Incite Full

Ok. We get it. It was your first earth quake- and a 5.8, not a bad beginning. Things can only get better, right? What i do not need is footage of the event. Especially lame footage accompanied by a ‘cute’ one liner.

I’ve seen footage of bike shops, swimming pools, and even wine bottles breaking. The horror! There is something about shit moving unexpectedly that gets people, much like cats, excited. This was not a 9.0-  desks were not flying across the room, people were not killed (which i a good thing)- but now I have to listen to everyone tell their earthquake story- Oh yeah? You were on the phone and you actually said “I think I have to go- We’re having an earthquake.” How about you? Oh, you were sitting on a bench? You don’t say!

This accompanied by the woman who said it was “Beautiful” just really make me weep for humanity. It’s over.  I don’t care if you have security footage of a restroom or a bunch of people running outside.

Seriously.

Ok, enough of that. Today the weekend begins, and i’m pretty excited for it. Batman again, Saddle Ranch, coffee, out, surfing, and Saturday night, which I have no plans for as of yet, but I’m sure I can think of something to do. Lets do it.

“I used to sleep nude – until the earthquak”

Well it took about 6 years, but Los Angeles finally had an earthquake that I felt. Six years and one earth quake. I’ve almost been mugged, shot, or stabbed more times than I’ve felt an earthquake out here. I’m not sure what to say about Los Angeles, at times, but all those who warned me about earthquakes were way off, at least for now. I’m well aware that “within 30 years” we’re supposed to have an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 or greater.

Is anyone else a little weary of that statistic? You give me a 30 year window and I can predict one of the world series winners, world cup, and probably two or three super bowl winners. What i am trying to say is that I’m not too convinced that it’s certain, more than it is likely.

Anyways, it has come to my attention that I have not gone on many dates lately. I don’t think this is really a fault of mine, as much as it is I’ve been having so much fun just going out and having a good time. Going out with Dan, Jordan, Brian, Steph, Russ (whenever he gets his ass out of lab) and whoever else I run into is a lot more fun for me.  And it’s more important, as well.

I’ve generally had friends through circumstance- we worked or lived together, but now I’ve got a solid group of friends that I can go out with or talk about anything (I emphasize anything) with. It was one of those things that I always felt I lacked, even though I’ve been popular or funny or whatever the hell you want to call it.

I’m going surfing Saturday- and I’m pretty excited. I’m renting a board and what not from Cal Tech, and I’m going to get my ass kicked, I think. I’m going with a friend who is only here for the summer, but seems to take advantage of it more than most people I know. Regardless of how I do, It’ll be another thing I can cross off my list of things I’ve been meaning to do. And who knows, maybe it’ll be simply amazing and i’ll do it all the time.

Or I’ll suck at it and want to sleep about a million hours afterwards, like Blue Bobby always used to. I guess I’ll find out.

Yeah, I said it.

Before you go crazy on me, let me explain. This is purely scientific. And, to be honest, the girl is inconsequential to my plan. What I want to confirm are the targeted ads on facebook. I’ve had everything now from Big Beautiful Women, to single 24 year olds, and now single men. And it needs to stop.

The handbags are coming soon, i just know it. And I need them to stay away.

Ok, that’s all a joke.

I went out last night with pretty much everyone. It was a lot of fun and i’m really tired this morning. there is no yadda yadda yadda in there. Ok, lets be serious for a moment. I feel like my head is a gallon of sand right now, and it sounds like swimmer’s ear every time i shift from left to right. my stomach is on fire from a burrito that never even burned my lips, and all i want to do is sleep. God that sounds good.

But I’ll endure, and that’s good enough for me.

On a funnier note, I was almost stabbed walking down the street the other day. It was because, apparently, I was unbottoning my shirt when this car full of gang member’s rove by and they thought i was “steppin’,” which I assure you I was not. These guys got out of their car and started telling me that this was “pasadena, essay” and while i was curious to know why he was calling me a homework assignment, I was more preoccupied by the fact he was reaching under his shirt for something. Knife, gun, hairy sweat- I’m not sure, but we were pretty confident it was a knife.

