Incite Full

Confirmed by my roommate, a vegetarian no less, anyone who does not like Taco Bell is unsavory and not to be trusted.

What an interesting weekend.

Friday night Steph and I went out. Wait, back that up. we made awesome plans to go all over the place to Silverlake. But our friend, Dan, was basically nowhere to be found, even though we were supposed to hang out that night. So Steph grabs her wallet and we head out. That’s how it was supposed to work. An hour and a half later, we still cannot find her wallet, no matter how much we tear the apartment apart. Our place, already destroyed from a bit of the old (moving) in-out, looked as if tsunamical hurricane had ran through it.

We finally get a call back from her mother, stating that her wallet is in San Diego. Well that sucks. Steph grabs her passport, we do a shot (ugh) and head out. We’re chillin’ at the bar, perhaps even lounging, sitting down and chatting with a few people, when we do our best jaggers. I begin talking to the guy next to me who i presumed was on a date with the girl at his table. They turned out to be just friends, and, in fact, the guy was very, very gay.

At one point, after Dan arrived at our table, the guy turns to me and says “you’re gay, right” and i can only reply that I’m “way straight”. Back me up, ladies. He says of dan, though, that he’s “definitely gay, right?” We all had a good laugh at the situation, and dan and I hung out with these guys a bit later along with some other folks at their hot tub/ house. Curiously when i asked to use a restroom they told us to just use the bushes.

odd.

The next day i asked Steph if she knew why the guy would think I’m gay. She said that I was pretty outgoing (straight men are not, I can only conjecture) but also that I had “sculpted” eye brows and “nice” eyes, transporting me back to High school when a girl said i had beautiful cow eyes.

I also joined the LA fitness not 2 blocks from my apartment. It felt good to go to the gym again, but now i have an incredible amount of peer pressure to do this “cycling” activity, which seems to be a voluntary torture, much like flossing: healthy for you but an incredible pain in the ass. My only reprieve is that the bearers of said pressure also bake lots of goods. And I eat them all up.

The next day, we went to a barbecue at our friend’s place which was a lot of fun. Lasting from 4 to about 8:30, We started the day with some marinated shrimp I had brought, grilled on the Q, and then moved on to the burgers, ribs, and beans. Everything was exceptional, including the entertaining steph/dan swimming seal combo, as well as the fine maduro cigar later in the evening.

After those festivities, Dan and I headed to a cal tech party. Now, structurally, the party was impressive. Things were built, crashed, destroyed, burned, and decorated simply lovely. The people, however, are everything you’re probably already thinking. Only, about 10 percent worse.

I’ve never seen so many “clever” T-shirts, and by that i mean laaaaaaaaaame sci-fi quoting, LOTR referencing T’s. I wear awesome T-shirts, such as my communist party one, but i shall never wear on emblazoned with Gandalf or Darth Vader.

True story.

After that party, Dan and I met up with some friends in Culver city at The Backstage, where some rocking karaoke was being thrown down. Actually, some of it sucked, and one particular group had taken over the area, and were dropping all kinds of pills in public- very odd. But overall the night was ok, but could’ve been better.

It’s Sunday now, and I’m heading off to a pot luck with the odler RA’s from Webb. our last reunion, i feel, which is kind of sad. I’ll miss the chain emails that we construct from the posting of a random youTube video. Nothing witty to end this one.

“everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance”

For the next few days i’m in training at work. The training itself is fine- the material is both rehashed from school and a bit of new stuff that is actually more pointed and necessary than what I learned. So that’s fantastic. The other people in the training are, to say the least, varied, and to say more, interesting. There are a few other ECH’s, or early career hires, but mostly it’s middleaged to older groups.

The thing about this, is, they are jaded. Not all, but the vocal ones. And it kind of sucks being in a class where everyone cuts everything down. Why are you taking this class, the instructor asks us all; Because no one else can do these right, a man responds. This is the same guy who ripped into the feasibility of a made up mission for activity purposes. I mean, honestly? Are you going to be that guy? Another gentleman- who knows if he’s really gentle-  makes jokes that no one, except he, laughs at. There should be a law that if you make 3 jokes in a row and you’re the only one laughing, you are banned from jokes for a week.

