A Star is Born....Along With Evil Homer

The tattoo session went well today and I walked out of there with my fun and happy looking star on the left side of my upper back and Evil Homer on my upper left arm. I am extremely satisfied with both of them, Travis Berg did a great job. Both tattoos are a tad weepy and bloody at the moment but by tommorow I should be able to take some decent pics of them. Right now, Homer looks like he has horrible acne all over his face and hands. Since his face is actually bleeding, it is more than likely weaponized Ebola but who is to say really.

My cousin also went with me to get his first tattoo and his turned out very well also. He had a cross put on his shoulder that fades from black to red as you get toward the center of the tattoo. Very spiffy.

I have decided to pay one more visit to Travis and this will probably occur sometime in late October or early November. I want to get a couple of flames put around Homer, a little bit more color on my original tattoo, a pirate flag in the dead center of my upper back, and lastly, Mr. Burns with a set of angel wings on my right upper arm. Yeah, after that I will stop. I may or may not get the pirate flag but it is very tempting. I will figure that out later. Mr. Burns is definitely happening because to have something on my left arm but not my right would throw off the balance the tattoos provide. I know it sounds weird but I like symmetry and therefore, Mr. Burns must be there, just go with it.

My problem is that I really like tattoos and if money was not an issue, I would probably have most of my back done. I also refrain from doing this because some people aren't big on tattoos or find tons of them unattractive, I still have not decided where I stand on the issue but for now I am instigating a five tattoo limit on my body. I do not want to get carried away.

After the tattoo thing today, I went over to Phyrry's house to eat dinner with her and Demonator. We had turkey burgers and they were good. It was the first time I have eaten a whole turkey burger and I was surprised how much like hamburger they taste when adorned with the appropriate condiments. With dinner I had a bottle of Framboise Raspberry Lambic which is very tasty. Imagine what would happen if sparkling raspberry juice met beer and they had a child. It tastes just like raspberry juice and is very very easy to drink.

All in all it was a pretty good day today. Tomorrow means going to work but going to work means showing off my new ink so that isn't that bad. Night Night!

Decorating the Temple

Some people will tell you that your body is your temple and if that is the case, I am adding some more decorations to it today. I got a tattoo of an angry little star a couple of years ago on the upper right side of my back and today I will get a happy little star on the opposite side. I am also getting Evil Homer put on my shoulder today so that should be fun. When they heal I will post pics on here for all to see.

The other funny part is that I have a cousin who is in Boise now going to bible college and I convinced him to come with me and get some ink done as well. I love warping the minds of younger relatives, its so much fun.

Anywho, I am going to grab a haircut before getting poked with a bunch of needles for a couple of hours so I need to take off.

Jukebox Battle

Demonator, Phyrry, and I decided to go to Merrit's at 1am and have a milkshake. Merrit's is this little dive of a cafe that happens to have a jukebox sitting next to the door as you walk into the place. I like jukeboxes.

The fun part to jukeboxes is that for how many ever songs a person decides to pay for, they are in total control of what the other inhabitants of an establishment listen to. This is the double-edged blade of the audio world. If you are lucky, the guy that is picking songs has good musical taste and will give you a unique blend of songs and artists. Unfortunately, you can also get stuck with the people that must play late-70's butt metal while you try to eek out a conversation over the boring riffs and basslines that were probably created during a stupor brought about by Hamm's Beer and cocaine. Tonight was that night for our trio of late night snackers.

After the rocking ceased I decided it was time to take control and revenge. I had seven tracks to load so I had to make my choices count. The first track was Clint Eastwood by the Gorillaz. Good song. Not what our metal loving diners liked but that was just a warm up to prepare them for the intense rocking they were about to receive. About the third or fourth track in I went for the jugular with Belinda Carlisle's Heaven is a Place on Earth, a poppy little track from 1990 that I happen to be mildly fond of. The choice was also tinged with a tad of spite toward the metalheads for making me listen to their crap for the first part of our meal. As I suspected, the song choice paid off and within seconds they were arguing amongst themselves and blaming one another for picking the song.

