I can't believe I haven't blogged since last Friday. Time does fly except I'm not having that much fun so I guess time flies regardless of what time you're having.

I saw The Ladykillers this weekend. The Coen brothers make some interesting movies. I don't like all of them, but you definitely see something you don't see anywhere else. All their films usually involve a very dynamic set of characters and then they get put in weird situations. My favorite Coen brothers movie is still O Brother, Where Art Thou? The other ones I've seen are Fargo, The Big Lebowski, The Hudsucker Proxy, and Raising Arizona. I really liked the The Hudsucker Proxy (because I work for a big beaurocratic corporation) and Raising Arizona (because comedy Nick Cage is so rare now and cuz it's really funny). All of the Coen brothers movies have interesting soundtracks. The music is usually quite entertaining. Anyways, in The Ladykillers, Tom Hanks plays a role I have never seen him in and he is great and really funny. Tom Hanks does so many serious roles now, it's hard to remember him as a funny guy from the 80's, but he was so good in that genre too. My only complaint about this movie was there was a whole lot of profanity. ScreenIt reports that the F word was used 78 times. I could have sworn it was twice that, but I guess they know since they actually counted. Anyways, if you're a Coen fan, you'll probably like it. If you want to be a Coen fan, start with O Brother, Hudsucker, and Raising Arizona. If I really were to recommend a movie with lots of profanity in it, I would have to go with Welcome to Collinwood. That movie is way funny!

Today marks my 6 year anniversary with Northrop Grumman/TRW. Six years ago today, I started here with great hopes of starting a career. Six years later, I wonder what I'm still doing here and if this is the right career for me, ha ha. Usually people have their midlife crisis in their midlife. I think I'm having mine early. I'm taking it all in stride though. The good part about being young is it is easier to break free. The bad part is it's too early to retire. Work is a little frustrating right now and I'm not enjoying it a whole lot. There is work to do, but it seems like I'm going in circles. It's hard to design a solution when the requirements aren't clear AND impossible. I had an interview with an agent concerning my security clearance yesterday. I'm still in this long process of getting cleared. Having family that lives in a foreign country sure doesn't help so most of the questions were about that. When I got back, my boss asked me what the interview was about...here's that conversation:

Boss: Who did they want to know about?
Me: Well, mainly me in general...all that time I did in prison.
Boss: (silence...awkward silence...and then more silence)
Me: I'm just kidding!
Boss: Oh...(followed by nervous laughter)
Me: heh heh

I told him the real reason and all was good. I can't believe he thought I was serious. I don't think I said it that convincingly. I'll have to be careful what I say. Anyways, happy 6 years to me! Last year at my 5 year, I was given a choice for a gift among some items. They had a clock, money clip, globe, picture frame, jewelry, etc. I went with the globe. Nothing says you're really smart more than having a globe in your office. It's not a very big one though. It's maybe only 10 inches in diameter, but I like it. At the same time, my coworker got to choose a gift for his 25th anniversary. He had the same choices as me only they were clearly higher quality...better clock, better globe, better picture frame, etc. He got the clock. I would have got the globe there too. It was bigger and came with a 3 foot stand...fancy. Anyways, no gifts for 6 years. I'll have to wait until my 10 year. We'll see about that.

I did my taxes last night. This was the longest I have procrastinated to do my taxes and yet the quickest to get them done. I've been using Turbo Tax for the past few years now. Last night I bought it and it only took 2 hours from installation to completion. Pretty cool. I'm getting a refund. Refunds aren't really as good as they sound. It basically means you gave the government an interest free loan for the entire year. I am so generous, ha ha. I increased my withholding (witholding?) in the middle of last year, so I guess if I do it a whole year maybe next time I'll be paying them. Then who gets the interest free loan, eh government?

Here's another article on Mel Gibson and the Passion. He says some interesting things. Not that I've never heard them before, but definitely I've never heard them from a celebrity. I wish he would draw the line a little more distinctly though. He says the world needs faith, hope, love, and forgiveness. What good are all those things if they don't have Christ? Just tell the people they need Christ! I'm not sure if he fully understands this. He also says that "billions" of people understand the reason Christ had to die. "Billions" is a word I would use describe the population of the earth. There are about 6 billion people on the earth and there are a little more than 2 billion in just China and India combined. I believe very few of those have even heard of Christ. That's a whole third of the entire world! I believe there are alot of people who go to church in America that don't understand why Christ had to die on the cross. So I think "millions" is a better term, not "billions", Mel.

