the coolest nerd

I’m in Memphis.  10% of the trip has been completed.  It’s 6:40am, local time.  4:40, my time.  I’m never up this early.

It’s hella cold.  30f.  I don’t think I’ve ever experienced this.  Ever.

I haven’t seen a single Corolla, Prius, or Lexus.  No need to worry about someone suddenly accelerating into me!  There are more SUVs here than in the Bay Area.  Tons of Jeeps.  The most common brand seems to be Nissan.  I’ve seen more new Maximas here in one day than I’ve seen ever.

People look at me funny.  Friendly though.  I haven’t seen a single other Asian person on the trip so far.  (Well, besides at SFO)

There have been emergency road signs on the freeway “ROUGH ROAD AHEAD” which seems unnecessary to me, the road is still nicer than a typical street or freeway in San Francisco.

Everyone is giving me different suggestions for food — the universal truth is do not go to Waffle House.

I went to Sonic for the first time.  I’ll definitely have to exercise and diet twice as hard when I get back.

It’s been a while since I’ve gone on a trip — the last one I can remember is flying out to Texas to buy a 1991 Mazda RX-7 Turbo II.  I really regret selling that car, and I’m tempted to get another, but they’re so rare to find now in good condition.  The biggest regret from that trip was sampling a steak — every one I’ve eaten from then on just hasn’t compared.

In a similar vain, I’m flying out to Tennessee to pickup a 2009 Mazda RX-8 Grand Touring.  In calendar year 2009, Mazda only sold 2,217 of them.  Who knows how many in Crystal White Pearl Mica — and who knows how many Grand Touring models were made without the Premium Package.  Finding a GT without a moon roof seemed to be an impossibility, but I found one and I sit here in the airport ready to drive it back in a few hours.  Maybe I’ll find out they only made 13.   Sure.  I’m insane.  At least I know I am.

I just like rare things, and white cars.  Combined, that’s a potent combination for me.  Imagine when I found my Chaste White 1995 RX-7 one of thirteen (out of five hundred)!

It’s 4:50am PST, I’m going to take a nap before my flight at 6:15.  Going to Denver first.

By the way, I forgot the usb cable for my camera.  I’ll have to add photos post trip.

I left work early today as I’m not feeling well — it took me an hour to get home, and this is why.

Normally I don’t bother uploading my photos, but I’m still in awe.  Seeing an accident in person like this makes a real impact.  This happened on Manor @ Palmetto — just a handful of blocks from my house.

From what I gathered, the dump truck was half way up Manor, lost it’s brakes and careened into the intersection.

[View with PicLens]

• - I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.
• - More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.
• - Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.
• - I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter
• - Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.
• - I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.
• - Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the “people you may know” feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?
• - Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.
• - There is a great need for sarcasm font.
• - Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.
• - I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.
• - How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
• - I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
• - I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
• - The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.
• - A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.
• - Was learning cursive really necessary?
• - LOL has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.
• - I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
• - Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.
• - My brother’s Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, “Cuz we beat you, and you hate us.” Classy, bro.
• - Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.
• - How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?
• - I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!
• - Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using ‘as in’ examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss’s last name to an attorney and said “Yes that’s G as in…(10 second lapse)..ummm…Goonies”
• - What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?
• - While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it…thanks Mario Kart.
• - MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
• - Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
• - I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.
• - Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.
• - I would like to officially coin the phrase ‘catching the swine flu’ to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: “Dave caught the swine flu last night.”
• - I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.
• - Bad decisions make good stories.
• - Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!
• - If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.
• - Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem….
• - You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
• - Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.
• - There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
• - I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
• - “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.
• - I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’
• - I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?
• - I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
• - When I meet a new girl, I’m terrified of mentioning something she hasn’t already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.
• - I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.
• - Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles.
• - As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.
• - Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
• - It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.
• - I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
• - Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.
• - Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time.
• - My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day “Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?” How the hell do I respond to that?
• - It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.
• - I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.
• - The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There’s nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

As I postipulated (yes I know its not a real word) a year ago in this previous post — I had (have?) a problem with being obsessed with rotary powered sports cars and this fact was captured for the world to see by Google Earth.  Unfortunately I sold the two older cars before I moved to Pacifica.  I’ve since moved on, but I find myself craving another FC3S.  Hopefully I have enough willpower to resist.

I’ll be the first to admit that I really have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to cooking.  In fact, learning to do so was one of my New Year’s Resolutions.  Sure, the year is almost over, but thanks to the Nintendo DS and “Can’t Decide What to Eat?” (a digital cookbook) I’ve finally begun.

It makes it so much easier to grasp cooking concepts with speech, video, and plenty of photos and additional instructions should you not know what certain terms mean.

