Stories from the Weekend

I saw The Bourne Supremacy which was pretty good.  I remember liking the first one alot, but I hardly remember anything from it.  I figure this movie will probably end up being the same.  Ha ha.

When I was at the grocery store, I'm about to pull out of my parking space and this old guy knocks on my window.  I guess he wasn't too old, but his hair was gray and missing so he was definitely older than me.  Anyways, he was curious about my car.  And then I noticed he's driving an Acura Integra from the mid-90's.  He said he paid too many in repairs and wanted to know how good that car was working for me.  I said pretty good, but what do you expect for a car you've only had less than a year?  He said he wanted to buy a used 2004 model.  I don't think they will cost any less than new ones, nor do I know anyone who is going to sell theirs after only having it a few months, but best of luck with that.  I kept thinking this guy really didn't match the car he was driving.  It seemed more like he should drive a Honda Accord or Toyota Avalon or something like that.  The Integra just seemed to young for him.  (For those that don't know, the Integra is the predecessor of my car, the RSX.)  So I kept trying to imagine this guy driving a car like mine.  I really couldn't picture it.  Then before I laughed too much at the thought, I wondered if I would be an old guy just like that one day...driving fast Japanese cars leaving people scratching their heads in my dust.  Ha ha!  I see alot of old guys that drive Corvettes.  Actually most Corvettes I see are driven by old guys.  I know this cuz I'm always passing them on the freeway.  They are always in the slow lane driving the speed limit or even slower.  Why get a fast car if you're going to drive it slow?  Those old guys probably saved their whole life for that car and now as they are cruising the slow lane they are thinking, "yes, I'm finally cool".  Man, you ain't nothin', turkey!  The moral is this, "If you're young, don't get a Corvette, that's the old man's sports car."

I Want Your Head

Today the headhunters got a hold of me at work.  They always leave me messages on my voice mail like "Hi Kevin, it's Martha!  It's really important you call me back as soon as you get this." and then they leave me their number which is usually an 800 number.  It's pretty tricky cuz I guess they think I will call back even though I have no idea who Martha is, maybe for some reason I had some business relationship with her in the past and I need to call her urgently.  Usually, I just put their phone number in Google and see what headhunter agency or retirement brokerage they represent and disregard their voice mail.  Anyways, like I said, today they got a hold of me.  So this lady (I forget her name) talks to me very enthusiastically and familiar giving me the impression that she knows me even though I know she doesn't.  She wants my email address so she can send me a link so that I can send her my resume.  Eh, I figured why not, she's already got my phone number.  I would place headhunters somewhere above telemarketers and somewhere below agents.  They are better than telemarketers because they benefit after I get the job, while telemarketers benefit before I get anything.  However, they are worse than agents because an agent benefits on continuing business with you while a headhunter gets you a job and then they are gone so they really don't care if you like your new job or not.  Anyways, all these things are still way below "trusted friend" in my book.  Anyways, I think the only reason I would ever leave my job was if the money was better AND I didn't lose anything I have now.  My company has pretty good benefits, pretty flexible hours, a stock plan, a pension, a good amount of vacation and they let me use it.  So even when I'm frustrated with my job, I remember all the good things I have because of it.  So I'll send this resume to see what comes my way, but I doubt I would be that interested.  I don't think I would go to any interviews especially since I work in Utah all the time.  Only this week I get to work in L.A., yay!

Here are some pictures from Mary's (my cousin) wedding and some random photos of Santa Barbara.  Now before you think I'm all sensitive and stuff for taking photos of a wedding and putting them online, they are for my mom to see.  As it is, I probably didn't do a very good job of documenting the event.  Anyways, you can look at them too if you want.

I always have some idea of what I'm going to write, but lately I forget just as I'm ready to actually do the writing.  Anyways, here something I forgot from last time.  I was going to write something else too, but I forgot, hee hee.

"Our Survey Says..."

