"They're not big, just bigger"

Sweeney's response to me apparently getting too excited about the size of snowflakes.  It's pretty late but I just had a good conversation with one of my buddies from Mexico, Marko.  It was fun talking some spanish again, aside from the casual slang with the amigos at work.  I promised to give Marko a shoutout and write a little bit of Spanish today, even though I'm sure he'll see a bunch of mistakes...

Marie showed me this song:  Etienne de Crecy

Marko! Te prometi que te daria un "shoutout"!  Aunque no estoy tan bueno a espanol que tu estas con ingles, espero que puedes entender la idea general, jaja.  Hoy, maneje por casi un pie de nieve por una hora.  Hubo mucho nieve ayer para la navidad donde vive mi madre.  De hecho, tengo una amiga quien esta atrapado en un aeropuerto en Nueva York para mas o menos dos dias.  De todos modos, espero que charlemos mas en el futuro.  Tambien, abajo es un foto de mi amigo y yo jugando un juego de "cerveza pong" en la nieve, tradicionalmente jugamos a dentro.


Christmas was fun.  I went to midnight mass on Xmas Eve with my mom in Elmhurst. Xmas day I spent with Ron.  Then today we spent it with my mom.  I got some cool stuff: a new wallet, ties, Inception, money, gift cards, etc...My mom is housesitting for a house in Wilmette, nearby where I lived until I was 5.  I bet my life would have turned out completely different if we stayed there.  I forgot who talked to about this but I think that whatever I would end up doing, I would be happy.  Like, we all think "I'm so glad I went to Michigan, best decision ever!".  But, truth be told, I probably would've been happy if I went to U of I too, or Purdue.  I think thats a good testament to our attitudes, we can always make the best of things.

Also on fb chat tonight, aside from Marko, was Marie, the French intern.  She's stuck at La Guardia airport (headed back to the Chi) for 2 full days because of the blizzard going through there.  Think about the boredom.  I ended up staying up this late because we were exchanging good music we liked.  I was sad to find out that she's leaving back for France just after new year's.  I was surprised she initiated the conversation because we hadn't talked in awhile.  I went for broke and invited her to Anderson's pregame for NYE.  She said she's down, as long as I let her know the more exact plans.  I told her that we're probably going to get downtown around 5.  Problem is she's not 21, so after the pregame she'll have to find something else to do.  Either way, I'm excited to see her before she heads back to France.  Actually, I'm just excited for NYE, I've been saying New Year's Eve instead of Christmas eve all week.

Also on my mind, I'm going to ask Steph K to another wine tasting tomorrow.  This time though, the night will not end with me passed out on the couch in her basement.  Sweeney and I are going to try and meet up in the next few days.  I work a lot this week but Shane is trying this thing where he closes at 3, so I'll have evenings.

The pong table in action, photo courtesy of Sweeney, he throws like a girl, see for yourself...jkjk

Here's to making new friends but keeping the old, one is silver and the other is gold,

Chin

Just keep truckin'

It's been awhile since my last post, in fact, its been awhile since I have sat down for a good time with my laptop. Between Shane's, friends getting back into town, and random trips to Ann Arbor, I haven't had much time to get to One a Day.

A lot of my buddies are back in town.  I have started to realize how I am losing connection with some of my high school friends.  I don't know if it is because I have changed or because they have change, its probably both.  I realized this when I went over to my buddy John's with Fabian and Todd and we sat around as John and Fabian played video games.  I just got really bored and eventually left.  Since then, they have not made an effort to contact me, so I guess they don't want to hang out anymore.  However, we did hang out the other night after I texted Fabian to get some food.  I tried to persuade them to play some outdoor day pong but they all declined.  I mean, I understand that its not something normal to do, but it can be fun doing spontaneous things like that AND day drinking is fun.  So after eating with them, I went down to my basement for some COD.  When I found out that Stev couldn't play because his brother's buddy had left with the game, I found myself with a relatively early night (10 PM) with nothing to do. At around this same time, Sweeney texted me from Ann Arbor with this video of him playing with this cool pen

I figured "Welp, Sweeney's bored too at least".  So I texted him back offering to pick him up.  He agreed and I left.  I got into Ann Arbor around 3 AM his time.  We chatted, I went to sleep.  We had steak and eggs in the morning, I stopped by Uzi's to say hi, then Sweeney and I left for Wheaton.  We stopped by Binny's and got some nice beer and some Bud Light.  We immediately went to the outdoor table and started playing.  Steph, ex gf Steph, not sister Steph, texted me that night inviting us to Muldoon's.  We went, set up a BP tourney for the next day and chatted with a few of my other HS friends.  Eventually, it was just 4 of us talking and Jill gave Sweeney and I a ride home.

The next day, Sean and Steph came over and we played more pong.  At one point the little kid neighbors came out to sled, it was a situation shooting a pong ball while watching kids play around in the snow.  Anyways, eventually we went to dinner and it ended up being Sweeney and I in my basement watching TV.  Steph texted me inviting us over to Susie's but we really had no way of getting there.  Dre and Chuck came over, we played some games then they left.  We eventually walked to Muldoon's again to hang out with Anderson, Jackie and her friend, Steph (I think). So many Steph's.  Jackie and I had a talk about the whole Nicole situation.

Side story, Nicole and I met up for lunch before all these things happened and she told me she is going to be in Colorado for 2 weeks with this prospective boyfriend of hers.

Back to the Muldoon's night.  Jackie told me to just forget about Nicole.  I have now taken that advice and so I guess we will see what happens.  Nicole was the reason I was pretty conservative at Michigan, so with her out of the picture, life's gonna be different.

The next morning I drove Sweeney back to Oswego.  We hung out there for a little, played with Latte's poop and talked to his grandparents and mom.  I went to my grandma's for dinner then went to the Sports Center to play bball with Dre.

I worked all day today and got drinks with Dre tonight.  Steph, ex gf Steph (Steph K. from now on), had mentioned possibly meeting up at Muldoon's with a bunch of people but she never texted me if they went.  Also, I guess Nicole was going to be there for trivia night, so I think its best that Dre and I decided not to go.

So tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  I'm working until about 1 then I will probably meet up with my Mom and eventually go to a midnight catholic service for church.  Christmas day is going to be at my dad's, I asked for a new electric hair cutter/buzzer!  I'm pretty excited.

Here's the Indiana/Illinois border at around 1 AM, pretty empty...

Here's to new beginnings before the new year,

Chin

Man, Oh man

Sophomore year was the foam pit party.
Junior year was all the tables for the pong tournament
Senior year was Shapes! for Halloween
This year is Outdoor pong table made of snow

Just tried it out tonight, works pretty good!  It also looks better now because it snowed and so it doesn't look as dirty.  This thing took about 6 hours to build, there wasn't a lot of snow to work with so I had to move some from the front yard to the backyard.  Sean helped out last night too.  I played a game tonight with my buddies Fulton, John Ryan and Goodman.  It went well, except it was a little cold.  I think that can be fixed with more drinking.  The good news is this table should last all winter, nice!

Tomorrow may or may not be a huge day, game face!

Here's to honesty,

Chin

Smoke and Mirrors

A blog about how things can be very different from what they appear.

But first, did you know that the exact science of how a plane flies has not yet been discovered?  There are many theories, but there is not a universally accepted law.  It's interesting how we have developed all these incredible machines without know exactly how we got there.  I guess what the Wright Brothers did is a true testament to trial and error, or the process of elimination.

