Yee Haw! I re-couped my losses last night! Choy came over and he, Q, and I played some Texas Hold 'Em. It took a couple hours, but I managed to take all of Choy's money, plus a bit of Q's. But after our Hold 'Em game, I challenged Q to some "Indian" poker (I don't know it by any other name). Q bluffed me good a couple times and managed to get himself back up to even, and then go a little further so he was up $1.60. Whatever, I'm in the plus now, and that's what counts. It was fun times...would have been nicer to have a few others...but everyone I asked was occupied with something else.

I'm gonna try and work on the "finger ladder" technique with a poker chip. That, and the one handed chip shuffle. Be very cool to be able to do those things.

I rearranged my "living room" (which is pretty much my whole suite). The bed and futon swapped locations and orientations. I think it'll work out well, plus the heater won't be shooting into the foot of my bed anymore...might be a tad more efficient.

Why does Texas get so much attention? Texas Hold 'Em, Texas Best Ball, Texas Rangers...

Had some guys over last night and we played Texas Hold 'Em. I lost $6.50, but it was fun to play. Q was the big winner...but I figured out his game near the end. We just didn't play long enough for me to recoup my losses. Very fun to play when you've got proper chips.

I feel lazy. I'm always lazy. I should have gone for a run this morning, but I didn't. I stayed in bed till well after morning had passed. I'm just night oriented.

Ya, I got nothin'

Just call me 2 Goal Planman...that's how many goals I scored last night (and also how many I let in when I played goalie...so really I didn't contribute to the game at all). One of my goals was a wicked redirect...it was coming at me, about knee height or so. I lifted my right foot and got the angle on my ankle just right and the ball changed direction and made it past the goalie. The other goal was good as well, not quite as spectacular. I live for Tuesday night soccer...and I didn't even used to like soccer.

Saw Garden State a few nights ago. Quite a good movie...a little convenient in how the love story develops, but I guess it's possible. I'm pretty impressed with Zach Braff...he wrote it, directed it, and starred in the lead role. I quite enjoy him on Scrubs as well...what a good show. John C. McGinley is the best on that show though (oh, and Christa Miller who plays his wife.....oh baby! I love her! I've loved her since she played Kate on The Drew Carey Show). I want Zach Braff hair...I think I can make that my hair goal.

Mel and I went to Yoshi Sushi last night. It was very good, as usual. I ordered a Kirin Ichiban beer, thinking I was going to get some decent Japanese beer. Well, it was decent beer, but it wasn't entirely Japanese...the label said it's a product of the USA, made by Anheuser-Busch. So I got an import beer...but imported from the wrong country! What's up with that? I know, I know, it shouldn't surprise me. The rights to produce many foreign beers are often sold to a domestic brewery so they are more readily available and affordable. It happens between the US & Canada all the time, and it happened in New Zealand as well. I just wasn't expecting Kirin Ichiban to be brewed in the U.S. of A. Ah well, it was good.

I've been watching the mini-series (large mini-series?) From the Earth to the Moon which I recorded off History Channel a while ago. They're good, interesting, and feel quite real (although dramatic, I think they've tried to follow the truth of NASA's happenings in the '60's quite close). One thing that gets me...sort of related to the above topic...is that NASA hired contractors to build their rockets and spacecraft. Maybe this doesn't sound weird to you, especially in this day and age of privatization, but it seemed strange to me (at first...I've warmed up to it now). The equipment for NASA would have been so specialized, why contract the work out? Why not have the people doing the work on the NASA payroll? You know that the contractor is going to have to focus on the NASA stuff...so they may as well be on NASA's payroll. The space program is constantly evolving, so those people's jobs would be secure (I would think). I dunno...contracting out just seems like a strange idea to me. I think I just feel that a company should do it's own work...not rely on another company to do it.

This is why I don't understand consultants.

I seem to do things backwards. Like, I ordered some blank DVD+R's this week. They were a decent price, but not on sale. I could have got them price at any time. But instead I clicked and bought, and then after I had purchased, I started to do some research on the discs. That's a little out of order, don't you think? Should I do research first? I think I should...but I didn't. What did I find out? Well, the discs are made by one of the top manufacturers of DVD media...so that's good (unless they're a knock off, but I'm pretty sure they're not). But the type I got, with the printable surface, I've heard good and bad reports on. It may depend on the batch of discs, or the burner in use, or just luck, but some people had good success with them, and others didn't. I will soon find out.