Our security gate got fixed yesterday. I almost ran my car through it last night cuz I wasn't expecting a gate to be there, ha ha. It looks like the same gate. I think they just bent it back into shape and put it back on. Works for me.

I got the notice in the mail concerning my speeding ticket. It's $111 plus $39 for traffic school plus the traffic school fee which should be around $20. So it looks like my raise is going to go to that first (sigh).

I got my raise today, yay! I'm told through the unconventional channels that I've been promoted as well. I have yet to receive the proof on paper from my supervisor. I don't doubt that I got it since my boss' boss told me I got it, but I am curious to see what level I've been upgraded to. My suspicion is I got upgraded from Level 2 to Level 3. I guess that's ok, but I was arguing that I'm a Level 5 trapped in a Level 2 position based on my experience at the company. I don't think they skip levels here though. You have to leave the company and come back if you want to warp to another level. (Like my Nintendo terminology?) Anyways, at least I got something.

I bought School of Rock on DVD yesterday. This movie is way cool especially if you like rock music. I also saw that Futurama Season 3 is also now available. I resisted the urge to buy it only because I haven't watched all the episodes from the Season 2 DVD that I have. But I won't be able to resist for too long. I would say most TV shows aren't worth owning on DVD because once you know the story, you lose interest in the show's reruns. I like the Simpsons alot, but I wouldn't buy any of the DVDs only because it's on TV already 3 times a day so it's like having the DVDs only you can't choose which episode you want to watch. And what would I pick if I were able to choose a Simpsons episode? If they made a DVD of just the Halloween specials, I would definitely buy that. Anyways, Futurama is a cool show and spoofs some of the techier science fiction things in life. It's also not on TV as much so it's worth having, I think.

I was talking to one of my coworkers at lunch about what I posted yesterday. He had a good point for the argument on the side of Microsoft. It would hurt the economy according to him. Maybe not the decision itself, but what that would lead to. If the U.S. does nothing and Microsoft has to pay the fine, then what's to stop other countries from following suit? Suppose China says the same thing, is that another $675 million fine? If we let this go, then why wouldn't every other nation walk all over us? If Microsoft keeps paying fines like that, it will hurt them. If the most successful American company loses market share, it will affect the whole market in a ripple effect. We don't want that. I don't think Bush would let this happen. Of course, the liberals are just going to see it as Bush's own personal interest in his portfolio watching out for the big corporate man. My coworker has a very good sense in business. It's always fun to bounce financial ideas off him. In turn, he always bounces his spiritual ideas off me. Pray for him.

I don't know if you've read the news lately, but it looks like Microsoft is in trouble again. This is just ridiculous as far as I can tell. So Brussels got the EU to impose a fine on Microsoft for not allowing companies to compete with them and so Microsoft should pay 500 million Euros as a fine. The argument for Microsoft is whining and saying that such a fine will seriously affect the American economy and cost jobs. I find both sides of this argument to be ridiculous, but I blame the EU more for causing all this trouble so I'll start with them. I guess their main complaint there is because Microsoft gives away so much stuff for free in their operating system, other companies can't charge for their software to compete. My answer to that is, software like Media Player is too common a thing to pay for anyways. You can find lots of player software and browsers online for free anyways. If that's your business, your market is saturated, and you deserve to go out of business. Either that, or make features for your product that Microsoft doesn't offer. There are many, take VCR controls for example. Sorry if you can't beat the software giant, thus you lose in competition. Get over it, you deserve nothing.

On the other side, Microsoft won't be hurt a bit by such a fine. The company has $50 billion in cash and no debt. By business standards, this is a killer company that can't be stopped. You can think of some very top companies and they don't have even close to that kind of cash on hand. Here's an example: The retail powerhouse, Walmart, has only $5 billion in cash and is $26 billion in debt. So are there really jobs at stake? Will this hurt the economy? I doubt it. It won't make a dent into Microsoft's cash flow. So why would anyone get laid off over it? But back to the flip side, this is a foreign country requesting money from us. What if we just said, "Ha ha, sorry, no." Or how about, "We bailed you out of WWII, and we didn't get a penny from you for it, why don't we subtract your fine from what you owe us?" Or if Brussels has such a problem with Microsoft, don't buy it. Make your own stinking operating system and see how well you keep up with the rest of modern technology. Or the best way, "Why don't you come and get it?", ha ha. We definitely live in modern times where one country can fine another country and that other country just happens to be stronger militarily and yet it still deliberates on whether it should pay or not. I hope the White House gets involved and then I hope they say, "No...suck on that!". What you going to do then, EU? You gonna cry?

