yesterday, i went to kragen to get some bulbs to replace the broken light bulbs for my brake lights. when i got my oil changed last week, jiffy lube informed me that there were a few bulbs that were broken and they wanted to charge me $6.99 to replace each one. yeah…no thanks, guys, i can change a light bulb. (how many engineers does it take to change…)

but anyway, after i got my light bulb changed, i was walking around and decided to make an optometry appointment in that same plaza. i went to this optometrist many years ago and was pretty happy with the service, and now that the company finally has a vision plan, it’s time to take advantage of it.

i will be doing something that i’ve never done before in my life. i will be getting another pair of glasses, even though my current pair are perfectly good. yup, that’s right, i will be getting a pair of glasses to use as a fasion accessory. oh boy.

but anyway, the optometrist’s assistant was pretty cute. she was very friendly and helpful and answered all of my questions. so i decided to make an appointment and their next available appointment happens to be today. so i’m going in today to get a new pair of glasses and some new contacts, that i desperately need. i think i’m down to my last pair.

i hate picking out new glasses, though. it’s always such a hardship for me. i’m not sure what i’m going to be trying out this time, but we’ll see what i’ll come up with. maybe something a little more sleek and sophisticated.

all throughout my childhood i was brought up with the expectation of being perfect. study hard, get perfect scores on tests, get perfect grades, and be the perfect little boy. i think that my mom had a large role in shaping my perceptions, expectations, and beliefs.

and for a long, long time i think that’s how i lived my life. i tried to be perfect in every way that i could imagine. i worked hard to get to where i was and i thought that i had finally figured out what the perfect life was to be. it wasn’t until after i started working and started living in the real world that i started to realize what life was all about.

for a while it was all about the rat race. work hard, make money, get by. it seemed like a content enough life for me and i was reasonably happy then. i guess i had a pretty limited view of what life had in store for me.

but things got shaken up and i went through some big life changing events. i started to realize that there was more to life than just work. there’s more to life than playing it safe and avoiding anything that could potentially cause hardship in your life. without risk, there’s no reward. i realized that i had to start getting out there and start proactively seeking life instead of just reacting to it.

sure, i’ve made more mistakes with this newfound lifestyle, but i feel that i’ve grown quite a bit as a result. i’ve experienced more things in the last five years than i had in the previous twenty. some were painful lessons to be learned, some were amazing highs to be felt. but i wonder if i could have learned as much as i have in the past without going through some of those hardships and making those mistakes.

i think this applies to all aspects of your life. even as a programmer, i’ve made some pretty bad mistakes in how to do my job, but as a result, i will never make them again. i’ve definitely learned from my mistakes. could i have gained the same knowledge without making those mistakes? maybe. but i think the best way that one learns something is when they can apply the knowledge that they have gained to something practical.

it’s much like that scene in days of thunder when tom cruise thinks that if he drives all crazy fast, without regards to his car’s tires that he’ll get the best time. his coach forced him to drive the track his way and then the coach’s way to compare which way would come out better. turns out the coach was right and good old tom learned his lesson and changed his ways.

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man, did anyone see the nick and jessica variety show last sunday? i only caught the last ten minutes or so, but i was able to watch jessica simpson sing take my breath away. jessica has a decent voice, but man, her stage presence is just awful! she looked like she was having an epileptic seizure while singing that song. it was actually pretty disturbing to watch.

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[url=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=796&e=3&u=/eo/20040412/en_celeb_eo/13878]rebecca and john[/url] are no more! i can’t believe it. they really seemed to be a happy couple. i wonder why it is that they broke up. who initiated it? so sad. i really thought that they would be able to work it out. reports indicate that john wanted to have babies, but rebecca wasn’t ready yet. she’s only 31 and they’ve been together for 10 years! oh well.

it reminded me of a conversation i had with this guy the other day. he informed me that jennifer garner and her beau had recently broke up and he was happy because she was now a single girl and back on the market. my first thought was, “yeah, buddy, the reason why she wasn’t with you was because she was dating that OTHER guy…but now that he’s out of the picture, you’ve got a shot now!”

of course, as soon as i heard that rebecca romijn was single again, i had the exact same thought. ahhh, silly me.

man, i am so out of touch with some people, it’s crazy! i just got in touch with an old, old high school friend of mine and she told me that she’s moved from oregon back to san jose. on top of that she’s married (which i knew) and has a 3 month old baby! woah! the times sure have changed. back in high school, she was definitely the last person i expected to have kids.

it’s pretty cool though to see how our lives have diverged and when we check in with each other’s lives we see how we have all grown.

makes me wonder sometimes what i’ve done with the last ten years of my life. hmmmm.

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there’s no volleyball today. it’s kind of sad. it’s a bye week this week so i don’t really have any plans for today. it’s sad though because this night is my night to just forget about things for a while and escape into another world for just a little bit. with that missing today, i think that i’m going to be forced to find something else to occupy my time. whatever shall i do? hmmmm.

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