Monthly Archives: September 2004

general ramblings

hump day aftermath

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yesterday was a pretty uneventful day. there was some volleyball to be had. playing the setter position can be pretty hard work. i think that i am particularly sore. i was planning on eating tacos that trang made, but it turned out that dinner was too late and i needed to eat before volleyball so shirley and i headed over to 369 instead in fremont and had some food there. the food was pretty decent. as we were leaving, i had forgotten to leave a tip, but shirley remembered and we went back to the restaurant and left a little tip there.

my head has been up in the clouds recently. i haven’t really been able to concentrate too much on anything. i guess i’ve been distracted lately, but not too sure what it is that i’ve been distracted about. just a general weirdness of sorts.

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general ramblings

q-cup in berkeley

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i decided to check out the q-cup in berkeley yesterday after i got an email from the owner of the shop. it’s located on center street in downtown berkeley near the bart station. i decided to check out q-cup on a whim and decided that i would bart there from work. the thought of having to drive into berkeley, find parking in downtown, and then walk to q-cup, get my drink and repeat everything in reverse didn’t seem worth it. luckily, it’s only a $2.50 roundtrip bart ride. that isn’t so bad, especially if you consider that i probably would have burned close to a dollar in quarters for parking in berkeley too.

q-cup there is a small shop and there was something rather odd about the tea or pearls there. i think that there was a hint of mint in there that sort of bothered me, though.

it was an interesting trip on the bart. it’s been a while since i’ve ridden on it but everytime i ride the bart a flood of memories overwhelm me from the days i used to ride bart to commute from berkeley to san jose. ahhh, those were the days.

general ramblings

massage class

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i went to this massage class yesterday where we learned about various muscle groups in the arm and how to best massage the arm. it was kind of interesting but there was this one poor woman who went who didn’t have a very good experience. she already had carpal tunnel syndrome and then when her partner came to massage her, she was howling in pain. he apparently aggravated something that was already bad.

it makes me wonder though why people who have such conditions won’t be more careful about these things. why would you let an untrained person apply pressure to your arms when your arms are already in pain? why?

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techie

right or wrong?

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“that is the right wrong thing to do.”

that’s what a co-worker of mine said today when i asked him about a design decision on a project that i’m working on. basically, i’m extending an existing application and there’s a lot of code that’s already out there that’s doing a bunch of “stuff.” now, the right thing to do is write very streamlined code and get rid of everything that isn’t necessary. but because of time considerations it seems that everyone is in agreement that the right thing to do is not necessarily the right way to do things, but is right given the circumstances.

my first inclination was to do the wrong thing, acknowledge that you did the wrong thing, and then move on. i just felt bad that i wasn’t doing it the right way…but now that i’ve gotten some affirmation that i’m doing this ok, it’s time to just plow through and keep doing the wrong thing.

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general ramblings

running late

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i’ve been running late to a lot of things lately. this is a habit that must be broken. i’ve been getting to work early though, so that’s a good thing.

yesterday, i was running late to volleyball. so late, in fact, that when i got to citybeach they were about to start play. so i ran onto the court wearing jeans and a t-shirt without my ankle brace. i decided to take it easy that game and not play too aggressively. it seems that my ankle actually held up well, though. maybe i’m using this brace as a crutch…it has been a while since i hurt my ankle…but i’ll still play with it, as a preventitive measure and all.

yesterday was finally a good volleyball day…well, decent, anyway. i got a few good hits in and i think that i just felt better about my play overall. this is a good thing too because i feel like i’ve been in a bit of a rut lately.

actually, on the whole, i do feel like i’ve sort of peaked in terms of volleyball. i don’t know what it is that will get me to that next level, but i feel that i am not really improving any. i think that i really need to seek out play that is much better than what i’m at now. that’s how i improved last time, when i played at a higher level than i was at. it was painful, but i did get better. i’m probably going to drop two of my volleyball nights. i just don’t feel that it’s very productive and i think that i’m beginning to feel a little frustrated that i’m not getting better.

perhaps it is time to find a new activity…

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general ramblings

far and few between

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my posts seem to be getting farther and fewer between, but i’ll see if i can do my usual weekend recap first. friday night was spent clubbing it up in downtown san jose. we went to get drinks at zoe first and then headed over to agenda to dance it up. agenda’s a pretty small club and is probably one of the more well ventilated clubs i’ve been to. i didn’t get too hot but i did get tired early. it’s been a while since i went dancing.