On a sidenote: I wonder why we are considered the richest nation when our debt is super huge. Shouldn't we be the poorest nation? I mean if I had a million dollars, but I owed 10 million dollars, would I really be rich? Cuz my net worth would be 9 million dollars in the hole. That's really poor. That is 9 million dollars worse than being broke. Somehow, you're still rich though. I don't get it. Finances definitely aren't logical. There must be some secret kind of sublogic that you learn when you get an MBA or something.

Anyways, Microsoft receives 30% of their business from Europe so they are probably going to go along with it as diplomatically as possible. Man, I'm getting tired of Europe sticking it to us. If they want it all to be fair and equal, I think we should start here.

This was quite an eventful weekend. Maybe it was too eventful as I am pretty tired today. I forgot to mention on Friday night after the movie, upon driving into my driveway, I noticed the security garage door for our building was ripped clean off and laying by the sidewalk. I don't know why it happend, but I do know that it probably involved a car and a closed gate. I hope they are timely in fixing it. It doesn't seem right that I should pay the same amount of rent now that I no longer have secure parking. Not that having the gate made things that secure, but at least most people wouldn't walk in, now anyone can. This kind of stuff only happens in Westwood.

After the gym, I went over to Doms house to help her with her wireless network. She wasn't quite ready when I got there so I sat on the couch and watched a Chinese soap opera with her mom. I made a few interesting observations while watching. I think you notice more things when you don't understand what is being said. The first thing I noticed is the fight scenes are way cool. They are like home video style. Sometimes you see the harness on them when they jump way high into the air. Ha ha. The second thing I noticed was Chinese soap operas are all about candid suffering. I say candid because the people crying have tons of snot hanging from their noses. Alright, you're sad, I get it, but why does it have to look so gross too? It doesn't have to look so real especially when the fight scenes look so fake. Another thing is it was dubbed from one Asian language to another. The dubbing was in Cantonese, but I couldn't tell you what the original was, but it was probably Mandarin. Anyways, every once in a while, Doms' mom would explain to me what was happening. It was a very rich plot. There were many parts that I wanted to laugh, but I wasn't sure if it was really supposed to be funny or not so I remained silent.

I went to Claim Jumper that night. I really don't like that restaurant mainly because the portions are grotesquely huge. I always have a strong desire to order from the child's menu while I'm there. The food is always good, but I'm never that hungry. They should have a Claim Jumper in Europe. Then the portions would probably be normal size. I think it would be a really fun joke to take a European to Claim Jumper and then tell them it was American custom to always clean the plate, ha ha. I think they would die from seeing the size of the serving. Anyways, this time I ordered a the fish and chips hoping they would be a decent size. Nope. What I got was like 5 whole fish and enough chips to equal 2 loaves of bread. You really could feed 5000 with this. Ok, so it was 5 loaves and 2 fish in the Bible, but you know what I mean. I defenitely had more than 2 fish on my plate. I ate all the fish and half the fries. The next morning, I was still full.

On Sunday, I went to my first hockey game. It was the Mighty Ducks vs. the Red Wings. I liked watching hockey. I think it was one of the more enjoyable sports to watch because it never stops moving. But I'm a real sucker for flashing lights and bright ads too. I also witnessed Ducks history as they scored the highest amount of points in the shortest amount of time ever which was 5 goals in 10 minutes 41 seconds. Final score: Ducks win 8-6. A high scoring game. I'm glad my first one was such a good one cuz I'd probably see another then. I saw some good checks, but no fights though. I wonder if Disney has a policy that their players can't fight, ha ha.

