The Sleepy Domain

Hot HOt HOT!

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:29:42 GMT

So, I really like spicy foods. Me and my father are always looking for the tastiest, hottest product out there. Spicy mustard is especially our favorite - we once had some insanely delicious and hot mustard in a restaurant in new york, but never managed to find it in stores. We always find mustards that appear to be good, and they are indeed tasty, but they just aren't perfect.

Well... Lately I have been in the market for a tasty hot sauce with maximum hotness. I tried many different brands, but nothing was quite hitting it. A few days ago I was at the 3rd ave garden getting some dinner, and I stumbled upon a bottle that looked promising...

It was a tabasco brand, and although I like the original tabasco sauce, I was looking for something better. Well this bottle had a different design, and at the bottom it said 'habanero sauce.' From my hobby of wikipedia-ing many things, I knew that habanero peppers are supremely spicy, so I bought it.

Holy Hot Shit Damn Fart... Now this, ladies and gentlemen, is not only supremely insanely spicy, but it is REALLY TASTY! the ingredients include habanero peppers, cane sugar, mango puree, banana puree, tomato paste, tamarind puree, papaya puree, garlic, and "tabasco pepper mash."

I have found my spicy sauce, and I am sticking to it. Yum Yum Yum. I shall also be pointing my dad into the direction of this sauce, he'll appreciate it.

Dell

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 22:25:42 GMT

Dell Support rocks my socks.

One of the top reasons I got my dell was because of the customer service. They do their job very well, and every single time that I need to use it, it seems they get better. Since they got their chat service, I never call them anymore. When I need something bad enough that I have to call dell about it, it means that I know EXACTLY what is wrong and what I want.

So, my fan and heatsink were underperforming, causing my computer to heat up. I chatted online with dell, and within 10 minutes the guy on the other end had arranged for a package to be sent to me with the replacement parts. (I did not want to send my computer in for repairs, since that would have cost me about a week without my computer.)

I did all the work myself. It was scary, it was long, but it was super exciting. I had never seen a laptop computer completely dismantled before.

So after about half an hour of unscrewing, pulling, un-docking, etc, I got my computer down to the bare bones- mother board and components, so I could access the fan and heatsink.

Pretty spiffy, eh? In this pic you can see the old and new heat sinks, (bottom left, looks like an L with a star at the end) the old and new fan (next to the heat sinks) the monitor (which can be quite easily completely removed from the rest) the mother board with all the electronics, the plastic covering for the internal components, the hard drive, the optical drive, the PCMIA card, and the power-button cover.

Jim had gotten me a BestBuy gift card, which I had used to purchase a super nifty computer repair kit, complete with mini philips screw driver, static guard, IC extractor, wire stripper, spare parts container, tweezers, and a bunch of other nifty parts. It was REALLY useful in taking apart, and then later, putting back together my laptop.

As you can see, I successfully rebuilt my computer, managing to plug in all the tiny pieces, and everything runs smooth as ever. I am proud of myself.

lost @ poker

Fri, 25 May 2007 02:42:50 GMT

So... I played poker last night in east harlem at george's house, but I just couldn't get a big stack going. I won a few nice pots, but at the same time I lost the same amount... I played with a few new people and its always hard to judge them. I usually have an instinct for what people have but its hard when you've never seen them play.

stay tuned for more poker happenings.

ipod :-(

Wed, 23 May 2007 18:48:44 GMT

Oh farts and butts...

Not even 6 months after I got it, I completely scratch up my ipod. I am so pissed off. I was on my way to Alice and Monica's house for a game of poker. I had a show that night, so I left the theater as soon as my piece was over so I could make it to poker in time. Well, the trip took more than an hour, most especially because of the stupid trains not running and buses being full and a bunch of other crap. I was really pissed off when I got off the A train (which stopped at 145th St, I needed to go to 175th) to transfer to the C. I was running up the stairs, and the cord of my headset caught something, pulled the ipod out of my pocket. It fell on the concrete stairs JUST as my foot landed on top of it AS I was running up the stairs. This made a ugly sounding crunch sound, and when I picked up my ipod I wanted to cry. I love my electronics and I hate seeing them get hurt. This pains me.

top:

bottom:

closeup of top:

On the plus side, I made $90 at poker. I played fairly solidly, and, as always, got really lucky. Two huge hands got me most of my cash... Including three people going all in with mostly crap and some draws, while I had a pair of Kings. My kings held up through the turn and the river to win a pot about of about $60. Later on in the game, I had pocket Aces, which I played somewhat slow (bet $1 before flop.) The flop came out A, K, blank. Turn came K, River came blank. I had a house, Aces full of Kings. The best full house possible. The only way anyone could beat me was if they had pocket Kings, but I slow played my Aces after the flop and no one pushed with the kings until the turn, so I figured pocket kings were highly improbably. Tamir went all in with a set of kings... he had no idea I had aces, since I was slow playing them. I won it all.

