Nov01

11-29-01 (00:34)

can't wait for bush to announce that the international agreement to leave antartica alone was made in a different time and doesn't make sense in the 21st century. i'll never forget his face when he said "the cold war is over" as if it was a revelation. what a funny guy.

i propose a gender neutral alternative for the informal terms guy and gal: gay. bush is a funny gay.

tis very cold these days.

i don't take anyone seriously when they say "tis" or "methinks" or other such antiquated words....either they're really really old (in which case it's okay) or they're trying to be cool.

i play one level of final doom before going to sleep and that's usually a pretty good night cap.

11-27-01 (20:35)

since sept. 11th more than half a million people have lost their jobs...how many of them are actually benefitting from the airline bailouts or the economic stimulus programs? it seems that someone could run on the platform of "policy for the children" and would have a good shot at winning. point out how the current system doesn't support parents in parenting (doesn't even give them the option), doesn't provide good enough education, and doesn't even provide the option for free or cheap child healthcare in a lot of cases. how can a government justify spending billions on weapons that don't work (read: osprey) and corporate welfare and yet still allow 40-50 percent (the same rate as the UK) of our children to be born into poverty? it seems like a platform ripe for the taking.

good website with (wage-rent disparity) housing data.

work went by pretty quickly today.

looked at my check book and cried.

did some dishes and cleaned a bit.

i work a lot and it doesn't seem to help at all.

got the keys and safe combos to tower today.

"The Bush administration has promised the pesticide industry that it will overturn a Clinton-era policy that prohibited using information obtained from industry studies on human subjects to determine pesticide limits. Under the new policy, which hasn't yet been officially announced, the U.S. EPA would be able to set limits based on data from tests in which paid volunteers ingest small amounts of pesticides, despite ethical and safety concerns raised by environmentalists and physicians. The about-face would also defy recommendations made to the agency by a scientific panel in 1998. Two panel members called for an absolute ban on human testing of pesticides, while the 16 other members said such tests should be very limited. For its part, the industry claims that animal testing doesn't provide an accurate enough picture of how safe pesticides are for humans and results in overly strict restrictions on pesticide use."

11-26-01 (18:35)

i think that valuing life so much could get us in trouble. people who want to push cloning are definitely going to push it under the guise of a life saving technology, and though true, it's repercussions (esp. economic) are frightening. if cloning were to become available it would be available to the rich and then it just becomes a socially accepted form of economic darwinism. that's scary to me.

if love is accepting a person despite some of the bad things they may do then how does that relate to patriotism or a love for one's country? is it fair to compare the two? certainly true patriotism should include support in times of need, but it should also include concern enough to push it in the right direction and point out weaknesses or failures in policy. does the same apply for the love of a significant other?

katha pollitt had a good article in the nation this week.

work was slow at first and then picked up after i started talking to a girl i was working with. her parents are from india and were the product of an arranged marriage so she grew up with pretty conservative/"traditional" parents. it's good to talk with people of different cultures.

i think feelings of superiority, however substantiated, can be dangerous.

11-26-01 (01:38)

another run of the mill day for me. woke up late, watched a movie, went to work, came home and watched tv, now i'm tired.

updated movies list.

probably should sell my car soon.

it's been very cold lately.

11-25-01 (00:46)

work wasn't so great until my lunch break and then things started to pick up. they have me at supervisor now so i'm learning even more new stuff.....just when i thought i was getting comfortable with the relatively new job they push me to the next level.

been pretty busy lately. i definitely won't get a day off until i quit my job at the theater. so i'll probably be working seven days a week for another month or so...in all likelihood.

updated movies list.

very windy and rainy last night. the power went out in isolated portions of davis. the first wind of the season blows all the twigs and leaves all over the place. crazy wind is nice once in a while. powerful wind can be fun.

ate at the new mexican food place today - it's good, but not as good as dos coyotes - more authentic though.

working one 9a-6p shift a week shouldn't be too bad. last night i didn't get much rest and had a fucked up dream about a shoot out in downtown davis.

working on xmas is actually going to be a good thing because instead of going to la and spending money on gas i'll be making 14 bucks an hour working at tower records for 8 hours. it will be the first time i've gone without some sort of xmas morning festivities and that'll kinda suck. but money is the modern panacea.

listened to the new crystal method album the other day...seemed pretty good at first listen, but the cool part is that tom morello worked on a few of the tracks with them so i'll definitely have to get that one of these days. so far i haven't gotten any cds while working at tower; i'm pretty proud of that fact.

i need to become a teacher so i can avoid making just 13,000 bucks a year working as a supervisor at a retail store.... and so i can get holidays and summers off as well.

