Fear the Crab

I dreamt I was a football player, as well as a sports journalist. I was walking up Red Hill, Ewa-bound, but the time it took for me to get to the top was the same amount of time it would have taken me driving. I met up with a bunch of other journalists, and we all had these question guides. Our task was to fill in all the questions based on what the players and/or coaches said. This time it was Dave Shoji and the womens volleyball team that we were “interviewing.” The people around me were asking stupid questions, trying to fill in their papers, while I just kept writing. About the only question I had to ask was what date the game was. Then once I was finished, I was supposed to go to the stadium. All the journalists went to the top of the hill, and there we were in a room where we had to wait and they had to issue us these press passes. I walked down to the stadium as soon as I got my pass, and when I entered the field I saw that the football team was already warming up, and I was late. I hurried into the locker rooms to change, and strangely it seemed I wore my old aikido gi under my uniform and pads. It also seemed that I was the kicker, and I had just finished putting on my outfit when the game started. I hadn’t warmed up, a voice in the back of my head was saying that I was wearing the wrong shoes, and I was supposed to kick off. I rushed onto the field, tipping my baseball cap (why I was wearing that and not a helmet I don’t know) in apology to my teammates and referees. As expected, I didn’t kick the ball that far, but something happened and I ended up tackling the return man close to the goal line on his side of the field.

I somewhat finished my applet for ICS 211. Fixed a bug involving the deletion of pets. If there were two pets of the same name, and you wanted to delete the second one, the program would only attempt to delete the first, and never move on to the second. I fixed it by requiring not only the pet’s name, but the owner’s name. Unfortunately, I haven’t solved this other glitch where the program accepts duplicate entries. I used to have a check that ran to see if a pet’s name and owner’s name were already in the database, but when I converted the program to an applet, it didn’t seem to work. At least I have a whole week to ask for help.

Today I wore one pair of those women’s hiking socks. They fit well, as expected, and were a bit more comfortable than what I used to wear. Shoes are shoes, though, and when standing around all day, feet hurt no matter what you wear. When I got home my feet had an imprinted pattern on the top. That’s what happens when you wear socks like that.

Today I kept craving a cigarette. My mind tried to justify the craving, but thankfully the mere thought of having to shell out $6 kept it to a minimum. Maile said my mind is not ready to quit smoking, and I believe her. I just feel I should “get a head start” on quitting, and now is as good a time as any. I must maintain my discipline, and hopefully this discipline will spill over to other areas, such as car maintenance and my homework.

Woke up early and went down the street to vote. Stupidly enough, there was a chicken sale going on at the same time at the same location, so the parking lot was jammed full of people trying to pick up their chicken and trying to vote.

I bought some socks and shorts at Sports Authority, afterward. I ended up getting women’s socks because they had no men’s socks in my size. I wanted some lightweight hiking socks, the kind that wick away moisture or whatever it is they are supposed to do, and the women’s socks were the only ones in my size. So long as they fit, there’s no problem, and it’s not like the fashion police will come breaking down my door. I think.

I then went to the DFS car wash. I figured that soon, that car will be traded in, so it wouldn’t hurt to get it cleaned up, at least on the outside. Oddly enough, when I left my car didn’t look any different.

Work was dreadfully dreadfully slow. I think were it not for the toothpick in my mouth I would have gone insane.

On a happy note, I finished my applet program. There are a few bugs left, and there are probably a million ways I could have made it more effective, but those things can wait until I return to class and ask questions.

I woke up late in the morning, at around 1030 hours. I was feeling a bit peckish, so I paged Maile and asked her to lunch. I first wanted to go to Anna Millier’s, because I wanted breakfast food, but Maile wanted to go to Denny’s. It made no difference to me, so we parked across from Denny’s and crossed the street, only to find out they were closed for renovations! Since that was a no-go, we tried Anna Miller’s, but the parking was terrible. All the stalls were filled and there were cars waiting in line. We got out, and went to Ronnie’s across the street. It’s an ice-cream parlor/burger place, which reminds me of a place long ago that had the same atmosphere, whose name eludes me right now. I’m sure there are people out there that can remember the long-ago place I am talking about.

At Ronnie’s, I had the Byron’s Bacon Cheeseburger and Maile had the Leonard’s Grilled Mahi Sandwich. Even though I originally wanted breakfast food, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have a good burger. Maile had a 22 oz fruit punch, while I had a 22 oz Buzzing Benny, which is nothing more than a chocolate and coffee milkshake. After that meal the two of us were very full.