In retrospect, I thought this guy didn’t want to fight at all. But jordan made a good point. You don’t pull over out of your car and get out if you don’t intend to fight. I am lucky to not have been roughed up a little. But do you know who would have been safe? Dan. Dan was like casper when this whole thing went down. He disappeared right away and only when it was safe did tis effer appear and lead us to his car. Good show dan, that’s ridiculous.

Leson learned, don’t unbotton your shirt in oldtown, less you want to start a gang war.

“Nothing begins, and nothing ends, That is not paid with moan; For we are born in others pain And perish in our own.”

Steph, in her words, is “Pimping my ride.” Don’t be alarmed; I’m not going to “throw D’s” on my car or drive around with some fuzzy dice. I am the ride that’s getting pimped out, and this is absolutely a good thing. In a matter of months, I’ve gotten a new haircut, new clothes, and now new sunglasses that raise my stock “about fifty dollars.” She’s probably done other things that I do not recall.

While she’s been working on my outward appearance, I’m still working on that oozing thing. This is actually going quite well what with the gym and just going out and having fun. I ran another 4 miles today, which is good with a hangover. Shit that’s pretty good for a human (not from Kenya). A little (excuse the pun, you’ll see why in a second) help came from my new, red iPod shuffle. I’m not sure if I need another comma after “red” because iPod is both part of the noun, but describes the shuffle too. God damn English. Anyways, the flatte(red) shuffle is pretty cool, although i wish it had a click wheel on it for volume- but that’s just me being spoiled, I guess. Also, I think Apple could probably be a little more eco-friendly with their packaging.  I understand the Apple “experience” is something to enjoy, something to savor, like a steak for my technological stomach, but I also like to experience trees and lower gas prices. Maybe I am wrong and they are doing something awesome for the environment- I’m sure Brian will let me know.

A few more things to discuss, one being Trader Joe’s. We all love the place, I know this, but there is one thing starting to bug me about it. They implicitly expect me to trust them when it comes to most produce. Take, for example, the fact that I wanted to buy kiwis. I love kiwis, they are a delectable piece of green heaven in my hand. But I have to trust that they are fine, as I cannot exactly squeeze them through, like my shuffle, the plastic packaging. This is almost as ridiculous as the pack-of-three tomatoes that my local Target is now selling. The thing is, though, that I trust target for some reason, and that reason is I do not see mold growing on shit at target.

Today at Joe’s I was looking at  tomatoes that were literally covered in green mold. This isn’t exactly helping me trust uncle Joe when it comes to selling me groceries. I still bought other things, so it’s not exactly hurting their bottom line, but it is something I’d like them to be aware of.

Lastly, I took a little bit of time and took some pictures of my new toys. Here they are:

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed”

Ok, the title is a little misleading, but never the less i’ve got an amazing story to tell you all.

I’m in the latest Batman movie.

I’m sitting in the front row of the theater, about three quarters of the way through the film, when something happens that makes the four of us all look at one another. I’m not shitting you, A reporter comes on the scene and says “This is Mike Gangl.” I was shocked at first, and then a miraculous thing happened- he said it again! We all started laughing and were basically in awe at the fact that my fucked up name made it into the film. Not just any film, it could have been some chick flick, or some childrens movie. But no, it was Batman. This shit is right up there with the Rock.

Also, the movie was absolutely amazing. If you’re expecting a lot of Christian Bale, don’t work yourself up for it. But Heath Ledger as the Joker was awesome. I don’t think anyone else could have pulled it off as awesomely or as well as he did. The stunts were great, and there were about 5 times during the film when the entire audience gave an ovation. The film is so solid you could bounce a quarter off it’s ass.

I am so happy I saw it opening night.

“Evening, commissioner.”