Fear the Crab

Bought more socks today. Same size and type as before, those lightweight hiking socks that seemed to only come in women’s sizes. They’re very comfortable, though.

Bought the End of Evangelion DVD. Haven’t watched it yet, mostly because I’ve already seen it and bought it just to complete my collection.

Bought dinner at Jurison’s Inn in Waikele. They have some good mochiko chicken, with a sauce that they make themselves. It’s a bit of a sweet sauce, and seems to go well with the chicken.

Bought some Listermint and a couple of packs of cigarettes. The Listermint because it’s better than Listerine, according to lab tests conducted by Maile at LCC. It kills more germs, and it tastes better. Not to mention, you don’t get that burning feeling when using it. The cigarettes I got because I’ll only be smoking at home, so I left them in the freezer to stall the staleness from sinking in.

I bought a lot of stuff today. Thank goodness tomorrow’s payday.

Didn’t meet up with Maile after work as originally planned, but it’s not as bad as one might think. We both had a lot of studies to catch up on, and tonight was the best night to do it. It turns out for the best, because I was able to finish my math assignment, leaving tomorrow totally free to see her. Maile should also be done with the work she has left to do. We might watch a movie, or rent one and kick back at home with some popcorn.

I read in the news that the factories in Japan have started to airlift the parts to the factories on the mainland, so the US can start production of their cars once again. This bodes well for the arrival of my truck, regardless of whether or not it was assembled prior to the lockout. There’s also word that Hawaii will be exempt from the lockout because we’re so dependent on shipping for most of our goods and supplies, so that’s a good sign that consumers won’t feel as big a backlash as we once thought.

Did the laundry, but when I left for work a lot of it was still damp on the line. Did some of my math homework, so the day saw some progress.

I’m finding the quitting of cigarettes cold turkey has started to reach its difficult point. I see people smoking at school and at work, and just seeing it brings back the urges. The toothpicks help. Part of me is thinking that perhaps I could buy a pack and keep it at home, only smoking when I am at home. The reasoning behind this is that I only smoke one or two while at home; a majority of my smoking was whenever I was out. The drawback to this is that the mere act of smoking will likely heighten the urges and make it worse down the line.

The lockout of the shipping ports on the west coast has worried me as to the expected delivery date of my truck. There are a lot of questions unanswered regarding the whole deal. The biggest is whether or not they built the darn thing. Toyota City showed me a list of the different models and how much of each were going to be received, but I don’t know if that meant they were already built or they expect that much to be built and shipped. If it’s already been built, it’s highly likely that their delivery will just be delayed. But if it hasn’t been built, the delay could be way longer than ever thought possible. I say this because I just saw in the news that the factory that builds pickups has stopped production because the parts from Japan haven’t or can’t arrive. There is some consolation, though. I already have the paperwork that basically reserves my truck in my name, so whenever it does arrive, it’s mine. I just gotta remember not to spend the money I have reserved.

Tomorrow I plan to see Maile. I think she’s going to visit me at my house, since I’m pretty much all by myself now that the folks are in CA visiting my brother. We’re not going to do much because we both have a lot of studying to do, but it will still be nice to see her.

Took my two exams today. I think I bombed my math exam. At least, a good half of the answers I either started guessing, or don’t feel as comfortable with. Each question was worth a different amount of points, but I never took the time needed to figure out if those questionable questions were heavy weights or not.

As far as the programming exam, I feel a bit better. I knew a lot of the material, and it’s just a matter of whether or not I got some of the technical aspects down. I had the concepts in my head and had a cheat-sheet full of the methods to use, and I think I organized them into an effective program, but only time will tell if I was absolutely correct.

Spent the rest of the day bored. There were probably a million things to do, but I felt lazy and didn’t do anything. That, of course, means I have no excuse to be bored, but some days you just don’t feel like doing crap. I did watch Reservoir Dogs, finally, and must say it was quite an interesting movie. A good question for anyone who has seen it is, “Did Mr White shoot at the end?” One could argue it both ways.