My most notable days since my last blog include Thursday and Friday.  Actually, not really Thursday.  After work Anderson and I grabbed a twelver of this pale ale beer.  We went to my house and cemented our plans for New Year's Eve.  I think I am going to make a New Year's Eve resolution, not to be mistaken with a New Year's Resolution.  My NYE resolution is to witness a 10 second countdown to the new year.  2 years ago, I passed out at Fabian's house around 11:15 and last year we were all kicked out of the bar and roaming the streets of San Francisco while the ball dropped.  So this year, I plan to pregame lightly at Anderson's condo, your all invited!  Then head to RiNo, a pseudo-acronym for River North, the area to the immediate north of the river that runs through the city, for an open bar from 9-1.  After that, if we are having a good time, we will probably stick around and hopefully not spend too much money.  In the morning, I want to meet up with any Michigan grads who might be in town and catch the Gator Bowl at Duffy's.  After planning NYE, Anderson and I headed to his place to watch the new Office and the season finales of Always Sunny and the League.

On Friday, I did a lot of shopping for 2 things: Xmas gifts and my NYE outfit.  I found a good gift for my sister's husband.  My outfit should look decent, I got Stev's advice and hopefully I followed it well.  That night, Anderson and I went out to get some Chi style pizza with my mom.  Delicious.  Afterwards, we stopped at the liquor store so I could get a very special beer called "Dog Fish Head: Midas' Touch"  I only bought one bottle.  Anderson had one at his house that he vowed to drink when he got a good job.  He found out that he got that job earlier on Friday.  We went back to my house to enjoy our celebratory beers.  I invited Sean over, one of my old friend from high school.  We started hanging out again when Steph came back into town.  The 3 of us watched the Bulls beat the Lakers then walked to Front Street Cocina in downtown Wheaton.  During the walk, I asked Sean if he remembered any more than I did about the night we went to Steph's and drank Joose.  I guess he left pretty early, but he remembers me playing the piano, thinking of going home with him, deciding to stay and watch a movie, and just being pretty stupid.  He also mentioned that Steph and I were being pretty flirty, which caught my attention.  I think a lot of the night will go unremembered, unless Steph's brother witnessed anything....Oh dear...Back to Friday night, we had a few beers at front Street then made our way over to Muldoon's.  Squires met up with us there and Sean invited 2 gal friends from U of I, and I cannot for the life of me remember both of their names.  Anyways, we had some drink at Muldoon's then Squires drove Sean, Anderson and I around.  We dropped Anderson off and headed to one of Sean's friend's houses.  It was sweet, she has this guest house above her separate garage and her moms an artist.  So the whole thing is just painted, floor to ceiling.  We played some games, told some stories and had some drinks.  We left around 2:30 I think.

I was thinking about something to write about today and I decided to talk about the manipulative nature of people our age.  I think girls are way better at playing guys.  I think its because guys are just easier to read than girls, therefore easier to predict.  I don't know if I've ever been played by a girl. I guess my ex may have, but she admitted that she cheated on me right away, so I don't think her intentions were to "play" me.  I do think that I am prone to being played though.  Even though I'm not as emotionally driven as I was in high school and early college, I could still imagine becoming infatuated with a girl despite some sort of obvious evidence that she is playing me.  I wonder how often girls do this to guys and what their motives are.  Is it an ego boost or are they really just confused?  I need some insight from maybe a psych major, or maybe a woman's studies major...Is there any solid studies conducted on things like this that I could reference?

Last thing, on the job front.  The idea of going into business with Drabik gets more appetizing everyday but I would still take a good engineering job if offered one at this point.

Here's to Ron Santo,

Chin

The Mermaid Theory

Despite being unemployed, my life has developed a schedule.  Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are filled with running errands and working out.  Tuesdays and Thursdays I work the afternoon shift at Shane's.  The only thing is that I don't wake up until noon-ish usually.  I could be lazy, but usually I will wake up around 9 or 10, realize I have no pressing issues and then go back to sleep.  One project I am considering taking on is painting a wall in my bedroom, or all the walls.  I was thinking of doing a giant block M on one side, suggestions?

With waking up this late, I am usually awake until around 2 or 3 in the morning.  The nighttime is filled with COD, maybe grabbing a drink with a friend or two, movies and watching TV.  One of the shows I have really started following is How I met Your Mother.  The new episodes are on CBS, but there are repeats on CW, Lifetime and maybe another network.  Point being, the show has some great ideas, such as the Mermaid Theory.

The Mermaid Theory is very similar to my Platonic Theory.  The theory, according to the show, was inspired by the idea that sailors from ages ago would grow extremely desperate for female contact, so eventually, sea manatees would start looking like beautiful woman with fins or mermaids.  This theory states that the girls that guys hang out with all have a mermaid clock.  They can start as girls who we think are cool friends (manatees), but eventually the clock expires and the girls become mermaids.  I think this idea makes a lot of sense.  When you couple it with my theory that completely platonic feelings cannot exist between a guy and a girl, at least on the guys side, there are some discrepancies.  The main discrepancy being that the Mermaid Theory claims that guys can be strictly friends with girls, but over time they will eventually see them differently.  I have to think more about this theory, but I like it regardless.

Another hilarious idea they had was "The Blitz".  The idea is there is always "that guy" who, when they leave a party or something, something awesome happens.  Moral of the story, How I Met Your Mother is a hilarious show and I think I'm going to make an effort to watch the new episodes on Mondays.

Here's a link to B.o.B's new mixtape: B.o.B. - No Genre.  I still don't know what I think about B.o.B. but this mixtape is definitely helping his cause.

Here's to the Gator Bowl,

Chin

Where can you see yourself in 10 years?

Um, in a mirror, just like how I can see myself today.

Jokes!

Today, I got that call from the Schaumburg company.  Interesting it should come on a Saturday. Anyway, it was the CEO, Boon.  I think he's really trying to get me an honest chance because he said that he wants to give me until about mid January to brush up on my programming and then talk to them again.  Those that know me, however, know that the extent of my software knowledge, even at its peak, was insufficient, to say the least.  I do feel inclined to (re)learn as much as I can about programming languages, but...I got an email from a staffing company that works for John Deere.  The job sounds really interesting, I would be working on the wiring and stuff of John Deere products and such.  The two drawbacks are the location and pay.  It is in Dubuque, Iowa, near the Illinois/Iowa border, about 3 hours out of Wheaton.  Then the pay is a little lower than I would like, but if the various benefits are included and cost of living low enough in Dubuque, then it could be a great first job.  I am going to call the number I received in the email on Monday.

Until then I work at Shane's all day tomorrow.  I worked there all day today, but its just more money in the pocket.  Ron's mentioned that he might start charging me rent at the beginning of the year, bummer.

I finally got Skype working on my laptop and got to catch up with the likes of Lizzie, Wheeler and Dane.  I like Skype, the only thing is, I can't figure a good way to "end" a conversation.  To me, it's like a non-verbal version of "you hang up!"..."No, you hang up!"  Do any of you struggle with this/have tips to make it not like this?

