waking the dragon

tonight was a pretty eventful night at starbucks.

i got there around 10ish and saw person a, person b, and person c there (names to protect the people there). everything seemed pretty normal except for the bunch of starbucks workers hanging out at the table next to ours. usually, they don't really hangout in bunches, but it wasn't such a big deal.

i was watching person a play three-card poker on this computer and he whispers to me to come closer. so i leaned towards him (as i was standing) and he said, hey i am taping them on my cell phone. so i asked why. he said that they're talking shit about all of us. us being the "regulars."

i was surprised that they would be that bored to care about a bunch of guys who frequent their establishment. anyway, so he continues by telling me that they were talking shit about jenny and that he (person a) almost got into a fight with one of the guys (donald, i'm not protecting starbucks workers).

anyway, so after awhile, we were sitting at starbucks and by now person d, person e, and person f had come by and we were all chatting when suddenly one of the workers, justin, yells at person c, "are you looking at me?"

person c didn't say anything, and justin repeats himself a couple of more times and finally person c says, "oh, are you talking to me?" and justin replies, "yeah, i'm talking to you." person c then rubs his eyes and says, "oh, no wonder my eyes hurt."

this is when things got a bit out of control. justin jumps out of his seat and runs over to person c, who was sitting at a bench just outside of starbucks jurisdiction, and starts yelling at him about how he (person c) wasn't suppose to be here and that no one wanted him here. person c, all the meanwhile, was sitting there taking the verbal abuse. at one point, justin actually assaulted person c by whacking him upside the head.

oh, i forgot to mention that the starbucks workers, who wasn't working, was drinking outside of starbucks, while one of the people working inside was making their drinks inside the store. yeah, smart.

so at this point person a, tries to calm justin (the drunk starbucks worker) down and was trying to get between him and person c. at the same time, justin's alledged girlfriend, who also works at starbucks, got into it with person f.

since i was standing in the middle of both situations, i moved over to the conversation that was going on between the girl and person f. i meandered between them and tried to separate them. i succeeded, but only for a little while because person f was still talking and the girl decided to come back.

i gently stepped in front of her and started nudging her from person f. at around this time, things started to escalate between person c and justin, with person a in the middle. keep in mind that justin is pretty wasted and he wasn't going to walk away. i turned to see what was going on and i saw justin push person a away.

that's when it got really interesting for me. so when i saw that i tried to hold justin back, kind keep him from taking swings at people. so i did the only thing i could do, which was to push him up against the wall. so i did just that.

i had his body up against the wall, and then there was certainly a tussle and and pushed my glasses off of my face and started jabbing his thumb into my eye. when he did that, i pushed his face against the wall. somehow, i got him in a headlock and had it for a while. in the background, i could hear person a's voice telling me to let him go.

i finally did. and we got into a discussion. he told me that he didn't have a beef with me and that i was cool, but he didn't want person c here because since he was the deputy manager, having person c there could result with him getting fired. the fact of the matter is that person c was kicked out of starbucks because of something he did and he couldn't linger within the starbucks premise. that's why he as on the bench.

i told him, if you really cared about getting fired, why the fuck was he drinking here at starbucks. at this point, there were a couple of people between justin and person c. but after talking (but more like yelling), he rushed forward to get at person c.

so of course, we were trying to stop him, but somehow he threw a punch and hit person c in the nose. so i tried to put him in another headlock just so he wouldn't be able to throw another punch at person c. but then he started kneeing me in the 'nads (a la kathy). so i finally got him in the headlock and i was trying to push him down into the ground, but since he was drunk, he was pretty strong, so my objective wasn't really working.

we struggled and somehow we moved to where the cars are parked in front of starbucks. so seeing that i was about to lose control of him, i tried to slam him down on a hood of person b's car. i figured that once he's on the hood of the car, we can all hold him, thus stabilizing him.

but then i lost my balance and we tumbled over the hood of the car and ended up on the pavement next to the car's front passenger wheel. luckily, i ended up on top of him and still had him in a head lock.

i was trying to put the brunt of my weight on to of him so he couldn't move. that was went he gave me a reach around and started grabbing my nuts. see, that's not cool, right? i mean even in a fight, you don't grab someone's nuts unless you're a girl who's getting sexually assaulted.

at this point, i saw no other way, but to punch him a few times so he would get his hand off my balls. but he was still clutching them in that not-so-gentle way. so i finally had to knee him a couple of times.

all throughout the tussle, people were trying to get me off of him. i haven't felt so many hand on me since a fight in junior high at caltech, but that's another story for another time.

i finally got off of him and shortly there after, the cops came. at this point, it was pretty surreal. i've never done anything that really involved having the authories around. so anyway, i gave my account of what happened to this asian cop. he asked if i wanted to press charges against justin. i said no. i just wanted so that he wouldn't attack person c anymore. now that it's over, i'm okay.