I saw James Worthy at the gym today. Living in L.A. it is not uncommon to see celebrities from time to time, but you still do a double take when it's in a normal place that you go to often. Kim Wayans of the show In Living Color also goes to my gym. Supposedly Will Farrell goes there too, but I have yet to see him there. That would be too cool. At the other gym I used to go to, John Lithgow would work out at the same time as me. I'd see him three times a week every week for months. He was always there. Sometimes I would be on the exercise bike right next to him. I never said a word to him. The only things I could think of would sound so weird. What do you say to someone you know who doesn't know you? I really wanted to ask him about Shrek, but I couldn't think of a good enough question. Hmm, how about "I really liked Harry and the Hendersons." Ha ha, he'd probably say, "Thanks (weirdo)." I think if I were a celebrity, I would just want people to treat me normally and not look at me wherever I go. So since I typically don't talk to strangers, that's what I did. If I ever saw Kristin Kreuk though, I think I would have to say hello or at least wave and grin like an idiot.

I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind last night. Strange name for a strange movie. I would have to say that all the serious movies that Jim Carrey has done have also been very strange. He does them very well though. The writer of this movie also wrote Being John Malkovich which is a very twisted, but also extremely weird and funny movie. The movie I saw last night wasn't nearly as weird as that, but it was still pretty weird. I liked it though. Weird is cool in my book. I have alot of dreams like that movie, ha ha. The effects are really cool and done very well. You can't even tell there are digital effects because they look so real, yet you know they are because they are impossible or better described in the words of Ralph Wiggum...unpossible.

I read today that Ralph's is closing 15 of its stores in So Cal. They said it has nothing to do with the strike and that they were just not generating enough revenue. My question is, how did the strike not affect how the stores did not generate enough revenue? Even if the stores weren't generating enough revenue before the strike, no doubt that Ralph's financial woes due to the strike caused them to tighten their belts. They are going to try to find jobs for 600 employees at other Ralph's stores. I guess it didn't pay to strike for those workers, did it? Way to go union. I told you this would happen. The customer is always right and don't you strikers forget it.

Harrison is working on the Skit DVD. It is a compilation of many skits captured on video over the years. It includes skits from my second skit team from 1999-2000. It also has skits from the skit team following mine although I do make appearances here and there. Most of that team was my team anyways. My legacy lived on, for a time anyways. I think it will also have one or two skits from skit team from last year. The DVD also contains some movies that the skit team has produced over the years including Signs of the Apocalypse and Squambo: First Blood. Hopefully, we'll also be able to add Aaron's Macaque Attack 2. There is also some never-before-seen footage including a bonus movie that Harrison and I made last year. What's sad is some of the best skits we did that were captured on video are lost forever. Either the tapes were too old and went bad or the tapes were just put away never to be seen again. We mourn the loss of the Phobia Skit and The Adventures of Sir Nigel Hornsby Parts 1 and 2. Too bad none of the stuff Peter and I did was ever recorded. Peter and I were pretty strapped to figure out an idea every week so the skits were obviously alot weaker. I can only remember 3 or 4 out of 30 that we did. My second team performed a few from the old days with slight modifications to adjust for the changing times. These include Mortal Kombat Family Feud, What's in that Orange Chicken?, That 70's Skit, and the oh so popular Asian Brady Bunch. All the remakes will be on the DVD, but you will never see the origin of The Wife's in the Shop joke.

The skit DVD was originally my pet project, but after gathering and digitizing all the media, I was incredibly dismayed by the lack of quality DVD authoring tools that were available to me at the consumer level. My vision for it was just not at retail standards yet. Harrison got some good stuff together though and even though it's not at my full vision, it's definitely 80% (I sound like George Lucas). I would like to put subtitles in cuz the audio is pretty bad in parts. It would also be cool to have a commentary track to add all the funny stories behind the skit as well as parts where we deviated from the script (which happened in pretty much every performance...in most cases to our benefit). Peter and I would actually write in mess ups on purpose in our skits because they got huge laughs. Peter would try to mess me up at times by throwing in random inside jokes into the dialogue without warning me. I never lost it though. It would also be cool to make a storyboard slide show of the lost skits and put it to the original voices or at least close to the original. But we don't know any artists who have any spare time for a hefty project like that. Anyways, the Skit DVD is more for me than anyone else since it is a compilation of some of my most joyous memories. It puts me in a good mood any time I watch them. We defenitely want anyone to have a copy that wants one. There will be some costs for the media as DVDs don't come cheap and it's a 2 Disc set as most new DVDs are these days. It's not ready yet, but hopefully in about a month. I have to warn you though, it is the crappiest quality video and audio of all time for a DVD. I think its highest appeal is the nostalgia factor. Anyways, many thanks to Harrison for taking over the project.