I took a lot of liberties with the ingredients and did things not exactly to the recipe, but I’m pretty happy with how my fried rice turned out.  It was pretty tasty.  Here are the results!

I’ll keep experimenting with it and will report back with updates as I gain more experience and become more comfortable with cooking.

On one of my sites, people waxed quixotically and discussed their resolutions. Of course, theres the standard: work out, lose weight, spend less.. ideas that never work out — so I figured this year I’d do something different.

I haven’t come up with a definitive list, but here are a few of the things I want to accomplish by the end of next year.. sorted in order of difficulty.

1. Start biking again
2. Read more.
3. Update this blog more often and take more pictures.
4. Update, modernize, and promote the many sites I already run. Do something with the plethora of extra domain names I own.
5. Develop a video game. I haven’t worked on one in ten years and will have to relearn.
6. Buy a house.

To keep myself on track, and to help fulfill step 3, I will keep track of my progress on here.

I feel like I should explain why I haven’t updated the site or really gone out or done anything for the last few weeks. In the last three months or so:

Twisted ankle at Bay to Breakers

Hit by car getting off of the K MUNI street car on Ocean Ave.

Exposed my kneecap when taking a spill on my bike on Market St. (ER visit required)

On top of that, I’ve been carless for two months, and it’s still being worked on, so this continues for a week or two, hopefully it finally gets fixed.  This past weekend I spent a lot of time in a convertible, so now I’m sun and windburned too.

I think being outdoors isn’t for me, maybe theres an upgrade or something I can take advantage of? (o_O);;

In no particular order..

• Fart. A lot. Especially on crowded trains while trapped in a stuck train underground.
• Block entry and exit. When you get on the bus, just stop right in front of the door, who cares if people are trying to get on behind you. Bring your humongous shopping bags and guitars on the bus during rush hour. Who cares if someone misses their stop because you wouldn’t get out of the way.
• Force your way through the back door. Never mind that there are people trying to get off. Bonus points if you’re elderly and stare people down or simply demand a seat. Who cares if the whole front of the bus is vacant? Save your 50 cents.
• Make sure you carry excessive amounts of baggage with you at all times. If you’re standing, hit a few people in the head — you’ll get more room for your things that way.
• If you’re homeless, a bus shelter is the perfect place to get drunk. Who cares if it’s raining and there are old folks and kids without umbrellas.
• When your bus arrives, push your way to the entrance as aggressively as possible. Even if the bus is empty, you want to force your way on. Why? You’re more important than the people that have been waiting an hour before you got there.
• Don’t move to the back of the bus. The people trying to get on can wait for the next.
• Give yourself an hour extra to get to your destination. After waiting 45 minutes, expect several buses to pass you at once — filled to the brim with passengers. If you want to arrive sooner, take the bus backward and get on an earlier stop.
• Don’t expect the N-Judah to ever be on time.
• Don’t trust the drivers that say “There’s another bus right behind me” Yeah. 45 minutes behind.
• Don’t rely on the LED Displays while waiting on a platform. Often times it’ll say N N in two minutes. Fifteen minutes later, nothing. In twenty, two empty trains pass by without stopping, leaving you to wait another fifteen minutes for a crowded one. This is when everyone pushes their way on, don’t be surprised if your face is pressed up against the window during the majority of the trip. It just goes with the territory.
• Leave your garbage on the bus. Especially drinks. Everyone loves stepping on sticky floors.
• Every time you wait, then give up and decide to walk or take a cab, the bus will come.
• Enjoy your trip!

I went to see a sneak preview of Super Bad yesterday — abnormally crude, but very funny. It’s by the same guys that made The 40 Year old Virgin and I have to say that they’ve outdone themselves.

While it was pretty good, I have to say that it’s like most comedies, certainly a rental, especially if a bunch of you are going out to see it..

That said, the whole experience of going to this preview was horrendous. They required that cell phones be confiscated for the duration of the movie, and we had to pass through a security checkpoint complete with a metal detector. Imagine the line, as hundreds rushed for the exit to claim their phones. Ridiculous. They even lied to us and said that this was stated on the flyer — it wasn’t. Thanks Sony. You’ve added yet another reason for me to continue to boycott your products.

I managed to get my phone through security, and I guess I could have taken some still photos of it, but well, what good is that? They actually didn’t say no camcorders, I guess I could have snuck one in and pirated it.

Anyways, watch — this is the future of movie watching. If they think this will prevent piracy, they’re sorely mistaken. I’m sure it’ll be available, as with every movie online shortly.

Of course, if you have a common name, you could always bring an old crappy phone with you, and claim that shiny iphone on the way out. (^_-)