So being a new car owner, I'm getting all these surveys in the mail about how I feel about my new car.  These aren't your average 10 question type surveys.  They are like 10 pages long.  Anyways, I just throw them away, but this one survey company sends a dollar bill with their survey.  This is a really interesting marketing idea cuz they give me the dollar to do the survey so I feel bad by taking the money but not doing the survey.  This worked on me one time cuz I had the dollar and I didn't know what to do with it so I did the survey.  The survey took like 45 minutes which has got to be the cheapest labor I have ever performed.  Even volunteer work has gotten me a free meal, ha ha.  So they sent me another survey this week with another dollar in it.  I'm not sure what they expect to hear from me that's different in just 3 months.  "Oh I love my car, and now I hate it 3 months later.  I just need to tell someone who will listen!"  Ha ha.  Anyways, this is what I did.  I put that dollar and the blank survey in the business reply envelope and put the following note in there as well:

I am sorry I do not have time to fill out another survey.  I am returning your dollar as it is unfair to be paid for something I cannot do.  Please take me off your mailing list as I do not wish to fill out any more surveys.  Consequently, one dollar does not compensate me for my time.  While I appreciate your marketing cleverness, it will not succeed with me.

Ha ha.  I felt really smart and clever for about 5 hours and then I realized I didn't send my address in the note and I only signed it so even if they want to remove me from their mailing list, they won't be able to really find out who sent them their dollar back.  Anyways, it's still precious to think someone is opening all these surveys and actually gets the dollar back with a "no thanks".  It's probably posted on the wall outside one of the cubicles with a note like "this dork never told us his name or address so we could remove him".  Well, you know what they say, "third time's the charm." 

I, Robot

This movie is awesome.  Go see it.  It has all three things that a sci-fi movie rarely has...good story, good effects, and good acting.

Two Weddings in Two Weeks

Two weeks ago I was in Santa Barbara for my cousin's wedding.  I caught the garter belt.  Oh the competition was fierce.  I had 9 year olds to my left and 10 year olds to my right.  I think there were some people there my age as well, but they were all shorter than me.  Anyways, I didn't have to try very hard.  It came my way and I reached up and grabbed it.  It's not the first one I've caught.  This is the second one that's come my direction, ha ha.  My cousin, Mary, had the best line, "Your second one?  That means your wife will be totally hot."  Ha ha, that sounds like something I would say.  We are definitely related.

Last weekend, my buddy Paul got married in Carmel.  So we drove up and back on the same day.  That's about 12 hours of driving.  If you ever want one day to feel like two, you should try that.  Actually, I don't recommend it, but I wasn't driving so it was ok by me.  I don't think I would do it again though.  So I get next weekend off, but then I got another wedding the weekend after.  At least that one is local.  Phew!

Wild Plane Ride

So what does a pilot do when he has to land and all there is between him and the airport is a crazy huge thunder storm?  You would think go around, at least that's what I thought, but how about right through it.  Now that was some serious turbulence!  Now I know why they make you put on a seatbelt when there is the slightest bit of turbulence.  One time the plane just dropped and my butt left the seat.  If my seatbelt wasn't on, my head would have it the ceiling for sure.  Then I would have looked like an idiot, ha ha.  But that wasn't the wild part.  The wild part was seeing all the lightning outside the window in the same cloud I was in.  It was like being in a scene from that movie, Airplane.  I guess there was a lightning rod on the plane or something.  I hope they do something for situations like that.  Well, nothing hit us so I guess all was well.

I'm in Utah again this week. I'm getting used to being here so much, but I sure would like to spend at least one week back home. That won't be next week though cuz I'm coming back here again. Anyways, this week some of my coworkers had to come too so at least I wasn't out here alone. Well, everytime I rent a car here, I'm supposed to get a full sized car, but they never have one so I always get a mini-van which is really annoying. Except this time they were out of mini-vans too so they gave me a Lincoln Towncar. This thing is like driving a torpedo. It's so long, but it's really fast. It has a lot of whiz bang features, most of which I wouldn't pay for. Anyways, my coworker rented with a different company so he got a Corrola. We drive down the freeway to our work site which is about 30 miles away. I'm thinking, "why are people driving so slow?". I just keep passing people and going around traffic. Then I look at the speedometer and I'm going like 95 mph. I had been doing that for like 20 minutes! Ha ha! My poor coworker who doesn't know the way is trying to keep up with me and that Corrola wondering why I'm in such a hurry to get there. I laugh every time I think about it. The ride was so smooth in that car, I didn't even realize how fast I was going. I guess with the Towncar, you get comfort to a ridiculous degree. Too big for my liking though.