I might push that line once and a while, but not as often and constantly as this guy does. Wow they were lame. And another thing I learned from him is the following: never preface a story or joke with “this is a good one” or “this is funny.” Hands down it will not be good or funny, the expectations have been built, and the bull dozer story will only tear them down.

On a side note, this weekend i went to starbucks to get some food. I know starbucks is not commonly associated with food, but friends were also going, i avoid this type of awkwardness whenever possible. So I’m in the front of line and i ask the barista and ask for a bagel. “Sure!” she says, with a giant smile on her face. And she pauses. after a moment, “Anything else?” and i say no.  “No Coffee?”, no thanks. Another awkward pause. After a few seconds she asks if i want cream cheese on my bagel. I was caught off guard, and said sure, why not. another few seconds pass- causing me to think maybe this girl has some sort of social disorder: “We’re all out”.

What the fuck? Why ask if you’re out? Agh, normally i don’t tip the barista- which is itself a bullshit term to remove the shame of working in the food service industry- which shouldn’t exist anyways. The shame, not the industry. But not giving a tip really does’t stress the point enough here, would it be wrong to take money from the tip jar? I mean, i felt i needed to let her know this service was subpar, even for a lousy bagel.

Back in the good V of irginia, there is a lot going on out here. First and foremost, our meetings went very well. I was actually complimented on all of the good work our team has done on the development of our software, and we’re 3 weeks ahead of schedule. how about that!

And in celebration, we went out and had a bit of fun. Or rather, I had a bit of fun. Three whiskey gingers, and several beers later i was in high spirits- three sheets to the wind, to be honest. That expression actually stems from the loose ropes that keep sails tied down. When the windd blew and the ropes were loose, they’d stagger all over and resemble a man who had too much to drink. Or more precisely, me!

It would have been bad, except i was very entertaining. Chatting up some other customers at the bar. One vixen was so entranced that she had to stop by at my table, full of coworkers, and talk to me. Needless to say, when she left, the rest of the table was just basically awestruck.

Awesome.

Pictures were taken of me, apparently in order to black mail me with my girlfriend. Unfortunately, i don’t have one of those- so it’s not going to happen. Although upon realization that i was single, my coworkers soon found out that i don’t believe in fate or the absence of freewill. that set off some interesting conversation.

Anyways, there is a lot more to talk about but only in person. It will be good stories, i promise, so ask me

If JPL was smart, they’d give me a stipend to spend on music.

Hear me out- I work so much better with music- this is not a surprise. Studies have shown  the music not only enhances the aptitude of children, but there is a direct increase in my fastidiousness with regards to code and design, not to mention pure awesomness. I’ve spent that past 3 hours (at home, mind you) working on my project- and i think i would have murdered someone had i not had fork + knife, and Eddie Vedder to listen to.

Many of you have heard of Eddie Vedder, if not at least Pearl Jam. If you have not, stop reading now, you will not be entertained. Seriously, stop.

Ok, now that we are alone, I can talk a bit more freely.  Pearl Jam was one of those bands just making it big when i started getting into music. The fact that they have progressed and continued to make good music is quite amazing. If you want a counter example, take a gander at the Chili Peppers. Sure they have some good songs, but it’s the same thing over and over.

Brand New is a much more personal adventure I go on. Often. Something about their songs rings true to me- Like i can taste the anger swelling up in their lungs, or the angsty noise they need to let out, without being angsty. I don’t expect most people to like them, but that’s ok-I don’t care about popular or obscure anymore. While you might listen to bands that don’t exist yet, I’ll keep rocking out to music I like.

Sorry for the tangent. The ECH site is almost done, and it’ll be good when it is. 50+ hour weeks is getting to me, and this one is already at 18- and it’s only monday. At this rate, well, I’ll be dead soon.