Last night I went to a Chinese American fundraising banquet thing to appease my Grandma.  While driving downtown with PoPo, we discussed the Asian attitudes in America.  1502 knows my frustration/borderline racism with these attitudes, but PoPo offered a reason for these attitudes.  All along, I thought they were super clicky and generally impolite because they don't use formalities like "How are you today?" or "excuse me".  Apparently, according to PoPo, they don't do say these things because they are shy and they are shy because they are polite.  I guess in Chinese culture, it is respectful to stay quieter around people who are older than you.  Granted, I was the same age as a lot of my classmates, I guess this custom just leaked to people that you don't know too well.  The more I write this, the less sense it makes.  I mean, I'm not the most outgoing with people I just met, but at least I met them.  So many of the Asians on North Campus were just clicky and never tried to meet people.  They just stayed in their little groups and talked about academia or things in another language (like Stev's cartoons).  On the few occasions I did talk with them, be it group projects or similar classes, they just wanted information from me it seemed.  Here's an example, at the banquet last night...tons of Asians.  There were some white people too, and black people.  Anyways, there was a Caucasian girl there, about my age and really cute, like my kind of style cute.  I think she helped plan the event or at least volunteered to help or something, because she didn't have a seat and was standing the whole time.  So it was this dinner thing, the whole time though, they had light entertainment going on at a front stage to try to raise money for this organization, CASL.  Most people weren't paying attention.  So I was facing towards the back of the room, where this girl was standing.  I swear we kept exchanging glances.  Eventually, she walked to our table and was standing directly across from our round table, facing the stage.  So we were pretty close...Then, this older Asian woman sitting behind this girl yells, "Excuse me, some of us are trying to watch this!" and promptly shoos this cute girl to the back of the room again.  Of course I was watching the whole time, and that Asian woman was mean mugging her with this look of "Stupid girl, what's wrong with you"...Ok, at this point, I should have done my part, maybe gone back and talked with her, but I just never got the courage.  I was out of my element ok?  It wasn't South U, its harder out here, without liquid courage, might I add. So that's my example of Asians being rude.  Note, I am aware that there are a lot of cool Asians out there, but I think those are the ones that understand the different cultural nuances that our societies have and can be more socially aware when in American society.  I don't want to say that everyone should adapt to the American lifestyle, but thats the style I am most comfortable with, I'm not racist.

This is Rahm Emanuel, running for Chicago mayor, and my sister, he showed up at the beginning of the banquet.  I will be voting for Carol Moseley Braun, if I live in the city because she came by and said hi to my table, I shook her hand!  Rahm was impatient...

Anderson and I are trying to make plans for New Year's downtown, should be a blast.  Feel free to come to Chicago!

Here's to that cute girl I should have talked to (it was even new friend Friday!),

Chin

Shouldve eaten a pork chop

So I'm sitting in the lobby of a tire shop. Turns out there was a nail in my passenger side front tire and I am going downtown tonight to a Chinese banquet with my Grandma. I figured that it would be a good time to update right now.

Zinc my little mishap at stephs house I have been relatively productive. I applied to a job at Chrysler and just received an email for a position with John deere in Dubuque, Iowa. The position sounds pretty good, its 2+ years a contracted electrical engineer. The pay is a little lower than I would like but it's still pretty good. I talked to shane about it and he said his uncle or dad works for John deere and they are very good to their employees.

My grandma kind of guilted me into going to this banquet but I figure its a good thing to do because, well, shes my grandma. I hope I don't get stuck in a snowstorm on the way back. My sister an Trent will be there too, so it should be fun.

I am still feeling pretty embarrassed about the whole incident at stephs, mostly because I really don't remember a lot of it. I could have and probably did make a complete fool of myself. I am going to hang out with Sean this weekend to hopefully get some information on what happened.

After this tire fix, I think I'll get an oil change if I have time.

No media this time since I'm on my phone.

Here's to Dubuque, IA,

Chin

Hm, so I was wrong...

Foreshadowing: I woke up at 5:30 this morning and wasn't too sure where I was...

Listen to this as you read:

John Legend and The Roots - Wake Up (Arcade Fire cover)

Thanksgiving was good.  16 hours to Williamstown, MA, I was pretty eager to get out of the back seat with my Grandma, she kept waking me up to offer me clementines.  We spent Thanksgiving with my Aunts, Uncles and cousins and their husbands/boyfriends.  We played football, which is not a tradition for us, so that was weird but fun.  On Saturday we drove south to Greenwich, CT, which is practically in New York.  I have an Aunt there and she had a bunch of family over.  They were the family members that you hardly see though and the average age was around 65, so it was pretty boring.  I was really tired and there was nothing to do, so I fell asleep at 7:30.  We left Sunday and got home around 7 PM.

That night I went to Caliendo's with Squires, we played some darts, she won 4 games to 3.  We were there til pretty late, like 2ish.

Yesterday, things started out great and then just spiraled out of control.  I woke up around 11, made an egg sandwich with bacon.  I went to Cardinal and worked out.  At 3 I met up with Steph to do a wine tasting at Tasting DeVine. It went well, I can't remember if I did the November tasting or not.

After that is where things got not good.  We wanted to follow through on our pact to do 4 Loko hands, so...We went to a few liquor stores and eventually found Joose, so close enough. Ok, so we went to her house, chatted with her mom a bit.  Sean joined us and we played a round of screw the dealer. I was gauging my tolerance off of when I had 1 and a half four Lokos in AA with Sweeney.  So I was drinking pretty fast and it should be noted that all I had eaten was that breakfast sandwich and some bread bits to "cleanse the pallet" at the wine tasting. Anyways, we started playing Kings, but I do not remember finishing the game.  I kind of remember her brother, Greg, and his friends coming downstairs, but very vaguely.  I puked a few times, sooo bad...So I woke up at 5:30 this morning, in her basement, I texted her, she came down around 6 and took me home.  I think I was still a little messed up, I couldn't fall back to sleep probably because of the energy side of the Joose.  I woke up again at 11ish.  That...is not how I envisioned the night going.  I probably only had the equivalent of 1 Joose, but just not having any food in me was really the difference I think.

So in parallel with what Cassie and Stev hypothesized, we are still very far from being adults in some senses.  Maybe next weekend! haha...Isn't it New Drink Tuesday?

Some of you saw this already

Here's to overcast days (great for hangovers),

Chin

Who Will Survive in America

I've been struggling to wake up at reasonable hours these days, as in, around 12:30.  I think it's because it's getting colder out, so my bed feels way better than anywhere else I could be.  That being said, I have to wake up at 5:50 tomorrow to get on the road to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving.  I'm sure I will go back to sleep in the car, but it will be no where near as comfortable as my bed.

Anyways, after I woke up I wrapped some DVD's for the Xmas gift exchange we are doing with our family while in MA.  I bought Cool Hand Luke and Shawshank Redemption.  I worked at Shane's with Gordon.  My ex-girlfriend, Steph, is in town for Thanksgiving, so I shot her a text.  Her, my old friend Sean, and I met up at Caliendo's around 8.  She invited Sean, I don't blame her, it was a really random meeting, I don't think I have had a real conversation with her for about 6 years.  She went to U of Texas, where I thought she had become some crazy party girl.  From what I gather, she did do a decent amount of partying, but she still seems like she hasn't changed too much.  We all talked for about an hour and a half, made plans to hang out when I get back from Massachusetts on Sunday.  We'll see what happens, tonight was random enough but it was also a lot of fun.  After Caliendo's, I drove to Drabik's because he got into town tonight.  We went to Muldoon's to chat a little.  We were met by an old high school classmate, Tom, who would not leave us alone.  I had a beer there and then Dre and I just headed back to my house to talk and watch the Bulls game.

I kind of wish I was not out of town for so long because I am going to miss a lot of my friends coming back into town.  Meh, I like seeing the family.