Two weeks ago I found out one of my coworkers had died suddenly over the weekend. He was about my dad's age. I had worked with him on Picture Pipeline for three years. He was a pretty closed personality and hard to get to know. He didn't talk much but he did have a pretty good story every once in a while. And the story was even better cuz you wouldn't expect it coming from him. He was a brilliant man and did stuff I don't think just anyone could do. The man was a genius. He spent alot of time in his own little world. Sometimes you would say hi to him and he wouldn't even respond cuz he was thinking about something so intensely. He was one of those guys that would be out the door right at 5pm and there was no way of keeping him there any longer. If there were more hours needed, he would come in earlier. I remember one time I was working in the lab and he was there and he said something that I didn't quite hear, so I said, "what?". And he looked at me somewhat annoyed and said, "I was talking to myself." Ha ha, well sorry. That was Lance. I never got to share the gospel with him. I regret that I didn't, but I don't feel guilty for it. He knew I was a Christian and he just never seemed like he wanted to talk about it. Should I have been more aggressive in sharing the gospel? I guess life will teach me that lesson. His family didn't give details on his death, but I heard he was having health problems and going through a divorce. I had no idea that was going on with his life. Christ certainly could have helped him, but alot of times people don't want His help. I'll miss you, Lance.

I'm in Utah this week and last week. Luckily, I got to go home for the weekend. Here are a couple highlights from the last couple weeks.

Fire in the Hotel

So I got home early from a particularly long day and decided to take a short nap before dinner. I woke up abruptly from my nap from a really LOUD high pitched beep. It was unbearable. This wasn't like an annoying high pitched tone. This was that kind of high pitched tone that you would see in Star Trek that made the entire crew pass out. It was constant and didn't pulse or anything so I couldn't figure out for the life of me what it was or where it was coming from. So being half groggy from sleep and half driven insane from the noise, I promptly ripped the smoke alarm right off the wall. The noise was still going strong. It was uniform throughout the room. I couldn't hide from it anywhere, it was strong in every corner. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from either. So I tried getting my shoes on while covering my ears. (Impossible by the way) I ran out of the hotel and there were quite a few other people in the parking lot who experienced the same thing I guess. Funny, I assumed it was just my room that was doing that, ha ha. Anyways, it was all a false alarm, but it definitely woke me up.

Out with the Old, In with the New

I checked out apartments in Torrance this weekend. I pretty much wanted something that wasn't anything like where I live now. I think we found it. There's no fire station down the street so we don't hear sirens blaring every couple of hours. It's not on a 405 alternate route so there aren't tons of cars driving by with horns honking every couple of minutes. It's perfect. Ha ha, well it's got alot of other pluses too. It's not even near the freeway so it's pretty quiet. There's lots of parking. It's cheaper. It's closer to work. It's in the shade. It's in the back of the building. So now we're just going through the formalities. I hope we get it.

God Bless America

I went to see the fireworks in the Valley this year. This particular show was sponsored by a church. They had a band. You would think this would be a great outreach opportunity by playing some worship music. Instead, they decided to play really annoying secular American songs that I don't think anyone enjoyed. Not only that, the music was so loud, I couldn't even hear the person next to me. After each set, nobody was clapping. Before the fireworks show, the pastor came on and invited everyone to attend their service. That's it. Why not a testimony or the gospel? The people aren't going to leave and they know it's sponsored by a church. What's the problem? After the fireworks, all we got was "God Bless America" over and over to the crowd and the crowd responding in hoots and hollers. Then as we got in our car, we saw all those people cursing and honking at each other as they tried to get out of the parking lot. God Bless America, indeed. How about "America Obey God"?