Fear the Crab

Last week my friend’s father passed away. I’ve only met him once, at my friend’s wedding. While I didn’t know him very well, it’s still sad to see someone with so much experience move on to the next phase in life. He was 58.

On a lighter note, my cousin also phased life, celebrating his graduation from high school. He plans on staying here, and attending a community college. I believe he intends to attend the U of Hawai`i later, so this is a smart move. Many of the credits can be transfered and apply towards those core requirements. And it’s cheaper by about $600, I think, maybe more.

Maile phased her life into a new direction, with a healthier diet and the abstinence of smoking. It’s a good change, and I’m trying to keep up. Unfortunately, I’m not actually following her footsteps, as I only eat healthy when I’m eating with her, and I’m only “cutting down” on the smoking, rather than quitting. She’s using one of those nicotine patches, bought at a tremendous discount because she went through this stop-smoking program at the hospital. Ordinarily a 1-month supply of patches would cost around $100, but after attending that program, the cost went down to $5. As for my cutbacks, I’ve taken steps to limit the number of cigs I take in a day. I never went more than a pack a day to begin with, but I’ve established rules to go by, such as not bringing cigs to work and not smoking indoors. The denial of cigs at work goes a long way towards cutting back.

I told Maile that I believe the battle to quit smoking involves not only the withdrawal of nicotine, but also the willpower to actively change habits. Nicotine is a powerful addictive stimulant, and I don’t doubt its potency. I’ve noticed, too, that we sometimes want to smoke after we eat, or when we drink, or when we want to take a break at work. That part is mental, where we’ve developed a habit (or more appropriately, an excuse) to smoke. My self-imposed rules of not bringing cigarettes to work and not smoking indoors goes a bit of ways towards that goal of breaking the mental addiction.

Well, it certainly has been a while. You can thank Animal Crossing and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for my prolonged absence. There’s just so much to do in Zelda that it’s almost a sure-fire way to lose your social life. Thankfully Maile is very good at bringing me back to reality.

Let’s see, what’s happened so far? I think I’ve gotten into the groove of things at my new job(s). Deliveries for The Lab are becoming a habit, and many of the offices are permanently scarred into my memory. Sometimes I can get done with my rounds in less than three hours, which doesn’t mean good things for my paycheck since I’m on hourly. The Office has been holding steady; at least, I’m able to do the simple things. I haven’t gotten any major projects to work on yet, mostly because there really isn’t anything to do right now. There are still aspects of that job that I have yet to touch, but it seems I have to rely on my fellow student workers to show me the ropes, since the bosses are really busy with fixing another highly-visible project. And being that it’s finals week, I rarely see my coworkers. So I busy myself with checking Postmaster mail and setting up mailing lists while browsing the web pages for weird stuff.

On the homefront, life has been normal for me. I finished off my ICS 241 math class, and feel fairly confident I’ll pass with at least a C. That was my main goal, and if I score better, it’ll be all the more sweeter. Those E-Commerce classes I took were interesting, and I think I learned a few things, but the way they were carried out left something to be desired. The prof stressed communication, but it seemed to be lacking on his part. I would email him with a question, and wouldn’t get a reply for several days, if ever! Thankfully they were 100-level courses and pretty easy, otherwise I’d have more white hairs than I do now.

Life, however, has been anything BUT normal for Maile. Her brother’s back on crack again, and I actually witnessed the demon itself one day. He barged into the room and demanded the money Maile has been holding for him (because he’s so irresponsible with finances). When she refused, he got angry and tried to take her purse. Instead he missed and grabbed her backpack. Despite not having any money in the backpack, he ransacked through it, all the while spewing curses out of his retarded mouth. Maile finally gave him his money and he left. I found out later that everyone’s suspected he’s been on the rock from way before. Apparently he was given money to buy a nice present for his son’s 1st birthday and attend a small party, but instead he spent the money on crack and didn’t go. He’s back with this mental-case girl named Josephine who’s also on the rock (and with whom he had his son). Maile’s brother hasn’t been back for about a week, but he’ll start coming around once he wastes his cash.

