Fear the Crab

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 bought my truck today! I got a great deal, and all the options I wanted, and everything fits into my budget. It’ll take at least a month or so before the truck gets here, as it’s the new 2003 model. Toyota City is going to call me when the truck arrives, and at that point I will bring my current car in for appraisal towards the trade-in. After that it’ll take perhaps a week to install the dealer options, and then I get to take it home. I must remember to fix that air conditioner compressor before the truck gets here, otherwise that will really lower the trade-in amount. Once that truck is mine, I need to make arrangements for some window tint, dash cover, and a car cover. I’m not sure where I can look to get a car cover, especially one made for a truck, but I’m certain there’s somebody out there who can tell me, or at least point me in the right direction.

I made the decision to try and quit smoking. There’s news that beginning in October, the price will go up by $1. That means it’ll cost at least $5.75 for a pack, and that’s usually at the local mom-and-pop liquor stores. Department/convenience stores will probably see a 10 to 25 cent markup. If that’s not bad enough, this is only the first phase of the cigarette tax. The plan is to hike the price of tobacco up to $8 a pack. If that’s not incentive to quit smoking, the deprecation of health certainly is. Maile, George and I all plan to try and help each other quit, which I think will be a really big boost in confidence and willpower. By supporting each other, hopefully we’ll be able to resist the urges of lighting up whenever we feel like it.

One of the problems I seem to have with cigarettes is that smoking seems to be part of my daily routine. On average, I smoke a cigarette on my way to work, one right before work, one during a “bathroom break,” three on my normal break, and one on my way home from work. Add to that a smoke or two at home, and I’m close to half a pack per day. Perhaps that’s not as bad as many of the horror stories about 3-4 packs a day, but in my eyes (or lungs, as the case may be), it’s still not healthy.

On a related note, I made an observation that, while many non-smokers see smokers as being rude and obnoxious people, it seems a vast majority of smokers are very VERY polite to one another. I’m sure this isn’t always the case, but I’ve heard and experienced moments where someone will approach a smoker and ask to bum a cigarette. Very rarely will that smoker refuse. There’s also occasions where someone will have trouble lighting up their cigarette, and I’ll walk over and offer my lighter. This smoker is a complete stranger, someone I’ve never met before and I’ll probably never see again, but there I am lighting up their cancer stick. It’s almost strange enough to make you think that if every single person in the world smoked, we’d have world peace! We’d feel kinship with one another regardless of race or religion, because we’re all in the same boat of taking that big drag of nicotine. I can imagine someone from the al-Qaeda smoking a cigarette, when an American GI comes up and asks to bum one, or borrow a lighter.

“Sure, friend!” the al-Qaeda will say.
“Thanks, man,” the GI will say. “Hey, where’s an ashtray around here?”
The al-Qaeda will answer, “It’s a fuckin’ desert; throw it anywhere!”

“Imagine all the people.. sharing a drag or threeee oo hoo oo oo o..”

Today was a normal day at school, except for the fact that I found out the Legislature has cut the budget for the ICS department, meaning that there will be less professors and less classes for me to take. Considering the amount of students already in the program (and likely entering the program in the future), the chances aren’t looking good for me to get into a class. Compound that with the fact that I register last, and there’s a problem. I won’t know the full extent of this problem until next semester, though.

Feeling particularly tired, likely due to the constant early rises I’ve had to endure these past two weeks. Four to six hours of sleep aren’t enough to someone used to a full eight. At least today I cut back on the coffee and instead loaded up on energy via orange juice and breakfast food from the school cafeteria. Their scrambled eggs were very fluffy and delicious, and of course a breakfast meal can’t be complete without fried rice, portuguese sausage and spam.

Narrowed my choices down to either the Toyota Tacoma or the Nissan Frontier. Both are comparable in terms of quality and maintenance, with some differences in power and handling. I think it will eventually boil down to how much all those extra options will raise the price. Now the research turns to finding out those facts.

Started off the day on four hours of sleep. That’s what happens when I get off of work at 2315 and turn off the lights at 0000, only to wake up at 0400 to get ready for school. The waking up wasn’t too bad, actually. I think the primary motivation is that I really need to attend every class, and can’t write it off like how I did in my younger years.

One cup of coffee in the morning, followed by a cafe mocha at 0700. Another cafe mocha at 0900, and by 1100 I had to pee like I could see through time. I actually felt my body shrink after using the bathroom for the fourth consecutive time, and whoever said eating asparagus made it stink has never drunk three cups of coffee. All that caffeine can’t be doing good things for my body, but at least I stayed awake through all my classes.

