Optimistic Pessimism.
Welcome all to my site. This is a place where you can see the stuff that I do on occasion. I want to document what goes on in my life an share my experiences with all of my friends.
Welcome all to my site. This is a place where you can see the stuff that I do on occasion. I want to document what goes on in my life an share my experiences with all of my friends.
[Home, SLO, CA]
Airport Pickups
One of my responsibilities of working for CCLA is to pick up new students from the airport. Sometimes I have a picture of the student to be picked up and I know who I'm going to get. Most of the time I don't know who I am getting. My trick in figuring out who I'm getting is to wait till everyone gets their luggage and to see who's left. Then I try to find the person who looks the most lost. I usually succeed in finding the right person. The whole situation is pretty funny if you look at it from the way I see it. I go to the airport to pick up the most lost looking person that I can find.
posted at 8:40 PM by Super Ben
Thursday, January 03, 2002
[Home, SLO, CA]
New Year's Resolutions
I've never really had any new Year's Resolution's before, but many of my friends say they do. I didn't really think about anything, but all day today I though about what I wanted to do this year. There are so many things that I wanted to do before 2001 ended, but I never got around to them.
- Website
there are so many things that I still want to add to my site. I am sure, but slowly getting things done. I've been sorting through all of my pictures recently and reflecting on the past. The amount of pictures that I have is overwhelming. I was given a camera on my 19th birthday and since then, I have taken 40 rolls of APS Film. I only have half of those scanned and ready to go. The scanning part takes the longest time so I decided to go digital. I wanted to get my Japan trip from last year up, but those pages are going to take some work because I have many pictures from that trip.
The first pages I'm working on are going to be the ones listed on my Adventures page. Those are easier to get to because I actually have a story to go along with each of them. Sometime after that I will get to my Commodorks page. After that will be going back to my earlier days with random pictures form my past.
Health
For the most part I am a healthy person. I have a little extra weight around the middle, but I have been on a diet since before Thanksgiving. I am glad to say that I have lost some weight since then. The hard part is keeping it off. I like to eat out a lot and dieting and eating out doesn't mix.
I also wanted to get back into my exercising routine. I used to exercise on a regular schedule when I first started college, but I haven't had much time to do so lately. I would like to rebuild me\y muscles to what they were when I left my Basic Training. Those were good times because I was eating healthy and keping in shape. My friend, Nick, tried to help me out during my freshman and sophomore years of college with this while I was still living at the dorms. Since I moved out, I didn't have anybody to motivate me to do so.
School
Here I am with just about a year left in school and I'm still slacking off. Last quarter, I passed my Biology class even thoguh I didn't turn in my bug collection. I though I was oging to get an F. Even though I go a C, I was put on academic probation. This quarter I have to do really well to get myself out of it. After 2 years of taking only 12 units a quarter, I finally broke the habit and am now taking 15. I even have a Friday class now. It'll be hard becuase I run from 7am to 9pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 8am to 11am on Friday.
I took all of my classes in the wrong order, but I did pass almost all of them. I started out by taking upper division classes and now I am stuck taking the lower division classes. School would have been easier if I took the basic before going on to the advanced. But I like to do things the hard way.
I never really study. I jsut go to class. The only books that I have fully read during the last 3.5 years are Memoirs of a Geisha and the first 3 Harry Potter Books. Isn't that sad. I buy my textbooks, but I don't really read them. I only open them when I have work to do out of them. Other than that jus sit in my classes and pay attention. It has worked for me thus far, but I would really like to see A's on my evaluation. I'm still above a 2.5 average though.
Japanese
I've been trying to study Japanese for a couple years now. I should be more proficient now, but I am not. It is hard to learn here in the US even though I interact with many Japanese people. Even my roommate is Japanese, but I don't want to speak Japanese to any of the Japanese that I met here who are supposed to be learning English. They always tell em taht it's cute that I'm trying to spek their language. I can only speak Japanese to those people that I do not know or that are learning it themselves. I know it's all in my head, but that's just the way it is with me.
A couple of friend suggested several programs and books that I should try. They told me that these CDs and books have really helped them out. I was also going to take private lessons to help further my skills.
Debt
I would like to pay down my debt or eliminate it altogether. I am close to paying off a second card. I was thinking of picking up some extra work to help pay down my debts. Over the last couple of months I have been changing my spending habits. I am not spending as much as I used to and I feel a lot better about myself. I can't wait for the day that I will be debt free. I hope it will be soon because it feels like it will never come. I think I might have to trust myself to apply for other credit cards with lower rates and then transfering the balances of my existing cards onto those and then closing out the old accounts.
I hope that I will be able to fulfill most of these if not all of them. there is just so much that I want to do. It is now 2002 and I have jsut about a year left. I'm pretty sure that this is more than enoguh time than I need to accomplis most of what I want to do.
posted at 10:52 PM by Super Ben
[Home, SLO, CA]
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
It took me a couple days to get through the first half of the book. Tonight I only expected to read a chapter or two, but I eneded up reading more than half of the book and finishing it. Harry Potter and his classmates have really cast a spell on me. Now I have to go spend money on the 4th book. I've heard mixed feelings on the thirs and fourth books. SMOe people ahve told me that the fourth book is the best so far, and some have told me that the third is. From waht I've read so far, the third book has really led me on ups and downs. I guess that's why I finished the last half of it tonight. I wanted to know what happened next and ended up reading the whole thing. Time to spend some money...
posted at 1:36 AM by Super Ben
Tuesday, January 01, 2002
[Home, SLO, CA]
Happy New Year
This night turned out pretty crazy. I will try my best to type this up correctly as my mind and motor functions are a little bit retarded due to the blood-alcohol level in my system. I didn't plan on going out, but Bill, the owner of CCLA, told me that he had some new students and that I should show them around since this would be their first New Year's in America.