Several seconds after the song really kicked into gear the group of metalheads got up to go pay, still blaming one another for picking Ms. Carlisle's song and tormenting the group. Several charges of homosexuality were also laid at the feet of one of the metalheads. Demonator and Phyrry knew that I had picked the song and the three of us had quite a good laugh as the waitress, in an effort to quell the situation confessed that she had picked the song because she liked it. Moments later the metalheads had gone out to the parking lot leaving us in the peace and quiet that can only come with Heaven is a Place on Earth. All in all, tonight was a very amusing dining experience.

Another Night With Vixen

And I had a blast! Tonight, she and I went to see The Wedding Crashers and had a ton of fun. If you haven't seen that movie, you should. Basically, two guys go to weddings in search of women and crabcakes.

On the Vixen front, I have never found someone I have felt so comfortable with and had so much fun with. I have the best time when I am with her. We can talk about anything and usually do and both of us have so many similarities and things in common. Oops, run on sentence, my bad. The only downside to our evening was that I lost my debit card. Part of my thinks it was the group of four year old cheerleaders that pilfered my plastic but more than likely, it was my dumbass forgetting it in the ATM machine. Beh. I still don't know about those cheerleaders for the Optomist football league though, I think they know a little too much for their age. Perhaps, their parents are using the guise of being supportive parents of a youth sports organization in an effort to have their kids steal passerbys credit cards. Hmmm...maybe they are on to something.

Anywho, yet another fun night with Vixen. Next time we hang out, we may have a movie night because both of us have movies that the other has not seen and we feel they should. Brain Candy is on my list as well as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. There are quite a few others as well. I love sharing movies with people. Now though, it is time for bed; it has been a long day and I am tired.

Happenchance

I just got back from a very strange mini-adventure.

After getting off of work, I sat around my room for a bit checking email and procrastinating about going to lift weights. After several minutes of mental wrestling, I put on my workout stuff and headed for the gym. I worked on my legs tonight and followed up with a dip into the pool and hottub. The workout was good and I left happily worn out and damp from the swim.

While getting in my car I decided that I should go find The Ring 2 to rent and see how that movie is seeing that I don't have to work until 4pm tomorrow and can sleep in. I went to one Blockbuster and they were out so I decided to try one other Blockbuster that was also my end of town. To my joy they had the movie and they also had Being John Malkovich to buy for cheap so I grabbed that as well. I chatted with the clerk for a couple of seconds about the Japanese version of The Ring and then left.

When I got into my car I decided I was hungry and thought that Twin Dragon sounded good. I phoned in my order and promptly drove to pick it up. When I got there, I had a very strange urge to talk to Brandi, Easy T's sister. Her and I talked for almost half an hour before I decided that it was time to leave. Here is the strange part...or maybe it isn't strange at all and I am blowing it all out of proportion.

I am driving home and decided to take one way because I liked the scenery better. While driving, I pass two people that were obviously very very wasted. I also recognized them. The female was a girl named Cassie that I work with. Cassie is pretty cool save for the fact that she loses every drop of repsonsibility in her ver small body when she drinks. I mention her size because she is a light-weight in drinking terms and should probably not go drinking unsupervised. The guy that was with her is named Domingo. I also work with him and he and I get along pretty well. But like Cassie, when he gets drunk he gets stupid. Anywho, I knew they were too far out of downtown to be going to a bar and figured that they were looking for a car or were so drunk they had lost their way, either way it was not a good thing to have them out and about in their current state. I decided to stop in a nearby lot and go over to see what they were doing.

After talking to them, my suspicions were confirmed, they were indeed looking for Cassie's car. She was going to drive them home....yeah. I told them this was not happening and that I would take them anywhere they wanted but I was not letting either of them drive, especially not Cassie. Domingo asked if I remembered where his sister's house was and I told him that I still did from a previous drinking escapade we all embarked on a couple months ago. Off we headed to his sister's house.

On the way there, Cassie fell asleep against the rear window of my car and was so out of it she didn't even wake up when she hit her head pretty hard on the glass. Fortunately, the house was not far and nobody puked in my car. I made sure they made it into the house and firmly told Domingo that he would not take Cassie back to get her car tonight. And if I found out he did I am going to rip into him.

While on the way to the house, we passed three cops who were looking for drunks. If I had not been there to pick those two up I am pretty sure they would have gotten stopped and both would be in jail. Worse could have happened too I suppose. Either way, I was there at the right moment to help them whether or not they thought they needed it and I feel good about it. My good deed quota is filling up quite nicely lately. I just can't help but think that if I did one thing differently tonight something bad would have happened to Cassie and Domingo. I don't know why, I just have a feeling. Odd....but good that I was able to help them out.

