Fear the Crab

Changed the oil in my truck today. What normally would have taken less than half an hour turned into a four hour ordeal. First, what I thought was the oil drain plug turned out to be the drain plug for the automatic transmission fluid. I had to go to Toyota to get some more atf, because none of the nearby auto parts stores carried my particular type. While there, I also got an oil filter wrench because the one we had at home was too big.

When I returned home, I refilled the atf to an acceptable level, and drained the correct engine oil. Then I tried to take off the filter. Unfortunately, the filter was on so tightly that no matter what wrench or how much force we used, it wouldn’t come off. Each time I tried to apply some force, I would see my truck move and not the filter. At first I was thinking that perhaps the screw was reversed, but that way didn’t help either. So I figured that perhaps if I didn’t get this filter off, I’d just go in to work and try again later. However, as luck would have it, all that force eventually broke the filter so that now I HAD to replace it.

We finally had to drive a screwdriver into the filter with a hammer and remove it that way. We got to this approach practically 3 hours after pulling and twisting and much cursing. So that came off, I was able to replace the filter and the oil, and now I’m all set.

Some of my co-workers say that the filter was on so tightly because it was factory-installed by some machine instead of a sane person. I just hope the next time I change my oil it won’t be as bad.

I enjoyed a most delicious dinner at Maile’s house. There was plenty of good food, including the turkey, and Maile cooked up this sweet batch of yams. She used marshmallows! It was so cool! There was the aroma of rice krispie treats and the taste of such on the tip of my tongue. I had two servings. We also had stuffing (one of my personal favorites), salad, mac salad (which I don’t really eat), rice (gotta have rice), and cheesecake for dessert.

In addition to that wonderful feast, I watched too much tv and typed too much on the computer. So now my eyes hurt and my back is probably all thrown out of whack. Can’t beat a good meal, though.

Today’s quote:
“Once you have the stick in your hand, mount it!”
— Madame Hooch

Sunday was a work day. I went to Maile’s house afterwards and hung out for a bit. We watched a documentary on sex changes, and saw a man trying to learn how to cross his legs like a woman. I never even knew there was a technique to it.

Monday was another work day. I talked to Maile for a bit afterwards on the phone, but as I had also taken a dose of NyQuil I soon got sleepy. Which in the end was proper, because I had to wake up early for school the next day.

Today was a school day. Attended 241 and learned about language structure. In a sense, using math to figure out a language. Had a 211 midterm today, and I am already anxious to know what my score was. There were two parts to it, basically; a technical part and a coding part. The technical part I think I did well on. At least, all the questions were pretty straight forward and I believe I answered them all correctly. The coding part is where I want to know my score. We were given a bit of code, then asked to write a class to provide functionality to that bit. I’m anxious to know if I got anything wrong, because I spent a lot of time writing out the code and so far that I could perceive, it should work. Still, it would be my luck to forget some aspect, some part in my programming that would crash the whole thing. That programming part had a major chunk of points, too.

I washed and polished my car today. I don’t know how long it took, but I think it reached roughly the two hour mark. I was about to wash the van, but I started to feel lazy and simply ended up wiping it down with a chamois.

I took a bit of a nap before heading out to dinner with Maile, for her Xmas party. It was at the Oceanarium restaurant at the Pacific Beach Hotel. It was good food, and there were some gift bags. I got a stainless steel cup with a bike attachment device and a backpack clip, which I could use for school. Very nice. There also was a few big prizes available for the employees, and they utilized a very interesting system of doling out those prizes. They pick a name, and whoever is picked gets to reach into a bag containing dozens of plastic eggs. Inside the egg is either some money, or a piece of paper stating which of the three big prizes they won (a DVD player, home stereo, and microwave). Once that person picks an egg, they pick a name. That next person picks an egg and picks another name, and it continues until all the names have been picked. I think an employee has their names read 3 times, and each time they get to take an egg. Maile ended up getting… $35 I think.

There was something else I wanted to post here, but I forget what it was.

I seem to have a relapse of my sinus cold. At least, it is much more apparent to others now than it was before. I bought some NyQuil so it can knock me out when I sleep, and I took it early so that it wouldn’t impact my awakening to do chores.

There was a brief power outage at work, which scared the bejeezus out of everyone. A complete and total blackout that even shut down the registers. However, it only lasted as long as it took me to find the flashlight.

