went to *bux today to use up some more of the gift card that i got from warren’s. the walk to *bux was actually a little bit longer than i thought it would be, but maybe that’s because it is cold, windy, and almost wet.

yeah, almost wet. it wasn’t raining, it wasn’t drizzling, it’s just that the atmosphere just feels like it’s about to rain. almost like a thick fog…

some people gawk when they see me put about three teaspoons of sugar in my caramel macchiato. it just isn’t sweet enough for me, ok? =P

oh yeah, the whole reason i started this post was because i saw someone refer to starbucks as *bux. silly, really.

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i like the rain. i like it when it is raining and i’m sitting warmly at home, nice and dry. i do not like driving in the rain. i do not like walking in the rain, either. so far today, i’ve had to walk in the rain to get to my car only to drive my car in the rain to park it so that i can again walk in the rain.

why did the day take this sudden turn for the worse?

well, what’s worse is wearing baggy jeans that drag on the wet ground. that’s why today, i decided to wear a belt and to wear my jeans higher than normal to minimize my wetness. indeed, it seemed like a good strategy, but it is a little uncomfortable.

no matter, it is friday and i’m eager to get some work done and plow through the day so that i can go back home and comfortably stay warm. that’s the plan and i’m sticking to it.

days like this make me want to just stay in, though. maybe i’ll take advantage of the [url=http://www.brookstone.com/shop/product.asp?product_code=403147&search_type=search&search_words=backgammon&prodtemp=t1&cm_re=Result*R2C1*A]3-in-1 game set[/url] that my sister got me for xmas and learn how to play backgammon. i’ve never learned how to play it before so it’s interesting because i’ve seen it from forever ago. i do wonder why it is that i never learned the game and always opted to play checkers instead.

anyhow, it seems like a fun game, so we’ll see how it really is in action.

i never realized that this was a betting game, though. very interesting! i wonder what kind of bets will come out of this game. maybe we will play a penny a point or something. we’ll see.

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i didn’t watch any tv last night. this is sort of a big deal because now i’m sure that i’m many hours behind in my tv watching schedule. oh well.

last night mia got a few people together for dinner at korea house. i do love korea house. so mia, leeya, nelson, shirley, and i feasted on lots of meat and other side dish joys before heading over to poker night. it seems that people are showing up later and later every week, and though i say that it starts at a given time, i don’t think anyone showed up until an hour afterwards.

we had a surprise blast from the past guest last night, a friend of shirley’s who happened to go to high school with me. i was surprised to say the least. it is such a small, small world.

but with all of that, there was no tv to be watched. i have the sports illustrated swimsuit model search on the replay just waiting to be watched. perhaps that will be tonight’s festivities.

my shoulder’s still bothering me a bit. i haven’t been very diligent about strengthening it after the big fall so i guess i ought to before i reinjure myself.

last day of the week, i’m excited. this weekend ought to be a little relaxing, but i want to make some chocolate chip cookies before sunday night’s game so that the team and i can snack on some cookies while we play volleyball. it’s the start of a new season, i hope it’ll be a lot of fun…i just have to think up of a new cheer for the team. hmmmmm.

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i’m hanging out at java town cafe in santa clara right now where i happened to stumble upon their free wireless hotspot. i was actually wardriving up and down el camino real looking for a place to hang out before going to korea house for dinner before tonight’s big poker night.

i haven’t played poker in a long, long time, so it’ll be nice to be able to go play some poker. i’m getting a little hungry so it’ll be good to get some good eating in before the game.

i do miss the DSL at the apartment. i’m hoping that it’ll be fixed up soon…very soon.

but life without broadband is interesting. more tv, mostly. i guess that isn’t very interesting, eh? but i did get a chance to watch committed the other night. even though the critics hated it, i really liked the show. i enjoyed its quirky humor.

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i think there’s something wrong with my server, it seems awfully slow.

i haven’t been posting much, mostly because i feel like there hasn’t been much to write about. or maybe it’s because i’ve been really busy lately. i’m not sure…but let me see if i can do a quick recap of things.

my new year’s was fun, though my back was hurting a little so i had to cut it a little short. but still, was able to go out clubbing to ring in the new year.

aside from that, getting back into the swing of things at work is a little hard. i don’t know what it is, but i just can’t seem to get used to the schedule that i used to keep. so it’s really hard waking up that early in the morning and i’m not sure what my options really are besides getting into work later and having to leave a little later. oh well.

i’ve been playing around with the idea of switching blog software again. i’m sort of looking into other alternatives again, but we’ll see.

oh, oh, oh! i just found out about [url=http://www.knoppix.org/]knoppix[/url], the live linux distribution that fits on a CD. this may be my favorite linux distribution now for my laptop.