Befuddlement

I decided a long time ago that I am pretty sure I am one of those hopeless romantic types. I like being in relationsships, I do not like being single and latley, I have had this proven to me time and again.

Vixen came over last night and ate dinner with Phyrry and I and the three of us had a good time eatting and watching "Heat". The more I hang out with Vixen, the more jealous I get of her current boyfriend....at least I think he is her boyfriend. This is a gray area for me. I am not usually the jealous type but for one reason or another, this whole thing with Vixen has set it off. Odd. Her and I have tons and tons in common but I have no clue where anything is headed or how long I am going to be able to deal with it before it drives me insane. :) The whole setup is very odd.

On the upside, I think her and I are going out again on Saturday and that is good. As I have said, I like spending time with her. All I know, is that if I were her boyfriend thing and she was going out on these dates with another guy and on the first date, she crashed over at his house, I would be ready to snap. I have no problem with girlfriends going and hanging out with their friends but where does the line between hanging out end and more than hanging out begin. Maybe I am just a friend to her and that is all. Maybe not. I don't know and as I have said I am a tad confused at the moment. Oh well. At the very minimum, Vixen is someone new to hang out with who jives very well with me. Maybe something else will come of it, maybe not. I have a weird feeling that I am just going to have to go along for the ride and I will just have to wait to see where this takes me.

12 Angry Men and One Big Sticky Ball

I have been in an odd mood today. Tonight, I just had to get out of the house and decided to go to HAstings to look at their movie selection. While there, I realized I was in the mood for a few good old movies and decided to buy three of them that I had been contemplating picking up for a while. I walked out of the store with "12 Angry Men", "Annie Hall" (one of two Woody Allen movies I like, the other being "Sleeper"), and the special edition of "Citizen Kane". Demonator, Phyrry, and I watched "12 Angry Men" and I must say, I had forgotten how much I like that movie. The acting in it is so well done and each character is unique and full of depth. So anywho, we watched "12 Angry Men" and it was good.

Lastly, I picked up a used Playstation 2 a couple of days ago and with it, Katamari Damacy. We in the nerd basement are hooked on that game and its cheerful little soundtrack. Demonator especially takes great glee in uprooting entire cities with the help of a very large sticky ball of rolling goodness. It is not often anymore that a truly unique game comes along but this is an exceptional title in almost every way. The best part, is that the sequel is due out in the U.S. within the next couple of months. If you are looking for a PS2 game give this one a try. In fact, Demonator is playing it as I type this.

The weather is also finally starting to cool down and for this I am grateful. I am getting tired of it being so hot that I have to sleep with the drone of a fan and on top of my covers. The sooner that fall gets here, the better. Come on chilly weather!

An Extraordinary Week In Review

So many cool things have happened this week, I don't know where to begin.

First, I finally got my money from the sale of the house and so now, I am rolling in the Benjamins. I am totally debt free other than my car payment, cell phone payment, insurance payment, and rent stuff. Basically, no more credit card debt and I actually have a savings account with a sizeable sum of money in it. Sweet.

Mr. Blue and Ms. K came into town and I hung out with them for a couple of days. We had a blast floating down the Boise river although the water was a tad cold. Just a tad. :) I also met a guy named Matt who was pretty cool and has known Mr. Blue for many years as their parents are friends. We ate sushi and drank El Piratos and in general had an excellent time. Spyder also took part in the drinking of the El Piratos and sushi eating though, he found a new drink that I also enjoy called a Rum Dinger. It is basically Whalers Vanilla Rum and root beer. TPL, you must try this drink.

Last night, I had one of the best nights in recent memory. Vixen, the girl I mentioned in the previous post hung out with me last night and we had a blast. We went to eat at the Cottonwood Grill and then watched The Island, which was a much better movie than I anticipated. After the movie, Vixen came back to my place and we talked until the very very wee hours of the morning. Around 5:30am we decided we should get some sleep and so we curled up with each other and slept. It was the best sleep I have had in a long time. It just felt good to have someone next to me again and I was very happy that that someone was her. Vixen is cool on about fifty different levels and her and I connect and mesh very well. Yeah, I really really like her. She makes me feel very good about myself, the world, and life in general.