11-23-01 (02:05)

work was lame tonight. harry potter burned at the very end so we had to give a bunch of refunds. then the next show ended up getting cancelled, but only after many tickets had been sold. the worst part was that i had different managers telling me to do different things at different times...there was no organization. one told me to keep selling tickets, one told me to stop, then they told me to sell them, but with a warning, then they said they had the problem fixed, but there would be a delay and finally they told me that they weren't going to show the movie so i had dozens of angry customers who wanted refunds. some of them got mad at me and some of them understood that it wasn't my fault. overall it was a big headache.

asked this one girl for her student id card so she could get the student rate. i saw that it was an id card from a college in new mexico so i told her that i had been there over the summer. she said that was cool and then noticed that i was reading "the nation" and said "you were just in new mexico and you're reading the nation?" at first i thought those were two good things, but she said it in a sarcastic way so assumed that she wasn't sympathetic to the left wing. i replied "am i to assume that you read the national republic? (a conservative magazine)" she said no and then i asked what she read and she replied "nothing." overall it was a confusing conversation which ended in my wanting to break her non-reading face.

there were some good customers though...one family came up wanting to see monsters inc. a little girl in the family had a 49ers jacket on and i asked if she liked the niners she said yes. so i gave the whole family child rates...probably saved them about ten bucks. i also gave a similar discount to a group who had two students and a mother. the students were from uc berkeley and ucla. i chatted with the berkeley student about "the play" versus stanford and about westwood villiage with the ucla student. they ended up saving five bucks for being generally nice people.

when i asked my co-worker, adrian, what he thought of the way the administration has handled current events he said "i guess i'm happy with pretty much anything they do." oh boy.

11-22-01 (15:40)

so if superbowl sunday is the biggest advertising day of the year what are the top five? super bowl sunday, thanksgiving?, xmas eve?, day after thanksgiving?, day after xmas?...one thing i do know is that war correspondents have the 4th most dangerous job according to TLC.

11-22-01 (15:01)

had my first pastrami sandwich yesterday. it was pretty good.

have work from 5-close tonight, that's lame.

nothing to do, nothing to say.

orbital is good. in-sides is amazing.

my back hurts already.

melanie left early this morning.

they want me to be a supervisor by november 30th at tower.

might have some apple pie and a quesadilla for dinner tonight.

11-21-01 (01:54)

gave myself a haircut the other day.

worked from 130-1030 at tower. don't feel as comfortable there as i do at the theater because i still don't know how to do returns, trade credit redeems, etc.

i'm busy a lot these days.

watched a program on the learning channel called "weird worlds"...it was about alternative lifestyles and it focused on body art and alternative medicine. it showed some people who felt they were more themselves after they had amputated certain parts of their bodies (nads and digits mostly). it was very interesting. i'm glad they showed that program on tlc because keeping people open-minded is a good thing.

melanie leaves thursday morning or wednesday night for home.

i wish i had a better memory.

"A light-vehicle fleet that was just 2.7 miles per gallon more efficient would eliminate Gulf imports." that means that if retail cars were just a bit more efficient the 22% of our oil supply which we get from the gulf would be unnecessary.

"The (trans-alaskan oil) pipeline would carry a domestic energy source all right, but it's frighteningly insecure. It's mostly aboveground, accessible to attackers, and can become impossible to repair in winter. If pumping stations or key facilities at either end were disabled, 9 million barrels of hot oil could congeal in one winter week into an 800-mile-long Chapstik." and this assumes that there's enough oil up there to make it profitable to start drilling. oh and it would take about 10 years to start getting oil anyway.

"Gas-guzzling cars and light trucks are responsible for 20 percent of the carbon dioxide the United States pumps into the air each year. The US consumes over 7 billion barrels of oil products each year, sending more than $200,000 overseas every minute."

11-19-01 (02:24)

would have liked to see the 49ers game today. hopefully when i have to work sundays from now on it'll be a closing shift so i can watch football and read the paper.

updated movies list. going to watch monsters inc. sometime.

hardly have time to listen to music these days.

johnny says he wants to see harry potter again. in retrospect the movie doesn't really do much for me.

i don't think the rollerball remake is going to be very good.

shrek 2 in 2004? the machine never stops working...