not much else going on, really….except TV!

man…too much tv…too little time.

i think this may be the last blog of the year for me, as i’m still internetless at home and it seems that this is going to take a lot longer than i expected to remedy the situation.

so i’m at my home away from home, tapioca express, where it is too cold and too loud to do any sort of rational blogging, so instead i will just do a stream of consciousness blog to sum up two thousand and four.

this year seemed rather uneventful. i’m not sure if it is because there haven’t been any huge life-changing events or if it is because i’m just forgetful, but it didn’t seem like a lot has happened this year.

in fact, i can’t really remember much of anything that happened this year. i think this was the year that i hurt my ankle pretty bad. that was unpleasant.

oh well, so much for the year end recap. =P

happy new year, folks! see ya in the new year.

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it’s the last day of the work week for me, i’m going on vacation and it starts in…JUST…A…FEW…HOURS.

i’m not sure what i’ve got planned, really. i know that i have to clean up the apartment before the new year, but aside from that i don’t really have much plans for my two days off.

i think that i’ll rather enjoy them, though. still need to fix the DSL in my apartment though. grrrr.

i’m ready to start my vacation and end the year, though.

i went snowboarding yesterday. i forgot how painful day trips were, but this time it was even worse because i took a bad fall on my first run. my back was hurting pretty bad and it was hard for me to do any boarding after that. i went back to the lodge and i rested up for a while and then i went out to hit the slopes again. i repeated this process several times until i just couldn’t handle it anymore. i don’t think that i will be going boarding anytime soon.

my back still hurts and my right shoulder hurts quite a bit too. i’m hoping that continued rest will make it better, but we’ll see.

this christmas was pretty low key. i spent the holiday with my family and we opened each other’s gifts.

aside from that, it’s been a pretty easy going weekend, not much to think about, but the long weekend was really nice. i enjoyed every moment of it. this week is a two day week for me, so i’m going to try and enjoy that too! half of the work week is ALMOST over.

i took a bunch of pictures from paul and leeya’s gift exchange, but i don’t have a fast internet connection to upload the pictures yet so we’ll just have to wait and see about that.

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last night i went to tapioca express to catch up with a friend of mine. i feel like i haven’t seen the person in a long time so it was good to be able to catch up on each other’s lives and see what’s going on. it was as if all of that time hadn’t passed and that time didn’t create a void between us.

that isn’t necessarily true for all of the people i know. there are some people who flitter in and out of my life. time and distance does seem to grow a great divide between us and though we may have been great friends before, we seem to no longer share that connection that we once had.

sometimes i wonder if i’m an island. i wonder if maybe i’m the only one around and though i know that other people exist, i wonder if i’m just sort of out there by myself. so every so often i decide that i really need to get off my butt and make the effort to go and do something about it and i’ll reach out and get in touch with people who i’ve fallen out of touch with. sometimes it’s a good thing to catch up, other times it just magnifies the distance that has grown between us.

in any event, with my DSL out, i feel even more disconnected than ever. even though i don’t spend too much time chatting away, just knowing that the people are out there provided some kind of weird comfort. strange, isn’t it? man, i am so dependent on broadband, it’s ridiculous. it’s a good thing i’m going boarding this weekend so i can just get away from it all and recharage a bit.

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the unthinkable has happened. my DSL is dead.

let me make sure the gravity of the situation is fully appreciated because this is no light matter.

my DSL is dead.

due to unfortunately circumstances beyond my control, my DSL is dead and i don’t really want to talk about the huge nightmare that is called my life without broadband.

thoughts like, “wow, i can’t leave work now, i won’t be able to connect to the internet!” occur in my head and then i am saddened that the quality of my life seems to be directly related to the speed of my internet connection…which, by the way, is no way true.

i do have other things to do in my life…really, i do.

but for some unthinkable reason, all i can really concentrate on at the moment is the lack of DSL at my apartment. so, i’ve resorted to staying out late at my favorite tapioca express location that offers free wireless internet and i’m doing the sorts of things that one does with a fast internet connection: blogging.

because, you know, you NEED a really fast internet connection to blog.

and, you know, you NEED a really fast internet connection to IM…of course, no one is responding to my IMs anyway, so i guess it doesn’t REALLY matter…but somehow, i am comforted by the fact that i can browse the web really fast if i wanted to. or i can download things really fast, if i were so inclined.

i guess it’s really the comfort of knowing that it is there more than anything else.

go figure. oh well, tapioca express is closing soon so i’ll have to venture out and go home i guess…to the dark ages…but i will resist the temptation to dial up with my backup internet connection. because i liken using a modem to dialing up as eating your food without your hands: you could do it, and it technically would work, but it’s just barbaric.

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