Soccer last night...light shirts vs dark shirts. We started off getting schooled with 3 goals on us, but then we came back with a vengeance. I scored one, but it wasn't until later when we were ahead. It was a good game, lots of people showed up, lots of running, but I didn't get overly tired. Played goal for a couple stints...only let in a couple. I live for tuesday soccer.

Speaking of running, Melinda and I will be running the Garden City 10K in April...well, we plan to. Haven't signed up yet, but we will. I think Sara is gonna do it too...as are Polly and Reed. I ran this morning...first time in a couple weeks because of snow, ice, and rain. It's really warm this week, nice running weather. I'm still doing my ~3.5K, but I'll be inching it up slowly to get myself up to 10K by April. Can't be that hard.

I loaned Sara my car. She is vehicleless this week and I don't use it too much, so I figured, "this is what friends are for", and I offered it to her. I think she's enjoying it...she says it's cool. Glad to be able to help.

I've started watching Family Guy...the only TV show to be cancelled and then resurrected (new episodes start in May I think). It's actually quite good....crass, but witty and smart. I like it!

Snow is gone. Fine by me.

I rode my bike to work on Monday and I slipped and fell on an icy hill. I saw it coming...that hill was not safe on 2 wheels (probably not even on 4 wheels, although it's pretty tough to fall over on 4 wheels). My butt and my shoulder hurt, but I'm really ok.

Played soccer on Tuesday night. Good to be back out, kickin the ball around. The team I was on had a tough time scoring...we didn't get anything for a long time. We did manage to score a few. Every shot I took went wide...I was getting very annoyed with myself. Bit of a rough game...as usual. I kept injuring Becky...stomping on her foot, kicking her ankle, kicking the ball at her hand, etc. Fortunately she stayed in the game. Some other guys collided, and there were a few times the ball was kicked into someone where they didn't want it to be kicked.

I've had The Doughboys - Shitty Song in my head the last day or two...I haven't heard it in a while, but I see it is coming up in my random playlist in a couple songs...weird. I've had weirder coincidences though. One time I was listening to the Fox, and I started to sing/hum a song that wasn't on air (I think they were in a break)...like 3 seconds later that song came on. It was weird and kinda spooky.

Oh, my mom told me what to do with the can of fat I've been saving. Chuck it. I guess I thought there was more to it than that. The can is just to let the fat cool down so you're not dumping hot grease into the garbage. Apparently it's not good to wash it down the sink. Thanks mom.

Here's a conflict of interest if I ever saw one:

My mom hooks me up with a couple boxes of this Annie's Macaroni & Cheese (organic Kraft Dinner basically). It's all fine, I've never tried it, but I know Choy eats it and I'm sure it's good.

So I'm cooking some up tonight and I'm reading the box and on the front it says "Free 'Be Green' Bumper Sticker". On the side of the box is a little write up about the "Be Green" bumper sticker and then the address to mail to if you'd like to get one. Herin lies the conflict of interest. Unless you're driving an electric car (maybe I'll allow the hybrids in there as well), isn't it a bit strange to have a bumper sticker that reads "Be Green"? Isn't driving a car not so kosher with the whole "green" movement? I had a chuckle at that when I read it.

BTW, if you'd like to order a "Be Green" bumper sticker (for free) send a self-addressed business size envelope to:

c/o "Be Green"
Annie's Homegrown Inc.
P.O. Box 554
Wakefield, MA
U.S.A. 01880

The organic mac & cheese was pretty good. I recommend it (although KD is much cheaper).

I have to say I'm quite impressed with my car these days. It's handled our recent dump of snow quite well. The tires are better than I thought they were and are grippy enough to give me traction almost everywhere I've been (they even pulled me up Mel's road which was covered in snow...I just wasn't able to get into the driveway). ABS is weird, it feels like you're wrecking your car...like there's rocks in between the brakes pads and the rotor. Seems to work though (not that I've really needed it).