11-18-01 (00:50)

updated movies list.

haven't been seeing good movies lately. i don't regret watching the movies i've seen, but i still would like to see some better ones. watched part of barton fink the other night, but it was on bravo and they have commercials so i changed the channel.

i like jimmy fallon.

worked from 9-5 today, will do the same tomorrow.

next day off i get is sunday and i'll probably end up having to work that at the theater. the theater does their scheduling week by week whereas tower does it a couple weeks in advance.

working seven days a week is lame and will end before the year is over.

my back has been hurting for the last nine months and there isn't anything i can do about it. i'm looking forward to 60 more years of back pain.

the good thing about morpheus is the ease in which you can resume downloads...it's good for anyone with a modem connection, but probably goes unnoticed by anyone who has dsl.

it's been getting cooler lately. hopefully it's not going to be a cold and rainy winter. last winter it got very cold and i wasn't too pleased by god's decision to do that to me.

harry potter has made working at the theater more of a pain. i got a stomach ache because i was stressed out by the long lines and retarded customers. eventually i figured out that i should just take my time and let the people wait an extra 30 seconds to get their five dollar popcorn and three dollar soda.

after work i read a couple chapters of michael moore's book and then took a long nap.

had pizza for breakfast and dinner.

need to go food shopping sometime.

vaughn at work smoked too much pot when he was younger...he seriously can't remember shit. "so chris what shift you working today?" he says..."3-10" i say..."that's a pretty sweet shift man - you don't have to open or close; nice."..."yeah i like it" i say. 30 seconds passes by during which we stand around and clean. then i stop and say "i feel sorry for you since you have to close tonight."..."yeah it's going to suck closing tonight. wait, you don't close tonight?" he says..."no, i get off at 10 tonight." i say hoping that'll jog his memory..."at 10? what kind of shift is that? what time did you get on?" he asks..."i got on at 3 and i work until 10, it's a new shift i guess...since it's so busy lately." i say..."oh cool. that's a pretty sweet shift."..."yup."

if i ever have some time i'd like to find a script for a search feature on this page. it would be nice (at least for me) to be able to look up "hitchhiking" and see what days in the last few years i talked about the trip.

one lady the other day put mustard on her popcorn and another asked if we had parmesan cheese for the popcorn. interesting.

question i least like to hear - "can i ask a question?" it's wrong in so many ways.

a lady and her son (or maybe her little brother) came up and wanted some popcorn and soda today and the first thing she said was "hi, how ya doing?" the odd thing was that she actually paused and waited for a reply. i told her i wasn't doing very well and she said that she was sorry and her face seemed to indicate that she wasn't just trying to be nice...she was actually sorry. so i told her why my day wasn't going well and i told her that i appreciated her asking and actually stopping to hear my answer. i told her that it saddens me to have people ask how i'm doing and then start barking out candy and popcorn orders in the same breath. i told her that i've heard a lot of foreigners have complaints about americans being too faux-courteous...she said she could relate and that she thought it was lame as well. at one point i turned to her little brother (or son) and said "your parents might tell you to be polite and always say please and thank you, but i think you should only do it when you really mean it." that's what i do and i hope that people pick up on the fact that my politeness isn't a given...i try to say it only when i really mean it. i think that that makes my 'thank yous' more meaningful.

i need to do laundry some time soon.

moby wants us to remember september 11th forever. the ladies wearing black on the corner of F and 2nd want us to mourn those who died. i guess everyone needs to decide for themselves how long is long enough to mourn and be debilitated by the horrific, awful, terrible, horrendous, shocking, ghastly, abhorrent, and tragic event. jesus told me last night that we must mourn forever and nietzsche told me that mourning is useless and only holds me back. seriously though, i hope we all remember it for the rest of our lives because forgetting it would be tragic, but i also hope that we're all able to get drunk every weekend in good conscience and humor without september 11th hanging over our heads. i also wish that people would stick to one adjective when describing the event. it seems as though it's a contest sometimes to see who can show the most grief by using the most adjectives in describing the event.

acrylic and plastic are just as cool as glass, despite what moby has to say. i think he watched the same show on the learning channel as i did the other day. tlc really makes cable worth it.

i need to sleep.

11-14-01 (23:28)

the new incubus album actually has its moments. in fact, the last track (aqueous transmission) is downright good. try it before you knock it.

i'm hungry.

finally have a fixed schedule at tower.

harry potter comes out in a couple of days...friday, saturday and sunday will be insane at the theater. i screwed up and got myself scheduled overlapping shifts for those three days at my two places of employment - not good. tomorrow i'll seek to rectify the situation.

