merry christmas!

merry christmas!

and a happy birthday to jason all the way over in china!

i remember when i couldn’t wait until christmas day. i would count down the days and jump with joy waiting for the inevitable day to arrive. on christmas eve i would beg and plead with my parents to let me open a gift or two…or all of them. i would get so excited about santa coming over that i wouldn’t be able to sleep.

when i finally was able to go to sleep, i would wake up extra early so that i could open up presents. on a normal school day, it was all that my mom could do to get me up and out of bed by 8pm. on a normal weekend, i’d sleep until 10. but on christmas day i’d be up at 5:30 and i’d be tugging my dad’s arm trying to wake him up so we could open presents.

good times.

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gelled fuel


[url=http://www.kitchenetc.com/Products.cfm?sku=000979161]this[/url] has got to be the coolest stuff i’ve ever seen. what is it? gelled fuel. what is that?

it turns out that it is a gelled liquid fuel for fondue sets. what’s even cooler about it is that there are special shipping restrictions for this product. it turns out that due to the nature of the product, it is not legal to ship it by air. so instead it must be shipped ground. i suppose if you buy a billion of these bottles of fuel, it’d be bad if it caught on fire and set the plane on fire.

so instead, you’ll just set a truck on fire. which can’t cause as much damage as a plane. makes sense, i guess. but this gelled fuel is used in place of those little capsules of fuel typically used to heat catered food for a fondue set.

i like some of the warnings on the bottle:
-this product is highlt flammable.
-breathing of vapors may have narcotizing effects

it’s a canadian company, but it was made in switzerland. i wonder how they got it from switzerland to the united states. by boat? probably not.

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opening gifts in front of other people

i never really enjoyed opening gifts in front of other people. the only exception i would make is the christmas gift opening with the family. i don’t like opening gifts in front of other people because they are always watching you with hawk eye intensity trying to gauge how much you like their gift.

so then there’s already a bit of pressure for you to like the gift. now i don’t really care if i get gifts or what gifts i get from people, it really is the thought that counts. and so i will always appreciate the thought…if not the gift. =P

i don’t think it’s rude to open gifts in front of each other, though.

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bed, bath, and beyond

i went to bed, bath, and beyond today after a tip from paul who said that he saw poker chips being sold there. it turns out that they are of the cheaper variety and i didn’t get a very good feeling of them while i was playing with the store model.

they also had a poker table top for sale. a table, complete with individual chip racks, for eight people was merrily on sale as well. i was tempted, but i wasn’t sure where i would put the thing in my apartment anyway….besides, i still have to make room for the foosball table i want somewhere.

what i noticed at bed, bath, and beyond though was the cashier. he seemed like a rather unhappy fellow who was there in body, but certainly not in spirit. after i purchased my items, he wished my goodbye with these parting words, “have a holiday.”

not “have a happy holiday”, but “have a holiday.” in a complete monotone voice. without cracking a smile. he just said it very matter of factly.

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pursuits of life

i’ve heard a few times over about the painful memories that some people have when it comes to their ex’s. they lament about how tragic it is and they focus on the negative. they don’t understand why things have taken such a wretched turn and they believe the world will never be as good. these are the people who are still entrenched in the pains of loss. they remember all of the good, yet conveniently forget all of the bad.

and then people believe, particularly in long term relationships, that everything that they went through was a waste. a waste of time, a waste of energy, and a waste of effort. everything that they had done was for nothing.

i know this because i went through it.

i know that it doesn’t seem like much, but things do get better. everyone is so goal-focused these days, it’s a wonder anybody actually enjoys life for what it is. a large part of life is not about getting “it” right. it’s about the journey.

the journey of life is what builds our character and is what ultimately makes us who we are. we may have to fall and stumble a little bit here and there, sometimes we have to plunge deep into the abyss of depression. but when we emerge from the hardships that life has thrown at us, we come out stronger and more able to cope with whatever life throws at us.

many people lose sight of the journey. we get too caught up keeping up with the jones that we forget that we have our own paths to forge. it’s during the christmas season that i always remember that life is about the journey as i reflect about this past year and where i’ve come.

for those of you who find this time of the year painful for whatever reason, try to take comfort that you are not alone. there are those who have pained like you have, who have cried those same tears that you cry and they have persevered.

endless vigilance must be kept for the good. it’s out there waiting to be found.