Which leads me to today, a very good day as well. My night, morning, and early afternoon with Vixen had residual effects on my attitude throughout the day and this caused me to be rather chipper.

Other than Vixen herself, the thing that struck me about last night was that it was all so natural. Everything just flowed. There was no nervousness about what was going to happen next or what we would talk about. No awkward silences or uncomfortable segments of time. It was just her and I talking and being happy in each other's company. I did not have to put out effort to make the experience fun and I didn't worry about whether or not she was having a good time because I just kind of felt like she was. It was a very chill night. It was a very Zen moment of connectivity between two people. We just talked and time streamed past us. It was a very unique experience that hasn't happened in years or possibly ever.

To summarize: Last night rocked.

In general, that was pretty much the tone for the entire week. It was like a soul trip to DisneyLand.

A Fun Week Ahead

The upcoming week should rock. I get my money from selling the house on Monday and to celebrate I am taking my family and Mr. Blue and Ms. K out to dinner. Oh yeah, I am also calling in sick to work that day. Why is it when I actually have plans for my days off, my boss changes my schedule? Eitehr way, he must be punished and I am calling in sick.

Tuesday will also be a good day because Sin City and the 6th Season of the Simpsons come out. Lots of DVD watching to be had on that day. I think Mr. Blue and Ms. K and I may also be going to Zutto for dinner and good sushi is also a lot of fun. Tuesday is also the last session with my trainer guy, Ray. I have learned a ton from him and feel that I can continue on by myself.

Wednesday, will probably be the pinnacle of my week because I have a date. A much less skanky, much cooler and more fun date than my previous one. For now, I will call her Vixen because that is what she nicknames herself in one of the video games that we play. Vixen is totally cool and we have a ton of stuff in common. Though the date is not supposed to be "serious", it should be damned fun and I am looking forward to it a lot. I have a lot of fun when she is around.

It is odd to think that as of Monday, I will be debt free and have a savings account and stuff again. It is also wierd that I am getting as excited as I am about Wednesday. I haven't been this happy about going out to dinner with someone in a long,long time. Its kind of sad, I am already trying to figure out what I am going to wear and what CDs to burn for the car rides. I am pathetic and a tad obsessive when it comes to first impressions. Dunno.

Anywho, this week should be a good one. Come to think of it, the rest of the year should be pretty good too. I think stuff is starting to look up, now if I could just get the job and career stuff worked out. One step at a time I suppose. I am just glad stuff is coming together.

Freakin' Bored

I am really freakin' bored right now. I have a multitude of things I could be doing and almost all of them are more constructive that what I have been doing for the past hour or two. I think it has to do with the fact that my apartment's temperature feels like the outer ring of hell at the moment. Heat saps my ambition hardcore.

So you might ask, what have I been doing this evening? A good question, I have been downloading packs of magazines as of late and reading all of them. It is amazing how cool some magazines can be and it ticks me off that I can't find some of them in regular stores. For example, I have been reading a lot of "Jane's Defence Weekly". Basically, Jane's is a magazine for defense contractors and military folk who might actually care that Greece just finished buying 30 more F-16 fighter aircraft and that the purchase may stall the tenative agreement they had with the EU for purchasing the Typhoon aircraft. Why I dig this, I am not sure.

In other news, I met with Mushi and the realtor today and we got our list of minor fixes that must be done to the house. I have already done my part of them. I need to call a siding person tomorrow and see if it is possible for them to come out a repair a small spot at the front of the house. Mushi has a couple of things to do as well but these are pretty small tasks and will take minimal effort on her part to accomplish. This means that we will be closing the house sale on Friday and we should have our money by Monday. Rock On! This means that aside from my car, I will have accomplished my goal of being debt free by the first of the year. I rule. I think my family and I are going out on Monday to celebrate the endo f all of this stuff. It will be nice I think.

I also finally got my grade from that summer school class that I "pwnd". As I figured, I got an "A". This means that my lifetime GPA got boosted to a 3.012 which means, I am now eligible for grad school and I have been looking at a Masters in Applied History which is a lot like the work I have been doing for the History Society. We will see, I want to make sure that is actually what I want to do before I take the GRE and commit myself to school once again.