Here's to old friends,

Chin

The Good Samaritan

I had two opportunities today to do something exceptionally helpful.  There were some pretty severe thunderstorms today and I saw some people with a car that had broken down.  I think I should have pulled into a parking lot close by and helped but it was a crowded intersection and I decided to just make it home safely myself.  Also, I went over to my buddy, Moran's house tonight and on the way back I saw a dog wandering around.  It was about 1 in the morning so I continued driving.  The dog had a tag and everything, so I felt bad afterwards.

I would like to think that I am the kind of person that would stop for situations like this, but apparently, I'm not.  So my goal/theme now is to stop and help people/animals like that.  I want to just do away with the whole theory that the more people that are around, the less inclined we are to help.

Like I said, there was some crazy weather today, tornado watches and stuff but that did not deter me from driving to Target after working out to pick out some DVDs and the new Kanye album.  At Target, I saw one of my classmates from high school.  From what I remember, he was a pretty smart guy and he was working at Target.  Now, I wasn't happy to see him working there, but I took comfort in the fact that he was also having trouble finding good work.  I'm really starting to see that it's just not me.  However, that does not change my mentality towards engineering.  I still think starting up a business with Drabik would be awesome, but I don't think I should commit to a plan that is still very iffy.  I suppose we'll see, I do think I will have a lot more job opportunities at the beginning of the new calendar year.  Talking with Anderson tonight, I told him I think the only engineering I could see myself doing at this point/being capable of doing at this point is engineering sales.  I feel that I know a lot, but not a lot about one particular subject.  I also think that, socially, I am very capable of driving good sales and working well with clients.  If I did get a job that was strictly engineering, I think I could learn/remember enough about what I was doing, but the problem with that is that I suck at technical interviews so I don't think I will ever get the opportunity.

Here's to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,

Chin

Ricky! Back to back!

The days have been filled with call of duty.  Stev will appreciate what happened to Ricky and I the other day.  We were playing Zombies with 3 of us.  My buddy, Nick, went down so Ricky and I had to keep us alive for the next round.  I yell on the mic, "Ricky! Back to back!".  It was a great plan until Ricky and I saw each other on our respective screens.  We had overcompensated the back to back and died promptly after that.   Just a funny story.  Then last night, Ricky, Brandon and I played some.  WE each grabbed some drinks and played together, good times.

Today, I woke up at 9 to go have breakfast and go on a bike ride with Squires.  We stopped by my friend, John Ryan's house to say hi, he will probably help me out with the beer hunt tonight.  I'm watching the Michigan game right now and will probably play some COD afterwards.  Mr. Fulton contacted me about a job opportunity, so we will see where that goes.  By the way, my beer hunt might be a little less festive than your guys' but I still think it's a great idea.

To clarify my last post.  When I say "control", I don't mean the person who usually initiates or calls or whatever.  Squires pointed out that the one who has control is usually the one who cares less.  Unfortunately, that's true to some extent I think.

Here's to the Michigan offense,

Chin

Where there's no right or wrong, there's emotion

Work today.  It was really busy for some reason, Shane's cut down the labor to 2 in the evening.  It was Holly, who is kind of slow, and myself.  She spells "lettuce", "lettus"...she could just write "L" but she chose to spell it out, meh...we got a long fine in the end...Call of Duty the rest of the night, I played with my buddy from Mexico, who was in the marines for 4 years and 2 of his friends from the corps.  It was pretty intense, playing a war game with 3 war vets.  I always felt inadequate and that they were always covering my mistakes, it was probably more mental on my part.

Control.

I just had a great talk with Drabik.  The talk got me thinking about how control works in a relationship.  I think now is a good time to talk about it as I feel that my connections with any relationships that could institute a "control" factor are at a minimum, which is a great feeling.  So, I've been in positions where I've relinquished my control in a relationship and it's pretty hard to get some of that control.  Examples, I gave Lexi all the control when we dated, the worst is that I gave it to her voluntarily.  I think once I realized I lost that control is when I became dissatisfied with our relationship.  So the moral of that, don't let them get control, right? I, personally think, no.  I mean, if it gets to that point, then, yes, getting control is important.

I think, however, that a good relationship should not be so dependent upon who has control.  Look at your best friends, control isn't an issue and everyone has a great time.  Obviously, with people we may be attracted to, it gets complicated.  We want to hang out with them, sometimes all the time, but we find ourselves playing silly games.  It's not right to expect them to be as available as we are nor to expect them to want to see us as much as we want to see them.  Sometimes both parties are just that crazy about each other, Cole and Kurt.  That's not a bad thing, though.  Other times though, I have gotten the feeling that I have become a bit OD with girls.  Upon realizing this, I have found myself literally composing texts only to erase them deciding it wasn't the right thing to say or that I had texted them too much already.  It should never be like that, but as humans are often emotionally driven, it is frequently the case when control is a factor.

I think the best way to combat this is to act like you have control, to them and to yourself.  The example I used was Roger Clemens lying about steroids.  He lied to himself enough that even he believed he didn't take drugs.  Even though they might have control, tell yourself that you have control.  Eventually you will gain that control because you've essentially "lied" to yourself for a couple weeks.

I guess the interesting thing about control is that it is based completely upon the mentality of the person who doesn't have it.  So if that person can change their mentality, they change who has control of the relationship.  Either they gain control or, better yet, no one gets control.  It becomes a non factor.  I think most early relationships, dating wise, start with control as a factor.  I think most successful relationship, dating wise,  continue with no one controlling the other.

Believing this is easier to do than applying it though, somehow...

Here's to lettus,

Chin

Can we get much higher?

The lack of blogging is an immediate result of the new Call of Duty coming out.  However, tonight I stopped playing early because I have an interview tomorrow!  The company is called Delta Mobile Systems and they are located in Schaumburg, about 30 minutes north of Wheaton.  I have been waking up earlier all week so that I can be in good form for my 10AM interview.  I got the interview through a friend of my Grandma's at the Sport Center.  I'm not exactly sure what the job is, which is a little unsettling.  The only posting they have on their website is for a C++/C/Java programmer with 5+ years programming experience.  Programming certainly wasn't my focus in school, but if that's what I'm interviewed for, so be it I suppose.

After the interview, I am going to head to Carmax to sell the minivan.  I had some good times with that car.  Taking it to and from AA a lot, almost crashing in it with Sweeney the last time I took it up.  Piling into it to drop drunk volleyball girls off at random places, only to loop around and pick half up to go elsewhere.  Going to Grand Rapids to visit Traz, West Lafayette to visit Anderson.  Yes, she will be missed.

My days have consisted of eating a late breakfast, trying to review notes for the interview and playing COD.  I have also been going to the movies a lot with Fabian.  We saw Due Date last Sunday, which is hilarious.  Then, we saw Unstoppable on Friday, which was crazy intense, I highly suggest it, I mean c'mon, it's Denzel.  Wheaton also just got a Chic-fil-a, so we stopped by there, it was a madhouse because it just opened but the service was great and we got our food quickly.

I don't have any cool pictures to share, but here's the screen grab of Sweeney and I outside of Rick's while Cassie is getting into a cab.

You can kind of see me waving!

Here's to the Montana,

Chin

Sweeney...I don't knowww...

Oh my, what a great weekend.