anyway, person c was videotaping the struggle on his cell phone and was showing it to the police. it was interesting. and after justin and the other starbucks workers left, we hung out and talked about how we're going to rectify this problem. so we'll see.

but just for you, i took a picture (actually deidra did) of my face. it looks bad, but i'm thinking the other guy didn't look that much better. one thing that i was proud of though, was that after the struggle, i found justin's glasses and i gave it back to him. just like what they say about sports, you're enemies on the field, but off the field, he's just another guy. so i didn't feel any animosity against him, but don't be drunk and assault my friends.

and i think i suprised the guys at starbucks because the didn't think that i had it in me. well, i saw an injustice and i would hate to wake up the next morning knowing that i didn't do anything about it. but then again, i'm not a saint.

sampling sample

i'm currently reading the contrarian's guide to leadership by steven sample, the president of usc. it's a very interesting book which takes on, as the name suggests, a different view on leadership.

one thing i've noticed from reading these books on leadership is the number of anecdotes that the authors include in their text. obviously, it makes a whole lot of sense to do that since it gives validity (somewhat) to the points you're trying to make. it certainly makes reading these books more interesting.

a month ago, i was raving about bennis's book. however, somewhere along the way to trying to finish it, i didn't. but i think with this book, i'm certainly looking forward to finishing it and re-reading it in the future. the way dr. sample writes is similar to if you're conversing with him.

i highly recommend that people read this book. even if you're not in school or don't think of becoming a leader, you can still learn from it. remember: leaders are not born, but are made, through life's crucibles.

computer herpes

busy, busy, busy.

so much stuff to tell you, but so little motivation to do it.

don't you hate it when your computer contracts herpes and you can't get rid of the damn thing. i had that stupid problem for three days. apparently, the nav website gave me the wrong link to download the fix-it tool. so i tried to get rid of it with some AV program called antivir that a regular at starbucks told me that would get rid of it. nope.

the problem actually wasn't the virus itself. but more of the fact that the pop up message from nav wouldn't go away. no matter how many times i "okayed" it, it would pop back up in the middle of my screen. it was so fucking annoying.

so anyway, i asked melva, one of my many friends from symantec (company that produces nav) to get me the actual fix-it tool. so i downloaded it and fixed it. phew!

deidra and i are looking for a new apartment. it's not exactly fun, but it's interesting. so far, we've sorta settled on a two-story townhouse-esque apartment in pasadena. it's nice, but deidra says that it's a bit small. we'll see how it goes, but i like it cuz it has a stair case and also it's close to starbucks (*snigger*).

i got aaron and jack to play softball for us next season. should be fun. they are nice guys. aaron went to big 5 last night and got a shitload of stuff, bag, bat and a football that cost him $80.

working at lattc has been pretty good. i like the environment cuz everyone is really low key. if i had any questions, the people working there are always nice about answering them. and the student workers are really cool. one guy, peter, is hilarious. today, i was fielding a call, and i had to ask him a question. but he started cracking up, which made me crack up as well. i couldn't even answer the phone and had to put the woman on hold. i couldn't help it. anyway, she hung up. (yeah, my bad).

secret

i'm not a very philosophical person. i tend to hate thinking about things. i hate that about myself. i admire people who can think, or more correctly, philiosophize about something and have very enlightened discussions on various topics.

i wouldn't say (or at least wouldn't want to admit) that i'm basically a simple person, with very simple thoughts. for some reason or another, i can't seem to have very serious discussions. i just get bored with the whole thing. maybe it has something to do with being a mature person, which i unfortunately can't say that i am.

i find it difficult to communicate my empathy for others, even though i do feel empathy for them. i find things to be funny even though they might not be. i don't know why that is, and i'm not going to bother finding out why. most of the time when someone tells me about their personal problems, all that pops into my head is god, i hope they can't see that my brain is not registering what they are saying.

another thing that i tend to do when being in a serious conversation is to divert my discomfort (or maybe insecurities) with humor. i don't think i've ever had a conversation with someone dealing with some problem that doesn't involve me making a wisecrack here and there. never. i can't do it. i don't know how poeple feel about it, but it certainly lowers my anxiety level.

i'm terrible at giving advice in the abstract. i think i'm good with giving logical advice. things that are structured, i'm pretty good at. but when you have problems that deal with emotions, i'm at a complete lost. i think i would basically go straight to the logical mode and find the simplest solution to the problem, when it's basically the worst advice you can give to that person. i try my best to shy away from giving a straight answer and flip-flop between solutions.

i wonder what people will think about this posting. if people don't want to come to me with their personal problems after reading this, they are the more better for it. i wouldn't blame them, i wouldn't want to take my advice either.

disable hamster

one of the bad things about being a "regular" at starbucks is that the people who work there know and recognize you. so this morning, i went in to get a refill for the coffee i got last night. if you're not familiar with starbucks, you can get a refills for 50 cents for the coffee you bought that day.