Special Jim

Wed, 09 May 2007 22:07:09 GMT

At our most recent game of poker, Jim looks like a tard by wearing his helmet for most of the game... Dont ask, just look:

wine shop

Wed, 09 May 2007 22:02:48 GMT

Heh, here's a sign that the wine shop right next to my apartment has up recently: I got a kick out of it.

oh struggle.

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 02:48:24 GMT

Ugg... I got hit with one of the oldest tricks in the book. My roommate put a rubber band around the spray nozzle in the kitchen sink, and aimed it forward.

It was 8am when, still completely trashed from my Saturday night of drunken debaucheries, I stumble into the kitchen to begin my hangover avoidance technique of a glass of water every few hours. All I wanted was some hydration and a safe return to my warm bed. Instead I was introduced to a pressurized jet of cold-ass water, joined by complete confusion. It certainly did not help that I was indeed still wasted, for I fell to the floor and started an uncontrollable laughter instead of turning off the water. I had myself a royal giggle fest on the kitchen floor, accompanied by an impromptu shower.

Props to my roommate. She managed in pulling off a simple, yet highly effective April fool's day prank.

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 19:58:48 GMT

Its a pretty cold day today, but walking outside made me incredibly happy. It's saint patrick's day, everyone is wearing green, people are drunk already, and there is newfallen snow on the ground.

This is Rupert Park, which is right next to my apartment

This is 91st street, one block north of my street. All the kids were out, sledding down the closed street.

Its a very joyful day today.

global warming sucks

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 16:59:43 GMT

But here's yet another tiny step you can do that may help in the end.

Go to this site,
http://www.algore.com/cards.html

Fill in your name, email, zip, and write a small note that is in your own voice: it increases the impact of the postcard. Something like "I do my part in the fight against global warming, but there is only so much I can do." (and, if your representative is already pushing for bills against global warming, write something like) "I know you do a lot already, but I please try your hardest to persuade all the other skeptical members of congress." (Or if your rep is some southern republican white dude elected mostly through big corporations who would hate to see legislature pass earth-and-life-saving bills, try) "Mister, you have GOT to start seeing the fact that this problem is no longer avoidable. Please stop hurting America, and make the fight against global warming one of your TOP priorities. I and MANY of your constituents will praise and respect you for it. Because honestly, I don't have much respect for you right now."

Or something similar. BUT DO IT DO IT DO IT! every little thing helps! This will take 45 seconds of your time!

Al Gore will deliver these postcards to congress on March 21st. You have 3 days.

just follow this with me, k?

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 01:41:21 GMT

So, about three months ago I left my sports/suit jacket at the John Ryan theater in brooklyn. It's quite a long ways away, and by the time I realized that's where I had left it, it was a week later. I was sure that it was gone by then. I was kinda sad, but thats life. I mostly forgot about it, and went on with my life.

In December, I went back home to Portland. I needed to look spiffy and posh one night, so I look in my closet, and lo-and behold, my jacket is in there. Now, I am completely baffled at this point, and check the jacket a dozen times, but in the end convinced that it was mine. It was my GAP blazer, the one that my grandpa bought me a year ago, the one I thought I had with my in New York. (let me point out that I ever only had TWO such suit jackets. One that I bought at a goodwill some years ago but really quickly lost, and this one that my grandpa bought) I thought nothing more of it, and happily wore that jacket around town. At the end of my vacation, I realized I needed a blazer in new york, so I brought it back with me.

Just a couple days ago, I go to the john jay theater in Brooklyn to help a friend and be in her show, and what in the world do I find in the lost and found bin? My fucking blazer. Now my mind just does a couple back flips, because my blazer is in my bag which I brought with me, but it is ALSO in the lost and found. I know they are both mine because they are both my size, and I still had that nagging feeling that indeed I did forget my jacket at the theater all those months ago. I look at them closely, they are both GAP. They are both mine, both the same color, and pretty much identical in material.

