Fear the Crab

These customers were all leaving either tomorrow or the day after, so they decided to do all their shopping while they still had a chance. It kept me occupied enough that I didn’t get bored.

Maile told me her brother got some paternity papers from the state. It seems the woman he’s involved with has a long history of child neglect, abuse, and outright uncool stuff. It seems the woman has borne a plethora of kids, and all of them have been taken away. The state wants Keoni to take a paternity test to see if the child is really his (because neither he nor the woman are really that sure), and if so, whether he will take the baby or give it up to foster care. If the child does turn out to be his, I don’t really see him being able to take care of it, so it’s likely that kid will go to the state.

Maile also told me that Keoni knew about the woman’s history with kids, and even told a social worker to “check on her” because of her record. Perhaps he did it out of spite, but it’s possible that he did it out of actual concern for the child. I guess every person has their moment, and I’d really like to think that Keoni still retains some decency. It’s not healthy for me to continue thinking of him in ill-respect, if that makes sense. I’d rather consider (and treat) him as a human being, not some worthless fubar wasting precious air.

Today was Janet’s last day at Sports Authority, and I’m happy for her. It seems she’s having some trouble with her unemployment, though, as there are a few requirements of her that make no sense to the rest of us. She wants to collect partial unemployment, but the office is telling her that she needs to look for another full-time job.

Hopefully Janet’s situation can be resolved before her trip abroad. I asked her if she could buy me a bottle of Armani Gio and Johnnie Walker Blue Label. I’d give her the money, of course.

Tomorrow I go down to Toyota City and talk the talk with Bob. I hope to get a good deal on the truck I want. Armed with the MSRP as well as the actual invoice price, that knowledge may provide me with a bit of leverage when determining the final tally.

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.

She still has to see a doctor next week to ensure it’s not something serious. This has relieved me tremendously; I almost burped my stomach out this morning, and I think it was because I’ve been so worried about the whole situation. I can now only hope that her next clinical visit will show nothing’s wrong, and also that the experience won’t be as painful as the last one.

I polished my boots tonight at George’s house. It was the first time I had ever taken a brush and wax to any of my footwear, but it’s a lot more simple than I had originally thought it would be. I think I was feeling a little anxious about the whole thing, not only because it was the first time I had done it, but because it’s nerve-racking when you’re doing something you’ve never done before to something you’ve invested some money into. It’s like trying out a brand new bottle of carwash for a brand new automobile. In the end it was all for naught, and now my boots look a bit more like how I bought them. I did notice, however, that the crease that normally comes from everyday wear on the right boot isn’t as “crisp” as the left, and that seems to make the left boot a bit more cleaner. Well, so long as I keep up the maintenance every couple of weeks or so, I shouldn’t have to worry. Now if I could only keep that mindset for my car…

Maile told me she had to go to the emergency room because of pain in her stomach and back. She believes it was acid reflux (sp?), but the doctors at Kaiser took some blood tests to ensure it wasn’t gall stones. Maile’s experience at the hospital was less than what those commercials would have you believe. The staff were abrupt and rude, and the nurse that took Maile’s blood made the ordeal literally painful. In addition to perhaps hitting a nerve while looking for a vein, they screwed up the sample somehow, forcing Maile to wait even longer for a second test to be conducted. At least the second time around, a lab nurse came by and did an excellent job extracting the blood, with no pain at all.

I’m still worried about her health, and I wish there was something I could do to help her. I don’t think I’ll get any homework done tonight, not with everything running through my head.

Today I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything I could have hoped it would be. Actually, I did putter around online for a good bunch of hours, but was idle time since my homework for the day was done. Took a nap, spent a little time with Titan, ate some steak for lunch and some pizza for dinner, and that was about it.

Maile, on the other hand, had a lot of homework. Most of what she had to do was all from her history class. I remember one of the self-test questions being “Why slavery in Mesopotamia is enlightened?” I have no idea what that question is asking. Is it saying that the concept of slavery is enlightened, or the slaves are enlightened? Without any understanding of the question, perhaps the only hope is that the rest of the class doesn’t get it, forcing the professor to remove it.

Must try and sleep tonight; tomorrow’s another early riser.

Maile, George, Chanelle, and Jason were sleeping over at my house. Strangely enough, we were in my living room, on a piece of furniture that looked like a large-scale model of a station wagon. Maile and I were sleeping in the trunk of the station wagon, George was lying on the back seat, Chanelle was on the front bench seat, and Jason was lying in the footwells.