I forgot a funny story from Sunday. I was having dinner at The Cheesecake Factory with two of my friends. This girl and guy pass each other right by our table. The girl was dressed all hoochie and the guy stops her and says, "Hey beautiful, what's your name?". She says, "Isis". He says, "Can I call you?". And then they both whip there phones out and exchange numbers. It was the funniest thing I've seen in a while. If you analyze this scenario, it is difficult to say who is playing who. The girl dressed obviously to attract attention probably hands out her number to almost any guy that asks her, however she could have just given him a fake number since that would be easier to get him to go away rather than to repeatedly blow him off. Something tells me this girl wasn't that smart though. The guy of course is obviously not interested in friendship. He just wanted to see what the other half of the half naked girl looked like. Anyways, I can't believe that line worked. Who is more stupid in this scenario? Was it the guy for using such a lame line or was it the girl for falling for it? It's like that age old question which came first...the chicken or the egg? Except the Bible answers that one...the chicken.

Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson have been in six movies together. Can you name all six? Click Comments for the answer.

I had quite an eventful weekend. On Saturday, one of the guys in my core group needed help demolishing his house...woohoo! There is nothing your average guy would like to do more than to destroy something. Anyways, it wasn't clear how far the demolition would go. I fantasized about ripping out the walls and watching the roof cave in. Too bad it was only going to be a major remodel which meant leaving the walls and the roof intact. (sigh) We got to tear down a few walls on the inside though. My first project was to tear down the bar. I was handed an axe. I really don't have much experience using axes and being as clumsy as I am, I was a bit timid in using it. But I got over my shyness rather quickly and went at that bar like a serial killer. It took about 5 minutes before I was completely exhausted. Then I tried using a crowbar which worked best, and let me tell you, it was oh so fun. The next project was the main thing I did which was rip the wood panels off all the walls in the living room using a crowbar and a hammer. I never used the back side of a hammer so much. It is so useful. Being on a team of inexperienced demolitionists, you learn many things either by your mistakes or the mistakes of others. One highlight was when I was working away on the living room, I heard a pipe burst in the bathroom down the hall followed by some frantic yelling and stumbling and then the phrase "I'll go turn off the water!". Another one was when we saw a big crack in the ceiling right above where a wall used to be..."I think we need to put that support back." Another piece of advice for me, "Kevin, make sure that you don't break through the wall to the outside." One quick glance into the huge hole I just made..."We're still ok," I replied. Phew! It was also alot of fun to rip the bathroom counter right off the wall. It was pretty heavy. Then the sink fell out while we were carrying it, but luckily someone caught it before it hit the ground. Wouldn't want that sink to break before we threw it away, ha ha. We also found some old beer cans in the wall I was working on which were probably left by the construction crew when the house was built. The cans were from 1950. They had those foil peel openings like the ones on those little cans of apple juice. Cans before the invention of the flip can opener thingy of the present day...unbelievable. I actually hear that invention really isn't that old, but it's all I've ever known. It's like the kids who were born in the 80's don't know about life before the internet.

Anyways, since I'm spread so thin around L.A. between where I live, go to church, and work, Saturday is pretty much the only day I can really serve, so I really enjoy the opportunity to do service projects and help somebody out. Too bad on the way there I got a speeding ticket. The last time I got a speeding ticket, I was 19 years old. Almost 10 years without another ticket isn't too bad, I guess. I'll have to do a traffic school to avoid the point on my record though. Now I have to be good for 18 months. So here are the specifics. I was going 78 in a 65. Not too bad for getting a speeding ticket. It's fast enough to know you're guilty yet slow enough not to get a reckless driving charge. The tickets that nail you on a technicality have got to be annoying. So I wasn't really mad when I got the ticket, after all, I am guilty. But I was going the flow of the traffic. I just got chosen cuz I was in the fast lane. The same thing would have happened in my red Civic so I can't blame the car for this one. I hear the 101 is notorious for these quota speed traps. I've been passed by cops at the same speed on the 405 (when I can go that fast). I think it's kind of ironic to get a speeding ticket in L.A. anyways. How often do you really get to go the speed limit? Anyways, if you have to get a speeding ticket, the best place is on the freeway. The fines are the lowest there. The last time I went to traffic school, I had the highest speed of anyone (I went 75 in a 55) and the lowest fine in the class. The worst place would be school zones. I learned that in traffic school. See, you do learn stuff at those things. Another thing I learned in traffic school was you don't have to use your blinker if no one is around...woohoo! Actually, I'll probably try to do my traffic school online. I did that last time (not for speeding, for some other lame thing). Then I can just do it at home at my own pace.