I must remember to do the laundry tomorrow. Otherwise I won’t have any shirts to wear to work.

Spent the day studying for my math and programming exams. Took my parents to the airport, and was a bit nervous driving the van back home and parking it in the garage, but it turned out okay. The City called me and scheduled an interview for the 11th, which is a Friday, at 0830. They first wanted me to go in on the 10th at 1030, but that’s when I’m at school. They want me to bring a simple four-function calculator because I’ll be taking a written test. I don’t know what kind of test, but if it involves a calculator it’s gotta be something math-like. Perhaps it’s more geometry.

I have officially been up for a little more than 24 hours. My eyes are killing me, and my brain is fuzzy, but I can’t seem to fall asleep. I made a mention to write down some things that happened to me today, but I can’t remember anything except kisses and the first night stand.

I went to bed at 2100 hours, but I kept waking up. The first time I woke up was an hour later, then again about an hour after that. Now it’s midnight and I’m awake again. I don’t know if it’s because I have something on my mind (like my upcoming exams) or something else all together. I had a few dreams in the meantime, but at this point of waking and sleeping, I’ve forgotten them all. I just hope this doesn’t affect me later on in the day.

Irene mentioned that she’s never been in a Corolla with power anything. I gave her a ride to her training class because I was off work and heading home, and she had to head out at the same time to attend. She also mentioned something about my car smelling good, but that’s only because her brother’s Corolla smelling like “a gym locker.” She must lead a very sheltered life, to not have experienced a ride in a Corolla before. Of course, she’s normally been exposed only to Hondas.

I may get a chance to deliver some dinner to Maile tomorrow. She mentioned that she was going to stay on campus to study because she has an exam coming up. Normally during her break she goes home to eat, since it’s only 5 minutes away. I asked her what she wanted, and as of now she wants a burger, maybe something from McDonald’s. I’m thinking that whatever she gets, I’ll get one, too, and maybe we’ll eat together.

My parents leave for CA Wednesday, to visit my brother. That means I’ll have the entire house to myself until the following Monday. It doesn’t mean that I’ll be able to have parties or whatnot, since most of my time will be spent at school or work. It also means that I’ll have to find my own food, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

I have decided to donate to the Aloha United Way (AUW). Every year our company holds a fund-raising drive to give monies to AUW. Aside from the huli-huli chicken sales, baked goods and other commodes, they give us a little authorization form to deduct a specific amount of monies from our paychecks. We can either have them take out one big lump sum, or take out each paycheck.

I have decided to donate a penny. $0.01. And I will request that this penny be removed only once, from my February 28th paycheck. That’s correct, I’m giving one huge penny as a one-time donation to AUW. And it won’t even be a penny that I’ll physically have up my ass, or wherever it is one keeps their pennies. No, it’s going to be a virtual penny that exists in cyberworld, to be removed from a cyborg paycheck that deposits directly into my bank (the amount, not the actual paycheck).

My reasoning is because I haven’t gotten any raise in the past two years, whereas before I was satisfied with even a nickel increase in my hourly wages. My hours have been reduced, from 40 to 38 to 35 to 19 hours per week. I try and scrape by while our glorious Mr Brennan makes 35-minute videos where he probably flaunts his bling-bling, all the while telling us to gear up for another year of economic hardship (I haven’t seen it yet). Ol’ Mr DiLessio tells us that he doesn’t care about shoplifters, because our profits can cover those losses. So, on behalf of Mr Brennan and Mr DiLessio, I am donating one penny. They can cover the rest.

I almost forgot to post today. I spent most of my time trying to study for my math exam, but since I was at work it was tough to concentrate. I did manage to make some progress towards further, if not better, understanding of the material, though I’m still a long way from claiming omnipotent knowledge.

One of the watch bay doors fell and cracked the mirrored glass. It broke so hard that the lock came off. It is my suspicion that the sales clerk just wasn’t paying attention to the door and let it drop down to hit against the drawers. Either that or she misjudged the weight of it (which isn’t very heavy). This isn’t the first time it’s happened.