Anysho, I can feel another tide of ambition wash over me now so I am going to do something constructive now.....like clean my room....grrr.

Return From Shelbyville

I got back into town last night and I must say, I had a blast hanging out with Easy T for the weekend. (Note: It was decided since there was already a Mr.T, Easy T was a better name for said person :) My first night there, Easy T, his friend, and I went to a couple of bars and one of them served as the inspiration for Moe's Tavern on the Simpsons. I also saw the inspiration for the Jebidiah Springfield Statue that night. It turns out, Matt Groening was from Springfield, Oregon which is the neighboring city to Eugene. Shelbyville in the Simpsons, where Bort and Liza live, is actually meant to be Eugene. I learned all sorts of Simpsons stuff that night.

Easy T and I also went into Portland for a day and hung out at Powell's Books, Fry's Electronics, and a place called Ground Control. Ground Control was kind of cool, it is part bar and part old school arcade. They only have old games there and the second storey of the building is dedicated to old pinball machines that Easy T played extensively. I was happy they had Missle Command and placed third in the rankings on it. I love Missle Command. In a couple of weeks, The Minibosses will be playing there. They are a band that does covers of old Nintendo game theme songs and they rock. Easy T is going to the concert and will be buying me much Minibosses merchandise.

The weekend was a fun one as a stated above. I really enjoyed being able to hang out with Easy T andactually get to have conversations with him. Sometimes, email just doesn't cut it and you need to get in face time with your friends. I was glad we were both able to work my visit into our schedules.

Now that I am back in town, today is cleaning day. Tomorrow, Mushi and I meet with the realtor and go over a couple of minor house thing that the inspector wants us to do before we finalize the sale of our house. It should be an easy couple of days and then I go back to work on Wednesday.

Talking To Yoda

So I am at work yesterday and one of my favorite customers comes in. I am not being sarcastic, I actually like this guy. He is an elderly Korean guy that has had a stroke and uses a wheelchair to scoot around. The funny part is that he does not liked being pushed I don't think so he uses his feet and his cane to propel the chair around. It looks almost as if he is rowing on pavement and he does not go fast. When he speaks, he does so with a heavy Korean accent and he has one squinty eye. He also chuckles a lot in between fragmented sentences English. All of these mannerisms has led me to secretly nicknaming him, Yoda.

When Yoda usually comes in the store, it is with his wife who is a very nice lady that I have yet to nickname. Yoda has a hankering for electronics and if he had his way, he would buy my entire department and then some. The guy loves DVD players and computers especially. Yesterday, he comes in and I think he beat his wife in the race to get to my department first because he was alone for quite a while. He and I talked about DVD players and recorders and also Tivo like devices. After this discussion, he asks me if I know anything about computers to which I reply that I know a little bit. He then goes on to explain how when he had his stroke he lost most of the functionality of his left side and has a hard time typing on the keyboard and hates pecking at the keys with his right hand. I do not ever want to have a stroke. I had never thought about not being able to type and I think it would drive me mad. But I digress. Yoda wanted to know if there was a way he could use the mouse to do his typing and for some reason I remembered the on screen keyboard feature that XP comes equipped with. I so him how to turn it on so that when he gets home he can do this for himself and at least have an easier time at pecking on the keyboard. I was glad I was able to help him.

This is where stuff gets interesting. Yoda starts talking about how he read in a magazine about the CEO of my company and how good of a guy he is. Which is true, the CEO of the company is a really cool guy. Yoda then goes on to talk about how the CEO treats all of the employees and customers very well and how most of the people that work for the business are happy. This is about the time that I mention that I have a degree in history and education but I get paid more selling computers than I ever would teaching. Yoda perked up at this and asked what history I taught, thinking that I specialized in United States history...probably because I am white and that is what most historians around Idaho specialize in. When I told him that my emphasis was in Asian history, specifically Japanese and Chinese, I thought Yoda was going to fall out of his wheelchair. He started to tell me that I needed to learn Korean history as well....which is true but books about Korean history are more difficult to come by around here.