anyway, so i walked up there and the guy who works there (the one that the other regulars called "donald duck" because he looks like the disney character) says to me jokingly, "so you want a refill for the coffee that you didn't buy today."

and laughed and said, "well, yeah, you know, i got it last night at around 11, so it's a continuation."

regardless, he gave me the coffee for the refill price, since... well, i'm a regular and you don't fuck with regulars.

this morning, deidra once again freaked me out in my sleep because magic, our latest hamster, was caught in the space between the water bottle. deidra thought that he was gonna to die, but it turns out that he's probably broke his hind legs. i went up to see him and he was crawling around with his front legs, dragging his hind ones behind him. oops, i just remember that he's a she.

anyway, deidra is gonna to quarantine him for a bit, just so he doesn't climb all over the tunnels and chew off his bad legs. hopefully, he'll be alright, since there's not much you can do with a hamster with broken legs. it's not like a cat, right?

let's hope the angels finish off the yankees tonight. that would be sweet. anyone else glad that the fucking red sox got swept by the white sox?

what a game

wow, if you missed the cal/ucla game tonight, you truly missed a great football game. i've almost given up on the bruins until the fake punt in the middle of the fourth quarter. i think every bruin supporter was screaming at dorrell for calling in the punt team, but when page got the ball and ran for 38 yds and a first down, i knew right then and there that it's over. ucla was gonna win. what a fucking great game.

the line for the game as of last night was ucla +1. until the last touchdown by drew, who knew that the odds-maker in vegas was so accurate? i mean 41-40? that's insane.

speaking of sports gambling...

many of you know that i've been hanging out at starbucks ever since i'd started graduate school. the funny thing is that at the starbucks i hang out at, there's this group of regulars who are always there. anyway, recently, i got the chance to hang out with and talk to them. i guess if you're here enough times and you see the same people five times a week, you get to know them.

so anyway here's the cast of characters:

martin: he's 36 yrs old, married, with one son. he's self-employed and does a lot of design work. he in the process of moving to valencia from south pas.

art: crazy lawyer from hawaii. i don't know too much about him.

peter: this guys is unbalanced (and that's from the people who knows him). he wears a gillian's type hat and is banned from starbucks for freaking out a woman who was trying to pull out of a parking spot. he reached inside her car to "help" her steer her car.

arron: works for homeland security. he's interested in playing softball with us. anyway, he's 31 yrs old and used to play volleyball and full-contact hockey.

those are the main people i know. there's probably several more that i didn't get a chance to talk to yet. there's one guy who's super rich and owns a lot of property in south pas. there's another guy who's a painter. one guy who's really cross-eyed and wears sunglasses all the time.

anyway, yesterday, martin, aaron, peter and i were hanging out at starbucks after closing and they were telling stories. really interesting and hilarious stories. one of the funnier ones (well, actually the one i remembered) was about aaron going fishing with that cross-eyed fellow.

they went down to oxnard to go fish near this fishing store called "captain hook's." so i guess since it was summer, the place was really crowded, and the cross-eyed guy was getting his line tangled with other people's. anyway, the short version of the story, he decides to fling his hook one time and hooked a seagull, he does it again and he catches a seal. so by this time he was getting really pissed because he wasn't catching anything(and according to aaron, he gets angry really easily), so he decides to do a full fling (or whatever they call it when you flick the rod backwards) and he nails the owner of "captain hook's" in the ass with his hook. hilarious, right?

then aaron says, "and later [the guy] asks me to go hunting with him. i said no."

oh god, my retelling of this story is horrendous, but at the time, it was so freaking funny.

yesterday, apparently, some guy driving a semi tow-truck t-boned this girl in a new, white vw bug for about two miles. if you're familiar with the area, he pushed her down pasadena ave (from the 134), left on columbia, and then left on fair oaks, up until huntington hospital. peter, who saw the incident, said that he saw the girl in the passenger seat, screaming and pounding on the window, totally freaked out. he went back after and took about 25 pictures of the tow truck and the vw bug. the girl is physically okay, but is probably fucked up mentally for a while.

so i was driving out to mark's place in culver city last night to grab the softball bats for practice this morning. apparently they closed off the 10E connector to the 110N, so i had to take the long route, from the 10E to the 5N to the 110N. i don't know what i was doing, but i ended up missing the 110N connector, so had to drive up to the 2N (or is it 2E?) and take the 134. so i drove down pasadena ave, and saw the skid marks that the vw bug made. it was insane...

anyway, i need to get some work done for my presentation on tuesday tomorrow. that's about it. oh, i quit my job at the VA. i couldn't take it any longer. the commute is a total bitch and i wasn't interested in the research anyway.

deidra's birthday is coming up so i need to find something exciting for her and i to do to celebrate her special day. time is a bit limited since we're both pretty busy right now.

also, i need to continue doing research for our eurotrip.