listening to a little john lennon. very good shit.

here are some more pictures.

there are a lot of little creatures running around the place where i work (VA hospital in west la), and here's a couple pictures of this little fella.


getting some sun on a cement parking block.



confusion reigns... to the right.



... or to the left.



the traffic here in la sucks so bad that sometimes (okay, most of the time) during rush hour, i take streets through downtown, rather than taking the 110 freeway. so, here are some of the buildings i pass by.


i like that weird looking building in the middle. not exactly sure what the name of it is, but kinda looks like a cross between the stratosphere and the space needle.



i like the mural on the side of that building. quite funky.



this is la city hall. rather nice i think. but what do i know?

i finally got around to downloading the pictures i've been taking with my trusty elph onto my computer at home. unfortunately, i'm not computer savvy enough to do thumbnails and such. so i'm either going to post it normally or link it (for the bigger pictures).

let's see... here are some pictures at the renaissance faire that we went to last month (i think it was last month).


there's the faire princess, looking o' so lovely.



carlin, throwing like the little girl he is



carlin, being quite pleased on how he throws like a little girl



wow, char actually threw the ax further than carlin.



the target... good luck trying to hit the bull's eye.



the knights riding in for the tournament



the black knight; he fought for our side in the jousting tournament and he sucked. he spent more time on the ground then he did on his horse.



jenny and carlin, ridiculing the crappy "black" knight. (carlin's still perplexed on how char could have thrown the damn axes further than he did).



it was so warm, even our shadows demanded shelter from the heat.

here are some links to a funky tightrope walker ( i got too lazy resizing them, and it's a lot better to see them in bigger sizes)... 1, 2 and 3.

apparently, i was posting with some fucked up version of blogger at work the other day. the new version is much better and i jumped the gun. sorry about that.

good work, boys (and girls)!

one more thing since i'm at it.

mark and tony have blogged the beginnings of their trip terrorizing the japanese on their respective blogs.

to get an idea of why rain+steps+mark's size 13 shoes [correction: size 15's] don't go well together, go here. (that lazy git told me he'd have day 3 up by yesterday.)

to see why they should make monitors that comes with the scratch 'n' sniff option, go here. (and please, resist the urge to swallow your monitors.)

christ, i've been dying for some japanese food for a while now. uuurrgh... forbidden sushi.... urrghh.

we're getting new chairs at work. how great is that?

next week, i'll be heading up to the bay area (norcal) for sandhya's wedding. it should be an exceptional weekend since a bunch of us will be hanging out together for the fourth of july, and a number of us are going on a muir woods/sausalito/alcatraz tour.

and of course, my birthday is coming up. i'm getting old, and it's not a pleasant feeling. i can't believe in three years, i'll be 30. THIRTY YEARS OLD! it's a bit scary when you think about it.

it's a shame you can't freeze time.

i miss having all that teen angst raging inside of me and the only solace was to listen to the smiths because only morrissey knew how i felt inside.

the new blogger format sucks.

there's too much clicking to do to get to where you want. for example, to edit a previous blog, you'll have to click on the manage posts tab, then you'll have to go to the post you want to edit, then you have to click on the edit link before you can make any changes.

but then as with anything new, you'll need time to adjust to it. but my first impression of the improved version of blogger.com isn't a good one.

also, i don't like having to click preview your post before i can publish my post. i just want to one-click post and publish.

and what's with the depressing, gray background.

this little test (20 questions) i got from mark's blog. thanks for showing me how retarded i am by the way. :)

Your Brain Usage Profile

Auditory : 47%
Visual : 52%
Left : 57%
Right : 42%

looks like i only listen to half the things i hear. so darling, it looks like it's not me not listening to you, but it's really my brain that's doing it. here's what the website concludes about me:

francis, you are somewhat left-hemisphere dominant with a balanced preference for auditory and visual inputs. Because of your "centrist" tendencies, the distinctions between various types of brain usage are somewhat blurred.

Your tendency to be organized and logical and attend to details is reasonably well-established which should afford you success regardless of your chosen field of endeavor, unless it requires total spontaneity and ability to improvise, your weaker traits. However, you are far from rigid or overcontrolled. You possess a degree of individuality, perceptiveness, and trust in your intuition to function at much more sophisticated levels than most.

Having given sufficient attention to detail, you can readily perceive the larger aspects and implications of a situation or of learning. You are functional and practical, but can blend abstraction and theory into your framework readily.

The equivalence of your auditory and visual learning orientation gives you two equally effective sensory input systems, each with distinctive features. You can process both unidimensionally and multidimen- sionally with equal facility. When needed, you sequence material while at other times you "intake it all" and store it for processing later.

Your natural ability to use your senses is also synthesized in your way of learning. You can be reflective in your approach, absorbing material in a non-aggressive manner, and at other times voracious in seeking out stimulation and experience.

Overall you tend to be somewhat more critical of yourself than is necessary and avoid enjoying life too much because of a sense of duty. You feel somewhat constrained and tend to sometimes restrict your expressiveness. In any given situation, you will opt for the rational, and learning of almost any type should be easy for you. You might need certain ideas explained to you in order to fit them into your scheme of things, but you're at least open to that!

though i'm looking forward to reading the new harry potter book, i'm not looking forward to how long it is. almost 900 pages. it'll take me at least a couple of months to finish.

deidra and i, along with a bunch of our friends, went to the laugh factory two friday nights ago, and i was ridiculed by one of the comedians because i couldn't figure out what the fuck i do (vocationally). but having my picture taken with ralphie may definitely redeemed that horrible experience.

well, it was inevitable, i guess.

david beckham has been sold to real madrid yesterday for about 33 million euros ($41 million US). man utd, well more appropriately, sir alex ferguson (manager), decided to get rid of beckham because, 1. he only has two years left on his contract and 2. he was getting too famous and gaining too much of a celebrity status for sir alex's liking.

so anyway, the sad thing about all this is that man utd is going on an american tour next month, and i won't be seeing beckham play. pity. i was rather looking forward to the march against some mexican team.

the only solace to this is that 1. barcelona didn't get beckham, and 2. he's still playing for the english side in international fixtures.