Which brings me to my question: If I only ever received ONE gap jacket, how come there are TWO in my possession? I am truly baffled, because for once in my life I cannot explain what is going on.

foggy day

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 23:38:33 GMT

(x-posted to myspace)

Wednesday such as it was planned was a clear day for me. A quick trip to the airport, a painless 6 hour flight, followed by my imminent return to my apartment. I was looking forward to my home sweet home. This homebound excitement, however, soon turned horribly south as a lurid fog descended upon me, and my plans turned ill. Please, dear reader, I invite you into my lovely Wednesday.

At the crack of dawn, (more like the 'lower back' of dawn- the cockcrow was still hours away,) I rouse from my slumber, with an instinctive flair for what was lying ahead: New York City. My sleepy self hit the snooze a maximum two times, as opposed to the standard five or six. My mother, being the responsible and caring mother that she is, had gracefully offered to drive me to the airport. We set off 45 minutes earlier than planned, for the snowy roads and icy temperatures have us full of anxiety about the condition of the drive. An uneventful hour later, which included a stop at my place of business to retrieve my jacket which I had carelessly left there the previous day, we arrive at Portland airport. I am 30 seconds from leaving the car when I feel my pocket vibrate. At 5:30 am, I knew that this couldn't be good. The fog had arrived.

On the phone was my father (as well as co-worker and boss,) who informs me that the server at work is down. I do not panic, since although a rare occurrence, this does happen maybe once or twice a year, when a massive power failure lasts longer than our backup batteries can keep the server powered on. It is a fact that on Portland fell a royal amount of snow the day before, however it is myth that our power got interrupted, since two other servers in the office were operational. I take the news in stride, confident that our VP of marketing (who lives downtown and thus within walking distance of the office) can go to the office in a couple of hours and manually restart the computer. All the previous times that the server was down, a restart was the simple fix.

T minus scheduled departure is now one hour and fifty minutes. I bid my momma goodbye, and step into the airport. A short walk to the Continental counters reveals a pleasant lady who informs me that due to bad weather, the plane had landed in really late last night. As a result of that, the pilots and crew would be sleeping in an extra five hours, and the departure has been pushed back to just past noon.

Delayed flights are annoying, yes. However, I am not one to bitch and moan because the crew has to sleep an extra few hours, I am the king of sleep (look at my screen name, for crying out loud!) and believe me, I highly respect that fact. I figure it would be an ideal time for me to go back to work for a little, and surprise everyone by restarting the server myself. (About a half hour of work is required to get all the services back up and functional, so it really is slightly more complicated than pressing a button-- I promise.) I am happy to check in my luggage so I don't have to haul it all the way to work and back. I grab my coat and computer, and head towards the MAX light rail station.

Tri-met's MAX is surprisingly fun between the airport and downtown, we are going much faster than I anticipated we would go, probably 50~55 mph, and certainly a lot faster than all the lonely cars struggling along the icy freeway. I am refreshed and amused when I arrive in Portland, skipping along the sidewalk on my way to the Portland Streetcar. It arrives fairly soon, and off to work I go. It's fun to walk up the slippery slope, I'm making it a game to walk on the slipperiest part without actually sliding back down the hill. I make it with no broken bones, and head to the server room. I open the door, walk towards the server, when I feel my pocket vibrate. At a little past 7am and the caller ID a 'restricted' number, I panic. That fog just descended a little more.

Now, before you go on, allow me to add up a few things for you. The MAX ride from airport to downtown took 45 minutes. The streetcar ride from downtown to the stop nearest to my office took 20 minutes, and the walking time between them is 15 minutes. Thats a grand total of one hour, 20 minutes from airport to office. OK, you may go on.

"Good morning. May I speak to Eric Vlach please?"
"This is he speaking..."
"Eric, hi. This is Laura from Continental airlines. Are you aware of our new departure time?"
"Um, well... I, um... I got told just past noon, but I assume since you are calling me that it has changed again?"
"Yes. your new departure time is 8:40 am."
"SHIT! I'm in downtown Portland!"
"Well, sir, the time is now 7:15, You have an hour and 25 minutes. Goodbye." [click]
"..."

The fog is now a split pea soup, hovering all around me.

***Panic***

***Restart server the quickest way I know, using the 'unplug replug' method***

***Sweat***

***Stuff my computer into my bag***

***RUN like a MOFO***

Dear reader, You may not know how fast 'run like a mofo' actually is, so let me assure you that it is a full out sprint. Yes, I run full throttle up the hill, down the road, past the bridge, all the way to the streetcar / bus stop heading towards the light rail. An angel was watching over me, for he sent me a bus within minutes, and no less than 15 minutes later I was at the MAX stop, panting and shaky, but waiting for the train to the airport.