I went over to Maile’s house after work for some dinner. Instead of studying, we watched some Rurouni Kenshin and a bit of the special features on the Monsters Inc DVD.

When I pulled into her driveway, I noticed that her mom’s car was gone. Maile’s mom had gone to Vegas eariler in the week, so I thought that she had come home already and was either out or hadn’t returned from work. However, I found out that Keoni had taken the car. It seems that the mom gave Keoni permission to use the car only during specific conditions. First, he could use it if he had an appointment such as for the doctor, or a job interview (yeah right). Second, the grandmother had to accompany him. I thought these were more than reasonable terms for some bastard who’s about as trustworthy as the DFS vice president. Yet it seems the grandmother did not accompany Keoni, and he did not have any such appointments scheduled. Though he denies it, we highly suspect he went over to Josephine’s house (the “first woman”) because he came home with a gigantic hickey on the side of his neck. Maile was, understandably, annoyed and angry, but I think that will pale in comparison to how the mom will feel when she finds out.

Came home and watched some of the UH football game on delayed broadcast. During that time I worked on my coding assignment and made rather significant progress. There are stilll a few bugs, and in my current state of mind I can’t seem to comprehend what it is I’m doing wrong. Perhaps tomorrow will hold greater success in my endeavors, but if that fails, I can always email the professor or TAs.

We got slammed today at work. It was as busy as we had been in years past, but I have to take into consideration that back then we had a lot more people on staff. Perhaps it was simply because we are short-handed that it felt busier. After all, in the duty free section there used to be 4 people working any given night; now it’s just 2.

Maile called me after work. She had some trouble falling asleep, so we talked for a good hour, even after I finally reached home. Having insomnia sucks eggs, especially if one has to wake up early the next day. Maile usually has an early run on Saturdays, and often wakes up at 5 to get in to the lab. I hope she’s all right tomorrow.

George won’t be working tomorrow. I found that out when I saw him tonight as I started and he was leaving. I don’t know if he has vacation or switched a day off, but it doesn’t really matter to me because it’s his time off. He’s not one to normally take a day off just because he feels like it. Tomoko made some kind of wisecrack about calling him in to work, saying that I was going to call in sick. After she said that, the thought briefly occurred to me that I, too, could use a day off. I have two exams next Thursday, one of which is the dreaded Discrete Math. Top that with the homework assignments that I have due for both classes, and that doesn’t leave much time to get any studying done. The 211 homework can actually substitute for studying, because the coding itself will be similar to what I’ll have to do in that exam. That doesn’t mean I can rest easily, however, because a lot of my programming is done through heavy references to my notes and materials.

Speaking of notes, for both classes I will be allowed to bring in one 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper with whatever notes I want, and use it in the exams. I wanted to use my time tonight to jot some things for the 241 test, but as mentioned before, work was too busy to even take a glimpse at my current pile of notes. I also need to consider how I’m going to format my “cheat sheet.” I plan to use both sides of the paper (it’s allowed), but I haven’t decided if I’m going to write all my notes or use the tiniest legible font on my computer. The problems with doing it by hand are that I may not recognize my own writing, there won’t be much organization, and I may lose efficient space. The problem with doing it on the computer is the risk that a special symbol may be lacking, forcing me to leave some space to fill it in by hand.

Forgot to mention in previous entries that my mom’s painting was shown in the local paper. There’s an article about an art fund raiser for the REHAB hospital, and the sole painting displayed is the one made by my mom. The only time I ever had my name in the paper was when I was on the high school bowling team and scored a 222. Coincidentally, that was the only game we had ever won, and it was against Iolani. My name was written in the sports section (obviously) in the tiniest font possible. I think someone clipped that statistic article, but I have no idea where it is after 12 years. Anyway, I’m currently trying to find a way to either scan or digitize her painting, so I can post it on the web page.