The sad thing is that he blames Maile and the mom for his condition. Talk about a lame cop-out. His claim is that he was given too much responsibilities to handle, that Maile and the mom expected more from him than he could produce. Whatever. All they asked was that he help contribute to the house, either by getting a job or something. But no, the mere thought of hard work seems to be like a bad case of SARS for this whelp. Oh, and he also believes he has a mental condition, which is why he acts this way. I would tend to agree, but not for the reasons he gives. He feels it is justification for his behavior. I feel it’s simply stupidity. The guy is just spoiled, thinking the world has to give him what he wants without him working for it. I told him once that I was able to buy a new truck and these video games only because I worked and budgeted my money. At the time he seemed to take it to heart, but I guess he can only think short-term and can’t stand waiting for hard work to bear fruit.

So now the house has become like a fortress, with secured doors and a significant change in lifestyle. It’s like everyone’s on alert, since no one knows when he’ll drop by with some fake-ass sob story to try and wheedle pity and money out of the family. Pretty soon we’ll have to start using passwords and retina scans.

I had some wine. If you consider three glasses of wine “some,” I had some. I’m feeling it, too. I must be getting old. It was a time of bus’ firecracker, but we didn’t have much firecracker to bus’ this year. It was a combination of high prices and the fact that we procrastinated too long, so by the time we actually went looking, stores either were sold out, or had a very limited selection. The stuff we did get wasn’t too bad, though they were expensive. One of the items we got was something that was a cross between a flare, jumping jack, and sparkle bomb. It was pretty cool. Our neighbor gave us some rockets to shoot into the sky, so that was cool, too.

Tomorrow we have a family dinner to attend, at 1730 hours at the Parc Cafe. I hope Maile can accompany me and be my sexy escort.

I spent Christmas Day with Maile and her family, and ate dinner there. They had honeyed ham and other goodies like stuffing and salad and mashed potatoes. It was very nice and great company. In fact, I think I shall visit her tomorrow as well.

I had to wake up early today to take my brother to his dentist appointment. After that was done, we went to Ala Moana so he could do some shopping, but he ended up getting nothing except exercise. We tried to go to Costco and Pearlridge, but by then traffic was simply disgusting, so we canceled that. An interesting occurrence befell us as we were leaving downtown; some bloke rear-ended my new truck. It was less than a love tap, and at first we didn’t even realize we were hit. I had just described a scene of a giant robot stepping on something and right when I said “stomp” and dropped my hands down, we felt the car shake like we had run over a pothole. Except, we weren’t moving at the time. I think we were quiet for over a minute as we tried to figure out what happened. My brother asked “Were we just hit?” and when I looked in my rear view mirror there was a car very close behind us. We pulled over to check, and that car followed us. When we got out, there was no damage, not even a scuff, so I suppose in the end one could say nothing happened. In fact, when I went to check I was looking in the wrong area. The driver of the other car had to point out where he tapped us.

Ate dinner with some of the family from my mom’s side, which was weird to me because tomorrow there’s a big family dinner that includes the people we ate with. Had pot roast.

I spoke to Maile for a bit, but she wasn’t feeling very well. It left me not feeling very well, too, but that was because of the my uneasiness in her discomfort and my apparent inability to help. One of the few times I wish I were psychic, I think. Anywho, I can’t sleep now, and while I don’t have anything planned for the coming day (except for the dinner, which I’m still not sure I will attend), I wanted to sleep early so I could run an errand. I will probably still have time enough to do it, since the dinner is at 1700 hours, but one can never tell what the day will bring. Again, that psychic question is ever so pertinent.

I’m feeling tired today, so I don’t plan to post a lot. I went with my folks to my mom’s doctor, to help lift her on to the examination table. We ate Chinese food for lunch afterward. Then my dad dropped off the van to a body shop because someone dinged the rear bumper pretty bad, and I picked him up. After all that was done, I went to LCC to visit Maile at her ceramics class, where she was finishing up a few more projects, firing them up raku style. I’d explain raku, but I’d probably butcher it like a carving knife on a mouse’s tail. Afterward I spent time with her at her house, and Titan farted near my head, right as I was warning him not to.

