I'm Gonna Get You Sucka - Like Damon Wayans

On the shuttle late tonight. Headed back from an evening of bbq and drinks with Allan and Lu and some other people who I work with regularly so are less notable, oh and one of Kunan's friends who reminded me a lot of Kunan - meaning he was cool.
Anyway, full on bbq ribs and all dem fixins and hurtling towards the city with absolutely no traffic. Tomorrow is the company picnic and it should be fun but it has been making me think that today is Friday, its not.
Spent the majority of the commute home watching Def Squad videos and thinking that I should throw some more of my vast Redman music collection on my ipod - that junk is sick.

OK this video is bonkers. I haven't seen it since I was in high school and its still completely insanely awesome.

Come on - Erick Sermon dressed as the Klumps. That's just brilliant.

Another classic video featuring Red and Meth.

Only Method Man can get away with dancing like that in a video without looking like Puff Daddy. Oh and the Asian dude in the orange vest halfway through was busting me up.

Last one. Loved this beat back in the day - ooooweee.

OK, hopping the shuttle. Night.

Still Wil' Out, Kick It Like Cobra Kai Dojo

Man o man o man o man. Full tilt this week. Today was one of those days where for some reason people asked me repeatedly for my opinion on relatively controversial work things. For future reference, this is a very quick way for you to sink half an hour if you don't have anything better to do. Anyway, I got to say what I thought - which was good for me, and probably marginally useful for other people. I am a big proponent of discussion which I think in most companies is seen as wasted time. I should have been on the debate team.
Watched Hellboy II over the weekend and it was pretty much exactly as I expected. Which is to say it was good, but not great. The monsters were pretty rad though and this was my greatest hope for the movie. A lot of people quipped that the monsters in this movie looked a lot like the monsters from the Pan's Labyrinth movie and honestly they kind of did, but uh, hello, those monsters were pretty bad ass and one of my major criticisms of Pan's Labyrinth was that they pumped the monsters in the previews and under-delivered in the actual movie. Anyway, I liked this Hellboy better than the first one.
Speaking of movies, Kia and I finally watched There Will Be Blood last night. Kia wasn't a big fan and I have to admit, I got pretty bored. Daniel Day-Lewis was bad ass in the role (no more so than most of his roles though - the dude is an awesome actor) but the plot was kind of slow at times and never really turned in a way that I found really engaging. Kia thought it was depressing, it was. Dougherty said that he thought it was better than No Country For Old Men, its not - friendo.
Early start tomorrow and I managed to let a coworker talk me into giving a presentation at sort of the last minute. Talked me into it? Please, I didn't even give the meekest of resistance. Get comfortable with saying no and make yourself redundant - those are my professional development areas for the day.
About to hop off the shuttle. Stay up on your business.

Jumpin' Out of Cabs, Grabbin' Money Bags

"They say the recipe for Sprite is lemon and lime but I tried to make it at home, there is more to it than that. 'Want some more homemade Sprite?' 'Not until you figure out what the fuck else is in it!'" - Mitch Hedberg
I can thank Google Reader for allowing me to aggregate my coworker blogs and stumble across this gem. Pure hilarity and it also featured the mlewis/Tibetan Hulk picture that I referenced in an earlier post. I should be sleeping on the shuttle right now like everyone else on Monday morning but the magic of the internet is keeping me up.
About to get into work. Lots going on this week not the least of which is the company picnic on Friday which is going to be quite the spectacle. Kia is going to get to come down (hopefully) for it this year for the first time in the four years I have been here.
Finished the fourth season of The Wire over the weekend and I have to say, it was one of my favorite seasons. I said this to Beah (she begged for that link) the other day but I think the way they portrayed the middle school that was featured in the season was pretty damned realistic. Yeah, fine, I didn't go to middle school in Baltimore, or in San Francisco, but I spent a year in one as a college student (no, not for remedial classes) and and its clear that the writers for The Wire did some research.
OK, hopping off the shuttle. Grind hard.