11-13-01 (16:24)

saw a movie yesterday with johnny and vern. updated movies list.

it's started raining the last few days which is a nice change, but i'm not looking forward to winter.

thinking very seriously about quitting my job at the theater. let it suffice to say that the management there is mostly lame. now that i have the job at tower i have the luxury of quitting the theater so i might do that.

have work at the theater later tonight. not looking forward to it at all.

working at the library was a pretty sweet setup. really wish i could have gotten a part-time job there.

have nothing to say.

11-12-01 (00:07)

woke up at 530am today and went for a hike with johnny and steve.

the hike was really hard for me. my muscles ached and my knees still ache. everytime i took another step up the mountain it grew harder, the air grew thinner and cooler. by the time we got near the top it was around 30 degrees, snowing/raining, and pretty windy. finally i convinced them that i had had enough so we turned back. it was really beautiful. it was nice to get away from things and be active. it was nice to see snow and to see it snowing. it was nice to see the quaking aspens and the fall colors both in the trees and in ferns on the ground. i think that the colors of the moss, ferns, and autumn leaves made the trip worth it. none of us drank enough water while we were hiking and that wasn't too smart since we were hiking for about 5 hours at elevation and such. if i was serious about hiking i would definitely get a water bladder so i'd have plenty of water and easy access to it.

we got back to davis in time to see the end of the 49er game and that made me happy.

after the game and some eats we took the potato launcher out and had fun with explosives for a little while.

i have tomorrow off and that is very good.

i don't know why i'm still awake.

might watch the jet li movie tomorrow.

haven't talked with phil or jon in a while.

don't have any days off of work until at least thanksgiving, but i might have to work at the theater on that day too. it doesn't really matter to me either way. everyone i know is going to be gone so i may as well work.

lately i've just been happy enough to get by. no real complaints.

not looking forward to seeing lord of the rings or harry potter, but it seems like everyone else is - even vern the movie nazi.

i downloaded civilization 2 the other day, but not civilization 3. haven't installed or played it though. i'd rather play doom 2, but i haven't even had time for that. tomorrow i have plenty of time. don't know what i'll do.

if pot is so harmless then why do pregnant mothers normally quit pot while pregnant? i mean if it's all natural like wyclef and most pot smokers say...if it's not bad for you then why the worry? i guess most of the time people who say that it's harmless mean that it's harmless relative to some of the harder drugs...and i'd agree with that.

it seems that the more i think about most issues i fall somewhere in the middle of the most people. i don't consider myself as much to the left as the stereotypical berkeley student, but i'm certainly no bush supporter either. for example, i'm not someone who pretends that pot is evil and needs to have a war waged against it, but i also think that people don't give it nearly enough credit for what it does to your lungs and memory.

updated movies list.

stomach hurt most of the day. don't know if i ate something that didn't sit right or if i was just stressed out. it's been happening lately while i work at the theater. i should smoke a joint to relax. or maybe listen to some music. same difference.

watched some quality tv today...junkyard wars (where teams convene in a junkyard and have ten hours to make a particular machine and match it up against the other team...for example, both teams have to make a glider and whichever team can make a glider that can sustain flight for the longest period of time wins the competition). also watched something on the learning channel about making robots based upon designs in nature - from spiders and ants to snakes. i also watched part of the raider game, but then i dozed off.

i bet the 49ers pissed some gamblers off by not covering the spread in the final minute when they were within 4 yards of the endzone.

11-7-01 (12:22)

sf voted for government subsidies of solar panels and wind power. good.

tyrone called this morning and wanted me to work because someone called in sick...told him i have to work at tower today. the shifts at tower are longer and i get an hour for lunch so both of those things are nice.

made a list of movies and cds i want to buy while i work at tower...luckily i also balanced my checkbook and paid my bills before making the list so i know that i can't afford anything.

heard the new aphex twin album is bad, but i don't believe it.

it's been a pretty bad year for movies and music.

i should eat breakfast and go to work.

11-7-01 (00:44)

updated movies list.

11-6-01 (23:27)

go on a long hike next sunday and monday, that'll hurt.

got paid yesterday, that'll help.

played risk and that was fun.

haven't gotten much time to update the webpage and check my email and such.

voted today.

we started selling harry potter tickets already.

don't have much time to do much of anything now that i don't get any time off. after i come home from work all i want to do is just sit around.

tomorrow i work at tower.