I am regrouping my troubled mind, putting everything in order, completely assured that that cold reboot I performed was enough to allow me to work on the server by logging on remotely. (ALL the other times I have done it, it worked out, and I am fully expecting it to behave the same this time.) [Author's Note: Forgive the massive amounts of foreshadowing, but you must understand that at this time I am SURE the reboot was successful.] I glance at my watch and a slow wave of reassurance passes through me. I'll be there in time. I can hear the angels calling, and they are telling me: "You will be in New York tonight! You will be in New York tonight!"

The ride back to the airport is a good one, and includes a quick nap, hot girls, and a reporter from the Oregonian who interviews me on tape for a video blog about tri-met riders and the snowy weather. [Link to the blog to come; although warning: In that video I hadn't shaved in 5 days, I'm wearing a baggy sweater, my eyes are tired and blodshot, and I have to worst hat hair]

At the airport once again, I haul ass up to the gates. Through security I go, to coffee people get my chai latte and muffin I follow, and then over to the gate I head. Now, ladies and gentlemen, pay attention, because the follow action is the one that determined the rest of my day, (as if this day hadn't been long enough already:) pulling out my computer and turning it on. Yes, such a simple action, that could have waited until new york, but NO. I wanted to get a head start on booting the rest of the services on the server, so I could just rest in new york. I load cygwin, which is my unix-like environment for windows, and type the basic 'ssh spry' command, which opens a bash shell on my terminal over secure socket layers, which will allow me to access 'spry.' (The name of our main server.)

Most unfortunate is the error code that flashes on my screen.

"ssh: spry.lynguent.com: connection timed out."

Even more unfortunate is the Instant Messages I receive from my (father, co-worker, and boss, who is in Prague, Czech Republic at the moment.) [excerpt:]

CzechMec: but, the server is not working. Shit.
Sleepy Guy 22: ah crap.
CzechMec: right
CzechMec: something more serious
CzechMec: any way for you to delay your trip by a day?

***Internal Struggle***

***Cost/Benefit Analysis***

***More internal Struggle***

Sleepy Guy 22: um.
Sleepy Guy 22: i can ask
CzechMec: i know...
CzechMec: ask
Sleepy Guy 22: ok. let me do that

I painfully pack up my computer, walk back out of security, and head to the ticket counters, where sadly for me the dude tells me that of course he can delay my departure for a day, and he would be happy to get right on it for me, oh and that by the way my suitcases are already on the plane and he can't get them back to me. Ahhhh fart.

I'll give you one guess, dear reader, as to who is back on the MAX moments later. Yes indeed, I am, heading back downtown to go to work, with only the clothes on my back, the batteries left in my cell phone, and my trusty computer. I reach into my pocket and realize that my keys are in my suitcase. So is my toothbrush, and so is my contact lens solution, and case. So are all my clothes, and my cell phone charger. Also in there is pretty much EVERY OTHER THING that I own.

I call Laurie and fortunately I just caught her before she left for work and she puts a key under the doormat for me. I decide to go get my dad's BMW, because I've been riding on the damn public transportation since 5am and its starting to crawl out of my ears. [Forgive the French expression: read: It's becoming highly annoying to have to wait all the time.] I take the bus one last time up to my dads home, where I find Laurie still at home, her car halfway out of the driveway, and tire tracks all over the bottom of our street: a painful witness to the dozens of failed attempts at her leaving for work.

When she asks, I am more than happy to drive her to work, it is the least I can do. My dad's X5 has insane traction control, all wheel drive, anti lock brakes, the whole package- it grips snowy roads like an eagle's talons claws its fishy prey. We are up and out of the neighborhood in no time, I drop off Laurie, and head on down to work, for the super annoying task of trouble shooting the server not from the comfort of my own room or even in my comfy office chair, but huddled in a corner of the cold, loud server room with a keyboard in my lap and a monitor wedged on the floor.

[Note: A log of my attempts at troubleshooting the server resides in my notes online, but since I am as of this second writing this in the airplane, I have no internet access. Let me paraphrase a few of the errors and warnings I got]

/tmp: unable to mount partition. Orphaned child nodes found. Must be fixed manually. Press CTRL-D to restart.
***WARNING!! Running fsck on a mounted drive can cause SEVERE data damage! do you wish to continue?***

Now, I have never seen errors of the like, but when I get numerous warnings about severe data damage while I am working on the hard drive where 5 years worth of our company's information and data is stored, I get pretty nervous. (Mind you there is a backup disk, but still... You'd be hella nervous too.)