After lunch at Ronnie’s, I smoked my last cigarette. I had told myself that after this particular pack, I would quit and try to make it stick this time. The last cigarette in the pack came and went, and I went the rest of the night without a drag. I’ve been using toothpicks whenever the urge hits me, but it hasn’t even been 24 hours yet, so I can’t tell if I’m going into withdrawal or not. So far the toothpicks have been working, and I have not yet given in to temptation.

Irene called me up at midnight this morning, and wanted to know about some unemployment papers she got after reapplying (or extending) her benefits. I confirmed that she only needed to send the checklist if the information listed was incorrect. She also asked if I sent in my tax forms for unemployment, but I had to admit to her that I did not receive such documents, and thus could not help her. I did refer her to George, though, because I believe he had received said items.

Then she asked me if I had been sleeping, and to that I responded that yes, I had been alseep since 2100 hours. She was very apologetic, because she had thought I got off of work at 2315, when I had the early shift and wanted to get a full night’s sleep for school.

As it turned out, it was all for naught. After the phone call I couldn’t go back to sleep. Everytime I tried to close my eyes, they’d pop back open again. The weather was muggy and warm, too, which made it uncomfortable. I decided to just stay up, and now my mind and body is paying for it.

It is interesting to note that when Irene called, I saw her name and number on my caller ID. As I picked up the phone, I had momentarily thought my voice would sound sleepy-like and groggy, but instead I probably had the most pleasant-sounding voice I ever had. I still must have sounded sleepy, because Irene picked up on it. And Maile has seen and heard a difference when I speak on the phone to people, depending on their gender.

Today was a blur, no doubt because of my sleep-deprivation. I do remember that in 241, after four weeks of instruction, I got one of the in-class examples correct, without help. Of course, next week’s notes will likely revert me back to square one.

In 211, I earned an audience participation point. My exact words to earn that point were, “Uh… yes.”

I went on a DVD buying spree today, which I shouldn’t have done really, since I have that truck coming in. However, I can justify these purchases by thinking that these are things I would watch over and over again. What did I get?

Forrest Gump
Joy Luck Club, The
Monsters, Inc.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
Rurouni Kenshin: Soulless Knights
Rurouni Kenshin: A Shinobi’s Love
Tenchi the Movie 2

Actually, Pulp Fiction and Soulless Knights I bought a couple days ago, but I thought to put them in here since it’s still so new and all.

I must remember to also buy The End of Evangelion, the so-called “sad” ending of the series. Death and Rebirth is merely an elaborated end in the series, sort of like a drawn-out and detailed rendition of what was shown on TV. End of Evangelion is supposed to be released on the 24th, so I’ll be waiting for that eagerly.

Tonight’s an early night; gotta wake up and get to school, where I’ll no doubt fuzzy my brain with gobble

We’re still learning probability in 241. I understand the concept, but when presented with a problem I have trouble figuring out the different details and what’s expected of me. I suppose this is the same as how some people can’t stand word problems; perhaps it’s a failure to understand and notate the different variables.

In 211 we’re going to convert our big programming assignment into an Applet, and run it off the web. I already started trying out the code, but the GUI isn’t what I thought it would look like. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m forgetting something, or some of my parameters are off. For example, I wanted a text field that was 80 characters long, flanked by a label and a button. Instead I got a big label, text field of 20 characters long, and a big button. Perhaps in class Thursday we’ll find out how to adjust these things. We still haven’t learned how to make the buttons and stuff do anything; right now we’re simply designing the layout.

If the Applet thing works out, I’m going to post my JavaQuest game on my web page. Unfortunately, whoever plays it won’t be able to save their game. I can’t save it on their machine, and I sure as hell don’t want them to save it on mine! Still, it’d be an experience to do that, and I can leave it on my page for no other reason than to brag.

I took a two-hour nap, so now I’m awake. This might not be so good, because I have to wake up early and go to work for an extra day tomorrow. If I stay up late I’ll be very surly in the morning.