11-5-01 (00:30)

been really busy lately

11-1-01 (23:40)

what a game! the yankees pull off the same 9th inning heroics as yesterday. when we saw them play the angels in new york they tried to do the same thing, but couldn't quite pull it off. they were down 4-2 and in the 9th inning they rallied for one run, but came up short. now in two world series games they've been down by two runs and pulled off the victory each time. after watching the 1986 world series game on espn classic i didn't think it got much better than that, but the last two games proved me wrong. just wow.

had 6 hours of work today...worked in the box and wasn't off at all. i did mess up on one refund, but that's because i wasn't properly trained and martin west led me astray. of course after michelle counted me out she gave me no props for working my first shift in the box without being short any money. i knew after trying to strike up conversation about her 1974 beetle that she was a fairly worthless person.

the best thing about working in the box selling tickets is that you can sit down and read between shows. so i read the latest issue of the nation and became edumacated. now all i need to do is get organizized.

read in the paper, and in grist magazine, that bush had to rethink his arsenic decision. he's a loser.

there's a really good/funny article in the nation's nov. 5th issue called "court time for henry" it's about henry kissinger being a bumbling buffoon and a complete asshole on top of that. i think kissinger's newest book title sums his character up rather well: "Does America Need A Foreign Policy?" hmmmm. but my favority line from the article is: "the bush administration is opposed to the ICC that is now taking shape, which meant that when the president was asked what he intended to do about the perpetrators of the recent aggression he had to embarrass himself by resorting to his least attractive 'don't mess with texas' mode, and bable about 'wanted dead or alive' like a cartoon sheriff."

i've got work tomorrow from 10-7 so i'm not going to the employee screening of jet li's new movie "the one" or of pixar's "monsters inc."

watched an episode of modern marvels on the history channel today...the last one i saw was about the buidling of the panama canal, this one was about the equally amazing construction of the tunnel under the english channel. crazy cool.

was watching tv and the news had a little advertisement which went something like this: "our bridges could be the next targets of terrorism, more at 10pm." if it bleeds it leads. there is a right and wrong way to relay potentially useful information like that...plugging the story as a teaser after the world series isn't one of them.

"CLIMATE CONTRAIL Of the many unprecedented events of Sept. 11, one of them -- the near-absence of airplanes in the skies that day and the next -- has given scientists important clues for studying the impact of aviation on climate change. Normally, the sky above 25,000 feet is full of contrails, cloud-like phenomena that form when ice crystals bond to jet fumes. Climatologists have long suspected that contrails contribute to global warming, but with constant air traffic, there was no way to compare the sky with and without airplanes. Now scientists are optimistic that data from Sept. 11 and 12 will help refine climate change computer modeling. Meanwhile for an update on the climate negotiation scene, as the latest round of international talks begins this week in Morocco, visit the Grist Magazine website."

i do believe that after the attacks we have a better chance of pushing for less dependency upon middle eastern oil...however this, for bush, means looking elsewhere for oil because energy doesn't exist outside of burning oil and coal.

i'm the first to admit that bush did a good job in making sure that we didn't get muslims and terrorists confused, but beyond that i think he's really dropped the ball. he has an amazing chance to change dramatically the way we deal with the middle east (repeal the unwritten "carter doctrine" which embodies the attitude that any attack on the middle east is an attack on our [oil] interests), the way we depend on oil (especially from saudi arabia) as an energy source, and our national attitude towards global coalitions like the kyoto talks and the ICC. in every category he seems to be failing.

need to sleep.

got the killing on dvd today so if you want the great kubrick classic on vhs let me know. oh, i also have boogie nights on vhs if anyone is interested.

11-1-01 (02:13)

had my first day on the clock at tower records today. watched videos the whole time and discovered that customer service is really important to them.

actually looking forward to "ali," but i plan on watching "when we were kings" again before i watch ali. melanie hasn't seen it and it's a really good introduction to what ali was really about. ali is directed by michael mann so it should be good.

politically incorrect was good tonight. i goto the taping on friday right after 9 hours at work. i'll finally start making some money and that's good.

found out today that when rolling stone magazine first reviewed dr. dre's the "chronic" and nirvana's "nevermind" they gave each 3 out of 5 stars. rolling stone hasn't ever earned much of my respect. i guess they were supposed to be good when they first came out and their interviews are sometimes pretty decent, but that's about it.

the new snoop dogg movie (bones) isn't going to come out in davis because the home office (which owns both theaters in davis) doesn't feel it'll do well. they're right, but it's still fucked up. i'd rather watch bones than "glitter" or "corky romano" or "13 ghosts"

i'll have to start paying attention to music news now that i have a job at tower records.

the beatles were a little too happy to have pictures of their ugly mugs placed all over everything associated with them.

when we were on the trip someone asked why, of all the stadiums there are, i picked yankee stadium to see a game at. i replied "because i think yankee stadium has a lot of history" and he replied "well there are a lot of parks with just as much history." i beg to differ my friend.