I am a friggin genius, or at least I feel like it, because at noon (about an hour and a half after I started,) I manage to log into the server from my laptop using ssh. I also manage to start up all the services (mail server, external website, internal website, VNC server, bugs database, timesheet software, cvs repository.) I haven't eaten since I hat a baby muffin hours earlier, so I call up my mom to go get lunch, and I pick her up to go to an Indian all-you-can-eat lunch buffet, which was out of this world amazing, as it always is. I spend a cool couple of hours with my momma, who was really excited that she got to see me a little but more, and then I head back to work to finish off some stuff.

Lack of sleep has been a factor all day, and all of a sudden after such a big meal and now that the adrenaline has gone down, I cannot keep my eyes open. I hurry up to my dad's house, pop in a DVD, turn off the lights, turn down the volume, and take a very well deserved 3 hour nap.

My momma went out on a movie/dinner date, my pops is in Europe, and I wanna see my friends one last time, so I head down to Newberg, where the bails reside. Hayley is down there as well, and we play a fun few rounds of Mah-Jong, with Katrina and Lizzie as newbies on their own team. We then decide to go next door to McDonalds for some awesomely refreshing beverages and super tasty big macs.

We head back to Gretchen's apartment, with 5 of us in the car, having a blast, signing to Akon, and me being stoked about seeing my pseudo-family one last time. That is, until... through the actual fog that is outside, I look in my rear view mirror.

Blue
Red
Blue
Red
Blue
Red

Fuck.

I had heard about Newberg cops being bitchy, but I could not think of what I did wrong. It must have been speeding though, because what else do cops randomly pull you over for? we were all sober, had our seat belts on, and I wasn't driving erratically at all. I was super annoyed, because I almost never speed (especially these few days with all the snow, I've been SUPER careful) and it pissed me off that I had a lapse in attention and went too far over the limit. (I try to keep it no more than 7 over usually.)

Coppers comes up, and you will never believe what he lays down on me.

"Sir, my name is officer Don. The reason I pulled you over is because you didn't use your turn signal back there"
"Officer, you have got to be shitting me" [Note. I didn't actually say that, but thats exactly what i was thinking. In reality I said: "Yes officer, I'm sorry."]
"license, regisblah blah blah... I'll be back"

I'm royally pissed off. My mood has been on a roller coaster all day, and I am right back at the bottom. If this cop is annoying enough to pull me over for not using my blinker AT 10 OCLOCK AT NIGHT on a snowy day with maybe THREE CARS ON THE ENTIRE 4-lane road, then he's annoying enough to give me a ticket.

"Sir, I'm going to give you a warning"

***I do a little dance inside, the roller coaster goes back up**

"Do you have any questions, Eric?"
"No officer, no questions. Thank you very much for the warning, I shall pay attention."

To those of you who are counting, I believe this brings my record of being pulled over to getting a ticket 7 to 1. The streak continues, yes it does.

The cold sets in, the bails have school tomorrow, and I must head up to Portland before the roads freeze over. I head over to Kristen's house, watch 'Old School,' say bye to her, and head home one last time, for a quick 3 hour nap, before finally heading to the airport and departing on my stupid flight.

finishing the last story

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:56:00 GMT

Well we get to Amy's apartment and call her again to confirm where the bar is. She tells becca (the one taking directions on the phone) where it is, and becca relays the directions to me: "EAST of amy's apartment, on christopher street between bleecker and west 3rd." I'm like "oh, i know where christopher street is... its west of here!" but becca insisted that amy said east, and im starting to doubt my geography... I dont come down in this neighborhood often so I could have my landmarks completely off. We start heading east, passing macdougal, sullivan, thompson, wooster, greene, mercer... We finally hit broadway, and at that point I think (outloud:) "um, after broadway it goes lafayette, 4th ave, bowery, 2nd ave, 1st ave, then A ave, B ave, C ave, D ave, and then its the river. Christopher is DEFINATELY not this way." We ask people walking along, and it turns out no one knows exactly where christopher is... they all mention "I think" and "maybe." So we start heading back west, and after asking many people, and 20-30 minutes of walking we finally make it to christopher street. Although it does intersect with bleecker, there is no sight of west 3rd, and more importantly, no sight of the bar. I tell becca to call amy AGAIN to confirm where this damn place is, and nonchalently amy informs us that its on THOMPSON ST!!! WHICH IS EXACTLY WHERE WE WERE!!

Remember that at this time both me and becca are carrying arround our HUGE dance bags cuz we had performed that night. But I disgress...

