i just found out that farmers in japan employ the use of MRIs on watermelons to determine when their sugar content has reached its peak and to detect if it has any hollow spots.

that’s insane! it’s a WATERMELON. it’s not like it’s a donut or anything. sheesh!

i really like the new jewel album. it’s back to her roots, less dance/pop like than her other crap of an album. it sounds like the jewel that i know and love.

it’s too bad that she doesn’t yodel on any of her albums. i’ll have to go back to some concerts that i have to listen to her yodel.

while at the giants game yesterday there was a sign that said, “ok, crowd, it’s time to yodel! one! two! three! YODEL!” you could hear crickets chirping.

after being completely burned out for the last two weeks, it was a welcome relief to get out of town, away from the internet, and enjoy a mini vacation. i went to san diego to see my sister’s graduation ceremony. the other times i’ve been to san diego, it has always been ridiculously hot and a little humid. the weather made me squirm in the sun and so i was expecting san diego to be sunny in the day, warm at night, and overall kind of hot.

instead, i found san diego to be more warm than not, but to be windy, overcast, cool, and cold at times. i’m told by the locals that most people think that san diego is always hot, but the locals know that san diego has three distinct climates. who knew? =P

anyway, my stay in san diego was fun, i didn’t get to stay for very long, but we left friday and returned on sunday. the trip started off with a bit of a mess, but the rest of the weekend went well. i was able to visit my sister’s townhouse and check out the gaslamp quarter.

it was a fun trip and welcome relief from the work and i feel ready again to tackle the bits of work that are ahead of me now.

there are few places outside of the bay area that i think i could live in, but san diego is one of those places that i think i can live in comfortably.

i had a very unexpected, but very pleasant visit from jenny over the weekend. she was in town for a wedding and an interview and we had lunch to catch up. i had been giving her a hard time for avoiding me whenever she was in town, so i guess all of the guilting finally worked (after years!) and we had lunch and pearl tea.

we don’t really get to see each other often and our lives have been busy with much change recently so it was good to catch up. it’s nice to know that though we haven’t kept in regular contact that we’re still able to pick things up as if a day had never passed away.

it makes me wonder what kind of a friendship do you need to have where that is the case. with some friends that i haven’t talked to in a while, the lack of communication makes me feel like there’s a distance between our friendship. with others, it doesn’t seem to matter.

i hosted a mini-team dinner for my thursday night volleyball team. our team name? We’ll Hit On You. it’s true. we will. beware. it’s ok, at least we’re not ugly.

so, anyway, it was a three course fondue dinner, starting with a cheese fondue appetizer, a red wine-based broth and an oil-based broth main course fondue with meats, fish, and veggies, and a decadent chocolate fondue to finish things off.

dinner and the company was great and we all got to know each other a little bit better. a couple of team members were unable to make it last night, so it was a trial run, we’ll have to do it again with the full team some time.

after dinner we played a great team-building game called compatibility. it’s always fun to play this game because you get to see how other people think. the game is basically where each person has the same deck of cards. each card has either a picture or a word. a certain topic is brought up and each person is supposed to pick the top 5 cards that they most closely associate with the topic. we then compare our results.

anyhow, it was a fun night and a great way to get over the hump.

i used to never drink diet coke. i used to hate any kind of diet drink. i thought that they didn’t taste right and the artificial sweetness that they had was just disgusting. and so if you asked me about a year ago how i felt about diet coke, that’s exactly what i would have told you.

last night, i had some friends over and they were commenting that i had a lot of diet coke. it’s true, target currently has them on sale, 2-12 packs for $6. cheap! so i got a small stockpile of them in my refrigerator and kitchen floor. see, the thing about diet coke is that i used to hate it, but now normal coke tastes weird to me. it’s sad, but true.

whenever i was at christi’s place, she’d always only have diet coke available because that’s all she drinks. i really wanted some soda and that’s all she had, so i sucked it up and hated it. this pattern kept repeating itself until i slowly started to tolerate diet coke. now, it has become my preference. sad, but true.