Weak In The Knees Like Pat Ewing

Van Damme, week over. It was a good week all said. Busy, had more than a couple times where I cursed under my breath, a couple where it was audible, maybe one or two which echoed across the office. Had some interesting conversations with folks and put in some good work. That said, glad its over.
Played the first game of the basketball league playoffs today at work. I have to say, while he didn't score the most points, MVP of this game is going to Dougherty. All hustle. Scrappy as all get out. And, by God, one of the single most entertaining steal/fast-break/lay-up attempts of all time. He left bodies in his wake. We played against a team which we beat earlier in the season 21-10 but they were much improved this time and we held on at the end to a 21-17 victory. I finally scored my first two points of the season in true Robert Horry fashion, though not quite as clutch.
Took Jason's (my coworker Jason, not my brother Jason) advice and pulled together all the coworker blogs in Reader. It certainly organizes them well, but it also makes it much easier to ignore all of them instead of reading one or two that pop into my head randomly. Meh.
The bus driver mistakenly took the 101 branch of the freeway into the city. I can see the 280 branch from here and its clear. We are stop and go. Daaaaamn. Usually he makes an announcement on the overhead and asks people to look up the traffic for him. He didn't do it today. Sometimes he likes to spend the last 5-10 minutes as he drives through the city sharing his perspective on random things. How lovely the day was, a public hearing coming up about how to use park land in the Presidio, whatever is on the top of his mind. Gotta admit, its kind of weird, but I have to respect that the guy is willing to subject a bus load of what I am willing to blanket classify as fairly self-absorbed professionals to his own random musings. If I had a PA system I would probably subject them to my music. I would probably get fired. Unless it was Mos Def, you know, because white people like him. Sean Price hasn't made that list yet.
"Eminem nice but Eminem white" - Sean P.
Check out this short one from Killah Priest's new album. Yikes, just plain yikes.

If you aren't hip to Killah Priest, get familiar. He was with Sunz of Man - which is all you should need to know, but later release 3 or 4 solo albums. His first is, in my opinion, one of the all time best Wu albums of all time - Heavy Mental. His interview with Kelefa Sannah from Transition magazine was basically one of the most awesome pieces of journalism of all time. I think Harpers picked up the article and my dad made me read it in highschool. I remember him saying something to the effect of, this guy is basically nuts. And my response being something to the effect of yup, he is and his album blew my mind. Tried to dig out a copy for you guys but they want me to subscribe. Uh, no thanks.
Gooooo weekend.

Moms Kicked Me Out The House While I Was Flipping I'm The Man

Cranking this week out. Its been moving fairly quickly to be honest but it always does when I am trying to catch up on stuff. Feeling good about my productivity for the first time in a while at this point and taking some cues from my former professional coach (yes, for a short period I had an executive coach) in saying to myself, shit sometimes there's only so much you can do. She phrased this more effectively. During a group training session she brought in a guy who exemplified some of the good behaviors that she was trying to emphasize to talk to our group. She mentioned (perhaps jokingly) that she tried hard to recruit this guy to work with her company. I remember thinking to myself, this guy - please, why isn't she trying to recruit me? How's that for an insight into my psyche. God, I am nuts.
Restarted that Quicksilver book (no, Hiro, its not about the clothing company, well at least so far), I was only about 25 pages into it anyway, and the second time around its making a bit more sense. At this rate I will finish the series of three books by the time I am 43. One of the reasons I was probably struggling reading the book was the fact that it weighs about 8 pounds and holding it above my head in bed was posing a serious risk of injury.
Was listening to this album for the first time today and was floored by the beats on some of this stuff. Premo son.


Alright, about to get dropped off in the city.
Uh bye.

Word To My Nanna

Hump day. Shuttling south at this point. Work has been relatively ape and I have been sinking a lot of my commute time into catching up on work as opposed to blogging. I've also had to spend an increased amount of time trying to follow the now numerous blogs generated by my coworkers. I must say its become increasingly difficult and if anyone is interested in creating a meta-blog which would aggregate and summarize the content I would be willing to subscribe for a couple bucks a month.
I've been trying to get into this Neil Stephenson series Quicksilver but I am struggling with the first 20 pages. This is not a good sign. I guess I need to stop reading in bed but, you know, when I'm not in bed there are things like PS3s which are more likely to snatch my attention. Maybe I should grow up. Meh.
Another product of my new favorite youtube query "red band trailer" is the trailer for Burn After Reading from the Cohen brothers.



Uh, this looks awesome. Brad Pitt's haircut/ipod armband combination is enough of a reason for me to go to this movie.
About at work. Stay grizzled.