The visit to Ann Arbor was worth all the anticipation I had for it.  Aside from Uzi, I got to see everyone that I wanted to see.  When I got in on Thursday night, I didn't even park at Hotel Arch, immediately to Rick's where I met up with the Waithe's and Stann's girlie, Cassie, Sweeney, Saint, Stowe, and Jack.  They were all playing Chandelier at a table, so I hopped in.  We danced for awhile then some of us crammed into my car to go to Hotel Arch.  I insisted that we go to E Stadium for food, even though I didn't get anything.  Cassie ate everything her and Jack ordered then I dropped her off and went to Arch to sleep.  Stev and I played footsie all night but had a great night's sleep.

Friday, we woke up, watched toy Story 3 with the Arch guys.  At noon, we went to Benny's for breakfast because that's when Cass had a lunch break.  She had a huge Plotchman on her neck from Sweeney.  We went back to Arch and the guys slowly left to get to practice.  Stev and I headed to the track around 3:30 to say hi to everyone.  The first thing Fred told me was that the new managers are getting payed, that sucked to hear, but its ok I guess...good for them.  Lizzie gave me a huge hug, admittedly, it was good to see her, even though she doesn't seem to be very welcome at Arch.  We went outside to watch the guys and decided it was way to cold so we went back to Arch.  Mike O got in around this time, then when Sweeney got back we went to Applebees for dinner.  Picked up some beer for the evenings festivities and began our night.  We played quarters most of the time.  Trying to think of what we did once we left, we ended up in line a blue lep, but the line was too long so some of us left.  We ended up going to Quickie Burger where we ordered some pitchers, at this point I was pretty bad.  BP and Lauren came.  we went back to Arch where I passed out in the basement.

Saturday was game day, I spent the entire morning recovering while we watched Michigan pull out a 3 overtime win.  We went to Main St to eat at Grizzly Peak, it took an hour and a half for our table but it was worth is, even though Saint missed out on a ton.  Sweeney bought 2 cases of 4 Loko and got a can for free.  That kept me good for the whole night.  We played cheers governor, some recruits stopped by, we turned the strobe light on.  Eventually, we left for the volleyball party.  I got to see Ju and a lot of the team there.  Some LAX guy broke a window and Sweeney and I sang and danced on it (WalkinOnWalkinOn BrokenGlass).  BTB Party bus came and took us to Rick's.  Sweeney an I thought about it for too long and didn't get into line until it was too late.  we tried to cut but we got caught.  good riddance, I think we had a better time than if we went down there.  We went to BTB cantina and had a few drinks.  We went  back to Arch and talked until 4:30, even including daylight savings.  I slept on Joe's couch.

Sunday morning I woke up to Sweeney, Mike O and Stev laughing at me for grabbing my crotch while sleeping.  Stev left.  We went to Benny's again, ran into all the vball girls.  I said bye to Ju for one last time.  Thinking about it, I may not see her ever again, which was very sad to me.  With her going to Puerto Rico, I don't see a realistic way of our paths crossing again, unless I vacation in Brazil or her and I are visiting AA at the same time.  Lizzie was also at Benny's, Mike O said she could stand to lose 10 pounds, she's really tiny in the first place, I still don't know why he said it haha.  It was funny though.  We went back to Arch and watched football.  Sweeney went to practice so I went to Brookwood to visit Lizzie.  We talked for a good hour or so, then I went back to Arch to hang out before I went home.  Saint and I opened the locked door in the basement.  I finished watching the Lions game and made my way out.  It was sad saying good bye to eveyone, the drive back gave me a lot of time to think about all the good memories.

Now, I'm back in Wheaton, waiting to go to Target with Fabian to pick up some for sale signs for the minivan and Black Ops.  Carmax will buy the minivan for $2500, great choice!  I figure I will drive the gas out of it first, save some money that way and still try to sell it until my week of decision expires.  I'm glad to see that AK has been reading these posts haha.

Here's to Ann Arbor,

Chin

When and Where

Drabik came home this weekend and we ran yesterday and today.  In between deep breaths yesterday, Mike mentioned that it seems that time and location are becoming huge factors for our relationships with others.

On Friday night, I took the 6 PM train downtown to meet up with Marie for sushi.  Although we were supposed to meet at 7:30, she got a little lost and she didn't arrive until around 8:10.  I reluctantly had a Sapporo Light at the bar by myself while I waited.  When she arrived we got our table and ordered 4 plates of sushi.  We talked about various things like how she's not used to the cold weather and what her plans for Halloween were.  Afterwards, we didn't really have anything to do, we couldn't go to the bars because of her being 20 and she didn't want to walk around because she insisted it was too cold...We found a movie theater nearby and saw "It's Kind of a Funny Story".  It was funny, but travelling downtown to go to an $11 movie wasn't what I would have thought we would end up doing.  I paid for everything that night, that's ok though, chivalry is not dead.  I had to catch the 12:40 back, so when the movie ended at 12, I walked her to the blue line station and walked to Ogilvie.  She texted me that she got home safely and thanked me for a good night.  Overall, she's a fun girl but it's going to be difficult to hang out if she doesn't like the cold.

Yesterday, I went to Shane's to get lunch with Nicole, she was in town for a musical that her cousin was in.  We talked about things like school, how being 21 is and other things.  I asked her about her status with guys, her situation is typical of a down to earth senior girl in college.  She doesn't have much interest in any guys because she knows that she's graduating soon.  She asked me about my business and I told her about Marie, and mentioned that I felt similarly because Marie leaves in January.  I am not sure if she knows that I still have feelings for her, but I don't want to stir things up right now.  I forgot to mention that the guy she was going on dates with while I was in Mexico is still distraught over how they didn't work out and he still sends her desperate texts from time to time.  I could have been that guy, I'm certainly glad I'm not.

Last night Fabian and I drove to one of his buddies apartments in Naperville dressed as Mayhem.  Fabian's buddy, Jeff, was dressed as Anna Nicole Smith, hilarious...

Jeff is kind of like Wheeler only he capitalizes on his wit, if you know what I mean.  After the pregame, we headed downtown and went to a bunch of bars.  We danced, drank and danced more.  At one point Jeff started doing push ups on the dance floor and everyone loved it.  At around 2, Fabian, Jeff, their friend Ashley and I hopped in a cab.  I was downhill from there.  Ashley was drunk and really annoying, we were trying to get to her house and we ended up driving way more than we needed to.  After we got to her house, she didn't drop any money to help pay for the cab.  By the time we got back to Fabian's buddy's apartment, it was about 2:30 and our fare had totaled $33.  We had sobered up too so Fabian and I just drove back to Wheaton.

Today, Nicole and I met up at Shane's again, however, she just got a sandwich for the road because she had to head back to Taylor.  After Drabik finished working at Shane's we went for a good 5 mile run.  He enjoys running because of the feeling he gets afterwards with the endorphins and all.

While running with him he mentioned the whole timing and location are everything.  It got me thinking about how in high school and some of college the friends we had and girls we liked were controlled heavily by how our personalities matched up or how cute they were (in the girls case).  Now it seems that even though personalities can match great, there are unfortunately 2 larger factors: time and location.  Even more unfortunate, these 2 factors rarely work in the relationships favor.  Example, all of 1502 are graduated, timing is great, but location, we're all over the place.  Imagine how different our relationships would be if we all found jobs or things to do in the same area.  Example, Marie and I get along great, we live close to each other, but the timing is all messed up because she leaves for France in January.  With Nicole, I feel like our personalities are a great match, but time and location are working against us.  I think what makes timing and location so frustrating is that they are out of our reasonable control and how the relationship ends up is dictated heavily by when or where we are with friends.  I think there is something to be said about how fate works in this situation.