11.5 gram poker chip

i’ve been doing some research recently into poker chips. there apparently are several different grades of poker chips for the discerning poker player. i think it can be broken down into 4 distinct categories.

the first category of chips are the plastic chips. these are probably the most common and the cheapest poker chips you can find. they usually are made out of cheap plastic and can be found as interlocking, stackable chips. they have a very unsatisfying clinking sound when thrown into the pot. the benefit of these chips are that they usually are found very cheaply for about $5 per 100 chips.

the next category of chips are the plastic composite chips. these usually weigh in at about 4 grams or so and are also usually found pretty cheap. though they have a more solid feel to them, they still don’t quite have the right weight that one sees in the casino.

the third category of chips are the 8 gram poker chips, usually found in many game and hobby stores. these chips used to be the closest approximation to casino chips that you could buy on the market. they are usually molded from some composite of materials, clay being one of them. these are pretty decent chips and can usually be found for $15-20 per 100.

but the holy grail of poker chips for the consumer are the 11.5 gram poker chips. these are casino quality and weight poker chips. they usually come in at about $35-50 per 100 and they can be custom stamped or logo’d for more. these are the chips to have the closest weight and feel to casino chips that you can get. simply delicious.

i am thinking about getting some more chips, but i’m not sure which ones to get just yet. i think that i’m leaning towards the 8 gram chips. the 11.5 gram chips look very tempting, but i just don’t think that i can justify spending that much on those chips just yet. it’s not like i’m a hardcore poker player or anything.

early morning preparations

i woke up at 6:20am this morning. it was by intention, not mischance. why? i’m going to the [url=http://www.nba.com/games/20031223/LALGSW/preview.html]warriors (12-13) game[/url] tonight where they are pitted against the pitiful lakers (20-5 eep!). i’m going with three lakers fans, so i think that i may have to cheer extra loud.

i had to go into work early today because i hitched a ride from paul who gets into work at insanely early hours.

but the lakers will be without karl malone unfortunately…because in his old age, he hurt himself last sunday. go figure that in his 18+ year career he’s only missed 11 games and today will make his 12th. grrrr.

the lakers have won 10 of their last 14 games against the warriors which means it’s about time that the warriors step it up and beat some laker butt. it’s not that i don’t like the lakers, but you GOTTA root for the home team, you know? unless, of course, they are playing the kings…if that’s the case, all bets are off and the kings are going to have to win.

the warriors are in a 3 way tie for 3rd place in their division. i think this is going to put them at .500.

go warriors!

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television

i haven’t been able to watch as much tv as i ordinarily would. this usually used to be a cause for great concern for me, but with the recent discovery that most tv shows can be downloaded, i haven’t felt very stressed out about it at all. it’s actually quite nice because the downloaded tv shows have the commercials cut out already for your viewing pleasure. this is almost better than replaytv because you don’t have to do anything…the only drawback is that it takes a while to download the episodes of the tv shows that you want to see.

but man, if it weren’t for people uploading tv shows, i’d never be able to watch tru calling. i have yet to see one live on the tube yet…not that it’s that good anyway…but still..

—–

stress

i’ve been feeling more and more stressed out lately. what’s odd about the stress i’m feeling is that it isn’t even stress related to me personally…but my every day environment has been getting more stressful and though i don’t get affected directly i still feel the heat of the stress and it’s beginning to cut in to my personal enjoyment of every day life.

my solution? i’ve decided to more selectively block out the things that have been casuing a more stressful environment for me. we’ll see how that goes.

on to other things, i got lots of good sleep this weekend. i think that the insomnia bug has finally run out its course. i was able to sleep quite well last night without incident. i am a happy camper.

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innerHTML!

made a rather startling revelation today which was startling and disturbing at the same time. it turns out that if you use the internet explorer innerHTML property, if you assign something to innerHTML, IE will first parse the HTML tags in there and so stuff to it. so when you assign a value to innerHTML, it doesn’t put just what you have, but all this other crap to…it also likes to close <table> definitions so you can’t use multiple calls to innerHTML without it parsing it up the wazoo.

grrrr.