saturday was spent eating a little bit and then resting a lot. shirley and i went to get thai food at king of krung siam in mountain view and then decided to play scrabble at lucy’s. i had a green tea milkshake there. it was rather good. while playing scrabble, i bingo’d and made the word “nuances”. i thought for sure that i had an easy win, but later in the game shirley bingo’d too making the word “strained”. in the end shirley won by about 15 points. *sigh* i guess this teaches me not to cry victory before the game’s over.

then we hung out a little bit with her sister, alice, and watched some tv and chatted before i went to dinner with [url=http://www.track15.com]dardy[/url], [url=http://www.bastalaranza.com]geoff[/url], alvin, nelson, jen, [url=http://www.phamily.org]paul[/url], [url=http://leafee.ocliw.com]leeya[/url], and mike. we decided to go to pasta pomodoro. i haven’t quite decided how i feel about that place yet. i guess it’s still hard for me to decide, but the food is alright. i don’t like how they like to crowd all the tables super close together though.

after dinner, shirley and i drove her sister back to berkeley and then headed back home. i still haven’t found a pair of sunglasses that i would like to get. it seems that none of the styles that are out there really appeal to me.

sunday was spent lazying about. tried to go to stacks, but the hour long wait was a bit of a turnoff and we decided to go elsewhere instead after checking out the farmer’s market in campbell.

and then volleyball on sunday night.

it looks like my weekend has been pretty much planned out already for this coming weekend. so busy…

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rants

degrading women

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[url=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=816&e=1&u=/ap/20040923/ap_on_re_us/stripper_pole]it’s story likes these[/url] that i think are just completely ridiculous. i think that i’m a fairly enlightened individual and when it comes to equality, i think it is paramount that all people should be given the same opportunity regardless of age, race, sexual orientation, or gender. i don’t think it makes any sense that a woman in the same position of that of a man should make any less. that’s ridiculous.

but in the same vein, i also think it’s ridiculous that people start to cry bloody murder when they say that women are being exploited at institutions like hooters. nobody forced the women to apply to the job. nobody tricked the women into indentured servitude. if they don’t like the conditions in which they are working at, they are completely free to leave. they should know what kind of people frequent these establishments and what they may have to deal with on a daily basis. i mean, come on, folks, it’s not degrading to women, they are volunteering to be put into this place. i would have no problem with some restaurant chain called schlongs where barely-clad men will be serving you food. if that’s your thing, go have fun. i may not want to go there and it may not really excite me, but will i cry out that these men are being exploited for their bodies? uhhh…sorry. they choose to work there.

in the same vein, these university folks are being a little ridiculous when they claim that the party degraded women. the women didn’t have to go to the party. the women didn’t have to dance on the stripper pole. the women didn’t even strip.

now, i agree with the university that they are well within their rights to order the students to remove the pole from the housing because you cannot bolt things in housing that is university property. i can also see how they can punish the students for violating alcohol policies. indecent behavior is sort of a fine line for me…i’m not really sure what they can call indecent behavior…that’s sort of a moral judgement call.

i mean, it’s not like these women were being led into a prostitution ring. it’s not like these girls were being coerced to do something that they didn’t want to do. there was no nudity. i mean, what is indecent behavior, really? what if there’s a couple who’s getting it on in their dorm room? can they be punished for that because it’s indecent behavior?

i also think it’s ridiculous that the winner of the pole dancing contest was disciplined, but not any of the other contestants. why should the winner be the only one penalized? i think that’s ridiculously unfair. if you are going to go and punish people, punish all those involved. or is it just more convenient to make an example out of her? maybe it is. but why should she be disciplined again? because of indecent behavior? i guess that just rubs me the wrong way.

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fiction

ugh…breakfast

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i had breakfast this morning. i wasn’t planning on it, but for some reason i felt compelled to eat 4 pancakes and hash browns from nations. it was quite good, but now i’m very sleepy and very full. something tells me that i probably won’t be getting lunch today.

why is it that i always feel compelled to get the larger sized version of everything? i’m not very sure. it’s a better deal, though! that’s what i keep telling myself. sure. one of these days i’ll have some kind of self-control…really, i will.

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