Tomorrow I start work at 1600, and I think I’m supposed to get a dinner break.

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.

Spent much of the day in school, as is the usual for a Thursday. I managed to debug my Java program, so now it completely works and fulfills the requirements stated in the assignment. There are probably a million ways I could have made the program better, but now is not the time to think of them. I’d say I don’t even know half of Java’s capabilities.

Ate at Kyoya for dinner, with the family. I had the sashimi teishoku with an appetizer of hamachi sashimi, and a bottle of hot sake. I actually ate the hamachi for “dessert,” saving it for last because it’s my favorite.

I talked to Maile tonight and we gossiped about our day in school and the various events that took place. Maile knows some interesting people in her classes, more than myself, though it’s likely because she is taking core requirements that apply to everyone, rather than what I am taking; specialized fields. In my classes, everyone seems pretty “normal” to me, that is to say, they don’t seem too much crazier than I could hope to be.

If none of this makes any sense, I apologize. The mind does not function properly after it’s been awake for 22 hours.

Didn’t do too much today except pretend I was a mushroom. The temperature in my room kept that daydream to a minimum, however.

I ate at Stuart Anderson’s with my family and relatives. I had the whiskey NY steak with petite lobster tail and Texas shrimp. I couldn’t finish it all, what with the salad and Wagon Wheel appetizers. The leftovers will be tomorrow’s dinner. My mom and dad shared a prime rib combo with fried prawns (or something like that). My aunt and uncle used my dad’s coupon for a “dinner for two” consisting of prime rib and shrimp, with that chocolate cake that sinks to the bottom of your stomach. Maile also had the prime rib and fried prawns, if I remember correctly. What with so much prime rib, and my own plate overflowing with food, it’s hard to remember what everyone had.

I discovered something strange about the wireless internet card I bought yesterday. When I tried to run the PC card settings, it told me there were no drivers for it. It’s strange because according to Windows, I have four different drivers for the card. I tried checking online for any updates to the drivers, but I couldn’t find any in the places I looked (Windows update, ORiNOCO site). I will wait until school starts to talk to the IT department and see what they can do, otherwise I’ll contact tech support for answers. It looks like the first day of school will be a long one for me.

I was at my grandmother’s house with the whole family, and I remember having to go next door to take violin lessons. However, things kept coming up and delaying my departure. I would forget my socks, I would forget my violin, I would have to use the bathroom and then forget my underwear. Until finally, I’m ready to go, when I see a girl in the front lawn using two laptops as well as my own. For some reason she is supposed to be there, because I walk over and ask if everything is okay. She says yes.

Then we both notice that there are these men who are standing around, looking at the small stone fence that separates my grandmother’s house from another neighbor. Suddenly, then walk around the wall and start looking around on our side. The girl and I walk over and we ask what’s going on. It appears there was a problem with the gas line, and the men were trying to fix it before it got dark so people could have gas for whatever reason they wanted to use it.

The girl and I go to tell everybody, when suddenly I remember that all those laptops were still in the front lawn. I rush back and discover that two of the laptops are missing! I look around, and I see, far away, this woman carrying the tray the laptops were on. I go to chase, and suddenly it feels like I’m running through molasses. I’m not getting any closer, and despite trying to use my hands to “pull” my way forward, the lady just keeps walking. I yell that she’s a thief, but everybody around isn’t paying attention or something, because no one helps. She takes a left turn, and heads into a park and disappears from view. When I get to the park, I realize to my horror that it’s full of people having picnics. Everybody’s walking around, making it very difficult to see where the lady went.

I would have begun to panic, but suddenly the dream changed and I was riding on a train with a bunch of musicians, all of whom were trying to find some new way to play their instruments, because they were so bored. It was amazing, because not only did they successfully play their instruments in new ways and create new sounds, but they had some of the weirdest instruments I had ever seen. For example, a cello that was in the shape of a rectangle and had eight strings from top to bottom. A trumpet that looked like it cross-bred with a trombone. You get the point.

I don’t remember much else, after the alarm clock woke me up.