Here's to fate,

Chin

"It's like a real life telenovela!"

According to Angelo, there's some crazy drama going on with some of my friends who live in Guanajuato.


For breakfast/lunch, Fabian and I went to a sushi buffet, I figured I would warm-up in case Marie and I went out and got some sushi tomorrow.  I got pretty stuffed, I haven't been very hungry when I wake up, usually I choke down some eggs, occasionally frosted flakes.  At the buffet, I had 2 plates and some ice cream.  Fabian and I decided to dress up in overalls and a hard hat for Halloween on Saturday night, that plan has changed though.


Towards the end of my afternoon shift at Shane's, I texted Marie to figure out/confirm the plans for hanging out tomorrow night.  We're going to meet outside of Oysy Sushi, in the city, at 7:30.  I will probably take the train down to avoid all the reverse commute traffic, if only I had someone to pregame with me.  After sushi, I don't know what we are going to do.

I called Anderson about advice for good sushi places downtown and this Oysy was actually Jackie's idea, thank you.  While on the phone with Anderson, he gave me the best Halloween costume idea, Mayhem.  Mayhem, is the character from the Allstate commercials, the one who is the hot girl out jogging "making sure that this...stays a 10".  I think this is a great idea, Fabian is going to be the 1st string, once 4th string, starting quarterback version of Mayhem.  So tomorrow morning we are going to go try to find some cheap suits that we can dirty up a little then I have to find a pink headband and some pink jogging dumbbells.  Some medical tape on the left eyebrow and we'll be set for Naperville on Saturday.

While searching for a job, I've been wondering, how far away from "home" home would I be willing to go.  Admittedly, the idea of living in Chicago is not nearly as daunting as the idea of living on the east or west coast.  Moving stuff would be easier, obviously and I would still be close to all my friends and family.  I think I would feel pretty comfortable living in any area within 5-6 miles of Wheaton, so Ann Arbor is a candidate, haha.  I did apply to a job in Southfield the other day, so that's kind of close.  I think I am just going to start applying all over the nation as long as the job is appealing enough to me.  Time to start brushing up on the microelectronic circuit design again I guess.


This one's an oldie but a goodie...

Here's to pink headbands,


Chin

Back to Square 1...

I took a brief break at Shane's today to call the patent law firm downtown today.  I left a message on the the machine of the woman who interviewed me, inquiring about the progress of the face-to-face interview scheduling.  Shortly thereafter, I received an e-mail which partly read, "We have reviewed your resume and transcript. However, we are not seeking candidates with your credentials at this time".  Hmm, curious, looking further back into my gmail inbox I found an e-mail from the same woman reading partly, "After reviewing your resume, cover letter, and transcript, your credentials appear more than satisfactory and I would like to schedule  in a preliminary phone interview"....


Shittyyyyyy


So, I'm back to square 1.  I am tempted to write back, but I know it would be useless and regarded as unprofessional, no matter how sincere I sound about it.  Later, I spoke with Chuck's dad about possibly interning at his patent law firm, but their interns are only in the Summer and they need to be engineering grads who are enrolled in law school.  I've got a book coming in the mail about patent law, should I still read it if it's impossible for me to even get a face-to-face with a patent law firm?  Just yesterday I was feeling great about my chances if I got the face-to-face with that law firm, and now I'm back to contemplating my future in engineering.  I'll do some more job searching tomorrow and we'll see.


The power went out in downtown Wheaton and my house for 3 hours so we closed down Shane's 2 hours early.  When the power came back on, Fabian and I chilled in my basement and watched the Heat lose.  I also had a good fb chat with Marie.  As of right now, we are planning on finding some good sushi in Chicago on Friday, should we not find a good place, we are going to make our own sushi.  My first test of her will come after sushi because I suggested that she think of something for us to do after, she's only 20 and can't go to the bars yet. Hopefully she thinks of something interesting to do.  Actually, as I now know, plans with most girls, even when they are confirmed and definite still only have about a 50% of happening, so I'm not completely sure we will meet up Friday.


Thanks to Sweeney for committing his night of drinking to my well-being, it's nice to get support from good friends.  Right now, I am planning on being a ping pong player for Halloween, a far cry from the awesome ideas from the past 2 years (Shapes! and Jabbawockeez).  I hope I'll get a better idea by Saturday.

Fish Stick Tacos!

Here's to crazy winds,


Chin

Gung Hay Fat Choi!

That...does not mean hello or how are you in Chinese, it means "Happy New Year!".  However, it sounds like a general greeting.

I went to Chinatown today with Marie, quite the experience.  First, I struggled to get out the door, Chuck had Skyped me from Spain and I really wanted to speak to him.  So I rushed out the door to head to the city to pick Marie up and then head to Chinatown.  In my rush, I just through my shoes on and bolted out the door.  When I got about 10 minutes from her apartment, I noticed my right shoes was really loose.  I looked down and saw that I had 2 different shoes on...Really? So stupid...Anyways, Finally I got to her area and found the Starbucks she mentioned she lived by.  I parked my car, and went to the Starbucks.  I tried to call and text Marie a couple times but the calls weren't going through.  At the Starbucks, there was a girl, I walked up, "Marie?"...didn't hear me..."Excuse me, are you Marie?"...she looks up, "No"...so I guessed wrong.  I sat down at Starbucks and sa a girl sitting under a tree across the street.  I walked across after a few minutes of thinking if that wasn't her either.  It was her, she's really nice and pretty cute.  First thing I explained to her was the 2 different shoes, she laughed, probably still thinks I'm an idiot.

On the car ride to Chinatown we talked about her experience so far in Chicago with the French Alliance, small talk.  She's pretty good at english and seems to understand almost everything I say.  We got to Chinatown and walked around the shops, restaurants and parks.  Eventually we got some food where Marie ordered one of those crazy fruit tapioca drinks.  It had some weird black stuff in it that was like jell-o.  We talked some more, walked around some more then headed back to the car.  On our drive back to her area, we talked a lot about drinking games.  We decided that we would have to play some of the games sometime.

The drop-off was noteworthy, I suppose.  I pulled over to an open spot on the curb and said how I had a good time, how we had to hang out again soon.  There was some odd silence, then she got out.  I think that maybe I should have hugged her, opened her door, regardless, I feel like I did something wrong.  We'll see, we might do something next weekend for Halloween, Drabik and Nicole will be in town as well.

You know a commercial I hate, the bank one where the kid goes to study abroad in Paris because "he didn't know his fer a jaca from his vu le vu".  I hate the part where he's low on funds and as soon as he's wired money from his parents he spends it on some bon bons.  Reckless spending like that is probably what got him into trouble in the first place.  Then he probably blows all of that money on that girl he meets. jeeze...

PS...the kid looks like Wheeler

Here's to Adidas' shoes looking similar,

Chin

You're going down, to Chinatown

Last night, Anderson, Fabian and I went out.  I had a $25 gift certificate to Chili's.  After Chili's, we went to Tasting DeVine and did a wine tasting.  I did the October tasting earlier this month with Fulton, but they had a good line-up, I doubled back to the Sangiovese. Then we went to the Bank, the neighboring place and took advantage of their $2 bud light special.  We then went to Muldoon's and got a Guiness each.  Then Fabian and I went back to my house where I finished a leftover Mickey's and Anderson took Fabian's leftover.  Then Anderson and I went to Rosie's and ordered some tall PBR's.  We finished about 1/4 of them and decided to leave because there was this girl from high school there that Fulton had a thing with and I really don't like her.  So yes, a lot of the PBR was sacrificed but we had our fill last night.