When I got home I immediately came down from that high. It was not pleasant. I was barely coherent and all my thoughts were jumbled and garbled like encrypted packets sent through a 28.8 modem. I apologize for the computer reference, but after a full day of nothing but, it’s understandable that it’s all I can think of right now.

A bit of good news, though; I finally managed to find that one song that had eluded me for years. I hear it on commercials, in movies, and every which way I turn. It sounds cool, but I never knew the name nor the composer until today. The song I was looking for all this time was “O Fortuna,” from Carmina Burana, composed by someone named Carl Orff. I actually don’t know if Carmina Burana is an opera or somesuch, as different locations would list different things and not in any clear manner. It also appears there is a band (or another song) named O Fortuna, but I avoided those links. After years of searching, I’ve finally found what I’ve been looking for, and now I feel highly accomplished.

The Toyota Tacoma is looking rather expensive. As an alternative, I may research the Nissan Frontier. I’ll have to see what the reviews say; it may not be worth it to go the cheap route, especially if it only hampers me down the road with repairs.

I’m going to turn in early tonight. Regardless of whether or not I’ve said that already, it only lends more evidence to support that decision.

Today Maile and I took Titan to the dog park. It was a bit rainy and very humid, but it was enjoyable. Titan even ran around the park like an excitable dog, but it required me to act as something to chase. We didn’t stay that long because it was too hot and Titan was getting tired (or so we led ourselves to believe). I’d say an hour was the longest we spent there.

Had “breakfast” food for dinner: scrambled eggs, bacon, portuguese sausage and rice. It filled me up pretty decently, and I took an hour nap.

Today was payday. Nice timing, considering the extortionable amount of money I spent the past week. I still wish I had more hours, though.

I registered for fall session today. It was a bit of a nail biter, because I woke up at 1030 hours to check the availability of ICS 211 and there was only 1 seat left open. My registration appointment was at 1330, so I had 3 hours to wait on the edge of my seat hoping that class wouldn’t close. I did have another section open to me, but it would have been on a different day at a different time, and I didn’t want to go to campus more than I needed to. Thankfully, that 1 remaining seat stayed open until it was my turn, and so I nailed that sucker with double-stick tape and a big sign stating “MINE!” That was a huge relief, especially after stressing about the class for the past week (the second class, ICS 241, had stayed open the entire registration process, so no worries there).

After registration I drove to campus to pay my tuition ($1135.30) and renew my ID card. Then I walked to the bookstore to buy what I needed, which only turned out to be one book ($75) because the materials for ICS 241 remained the same as the one I had for 141. Since I had saved a bit of money on that, I decided to splurge those monies into getting a wireless internet PC card. I’ve already installed it, but I can’t configure the card until I actually return to campus and talk to the IT department (and also to be in range of their wireless servers). In the meantime, I can take the rest of the week to enjoy the last days of summer vacation.

I took a two hour nap and I must have been exhausted, because the moment my head hit the pillow I was out like a digested green apple. Perhaps that wasn’t the correct metaphor to use, but given the experiences of today, I don’t care because I’m happy and content. Maile and I took Titan to the nearby school in the evening to walk him, and he had tons of fun running around the big field. It seems he has happy memories of that place, because when he was younger Maile would take him to that very same field and he’d run amok. I guess when he’s at the dog park he’s not too familiar with the area, so he prefers to stand around, drool, and mooch attention from the other owners. We plan to go to the park on Thursday, if nothing else interrupts.

Now that I have my very own LiveJournal, I have no idea what to write about. That’s what is so fun about it, I suppose. Perhaps I should start with a provocative, witty saying that will set the standard to which this journal will live up to..

Perhaps not.

Kyrol was bemoaning his lack of initiative in buying $250 worth of cheese in 1994. There is no doubt in either of our minds that Kyrol would have pulled down $250,000 in today’s market. That is, if he abstained from eating it all.

In the end, he would have spent that money on cheap booze and cheaper hookers, so it’s probably for the best. A few days on the night train with male gigolos would drive anybody to depths of nicotine-induced ploymorphism.

If it seems like I don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re probably right.

EDIT:  LiveJournal account was deleted, and all posts (and subsequent thoughts) have been moved to the site you’re at now.  If you’re reading this, you’re likely in the archives.

EDIT:  If you’re reading this as the last post, how was the trip backward in time?