Saturday night I saw Starsky & Hutch. I remember when the show was on TV, but I have never seen it. But Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson are quite a team and they can do no wrong. It's not as silly as Zoolander, but I still enjoyed the movie. I like 70's and 80's TV shows and this was definitely a nod to them. I think there was only one digital effect in the entire movie. If you watch the outtakes, you'll know what that is. Speaking of Zoolander, that movie is the true litmus test of a person's sense of humor in my opinion. If you don't like that movie, then you don't have nearly the same sense of humor that I do. More than once I have been told by people that movie is stupid and they can't believe that I liked it. After I mention to them at least 2 scenes from that movie, they die laughing. What's wrong with you people? You don't even know what you like! If any of you think we have a common sense of humor and you do not like Zoolander, then I would have to say your only way out of this one is if you like Rat Race. If you don't like that one either, then it would have to be Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? and if we're still not on the same page, I'm sorry, you are wrong, but we can still be friends.

I came back to work on Wednesday. I don't feel too bad anymore. I guess I'm sick type 1 technically. Now I only have one sick day left for the whole year. I probably won't need it, but since I rarely get sick, that's less sick time I get to use for vacation, ha ha. Coughing is really annoying. It seems like you need to cough most when you are in a meeting where you don't want to make your presence known or when you're trying to sleep (which can sometimes occur in a meeting, ha ha, j/k). I can understand the reason for coughing in the morning, but why the sudden fits of coughing at night even before I go to sleep?

Anyways, I added another blog link for my old roommate, Ray. I noticed how easy it is for a blogspotter to add a Xanga link, but how impossible it is for a Xanga user to add anyone who isn't Xanga. Now that just isn't fair. I can see the lure for Xanga because it allows you to do alot without understanding any web coding at all. Blogspot isn't that difficult though and I was able to do something with pretty much no knowledge. Xanga sites pretty much all look the same just different colors and although I can link my friends with ease, they seem to have trouble linking me since I'm not a Xanga user. Well, I solved that problem. I created my own Xanga site. Thus I have found a use for Xanga after all. Feel free to check it out. I'm sure you will agree that my Xanga site is truly wonderful. Side thought: I wish there was a universal way to highlight text that would tell people you were being sarcastic. Is it fair that Bold and Italics have to be used for emphasis purposes? One should be for universal use of sarcasm. Or they should make a new one, although I have no idea what that would look like and what that would be called. I guess it would have an "S" symbol for sarcasm. I'll send a note to Bill Gates.

I had my performance review. It seems my "big" catch-up raise that I negotiated a few months back wasn't so big. I can't argue with it though. It was still above average and I did get recommended for promotion, although I haven't got any details on it yet. I'm not really that disappointed. It only reaffirms what I thought before that I won't be able to afford a home here unless I marry someone who makes as much money as I do. People tell me that based on my income, I should be able to afford a home. While this is true, it means I will not be able to afford anything else. Paying $2000/mo. on a mortgage does not appeal to me especially when I own so little. I'd rather rent for another year or two than do that. Not only that, that rate won't get me a nice house or even a fair house. It will get me an ugly and old house in a friendly neighborhood. No thanks, I'm not interested. I don't need a house yet anyways, it would just be more convenient. Anyways, as far as the raise issue goes, I just need to prove myself still and that seems fair to me given I haven't been in the new position for very long.

People keep asking me about work so I guess I should write about that here even though not everyone who asks reads this, but I might as well since I started this blog talking about work so much. It's alot better. I have lulls though. I'm in one now, but it's alot better than where I was before. I work with smart people and that's always a good sign. Plus I'm in a place where there is room to grow in experience. I'm satisfied for now.