After another 30 minutes of walking, we finally get to this bar, which turns out is completely packed full, the waiters are yelling at me because I can't put my bag anywhere, the music is so loud we can't hear anyone... After 15 minutes I decide I can't take it so I duck out. Thank god a few others joined me, and eventually everyone who was in there exited. We decided to go to another bar, called 1849, which is just arround the block. We get there, and this place is much less full. However, when I try to get in, the bouncer doesn't allow me BECAUSE I CANT BRING A BAG! AGGG! Fortunately amy lived just arround the corner, so I dropped off my bags. We get back to the bar/club and its me, amy, and everett. everett and amy go in, but I'm not allowed in cuz "i don't have a date with me." wtf!? I finally convince him that the birthday that is being celebrated includes about 3 girls for every guy, so he lets me in.

At least inside was nice, I stayed until past 2am, we got the dance party going, it was GOOD. so all is well that ends well...

now I can't decide if its
a) amy who cant GIVE directions, or
b) becca who cant TAKE directions.

I think its the latter...

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 20:18:05 GMT

crazy saturday, yo... actually, crazy week in general... here's what happened: I got into a dance company, I met a really cute girl, I danced in 3 shows, and I saw many people that I hadn't seen in about a year.

Yesterday looked like it was gonna be a fairly relaxing saturday. Woke up at 1, had a shower, and then ran to rehearsal at Sal Anthony's. From there me and Kaoru went to go get lunch, then we hopped on the subway to go to dumbo. There we spaced the piece, warmed up, and ultimately performed it. After my show, I stayed and watched the next show after mine, because people I knew were dancing in it. From there, a group of us walked to this really swanky restoraunt, but it was way over budget for me an a few others, so we went to Grimaldi's pizza. The line to get into this pizzeria was about 100 people long, so we went to pete's tavern. plates were again in the $20 range, so we walked another 20 minutes to another pizzeria which was less crowded. Then we went to the blue pig, a homemade ice cream store where they had pumpkin icecream.

I don't know whos bright idea that was, but then we walked all the way from DUMBO, accross the brooklyn bridge, and all the way over to the AC subway stop. I was walking back with becca, who was in the show as well, and we both had our HUGE dance bags. We were going to a bar to celebrate our friend Amy's 21st b-day, and becca talked to amy on the phone and got directions that the bar was on christopher street between bleecker and west 3rd. Well we get to Amy's apartment and call her again to confirm

fuck... i just realized im really late, i was supposed to meet someone at 4:00 and its 4:17 allready.

ill finish the story later.

over 1 month of dirty laundry = not fun to clean.

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 23:11:53 GMT

I cleaned my room today. It looks so awesome, and very different from what it used to look like. I also did my laundry, which hasn't been done since August 25th. It was in desperate need to be done. It got done by the fact that I got up at 7:30 this morning to take the bus back to the city. (I took a little weekend trip to new jersey, which was very much needed- I havn't had quiet and suburbs in a really long time.)

So my room is clean, the floor isn't dusty, and it smells like "blossoms and breeze" now. Its actually kind of weird to be able to locate my keys, wallet, cell phone, money, etc. without having to spend 5 minutes rumaging through the mounds of crap on my desk. Well done, Eric! Well done.

In other news, I'm broke. But thats not really news, since it's pretty much constant.

just thinkin...

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 21:04:27 GMT

So... I though this was funny. get this...

There are a grand total of 12 people in my near blood family ('near' includes cousins and great-aunts.) As of now, half of them are in switzerland. This is where the other half is:
I am in NYC,
My sister in Ann Arbor, Michigan,
My dad is in Prague, Czech republic
My mom is in Namibia, Africa
My grand-pa is in Ontario, Canada
My aunt is in Canbera, Australia.

What a nutso family I have. I didn't even know my dad was in europe until today.

New York, NY

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 21:09:00 GMT

In the CITY, muthafuckas!

I forgot my cell phone in the super shuttle, but managed to find someone with a cell phone on the street (who was willing to stop and let me use it) and fortunately there was this dude who was getting dropped off at one of the NYU dorms still on the van, and he grabbed it for me.

It could have been REALLY bad... my computer, phone, and camera are my 3 most treasured posessions and I would be most sad to loose any of those.

Lets see... friday night was an insanely amazing party, I slept about 2 hours... then on saturday I think i took a 1 hour nap, and left at midnight- on the plane i slept maybe 4 hours. So in the past 2+ days, I've had ... not a lot of sleep. I'm a zombie.

Tonight I'm gonna go watch 'the descent' with kaitlin, its real good to see her again-- its been 4 friggin months!

cops!