Bill started us out by taking us to the Frog & Peach Pub for a beer. When I was finished with my first one, I mistakenly gave the wrong signal to the bartender and he gave me a second one. This wouldn't have been a problem, but I had to drive someone home to get their ID so that we could get into bars. I was already feeling the effects of the beers, but I drove her anyways. I told her that she need to have ID everywhere she goes in America. AFter that we headed back to downtown SLO to meet up with the others.
We saw Japanese Taiko drummers in Mission plaza, but soon got bored of that. Japanese people don't want to see other Japanese people when ther're here in America. They want to see American things. We walked down Monterey St. past people selling foor at outrageous prices. They were able to do that because they were the only people selling food out there. We walked towards a Rock band and then to a cheesy pop band. We then met up with more students and proceeded back tot he Mission.
Free Dinner
We never made it to the mission because we were stopped by a group of 8 people. One girl invited us to go with them to dinner. She said that she would pay. I think her name was Natalie and she's from Sacramento. Theyr group of 8 had grown to 13. We made out way to an Italian restaurant called Grappolo. It was wiered for us to be among these people. they were really nice, but it jsut seemed strange to go along with some strangers. We ordered some pizza's and some wine. They did pay for our dinner and that was great.
Japanese-style New Year
After parting way with our new found friends. We headed to Tsurugi's (my favorite Japanese restaurant). It wasn't only a New YEar's party, but a Birthday party as well. My friend Masashi, who also works there, wsa celebrating his 21st birthday. Because it was New Years, the sake (not SAH-KEE!!!) was free. Sake get's you drunk fast. As midnight rolled around we all got up and had our shots of Sake ready. I was already so drunk by that time.
2002
This New Year really didn't feel any special. Chirstmas was the same way. Hopefully, the holidays next year wil be a lot different for me. Given all the trouble I went through in 2001, 2002 already looks to be better. It can't get any worse than 2001.
posted at 2:07 AM by Super Ben
Monday, December 31, 2001
[Home, SLO, CA]
Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu
If you can't guess, the above phrase means Happy New Year in Japanese. I got off work at 7am this morning, but I was on the phone at that time with my ex-girlfriend Kaori. I called her 15 seconds before it turned 2002 in Japan. She answered and I said, "Happy New Year," but she told me it was too earlty and then she had me hold on for a couple seconds and then I heard everyone say "Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu." She then came back on the phone and told me Happy New Year. The different times around the world are pretty amazing. Here is it only 7am on New Year's Eve, but in Japan it was already midnight. AFter that I went home and called a couple of others in Japan and wished them Happy New Year also.
When I got home, I saw a friend from Taiwan sign onto my buddy list and he just celebrated his New Year also. Another friend then signed on, but this time he was from Korea. He also celebrated his New Year. But now tha tI'm writing I remember I was chatting with a friend from Switzerland and he was coser to New Years than we were. I think it's about 9 hours. He was someone I haven't chatted with in a long time and I wasn't sure if he remembered me. I think he didn't because he thought I was working at some place that I have never been before.
I don't really plan on doing anything tonight. I called around and nobody was home so I guess I'm just gonna stay home and watch TV.
posted at 5:28 PM by Super Ben
[Holiday Inn Express, SLO, CA]
Strange Call
I was going through the logbook at work and Erik's entry for today caught my eye. I though it was funny. It was an actual phone conversation that went like this:
Erik: Holiday Inn Express, this is Erik. How can I help you?
Lady: I am wanting to know the name of this hotel.
Erik: Um... Holiday Inn Express.
Lady: Why is it just not a Holiday Inn instead of a Holiday Inn Express?
Erik: Because we are a Holiday Inn Express!
Lady: Thank you!
How weird is that? Erik only told her twice that we were a Holiday Inn Express before everything else. She still kept asking. I think she needs her ears clean, or maybe put to death because we don't need stupid people wandering around.
posted at 4:24 AM by Super Ben
Sunday, December 30, 2001
[Holiday Inn Express, SLO, CA]
Loveline
I love listeing to Loveline. It is one of the few radio shows that I listen to. I didn't like it much when they mae the MTV show about it. Dr. Drew is so smart and informative, Adam Corolla is just so wacky and funny. I don't know what percaentage of the callers are real, but they have some pretty interesting questions to talk about. Actually I think most of them are real callers. how else would the show have survived so long. And also some of these problems are just straight wiered, but are things that people can relate to. For some good advice, I suggest visiting Dr.Drew.com
posted at 11:45 PM by Super Ben
[Holiday Inn Express, SLO, CA]
Cornbread
I've had this piece of cornbread that I bought from the store for 2 days now and I still haven't finished it. It is one of my favorite foods, but it is real heavy on the stomach. To me, cornbread is more like cake than bread. I like the way that it just falls apart when you try to break off a piece. Hopefully I'll finish this piece sometime today. Maybe I'll finish it off for lunch.
posted at 5:03 AM by Super Ben
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