I first dreamt that I had my new truck, and everyone from the dental lab wanted to come down and check it out. The only problem was, they came very late at night, when we were asleep. I woke up to show them the truck and give them all a ride, because I didn’t want my dad to get upset at them, and instead of being a pickup it was one of those multi-passenger trucks, lifted, with leather seats. I remember trying to drive it and I was having a hard time because the steering wouldn’t respond and the suspension was just too loose. Suddenly I became embarrassed because these were Maile’s friends and co-workers, and here I was making a fool of myself for getting a truck and not being able to handle it. At the same time I was getting upset at her co-workers because they kept wanting me to drive like an off-road maniac, going down dirt paths and bumps and rises. I felt the truck go off-balance and tip over, rolling end over end until it crashed against a hill. I asked if everyone was okay, and nobody responded. Then I found myself in a prison of sorts, except I was a third-person amorphous entity that was just watching. Each cell was made of concrete stone slabs with a single window, and I was visiting each one in turn and looking at its occupants. I heard a voice saying that these criminals were those that could not function properly in society, and so were condemned here for the rest of their immortal lives. The word immortal stood out, and I realized that this was an elven community, and these criminals were spending eternity locked up in cold dark cells. The voice that was speaking was one of the jailers, who was checking each cell to make sure the criminals were behaving properly. In one cell, a bunch of criminals were talking to one guard, and when the jailer checked on that cell, he asked what the guard was doing inside. There was a brief conversation, and then guard left the cell. As the two walked away, the leader of that cell’s occupants reached forward, and plucked the door key that was still inside the lock, courtesy of the guard. Then the elven criminals turned into these jelly-like, blob-shaped aliens, armed with devastating weapons. They broke out of the cells (for there were more than a few) and unleashed havoc upon the elves. I watched and moved among them as they rounded up elves and tortured, maimed and killed them all. Then I began to control the actions of one person in particular, a woman with the powers of Superman, who was busy finding stragglers and hiders. Here it turned into a roleplaying session, as I would speak the moves she would make, the words she would say, where she would go, and the woman would act it out as though I were directing a show. There was one straggler left, and he put up some resistance, and here it seemed like he wasn’t “playing by the rules” because he kept ignoring the fact that the woman had Superman powers and he was just ordinary. Yet I couldn’t do anything about his uncooperation because the game just continued. I (controlling the woman) chased the straggler around the complex, and he led me to a strange room, a training room, where he had summoned the real Superman, and I thought o shit I’m dead. I had the woman retreat full speed out of there, and Superman flew after her, just as fast down the corridors. I remember the anxiety of the chase, and thinking that the alarm should be sounded so that Superman can play with all those aliens instead of beating me up. The alarm did sound, and while Superman was distracted, I had the woman go to an area I (we) had visited earlier, which was the “end of the level.” The woman grabbed two magazines and entered into the next area, but she had to hide the magazines somewhere for later retrieval. Inside the women’s restroom, I checked various places where she could hide it, and also remember where she hid it. There was a noise outside, and I thought crap Superman and his cronies have entered this area and are going to begin a search and they’re going to find us and I’m going to be in trouble. I tried to open a locker as quietly as possible, and when I got it opened I saw that it was just a door leading to nowhere, only a blank wall with metal-like pipes. And no place to hide magazines.

I found out a few things one should know about new cars, particularly the break-in period. It’s good information to know. I learned that for the first thousand miles, I should take it easy, don’t speed or otherwise overwork the engine. And as soon as the thousand-mile mark is reached, I should change the oil. There was some talk about the purchase of a car cover, where to go, how much it would be. Then there came the topic of spraying the belts and hoses with silicone. It’s supposed to prolong the life of said parts, and it’s supposed to be very simple to do. Min recommended I spray a cloth first then wipe down the parts, as silicone may get all over everything if sprayed directly, and it attracts dirt. That got us into the topic of washing cars, and since I will be getting a black car, I’m going to have to be diligent in its appearance. Since I’m going to be training my discipline for quitting smoking, I think it may be possible for me to use that discipline for my car.

I think I’m going to change my own oil from now on, simply because I want to have a hand in my car’s care. I really should start becoming more responsible as far as maintenance, of course only limiting myself to those areas that I can handle. But I think it would be good practice for when I start to have a family of my own.

Now if I could only do that for cooking…

I woke up and my body felt like it was sunk halfway into the bed. My arms and legs were inert and I doubt they would have responded had I wished them to. It was the best feeling I’ve ever had upon waking up, and it made me go back to sleep for another hour and a half. Perhaps my body was completely relaxed, and if that’s the case, I want it to happen again.

George had a date this evening with two people he met while at work. Depending on their mood, they either went to Duke’s for a bite to eat, or maybe TGIFridays. I’ll get an opportunity to ask him on Wednesday.

Went over to Maile’s house after work, and it was time well-spent. Even though to others it would look like we weren’t doing anything, simply being there was important. A part of me misses the old days where I could spend most of the week with her. Yet there’s another part of me that thinks this haphazard schedule may prove a blessing in disguise, since by seeing less it makes each moment all the more special.

I have to get to bed early, so I can wake up in time for my hair cut appointment. I’m going to go for the buzz-look again.