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:09:23 GMT

heh... driving to the east side last night, got pulled over. didn't get a ticket. this pushes my record of being pulled over to getting a ticket 7 to 1. a pretty good deal if you ask me! but i did get slightly paranoid that my luck was gonna run out. hasn't yet! yesssssss.

the "much ado about eric" quiz

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 20:40:37 GMT

this is posted on my myspace page as well.... but, you should take this quiz about me... See how much you know. I feel like only my sister will get the full 100%, but try it out anyway.

clickey clickey!

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 00:35:40 GMT

HOLY SHIT! IM GONNA MELT!

wallet

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 00:18:25 GMT

So at about this time last year, I was looking for my wallet. My Crocodile skin wallet that I keep not my bank cards and driver's license in, but my airline milage cards, all the buisness cards of people and dance companies, ID cards to places, my hollywood video and tower records membership cards, a phone card, my swiss bank account debit card, grocery store membership cards.. a SHIT load of things.

I kept looking for this damn wallet every single time I was in Portland- I even called my parents when I was in NY to have them look for it. Christmas break i looked for it all the time, couldn't find it anywhere... When I came back a month ago, again I searched my entire room, top to bottom (at my dad's house.) I didn't find it, so I gave up on it. I thought it was lost for good.

Today, I was looking for a tape in my moms room, and i pull up a CD to look for the tape, and LO and BEHOLD, MY WALLET IS UNDERNEATH. I screamd and jumped and laughed and was amazingly happy.

ahh... thas all

pfb?

Mon, 29 May 2006 21:55:33 GMT

heh, so apparently there is some (community, place, program, group... something...) call PlanetFeedBack or something of the sort which initials out to PFB. That PFB is slightly different from the PFB I had in mind when I wrote my livejournal interests, which for me stands for Pacific Festival Ballet. Its funny to see people add me as their friends even though I have nothing in common spare a three letter acronym.

um, in other news, I'm back in Portland and I'm way busy with a million and one things. I'm working long long days, and I'm catching up on dance, and im working out almost every day, and im going out almost every night, and I try to sleep enough, and make money, and spend time with my fam, hah. Oh livejournal, what are you? I have lost time for you! and myspace takes precedence over you, I'm sorry. I do blog more regularily on myspace, but... i shouldn't call them blogs, for they are strictly surveys. If you ever wanted to know the most random shit about me, go read my 50 or so survey-blog entries on myspace.

poker, frisbee, chaos theory, et alii

Sun, 07 May 2006 06:54:59 GMT

What a nice sunday... I got woken up at arround 11am with a text message from sanjay that frisbee was on for today. We couldn't get a lot of people to join, so we hoped that we would find people at the park who would join us for a game. We get on the N train, and once we are on realize that the N doesn't even go near prospect park, so we decide on what other train to take. the 4 and 5 go to a stop close to the park, so we were going to transfer at brooklyn bridge, but to do that we had to first transfer to the 6, because the N doesn't connect to the 4 or 5 bellow union square. When we got there we realized the 4 and 5 trains weren't running this weekends, so we had to transfer to the JMZ to go to flatbush, to connect to the 2 3 train. We get on the J, and only right before the doors close realize were going the wrong way. So we run to the other side of the track and catch the J going towards downtown, and at fulton we switch to the 2 train, which finally takes us to prospect park. I think that was the most amount of connections I've ever had to take for one trip. Godamn MTA subway and their weekend transit changes.

The park was PACKED and it was quite easy to find people to play, the first game was 5 on 5, my team won. The second game was 6 on 6, my team won again. The following game was 4 on 4 (real tough, lots of running...) but my team still won. I was rolling arround in the dirt making a bunch of catches... I love frisbee. I got the battle wounds to prove it.

We then drove back to the city (thanks to gary who has a car...) and went to sydney's apartment to play a game of poker. I lost $35, not very cool, but good company.

I'm starting to believe in the chaos theory that good luck runs in streaks, and that my good luck run is over. I'm glad to be going back to Portland so I don't have to loose any more poker. Last night I also lost $30 at poker.

I'm gonna be sore tomorrow, but the frisbee was well worth it. A good 2-3 hours of running arround did me good. My shower afterwards felt realllly good.

funny things:

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 19:05:09 GMT

I love my nurse. (well, more like she loves me-) I went to the office for my weekly allergy shots, and I told her zyrtec wasn't working for me anymore. So she starts writing a perscription for zyrtec-D, which works very well for me. We got to the topic of how much I pay, and when I told her my insurance doesn't cover any perscription drugs, she tore it up and emptied half the box of samples into a plastic bag for me. Usually they give you a couple, sometimes 3, MAYBE 4 samples... no... she gave me 18 double-pack samples- 36 pills, probably worth over $100.