Thursday was a late night at work. I didn't leave the office until 1:30AM. After a night like that, I wouldn't even have come in on Friday normally except that there was more due the next day. When it rains, it pours. On that Friday though, I woke up with a splitting headache and felt rotten sick. So I went in late, finished the last things and went home early. I was planning on going to the Shepherds Conference that night but because I wasn't feeling too well, I decided to stay home. There are two kinds of sick. The first kind would be where you feel uncomfortable, but you can still do everything you normally do, and you would probably feel guilty for missing work over it. The second kind is where you are completely useless and you are only able to sleep, groan, and watch TV. Even reading hurts. Friday and Saturday were the first kind of sick and yesterday and today were definitely the second kind. So I'm pretty sure I have the flu cuz a cold would have passed on by now. So as I'm finishing day 4, I still feel no better than I did yesterday. Did you know that not only your nose can get stuffed up, but your ears can too? And when you blow your nose, it really hurts your ears. I hope it's not bird flu or monkey flu or some other kind of animal flu. Probably not, since I got it from my roommate and it took 4 days for him to get over it.

Anyways, today I went to the store to get some stuff. I waited until later in the day cuz my head doesn't spin as much. It looked like things were back to normal in the grocery store. The shelves were stocked and the employees were back (although I didn't recognize any of these employees). But best of all, large lasagnas were back in stock! (insert Hallelujah chorus here) At least my appetite is back, but I still have a fever. So I'm debating on whether to take another day off work tomorrow. If I feel tomorrow like I do right now, oh defenitely I will.

I can't believe I got sick. I never get sick...sick type 2 anyways.

I just added the ability to make comments to my posts. Now you can reply to me and say how stupid or smart you think I am for saying such things and they will be posted on my website for everyone else to read. Hmm, do I really want this?

Last night I was having one of my small lasagnas, and to my surprise it tasted like the large lasagnas. I was very confused by this as I have been eating crappy lasagna for 4 or 5 months now. Anyways, when I went to the store tonight hoping there would be some larges in stock (there weren't), I saw that there are two types of small lasagnas. At first glance, the boxes look exactly the same. They are both small size Stouffer's lasagna, BUT closer inspection reveals that one is labeled "Italian Sausage with Meat Sauce" and the other "with Meat and Sauce". Not only that, but the Meat and Sauce lasagna has a little yellow banner on it that says "America's #1 Lasagna". Oh really!!!!? Well, I could have told you that. It tastes just like the large only smaller! I'm so glad I figured this out just in time for the strike to end. Well, I'm not too upset since I really didn't have much choice for the smalls either. I just can't believe I never noticed. The picture on both boxes is pretty much the same. I guess with lasagna, there isn't much difference in appearance no matter what you put in it. Unbelievable!

For you Homestar Runner fans out there, I found a precious treasure online. You thought you've seen every Strong Bad email in it's entirety? Maybe you should check out this site just to make sure.

I watched the Academy Awards last night. I normally don't like awards shows, but I do like the Oscars. I only don't watch if I don't like any of the nominees. As a fan of the movies though, I had to route for root for support my favorites. I felt bad that Pirates of the Caribbean didn't win anything since it was up against the monster Lord of the Rings. I was also pulling for Johnny Depp for Best Actor as everything Johnny Depp does is cool and he has yet to be recognized properly for it. I think if there is a genre of film that only one actor can accomplish, that is definitely Oscar worthy. I guess Sean Penn deserved it though. He's been overlooked a bunch too. Anyways, Return of the King swept which was really a nod to the entire epic and not just the third book. I think they finally got what they deserved. Too bad it only equaled Titanic in number of Oscars. At least it earned more money (if you add up the sales from all three movies). Anyways, I missed the beginning of the Oscars so I was bummed since that is usually the best thing and Billy Crystal is the best at it. I did enjoy the Will Farrell and Jack Black song which are two of my favorite funny guys. I still don't get why they schedule a 3 hour block for a 4 hour awards show consistently every year. I'm glad the political rhetoric was on the low-end this time. Hey celebrities, quit your whining and know your place...you're entertainers.

Best Billy Crystal Joke: "It's official! There is no one left in New Zealand to thank."
2nd Best Billy Crystal Joke: "I just got word that people are moving to New Zealand just to be thanked."