I was supposed to go to Chinatown with the French intern, Marie today, but when I woke up it was raining and I had a huge headache.  I texted her to suggest we go another day and she agreed, so we are going tomorrow.  I am going to drive because it looks like it's going to rain again.  I've never explored Chinatown so it should be a good time for us.

Today's pictures are of Fabian's cat with it's tongue out, the original picture is hilarious and then I made the other one...

Here's to Mickey's,

Chin

The Pilot Episode (1502 Style)

Shane's for the morning shift, ate dinner at my Grandma's, did a good night run with Callie, had some brews with Fabian.  Watched Friends again...

Ok, so this time it was "The Pilot Episode".  Two things I am displeased with on this post:

1.  Friends is dictating the theme of my blogs
2.  I probably should have thought of these things not 5 months after 1502 was disbanded, I just feel like that guy who clings onto the past...

Anyways, what would the pilot episode of 1502 be like? (To completely ignore the aforementioned qualms)...In 25 minutes?  It would have to begin the night that Killer came to the 2nd Kelsey floor.  Stev, were you there for that?  If not, we would have to write in that you were Wheeler's friend that I met through him.  The more I think about it, the more I feel that our pilot episode would not be as successful as our series finale.  I mean, Wheeler, Grant, Cassie, Stev and I practically met due to proximity, no crazy stories there.  I guess the pilot would have to introduce people like Andrew Lee, Danny Freeman, and Mike O. into the story.  Obviously, Mike O. would have a more active role later on into the series, but he would not have a major role in the pilot.  I think Danny Freeman would be like the waitress in Seinfeld's pilot, he would have a huge role in the beginning, choosing to surround himself in finding a house for us, then he would be written off, like Meg in Family Guy.  Andrew Lee would leave kind of like Kutner did in House, I mean , he wouldn't kill himself, but his story would end abruptly without answer.

Mike O. would be in the series premier as a friend that we meet at some house party, like the first time you see Kid Cudi in How to make it in America.

Otherwise, the audience would have to assume that Stev, Cassie, Wheeler, Grant, and I were good friends in the pilot.  This isn't true, but again, due to time constraints, it would have to be posed that way.  It's crazy to look back, we evolved soooo much as friends.  That is to say, I had some good friends throughout my time at Michigan, but the one's that stuck were the ones that I knew for 3-4 years.  The likes of Krista, who would be introduced in the pilot somehow, I have no idea how...The likes of Sweeney, Ricky, Uzoma, Dane, Scott Goldman, Krista, AK, and BP are the reasons that my experience at Michigan could not easily be written into a 90's sitcom.  There were so many people that made the experience that it would just not be a traditional show.

That being said, had certain moments been filmed, there would be some hilarious episodes...

Here's to me never doing Edward 40 Hands in college,
(Didn't even do it tonight)

 Chin

PS...I don't remember the specifics of when I met some of my housemates, that's why my pilot episode is way more general than my finale episode...

The Last One (1502 Style)

So I worked at Shane's all day today, I am filling in for Esse tomorrow for the day shift, too.

Anyways, I've been watching Friends at night, admittedly I always made fun of the show when my sister watched it.  Tonight's episode was a repeat of "The Last One", the final Friends episode of the series.  IT was filled with touching moments that built up to the disbanding of the 6 of them.  Now, they were all friends for 10 seasons, I think, so quite awhile.  After watching the sentimental episode I got to thinking, how would you show 1502's last moments together within 25 minutes?

Keeping the 25 minute restraint, I think personally, the show would kick-off with Wheeler leaving for the airport...So unfortunately he wouldn't be in much of the episode.  Then the show would condense the rest of 1502's nightly adventures into one crazy night, again due to the 25 minute time limit.  This night would include a pong tourney at the house, in the breezeway (missing IT), a last walk down White St. together with us reminiscing, drunkenly, it would take us to Hotel Arch for a power hour, which would be edited to about a minute, then we would head to the various South U sites.  To complete the 5-7 minute last night montage, we would all wander off with various interests.  Roll commercials.  The next shot would open to all of us crammed into a booth at Benny's, all hungover.  We'd all make snide remarks about what we did the night before, make fun of Cassie and then the old lady would put coffee in Cassie's hot chocolate.  We'd be laughing, having a good time.  Then we would go back to the house and begin cleaning up the house from the night before, not.  We'd go back, and it would be edited such that it was my last day there.  I would be all packed up and leave, I suppose.  Commercial. The final part of the episode would be the introduction of Mike D. and Kenzo.  I can't say much of what would happen in this part of the episode, seeing s I was in Mexico, but I'd like to know how it could be summarized in the final 6-7 minutes of the episode.

That's roughly how I would summarize, no clip show like Seinfeld and no sentimental moment where we all put our keys to the house on the counter top like Friends (I still have mine).

Haha, our first reunion episode would come the next week, essentially defeating the purpose of a finale.  This episode would start with the departure of Mike D. and start with Wheeler and I arriving.  It would probably be well-received however it would lack the 1502 house so it would not become a spinoff series.  Maybe another night I will think about how this episode would go, or maybe someone else can (wink wink).

Hopefully the next reunion episode will happen here in November, I guess we'll see.

Cassie, I'm sure you've seen this already

Here's to 8:30 being the earliest I've woken up in awhile,

Chin

Come fly with me

Good day, good day...

Looking back, I didn't do much, but Stev's "Last Impressions" theory applies here, the past few hours have been really good.  I'll just talk about them...I went to Bdub's with Anderson to visit Squires and I got my first free thing from Bdubs!  It was a 22 oz. Coors light, Squires said she got it for free, so I will give her the benefit of the doubt.  Then I got home and watched Eastbound with Fabian.  Nicole texted me that the Blackhawks won because we decided to be fans this year, the best damn fairweather fans out there.  Now I've been having a pretty good talk with David, so a good night overall...

Today I also started to read about patent law in hopes of being well prepared for my face-to-face interview with that patent law firm.  I really want to buckle down and get into this type of profession because I think I would enjoy it a lot.  I want to head to the library one of these days and gain some published knowledge about patent law, so far it seems very interesting.

Aside from the toppings, wouldn't it be hard to tell which is the top and bottom of the pizza?

Here's to the Homecoming King, David Sweeney!

"Where are you? I'm getting jittery!

Did you know that if you type "hottttt" on an iPhone it turns it to "jittery"

Today I wrote to the recruiter lady from the law firm to give her a "nudge" on getting my face-to-face interview set up.  I worked at Shane's and have been relaxing at home since.  I think tomorrow Fabian and I are going to catch a matinée of Jackass.  That scam guy has not called me back yet.

David has convinced me to go to Ann Arbor for the weekend they play U of I.  Should be a fun time and I think Fabian is coming with me.  The weeks these days fly by, this routine makes the days all blend together.  I think I have a high tolerance for doing nothing.  Like when people get tired of having nothing to do all day, I am not tired of that.  I still would enjoy a "real" job though and I will continue searching (determination!).