I can’t wait for tomorrow. I will wash my car and wash my dad’s car, and do other car-related things, but the real fun will take place in the evening, when I attend Maile’s Xmas party. It’s going to be at a restaurant in Waikiki, I think the Oceanarium at the Pacific Beach Hotel. I’m not entirely sure, since Maile has all the details and that’s good enough for me. I just need to be aware of what time it starts, which is 1830 hours. Although, I wonder if we need to bring a grab bag gift…

It was pointed out to me that I failed to mention a strange occurrence on Wednesday. While I was lazing in bed at Maile’s house, lying on my back while Pupu the cat was lying by my feet, I experienced a very weird incident. I felt something hit the top of my head, like something had fallen and tapped my scalp. I felt behind me, and there was nothing there except the pillows and headboard. Nothing had fallen from the top of the headboard. I thought it somewhat strange, then I began to realize that what I felt also felt like someone tapping the top of my head with a finger.

That creeped me out, because there was no one else in the room, and the only other people in the house were on the other side and certainly could not have fit between my head and the headboard.

Maile’s house seems to be loaded with weird activity. I remember several stories she told me about seeing a little girl in the bathtub, odd noises, and a robed, evil-looking bald man surrounded by smoke. She said nowadays, weird things only happen when I’m around, such as the time the both of us saw some quick movement across the floor, but there was nothing there. What made it doubly interesting was the fact that I saw something white, while Maile saw something black (or was it the other way around?). This happened a second time, except this time that flash of movement was something falling to the floor.

It occurred to me that I hadn’t posted in a while, so I will play catch-up now.

Monday was a typical work day. I was assigned to Sunglasses, as per the norm on those days I work the swing shift. While that in itself automatically means it’s boring, at least George was around to talk story, and later Min started work so it was, overall, a good day. I stopped by Maile’s house for a little bit to hang out.

Tuesday there was a dam leak in my nose, as it just kept dripping snot like a leaky diaper. That made it a bit difficult to focus during school, but I still managed to attend. I fucked up on my 211 quiz because I mistakenly believed the correct procedure for an inorder traversal of a binary tree meant I print the internal vertex on the second pass. But the right subtree only had right children, so instead of listing them correctly from top to bottom, I went bottom to top. Later that night I slept over at Maile’s house.

Wednesday (yesterday) I felt very lazy, and the fact that my nose was all clogged up didn’t help. I wanted to wash and wax my car, but I just couldn’t find the energy. I stayed in bed all day while Maile was at work, though Titan kept me company. I discovered that I actually didn’t do too badly on my 211 quiz as they only removed 5 points, though I will check again to make sure. I also received a new homework assignment, but I didn’t start on it because, as stated before, I was feeling lazy. Maile gave me some “body toddy” for my head cold, which I am mainly supposed to gargle with, and it’s supposed to lessen the duration of said cold. It tastes like fermented lemon juice, for lack of a better description, but it does make me feel a bit better after gargling with it. I am left with the decision of whether or not to attend the 241 class on Thursday, as they have an exam and, while I want to take it, since I have a slight cold I am debating whether or not that will be a good idea.

It is now Thursday morning, and I am at school, well in time to attend the 241 class, but I have decided not to. I reasoned that since I have a bit of a cold (still present, obviously), it wouldn’t do to have my sniffling and sneezing distracting those still enrolled in the class, whose grades are dependent on their performance. Instead I will hang out in the computer lab and work on my 211 assignment until it is time for that class.

I plan to wash and wax my car on Saturday, because I have vacation and will have the time. Since I will be at home, I will see if my dad wants the van washed as well. Hopefully such tasks won’t tire me out before Maile’s Christmas party later that evening, but perhaps if I have time for a nap it won’t be so bad.

Uber boring. I was in a bit of a bad mood, too, because some of my co-workers are idiots. I shan’t get into the details because that will only serve to make me more upset, but suffice to say that some people only seem to be able to do one thing in life, and they can’t even do that well.

There was redemption afterward, however. I stopped by Maile’s house to visit her, and a hug from her made everything go away. So much so that I’m actually awake and chipper like a good little boy, and I have Maile to thank.

Tomorrow bodes to be a better day, I think.

Thankfully it wasn’t boring, but that’s only because I was able to talk to Min about trucks and finances, and I was able to talk to Maile on my break. I did get into a bit of an argument with Takashi, who was going off about Christianity imposing itself on other religions, specifically Islam, and the modern-day relations between the US and Israel and why that is damaging the mid east. There were many flaws in his argument, some of which I pointed out to him, but it remains unknown whether or not it sank in. So many flaws, in fact, that I would find it hard to repeat them here with any semblance of clarity, and therefore I won’t do them any justification.

My vacation request for the 23rd was approved, so that means I will be able to accompany Maile to her company Xmas party.

I dreamt I had long hair, except this time it was colored brown and only fell to my shoulders. I remember trying to put it into a ponytail, and that’s about when I woke up.