Yoda goes on to give me a miniature history lesson which was quite entertaining if not somewhat biased. For those who do not know, historically speaking, Koreans and Japanese people do not get along. They are extremely competitive with each other and both countries have shafted the other one at some point so both hold nasty grudges with each other to this day. One thing about most Asian cultures is that their sense of cultural memory is friggin' huge......HUGE. If the U.S. and Britain were Asian, we would still be pissed at each other for the Revolutionary War. Anywho, Yoda goes on to tell me that the Japanese Shinto belief system originally came from Korean shamans. This to me is plausible because the dresscode is the same for both Korean shamans and Shinto priests. He then went on to explain that when Confucious wrote his teachings and words of wisdom, he got quite a few of them from observing some of the Korean tribes that neighbored the Shandong province in which he lived. All in all this was a pretty cool conversation to be having with the guy and I was happy to listen to him because I think he was enjoying telling me all of this and I was glad that my history degree was acutally being useful for once.

Toward the end of the conversation, I mentioned that I knew some Japanese and he firmly reminded me that whenever I speak Japanese, I should remember that Koreans came first and are a much older culture than that of the Japanese. He also wanted me to know that the Korean language was much older and had more in common with Chinese. Ahh...interracial competition.

After this friendly reminder, Yoda's wife showed up and he took her to look at the DVD recorders that he wanted and she, like usual, told him he could not have one. It was very much like a mother telling her ten year old he can't buy the action figure because he already has too many of them. Those two really crack me up.

Anywho, that was my significant conversation of the day yesterday. I like being able to talk history, especially Asian history with other people. I also like observing how other people spin history when it suits them. It is not like Yoda was outright lying to me because most of the stuff he told me was at least partially true or plausible. He was just making sure that his culture looked good while explaining everything to me. Can't blame him there.

Gearing Up

Today, I ditched my work shift on some poor kid that wanted hours so that I may spend the time cleaning both my house, car, and laundry, and also packing for my trip to Eugene, Oregon to see Mr. T. I leave Boise tomorrow after I wake. I figured it would be good to wake up before driving.

I have a very laborious day ahead of me just because I have all of these minute tasks that need to get done before I leave. It should be an easy day, just a busy one. I have been thinking about starting another blog and maybe inviting a couple of other people to help write it; the blog would be about travelling. I love to travel and even though Eugene is not that far away, I am getting all fired up about the trip itself. I just like the driving. Either way, you may or may not be seeing a link to the sister blog to this site about travelling. Think of the postcards Uncle Travelling Matt from Fraggle Rock and you will have an idea of what I want to accomplish.

On a slightly different note, I was leaving my house last night and I came around the corner of the porch and this huge lady with one of those flashlights that could be used as a bludgeoning device was standing there looking at me. After almost crapping myself, I then here a knock on the door of the apartment above me and see a pretty beefy guy trying to see inside the window of the upstairs apartment. After asking who they were looking for, I was informed that they were looking for the girl that Demonator and I affectionately call, The Crackwhore. I think the guy was her parole officer or something. He was wearing an official shirt with some kind of badge emblazoned on it but it was too dark to be able to read it. Maybe, they will cart her off, giving Demonator and I the opportunity to by the whole house from the people we rent from.

Anywho, something important...kindof....happened to me yesterday that I am going to devote an entire post to, so I am going to stop this post and start a new one.

These Are The Stories of The Real Men and Women of Law Enforcement

This cracked me up. I went for my run tonight at Gold's (I HAVE LOST 20 LBS!!) and when finished I was walking out to my car and what do I see, three cop cars surrounding a car that had jumped up on to the median in the road. In the parking lot in front of the gym stood three of Boise's finest giving some tool a sobriety test and he was not doing well.

As I watched, the officers did the whole follow the finger thing and then to my glee they made him walk the line on the sidewalk. Even to the untrained eye such as mine, there was no way on God's green Earth that this guy was not going to spend the night in a jail cell. He had a hard time walking upright and it took the cops several demonstrations before he was confident enough to try it for himself. When he actually started the whole one foot in front of the other thing he began tripping all over himself and stumbling. This was quite amusing to say the least.

Shortly after the drunk guy's version of walking, the officers read him his Miranda Rights and cuffed him. All of this just because those freaking medians jump out of no where and get in front of your car. Who would be able to break or swerve to avoid them at the speed in which those little landscaped buggers dash to and fro? Evidently, not the guy in handcuffs.

Satisfied that I was able to watch my tax dollars at work in a most entertaining manner, I strolled to my car and sang the Cops theme song to myself. An amusing end to a pretty decent day.