Here's a picture of me and the shoes I "accidentally" (lots of quotes today) took from the Red Head Piano Bar, I promise to return them next time I go...Provided by Jackie

Here's to Jimmy Fallon actually being a good late night show host,

Chin

"Let's knock out those reps"

I almost fell for my first legit scam today.  So, I was at work at shanes when I received a call from an Atlanta, Georgia area code.  The guy, Robert, seemed to know his stuff about me, said he got my resume off of careerbuilder and was looking for electrical engineers.  He asked if I had a minute and I did, then he asked me to  grab my laptop and pull up my resume and we could look at it together.  I was at work so I said I didn't have my laptop.
Him: "Alright, well I will be available at 10 AM tomorrow, will you be available?
Me: "10? Okay, that works."
...we talk a little longer about how I can contact him...
Him: "Thanks Kyle, I will speak to you tomorrow at 9."
Me (Trying to be flexible): "Um, 9? Okay, sounds good."
Him: "That's 9 eastern time"
Me: "Sounds good, thanks Robert."

At this point I thinking, man, I have to wake up at 8 to talk to this guy? Fine, whatever.  So throughout the conversation, the guy was kind of mumbling, mumbling to the point that I couldn't identify his last name correctly, I wrote "Dovell" it was actually "Topal" and I couldn't ID his company correctly, I heard "OnStar" it was actually "Beyond-Star".  Sure they sound the same, but you shouldn't mumble the company's name...I tried to find out more on-line and eventually got information using the phone number he called from and the one he told me to call.  From there, I found his correct name, correct company name and their website.  His website turned out to be sketchy as hell, talking about Martians attacking an stuff, this hypnotic-like music playing, sooo weird...So I googled "beyond star scam" and found all these complaints, apparently, I should expect several calls from this man for awhile now.  I'm sure you could find the website, but I don't want to link it because I'm kind of paranoid , haha.  Needless to say, I'm sleeping in tomorrow.

Anyways, work went well.  When I got home Fabian and I rented Hot Tub Time Machine and got some Bud Light Golden Wheat, which I was skeptical of because it seems out of season, but they were out of Octoberfest, sooooo...Good movie though, for as incongruent the plot is, I suppose.  It helped to have a few beers, too.

Thought, maybe I should pick up my phone tomorrow when he calls, maybe play the fool a bit, say some stupid stuff and see how long he deals with me until he realizes I'm not taking him seriously.  I think I'll do that.  Or is that a bad idea?

Thank you Sweeney for documenting Joe descending the tree in the back of Hotel Z15...

Here's to Google (Maybe I should apply there),

Chin

"I'm going to break up with him, in like...a week"

Heyo,

Today...started slow again.  I woke up around 12:30 and gave Fulton a call.  He's in town this weekend for no reason in particular.  He was still asleep, he picked up tho. I told him I would stop by in a little, after dropping off my sister's key at my grandma's.  Anyway, we went to the Egglectic Cafe, last time I went there was to meet Killer and Stev when they were in town.  We saw one of Fulton's old flames across the street and it was kind of awkward so we dodged looks from her.  Afterwards, we went to my house and watched some college football (I will not mention what games we watched specifically).  Fulton went home and I relaxed for a bit then we met up and did a wine tasting.  We found a friend there, Stev you may remember her, and apparently she's breaking up with her boyfriend next week.  She left and after the tasting we went next door and met up with some of Fulton's friends who once went to Taylor but have since been kicked out.  They were pretty cute and afterwards we went back to my house and had some more wine.  They eventually left and Fulton and I had a good talk.

As shallow as it sounds I was just saying how nice it is to look at a nice female body.  Not in a lustful way, but it just appeals to the male instinct to appreciate some nice curves or a cute face.  I think that's why old men say girls are "so pretty".  It's not like they get all bothered by it, but it's just like listening to a song you love or seeing a painting you like, it's just something we appreciate and deep down you don't know why.  "Why do you like that song so much", "I don't know, it just appeals to me".

My point of interest yesterday occurred to me when Squires and I went for a bike ride.  My theory is that being single is like being in the "Honeymoon" phase, only its not always.  If you're single, and have no active prospects, you just kind of chill and have these people that you're not committed to.  It's a nice thing and I believe that I've had this honeymoon feeling with Nicole only because our relationship has not been allowed to evolve beyond me knowing the things I like about her.  Sure, I've been frustrated at times but that's only because I don't know how she feels.  But yeah, the honeymoon phase is great and it's definitely a perk of being single.

Tomorrow is a day of watching football and probably hanging with Jake until he heads back to Taylor.

Here's Squires and I saving some precious Wheaton wildlife on out bike ride yesterday.

Here's to Taylor students,

Chin

My minor is in...Spanish?

Today I woke up to a phone call from an automated credit card company.  Afterwards, I checked my e-mail and found that a girl had Facebook messaged me.  I was going to delete it but I ended up opening it and it was an intern at my Step Aunts job who was from France.  Maya had mentioned that they went to the Sox game with this girl a bit ago and said I might be interested.  I was intrigued in the least, but you know how it is, the parents always say "She is so cute".  Anyway, the message was all about how she had heard a lot about me and how she wanted to see some parts of the city and thought it would be more fun if we could check it out together.  So, we became Facebook friends and we might end up doing something this Saturday, at least that's what I proposed.  She says she wants to check out Chinatown, which is on the southside, so that would be an adventure for the both of us.  She seems like a cool girl, she makes all those grammatical errors typical of people who don't have english as their primary language, but she seems like she's pretty good at it.  If only I took French instead of Spanish, just kidding.  We'll see how it all goes, she's around until January and she seems pretty cool.

I also emailed the patent law firm back and thanked the woman who interviewed me yesterday saying that I thought they had a great work environment.  I worked at Shane's for the afternoon shift, good times.  Tonight, I went over to Anderson's to watch Always Sunny, The League and the Office.  Fabian joined and we had a fun time with our twelver of Octoberfest.

Here's to 70 degree weather in October,

Chin

Just a thought

Woke up, had that phone interview, it went well, I am going to be going in for a face-to-face interview sometime soon.  Otherwise, didn't do much, played some reach (making Lockout on forge).  I also hung out with Fabian, we went to Rosie's and then met up with Squires at Caliendo's.

Just a thought, with the whole idea of a platonic relationship not between able to exist between a guy and a girl (from the guys point of view)...Does that mean that even girls of the past are subject to us feeling that way?  Honestly, I would say that I would love another shot at my first girlfriend, but the second...meh, I'm pretty sure that would be a very regrettable thing.  So maybe it can exist.  I suppose though, that one could argue that a relationship doesn't exist between the two of us.  So I don't know, maybe I will feel completely different about it in 5 years.

Here's to the here and now,

Chin

Perfection

Well, I am really enjoying this new Halo.  I played about 15 games online with Wheeler today and we killed it.  We won a 4 vs. 2 game, I got a perfection (16 Kills, no deaths), had a closing wins streak of 7 games and my K/D is 2.28.  I guess we are still playing with lower ranks, but it was fun nonetheless.

When I woke up for Shane's today, I checked my email and found one from the law firm.  I have a phone interview with them tomorrow at 1 PM.  I'm pretty excited for it, I feel well prepared.  Today, Anderson came into Shane's around 2 so I took my lunch break and we ate together.  I put new speakers in at Shane's so we blasted some Andre 3000 while closing up.  I got home, played Halo, and I just finished the House from last week.  I don't know how I feel about the season so far, he seems way too happy.  I'll watch yesterday's episode in a week.

Stev, we should play sometime tomorrow.

Here's to videogames,

Chin