We all woke up and were trying to figure out what we were going to do. I was feeling very lazy, when all these strangers started showing up at my house. Normally I wouldn’t have allowed them in, but everyone else seemed okay with them and started to hang out. I was a tad upset by this (considering it was my house), and declined to join in the fun. Maile and I got into a brief argument over it, where I explained my feeling about the whole matter, but for some reason I kept getting the sensation that it was ME who was overreacting and being anti-social (even though it was my house and these were strangers coming in). I hopped into the shower, upon which a Smashing Pumpkins song kept playing in my head, and visions of long-haired grunge bands entertaining professional wrestlers jumbled in with a classical dose of Handel. Instead of sliding glass doors I had shower curtains, and these curtains kept blowing open in an unfelt breeze. The water pressure suddenly dropped to near-zero levels. Needless to say, I have no idea what SP song it was.

Today was a busy day for the store. There were a lot of customers, and a lot of purchases, making the night quite a productive one. Add in the fact that Mondays are run nights and it’s easy to imagine how busy everybody was. The rush didn’t die down until 2200, so I took that opportunity to take a break.

Spoke with a few people about my interest in the Tacoma, and so far everyone agrees that it’s a worthwhile purchase. It’s making me feel better about my choice.

Maile is having a few problems in submitting her assignment online. It seems there aren’t any step-by-step instructions on how to do it, and there’s no way of knowing (so far as we can tell) whether or not the assignment was received. It’s not due until the 11th, so Maile has a lot of time to email the professor and ask for instructions. Perhaps there’s a page we’ve missed, or something that helps describe the submission process, but if it’s hard to find, then that’s merely more evidence to our request that it be easy to understand. There’s nothing worse than completing the assignment and turning it in, only to find out the professor never got it.

I’m pretty sure there are other people in the class who are having similar problems. If enough students complain, perhaps the professor will upgrade the submission process.

I’m feeling awake right now. That is not good, since I have to be up in 4 hours to get ready for school.

Maile is doing well with her homework, especially for her psychology class. Her paper/proposal assignment is progressing well, and all she has left to do is find the right set of words to properly describe her agenda. She came up with a great topic for a survey, that of what those in the medical profession think about euthanasia. This assignment is not due until Tuesday, giving her plenty of time to “touch up” her words for greater efficiency. I only wish my math homework could be like that.

Speaking of math homework, I must rewrite my assignment so that it’s legible and organized. Right now it’s a jumble of notes and scribbles as I wracked my brain to try and figure stuff out. I have arrows pointing to whatever free space there was, where I wrote additional notes or solutions. I don’t even know if any of them are correct.

Irene found out today that she has been selected for jury duty. Normally one would think it a golden opportunity to play god with another person’s life, but in this case Irene does not want to go. The selection process is scheduled for Monday the 23rd of September, and Irene has a full day of classes. As I am also a student at the UH, I can sympathize with her plight. It is difficult to miss even one day’s worth of classes when the material is quite important to one’s impending graduation. I’m not even sure if the professor’s would understand. Still, I told her to talk to her profs and see if they can either suggest how she can get out of jury duty, or find some way to give her the materials beforehand. There is, of course, the chance that she may not be selected to serve on the actual panel, but she would still have to go that first day, which loops us back to the main problem.

Today’s Invader Zim episode(s):
Invasion of the Idiot Dog Brain
Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy

Work was interesting, but only because of the conversations I was able to have. There was a little toddler boy who really really wanted a mini-recorder keychain, so badly in fact that he tried to break the glass door with his tiny fist when his mom finally dragged him out crying.

I got my first homework assignment for ICS 211. I had to make a web page, which will be the starting point for all those Java applets we are planning to make. The simplicity of this assignment is lulling me into a false sense of security; I’m trying to force myself to believe that it’s not going to be a cakewalk, just so I can take it seriously.

As far as ICS 241 goes, I finally managed to complete the first assignment. I don’t think it’s 100% correct, but at least I did what I could to the best of my understanding.

I helped Maile try and figure out why her printer isn’t displaying its status window. At first I thought it was because XP was installed over the printer drivers, but after I removed and reinstalled the drivers, that darn status window still didn’t show up. The printer still works, though.

Tonight’s UH football game:
Eastern Illinois – 36
Hawaii – 61

Not much to say about today. Work was the same, with nothing exciting happening nor was there anything worthwhile, significant, or contemplative enough to warrant an entry.

Talked to Maile on my break, and that made my day better. I told her that I was leaning towards the Toyota Tacoma as my new mode of transportation. I still have to do more research into the matter, but at least now I have a direction. Once I have acquired all the relevant information, I will then need to weed out the “fluff” that normally comes with advertising or self-promotion. However, it’s highly likely there’s a review web site out there that can give me objective information about the Tacoma.

Interestingly enough, Tacoma is where I went to college.

Tonight’s Invader Zim episode:
Bolognius Maximus