In the PJs Like I'm Ready For Bedtime

Gray Monday. Didn't sleep well last night. Its either because I am stressed about being behind at work or because I took an hour long nap in the early evening yesterday. Either way, I woke up every hour or so last night and it sucked.
Weekend was legitimate. Didn't really get a ton done but I managed to kick whatever remained of my cold.
Watched The Dark Night on Friday with the team. It was pretty much awesome. Better than the first (first of the new ones that is) but I think that is owed to the fact that the villain characters in this one are just better characters. Even walking out of the movie Friday people were talking about Heath Ledger doing a better job at playing the Joker than Jack Nicholson. I even heard people saying that his role was perhaps one of the best all time movie villains. I don't know about that, but the kid played the hell out of the Joker. I will also say that Ledger's portrayal of the Joker has to be considered a tribute to Nicholson's portrayal. Mannerisms, speech and even the scenes they put him in (lone, walking down the street towards an oncoming Batman, gun in hand) were very much built on Nicholson's Joker. Anyway, the movie was sick.
The brougham was in town last week. He and Kia came down to Mountain View on Wednesday and I showed them around the office. Paraded them through like they were show dogs is probably more accurate. My team was well-behaved for the most part and even the Wysz did his best not to make it awkward. I took Thursday off to hang out with Jason and we spent the majority of his time in San Francisco eating foods that aren't likely available in Alaska. We hit up Bar Tartine for Kia's birthday which was almost as good as the first time I went there (kudos to Beah for the recommendation/gift certificate). Went to this dirty little dim sum spot on Balboa st. and it was pretty tasty, and cheap as hell. Hit up Green Chile Kitchen and this froofy dessert spot which was damn tasty, if not a little snooty.
At work now. Stay on your grind.

I'm Just So Ricky Ricardo - Ridiculous

So I am on the shuttle, shuttling between shuttle stops on the work campus and we managed to get stuck in traffic between buildings. Traffic between buildings? - you ask - I know, come on, this company isn't THAT big yet, but its not Google employees. Its concert traffic. My informal visual survey of the people in traffic around me included spoiled brats and their parents in gigantic SUVs, cars full of teenage girls, and lonely looking single middle-aged women. Who could be playing at the Shoreline Amphitheatre which would draw such a crowd? Josh Grobin? - nope, not enough old ladies. Alanis Morrisette? - nah, crowd is too young. Carrie Underwood? - don't think so, the rodeo contingency was too low. I decided to look it up. It turns out it is the Jonas Brothers. Who the hell are the Jonas Brothers? - you ask. Clearly you don't read Tiger Beat, Bop or US Weekly (Tiger Beat for adults). The Jonas Brothers are the latest iteration of the Partridge Family/Nelson(the music group, not the person)/Hanson musical family Disney sponsored crap-fest. And they just cost me 5 minutes of my life - and about 30 seconds of yours (depending on how fast you read).
So my dad made some comments last week I think about hip hop, some were fair, some were dumb.

"there will be hip-hop aficionados ten years from now, but the fact is: it's over. All that is left of American culture can be summed up in the interchangeable cover of the latest DVDs: foreshortened glinting pistols (preferably automatic). If we weren't reliving the same, tired, rage-against-the-establishment posturing, I could be persuaded that things were different. But there isn't even any self-awareness of the fact that they've been co-opted by the military/industrial/entertainment complex. The Notorious B.I.G.: coming soon to a theater near you. (A Division of SONY)"

Now, let me start by stating that I am by no means impartial in my view of hip hop. I'm a fan/fiend/geek. That said, hip hop isn't over, its not even close to being over. Its reaching its stride, hitting middle age and churning out some of the best music I have ever heard in my life. The raw creativity of the early 90s has made way for more polished and smart music that is being put out now. If hip-hop was an infant/toddler in the 80s, it was a rebellious teenager in the 90s. Maturity is a good thing in many ways. I will also admit that I am a painfully nostalgic person so my perception of things that happened in the past (music, people, movies, things I have said, things I did) is always elevated to some kind of star status like Shinobi. The legitimate criticisms in my mind that my dad makes are these: hip hop is commercialized, it glorifies violence and it presents itself as anti-establishment when it isn't. Hip hop is guilty on all charges, and fuck it, so am I. Hip hop and I are a complicated couple, get over it. Do those things make it dead? Shit no, those are issues that have always been associated with hip hop and always will be.
OK, getting off my soap box and going to throw some fire atcha.
Some RA The Rugged Man:
RA hands out some free lessons on these ones. His verse is second on this track. Also, shout out to Masta Killa and Killah Priest, two of the illest Wu-Tang MCs. Take notes.