"beckham and owen. what a pair!"

i'm such a homebody; i like quiet moments spent at home.

but it's certainly nice that deidra is opening my eyes to the outside world. and not to mention meeting her friends and just hanging out with them. i'm rather fond of the fact that they have accepted me and are such nice people to go out with.

both deidra and gwen slipped dollar bills into my pocket during my rendition of pretty woman. such nice people.

a long, long night.

i'm not one for karaoke in a bar, where everyone can see me and hear me sing. but maybe it was the consumption of three shots of jagermeister and two bottles of mgd (within a span of an hour) that allowed me to do exactly what i was reluctant to do.

i stood up in front of a crowd of strangers and sang pretty woman by roy orbison to deidra. it wasn't as bad as i thought i would be. not like cameron diaz in my best friend's wedding. luckily for me, char, deidra and her friends (stefana, barbara, gwen, ann-marie and robert) were there to cheer me on. it was pretty easy since all i have to do was dart my loving gaze from the television monitor to deidra's pretty face. and soon after, the song was over.

i definitely would do it again. in fact, i was going to sing another song; don't dream it's over by crowded house. but it got to be too late, and there were way too many people ahead of me. maybe next time.

however, the other highlight of the night was when char put on a wonderful, albeit quiet, rendition of dusty springfield's, son of a preacher man. she got the crowd into it, and it was awesome seeing her in action. very cool.

i'm tired, but i don't feel like sleeping. maybe cuz the adrenaline is still pumping from earlier tonight. i'm glad i went. it was great fun.

i was watching conan last night, and damn, jerry lewis has turned into the michelin man. god damn, he's round.




"michelin man"





"michel... i mean jerry lewis"


all joking aside, the meds he's taking is causing his weight to balloon up. that must suck.

a nice little mini-vacation...

so i took a couple of days off from work this week. it's sort of nice not to have to go to work, but i'll be back on the daily grind tomorrow. *sigh*

i called japan airlines this morning in regards to the refunded ticket i purchased back in march. it never showed up on my credit card statement, so why should i get assessed a refund penality fee? i don't know either, but the lady that answered my call wasn't very helpful. i hate it when that happens.

but then i called the travel agency i purchased the ticket from and tried to be as vague as possible because the agent that handled my travels was on vacation, and i wanted the info before i talk to her upon her return. basically, they said that they assess a $65 penality and since they purchase tickets at a group price, the group also assess a $25-35 penality fee. but seriously, if i was never charged for the ticket, doesn't that mean i'd never purchased the ticket? and if that's the case, why was i assessed a penality fee?

i want my money back! so i contacted the better business bureau to see what they have to say.

deidra and i puchased spy hunter yesterday, but we couldn't even get pass the first stage. how sad. hahaha. i just want to shoot things and have whatever i'm shooting die or blow up.

we went to see, bruce almighty (her choice, of course). it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. like my dad always says, "that fool [jim carey] acts with his mouth too much." which i totally agree. but jennifer aniston was pretty good in it. we also went to see, the italian job, on saturday and i enjoyed it thoroughly. gotta love the mini coopers.

another happy thing about this weekend was that the ducks tied up their series with the devils, 2-2. after losing the first two games, 3-nil, the ducks came back to beat new jersey in two overtime games. awesome goals by salei and thomas. i love hockey!!!

so today, deidra is going to visit the dentist and i'm going with her. she has this fear of them, and i can't blame her. but it's a necessary evil i guess.

i purchased a book on chinese astrology the other day, and i guess i should take a look at it. oh, i should also go get that james bond movie that's out on dvd today.

fuck, the kitties shitted on the bathroom mat again.

oh, there's nothing sexier than when your girfriend wears your clothes.

SEXY!

i feel strange, like something's not quite right.

you know how you should get eight hours of sleep every night. well, fuck that noise cuz that's not going to happen anytime soon. i slept at 5am last night, but woke up at 11am. well mainly due to the fact that deidra woke me up when she was talking to her roommate, robert. but that's okay, i'm used to getting six hours of sleep. it'll probably get worse when i go into law school or graduate school.

the only reservation i have about law school is that it's such a cliche. what are you going to do with a history degree? most likely law school (only those people who are clinically insane go for a doctorate in history). somehow, i don't like that. it's like my life is already predestined. i'm sure a law degree is going to make my life run more smoothly in regards to finance and having a solid career. but still, i don't want to be a cliche.

i never cared to be rich; just financially solid, so my family is well taken care of. i'm sure no one ever complains about being wealthy. why should they? i think for the most part, i fear being rich because i don't want my kids to turn out all fucked up and shit. you hear about these rich kids doing certain bad things from time to time. not to mention, if i become a lawyer, i probably won't have much time to spend with them. *sigh* i just hope that my kids aren't going to be fucked up.

deidra and i went to ikea today to pick up some stuff. we were hoping to purchase a drawer so she can put some of her clothes in, instead of having them spewed out on the floor. but we couldn't agree on any one of them, so the only purchase of any significance was a nightstand. i rearranged the bedroom so now there's more space. not too shabby. i feel like shit right now, probably from the trifecta of sleep deprivation, not having dinner (except for the bundt cake i got at the barnes and noble cafe), and the fact that i've been on my feet most of the day.

i'm going to bed now. i need to get some studying done tomorrow. i'd be really pissed if i don't.