My shaving cream still reminds me of OFF mosquito repelent... every time I shave thats what it smells like. I'm gonna have to switch brands.

Lastly, here is something that really made me chuckle- I have a remote control for my AC unit, so that I don't have to get up each time I get too hot or cold to turn it on/off, or to just switch the fan speed. Anyway... I was getting cold and I turned up the temperature, and all of a sudden no sound was coming from my speakers. I turn the volume back up, and it works again. Later on, I do the same thing- turn the temp up again, and thats when I notice that the same remote control signal for "AC temp up" on the ac unit corresponds to "volume down" on my sound system. However, I did a test, and "volume down" on the sound remote does not do "AC temp up" on the unit... so it's only when I use the AC remote that this happens. Quite weird.

casion and elevators

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 00:56:40 GMT

So on sunday I woke up at 8am (the night before I didn't go out at all... probably a 1st for me this year.) I met up with Jim and Monica and we headed down to chinatown to catch a bus to Atlantic City. Thank goodness jim was there, cuz all the signs on the buses were in chinese. We boarded a bus going to Ceaser's casino, (the round trip ride was $20, and once we got to the casino they gave us $22 cash... so it was better than a free ride.) We got some lunch, and then bell (who took a different bus) calls us and informs us of a $40+10 80 person tournament going on. I am (out of the four of us) the 1st one out (i got beat with a better flush,) then jim and monica bust out, and bell stays on pretty late but gets busted before he hits the money table. Then I join a $1/$2 cash table for $100, and play for a couple hours. I play smart and I get lucky, and I walk away with $369. Making my total profit for the day $219. Good Friggin Deal.

Back to NYC, I go to Juan's apartment to chill... and I get stuck in the fucking elevator for an hour. Yeap... between the 1st and 2nd floor for an hour. We hit the alarm button, but no one answers.. thank goodness I had cell phone reception, so I called juan and he went to tell the doorman, and then the service guy came. I'm happy I had company, I would gone kinda nuts by myself in there.

Tonight I'm buying a lottery ticket, cuz my luck this past week has been so... weird.

godamn AC unit.

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 22:24:30 GMT

So, I finally bought an AC unit yesterday, an 87 pound 10,000 BTU machine. I got it for $260, which is a pretty good deal for a 10,000 BTU unit. I took this monster in a cab from PC Richard & Son back to my place, and hauled it up three flights of stairs, into my apt and into my room. Really really heavy stuff. Then I spent about an hour trying to follow the directions, but... they assume my window sill is wodden, and I can screw stuff into it. Nope, mine is METAL. Plus I feel like these directions were first written in english, translated into chinese, from there translated into russian, and from there translated BACK into english. They never list the terms they use, and give you words such as "discharge area" "left-hand louver assembly" "wheel shaft" "horizontal louver casing" "auger wheel shaft" "locating slot" (should I go on? ok...) "free end ('I' section)" note: nowhere on anything is there written what the 'I' section is... "right angle sash lock" "frame lock".... (this goes on, you get my frustration.)

The pictures in the 'instructions' are faded black and white images that look like they were taken on a camera phone, printed, and then photocopied three times. Finally I give up for friday, and place this thing on my floor, scratching up half the floor.

Saturday I try again, with new-found knowledge: I went to Jim's house, and he has the same type of metal window, so I examined how he did it. I grabbed my duct tape, my styrofoam that the unit came packed in, and engineered some sort of stand for this thing, and after another hour of grunting, bleeding, cursing, and pain I got this thing out the window. It is in NO way secured, the weight of the window is keeping it from toppling down three flights and killing someone. I should find a way to secure it, I guess... That will come next week tho.

These are the fucking "metal fins" that they warn you to be careful to avoid cuts. Yeah right. When these fuckers are on both sides, how are you supposed to handle this unit? (I'm still pissed, if you can't tell.)

This is what happened to my palm when I slid my hand on these friggin metal fins. I also have the same type of cuts on three of my fingers on my left hand, which makes the total of these 1/2 inch deep razor cuts on my left hand about 30. note: I took this picture seconds after it happened, before the pain and the blood really started to flow.

This is the final result: My unit in the window, with remote control. I'll be happy to have it in a few weeks when it gets hot. For now, I hate it, cuz its freezing and raining out, and it was a pain... in... the... ass... to install.