OK, shout out to Dan on this one. I read about this track on Wikipedia but hadn't heard it until he sent me the track. According to Wikipedia RA's verse tells the story of his dad's experience in Vietnam.

From AK to Gray Day

Headed south. This morning was made more excruciating by the fact that I managed to pick up a chest cold this weekend. I almost turned around about four times on my way out to the Muni bus to head back into bed chug some Robitussin. The people sitting across from me on the shuttle are wishing that I had as I keep coughing all over them. My cube-mates are going to be thrilled.
Spent the majority of the weekend nursing the cold. Did some cleaning of the apartment in preparation for my brother's arrival on Wednesday. Played some Forza Motorsports: 2 on Sunday while Kia was at work. The game is pretty much identical to Gran Turismo except that Microsoft apparently realized that the career mode in Gran Turismo is kind of a pain in the ass to make any money at and subsequently hard to upgrade your cars. That said, Microsoft made it unprofitable to sell the cars you area awarded for winning races (100 credits for a 1970 Porsche 914, wtf?) which is kind of annoying.
I have to say, I am glad that I ended up not going camping this weekend if only because It would have sucked being stuck in the middle of the woods with this cold.
Maybe I will try to bounce early today.
Finished the third season of The Wire on Saturday. It was a good season. I am interested to see how they carve out a couple more seasons of the show. A lot of the plot lines appear to be tidied up at this point.

VIP Baby, These Days D-I Prescreens Baby, Let Me See ID

Booyakah, back like a comet.
Been tied up this week. My dad expressed some concern around my lack of blogging but I feel that this has more to do with the fact that his blog comments are beginning to account for the majority of his social life rather than any genuine concern for my wellbeing. Oh, and I haven't forgotten about your little "hip hop is dead" comment pops. I'll be right back with a couple things to say on that.
Spent the last couple days wearing grown up clothes, being diplomatic and enjoying a 20 minute commute. The conference was solid.
Man trip got canceled for this weekend. This is a minor tragedy in my book. I was looking forward to it.
A weekend in the city may be just what the doc ordered. I am definitely trying to watch Hell Boy II. Guillermo del Toro is a creative genius (I'm a huge fan of the Spy Kids franchise) and it looks like they finally let him go nuts with creating some crazy-ass monsters.
My brother is apparently coming to town next week, actually arriving on Kia's birthday. He has a training thing in San Diego and is going to come by SF for a day or two. I asked him what he wanted to do, he mostly said eat, I can make that happen. Was going to see if I can scoop up some baseball tickets for Wednesday or Thursday but the first Giants game next week is Friday because of the All-Star week.
Van Damme.
Lincecum apparently isn't getting the start at the All-Star game. He should. Here is why:

Webb
ERA W-L SO WHIP
3.27 13-4 106 1.17

Lincecum
ERA W-L SO WHIP
2.66 10-2 126 1.27

Less wins, but he plays for the frickin' Giants. Dude is a beast.
Just caught wind of this Dilla track. Its awesome. Enjoy.

You Ain't American Dreamin On Me Is You? Well Is You? Fool You Better Come On In

Short week? Says who?
Bounced a little early from work today. Got a haircut from "the van" at my work and the frighteningly bad barber was there. I luckily avoided having her near my head this time around.
There is a group of three guys on the bus talking about one of the guy's trip to Alaska recently. He described a moose as "like the biggest elk thing". One of my indirect coworkers is headed to Alaska soon. Keep your eyes peeled for bears, even in Anchorage - some poor girl got chomped the other day.
4th of July tomorrow. Not sure how I will celebrate. Probably eating unhealthy food of some kind and drinking a brew or two.
Pulled together a few classic videos mostly in defiance of my father's recent comment about hip hop being a lost cause. Lets put it on the table. Hip hop makes old people mad. Its rude and loud, except when it isn't.
Here are some classics:


Busta Rhymes in one of my all time favorite videos. This is pre-LL Cool J hulking up for Busta and back when he was mostly wacked out of his mind. Genius.


One of my favorite Tribe songs. Hadn't seen this video before but its pretty legit.


Pretty classic De La track. This song and album were kind of a departure from their first two albums. I don't think they could have kept up with the hippy rap forever and I am glad they didn't.


Here is a Roots classic video that the YouTube poster disabled embedding on - jerk.
Whatever, here is the link. If you haven't seen this one, you are missing out.
Enjoy the holiday but don't go American dreaming on me.

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.