Here's a question for you ACP 26ers (and possibly other years)...I know there's a few of you reading this. On day 1 of Video class, Lehmann asked us all to raise our hands if we had a VCR at home (these days I say, VCR? wtf?)...then he asked those of us with our hands raised if the clock was flashing 12:00 on our VCR. Some of us lowered our hands, but others kept 'em up. Here's my question...did he ever show you guys how to set that clock? I thought that was part of what he said he'd accomplish in Video. Maybe I'm wrong, but why else would he have done that little exercise (for exercise perhaps?)?

The chick on Discovery Channel's Daily Planet annoys me. Jay Ingram is ok though.

We're supposed to get some snow in the next couple days. Hmmm, do I ride my bike in the snow? Have to see how the roads are. I'd take the bus, but they don't run when I get off work, so that doesn't work very well.

My linux skills are slowly improving and I'm learning more. It's sort of a difficult operating system to deal with because it's open source and there's not always a standard for how files and programs are stored...so there's often several ways to accomplish something, and several places to find the files to do it. The internet is such a wonderful tool to find the resources I need to do it though...I love it!

Damn I make a good meatloaf! I'm officially adding it to my list of regular meals I make for myself (and possibly for others). It's so easy, quite quick, and helps use up leftovers.

When I made my recent loaf, I realized I do something that I'm not not really sure why I do it. I picked it up from my mom, that much I know. I don't think I ever got the full reason though. I drain fat off food when I cook it (bacon, ground beef, etc) and I put that fat into a can (just a soup can or something...one that was destined for the recycle bin and got sidetracked into holding hot fat). So now I have a can of hardened fat. When I made meatloaf, I had to start a new can as my previous one was full. So what do I do with this can of fat? It's sitting under my sink, doing nothing. Why do I save fat? (or rather, why does mom save fat?) Should I make soap? Can I make soap from that kind of fat (bacon scented soap!!)? I really should find out the reasoning behind the whole can of fat thing.

Once again I don't feel like a true Canadian. World Junior Hockey Championships are on, and Canada is playing for gold this evening. I'm pretty indifferent. I want Canada to win, for sure, but I have no desire to watch the game (nor have I been following what's been happening with the whole tournament). I'm just not a hockey fanatic...I can watch the odd game (usually during playoffs), but I just don't get into it that much.

Angie, Bryce, and their baby Lauren were in Sooke last night. Us townies went out for dinner and a visit. It was good to see them...it's been a while. Bryce and I played a lot of crokinole, and I think I won the majority of our games. My finger is sore though.

I saw Lauren a bit, but it wasn't I who was all baby flattered...that was Sarah. I like kids, I like babies, but I'm not yet at the stage in my life where I want them. I was much more into Zoe, Tree's kitten. I love the kitties! I played with Zoe on the stairs and have got the war wounds on my hand to prove it. She's so little and light and cute and playful. I'l like to have a cat, but alas, the landlady says nay. That's all right though...I wouldn't want an indoor only cat, nor do I have the time to devote to a cat. I'll have to settle for some fish I think. I would like to start an aquarium one day...hopefully this year. I got my grandpa an aquarium for Christmas and I think he and my grandma will enjoy it. I hope the maintenance of it isn't too much of a burden for them.

Guess what I found!!?? If you are a regular reader you may remember me bitching about a post that got lost in publishing a few weeks ago. It was my post about the trip Tree and I made to see Court and Chris in Kelowna. Well, I found it...turns out I published it in my Ponderings weblog...dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. So I've taken it out of that one and resurrected it where it should have originally lived...in the slot of Tuesday, December 14th. So scroll down and check it out if you're so inclined.

Is it cliche to do new year's resolutions? Whatever, I'm doing a few anyways. More promises for me to break.

I would like to keep up with the "morning" jogs I started a few months ago. I have been slacking the last few weeks, but I will get back into it and try to go at least 3 times per week. That is the goal.

I would like to get climbing more.

I would like to start this book or movie script that I keep saying I'm going to write.

I would like to stop spending so much money and get my finances in order.

And lastly, I will give a little more attention to this weblog...maybe I won't post anymore frequently, but I will try to get a little more in depth on my thoughts, feelings, and philosophies...rather than just stating what happened in the last few days.

Happy 2005!