest tv shows I have watched in a long time. Its up there with Arrested Development and 30 Rock.
Its definitely summer around here. The weather in the south bay has been unpleasantly warm. I am not built for it.
About to hop off the shuttle. Apparently the old lady in our building dropped off a copy of The Bucket List to Kia a few minutes ago. She is a nice lady but I'm not really trying to watch that movie....
Oh and the Lakers are now up 45-21. Jesus.
Grind hard.

You Can't Fool All Of The People All Of The Time

Just a quick one. Already in the city. I was talking with someone today at work who was saying that lately their ability to send emails has slowed down based on feeling a little burnt out. I don't know if I get to claim being burnt out the Wednesday after my vacation but my emails are going out slow at this point. Apparent causes are daydreaming and some legitimate confusion. Maybe I am just getting old. Maybe I should just get a job at Wal-Mart as a greeter. Seriously though, I just spent like half an hour on one email, that is not a good turn around time.
Weather has been out of control. My team had a basketball game yesterday at 4:30 and it was still painfully hot out. I managed to escape the game without injury but Dougherty managed to get shouldered in the face. Perhaps Dougherty can be the injury lightening rod from now on.
Still about a day behind at work. I will get there though. Cold is getting better but its taking longer than it should. Damned Alaskan germs are going crazy in my weakened California immune system.
OK enough for now.
Later.

My Pump is Built Like the Klumps

Fine, I admit, two posts in one day makes me a nerd. I have more to say.
Dan is knee deep in anti-Lakers conspiracy theories on his blog. Its entertaining but lets be honest the only thing holding Kobe back is his penchant for Colorado hotel employees.
Here is the trailer for the new Pacino/DeNiro movie Righteous Kill. Could be good though it does feature Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson....



This movie made my radar a few weeks ago when I saw that Upper Playground featured artists Estevan Oriol and Mr. Cartoon teamed up for a series of movie posters. Speaking of UP they just opened an LA location with some pretty awesome LA branding in my opinion.
Been watching The Wire, just finished season one in fact and I am pretty juiced on the show. It took me a good 2-3 episodes to get into but the characters are pretty awesome. Going to jump into season two when I get home.
Finally watched Iron Man and was pretty impressed with it. I thought Robert Downey Jr. played Tony Stark pretty well but I did think he was a little too gritty or something. Its not necessarily a bad thing, and I don't think Robert Downey Jr. could have played him another way, but it was a little off to me. Suit was sick, flying scenes were sick too.
Watched the Narnia movie with my nephews too, it was alright. I mean if you are into talking badgers, centaurs and lions who represent Jesus then its right up your alley.
Alright, hopping the bus. I have some pics of Alaska that I will post when I have time.

I Don't Want Fans Who Don't Know Who G Rap Is

Back in the bay area. Alaska was awesome. I managed to not open my laptop the entire trip (though I cheated and read some email on the Blackberry) which led to a lack of blogging. For most of you this is a welcome respite.
Alaska was nice though. The weather was so-so, kind of cold for June, but summer in Alaska is unbelievable. The night we got in we landed at 1am or so and by the time I was getting ready for bed at 3:30am the sun was coming back up.
Did some hiking and hit up some of my favorite food spots. Got pretty hyphy on Friday night at the Avenue between whiskey shots and PBR despite the fact that I picked up a pretty serious cold on my third day in Anchorage. I am past the excruciating pain that was in my throat and now I am just hacking up phlegm from the depths of my lungs. My coworkers are going to be pretty pumped. The person sitting across from me on the shuttle is probably going to slather his face in hand sanitizer - speaking of which, bad idea, it burns the eyes.
Two good things happening in the world of sports. The Celtics are two games up on the hated Lakers. The Giants, poor as they may be, are in third place in the division with a chance to sweep the Nationals today. Yeah, its the Nationals, so what, we could use the shot in the arm.
OK, close to work at this point. Enjoy your week.