it’s always a rather cathartic experience whenever i clean up. last night was the second night that i did not do any work after i got home. after the last two weeks of hellish hours, it was wonderful not having to have the rain clouds of work, stress, and pressure storm over me. i think it affected my sleep, my waking hours, and everything else. no longer do i have kinks in my back and neck. it is a wonderful feeling.

last night i went about cleaning up and unpacking the boxes that were still stacked all over the place. i’m not completely sure how i feel about having my kitchen table in the middle of the dining area, i think i enjoyed it much more against the wall, so i think that when i am not entertaining people, i may always leave it there.

i think that it is an indication of a new low when i get excited when i go to target to buy a new swiffer mop. that can’t be a good thing.

but the place is finally getting cleaned up and i feel like it’s much more liveable than before. lots of open space, i kind of like it. i think that i need to start thinking about how to decorate the place. i guess that’ll come with time.

i’ve noticed that i have been much cleaner than i usually have been. i’m not sure if that it because i feel like it’s really my responsibility to keep the place clean or what, but it is a change that i’ve noticed. rarely do the dishes stay in the sink for more than a meal, usually they are cleaned right after use. i think that’s crazy.

so after i lost my phone, i had the difficult decision of whether or not to get a new cool phone, or do what i’ve been doing for the last few years which is to get the cheapest phone that sprint provides. this time, i decided that i was going to get a nice phone. with the credit that i got from losing my phone, i choose the samsung A900. also known as the blade or sprint’s razr killer. i have never been very impressed with the display models when i’ve seen it, i felt the construction was weak, but the phone is actually pretty substantial. first and foremost, the phone is fast, reliable and responsive. sound from the phone is of good quality. the included handsfree headset works well, though a bit bulky. i wish that the phone had a speakerphone feature, but i guess with the size of the phone that just wasn’t possible. oh well.

i haven’t decided to get the data option on the phone, i don’t think that i will really access the internet on the phone anyway. if it becomes an issue, i might consider it, but for now i think it’ll be fine. i’ve always had pretty featureless phones, though, which is weird because i do work for a mobile entertainment company. oh well, that’s ok, i don’t need to use the products that i make, right? 😛

i’ve got the bulk of the code done for the project and at this point, i don’t care anymore. i think it’s good enough to send to QA, so we’re just going to let it go and see what happens. finally, all this hard work has amounted to something.

i’ve made a little deal with myself that every day i will try to unpack one box. it has been moving rather slowly, but i think that i’m on pace. the apartment is feeling less like a warehouse and more like home now. i’m almost ready to entertain people, i think.

let me see if i can remember what i’ve done in the last two weeks…

i went to the sharks game last monday. back then, it looked like the sharks were playing strong and were sure to advance. now, with the last few games, i hope that they can get back into shape and win some games.

i’ve bought a set of bowls and plates that i am quite fond of. i have heard that they are susceptible to chipping, but i’ve been trying to take good care of them, so we’ll see how they last.

i actually ate on my kitchen table a few days ago. before it was just packed with all sorts of stuff so it was more of a shelf than anything else. slowly, but surely, things are shaping up.

i’ve been feeling kind of sick lately though, which just sucks. i don’t really know what to do about it, though. it’s making me sad because when i get sick, i get sick for a long time. =(

the deadline is only a few days away and i still feel like i have SO MUCH WORK to do. i’m starting to feel stressed out and i have been trying to be good about getting enough sleep and taking breaks so that i don’t burn out. we’ll see how that goes.

so while i was in vegas for the volleyball tournament, i lost my phone. i don’t know where i lost it, i don’t know when i lost it, but it’s gone. i lost all of the phone numbers that i had stored over the years and now i have a brand new phone, devoid of any numbers.

i think i’ll just wait until people call me before i get the numbers again…i had quite the hard time trying to get the new phone activated under my old plan, but it looks like it is all fine now. one interesting thing i found out while at the sprint store was that employees get discounts on only the plans, not the phones. they still have to pay full price for those. kind of a bummer, eh?

alright, i better get back to coding, it’s almost 9AM and time’s a-wasting.