Brick

I woke up today (the day after christmas) at 6am just to listen to Ben Folds Five and post a clever (maybe) status in my facebook. (Listen to the song, you'll get it)

How sad am I?

Meaningless chatter

I was, earlier this week, disturbed by polite conversation. There's a guy in my office, a high up marketing type. I don't think he even knows my name, despite the fact that I work 20 feet from his office, there's only 5 people in our wing of the office (about a quarter of the total floor area, and I see him every day. Anyway, he had a death in the family this week. Must have been fairly close too, he flew back to Jersey for the funeral. I only know this because I'm observant, and, being a marketing guy, he talks loud. He's sort of autopilot super-polite to everyone (another marketing trait) "Hi, How you doing?" and the like. When asked, I said I was fine, and asked how he was. "Great!" I mean, I know people expect that sort of thing, it just struck me as dishonest at a particularly base level.

Mah Bukkit

I can't stop laughing at this. I really don't know why. Thought I'd share.


moar funny pictures

Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

I always just thought that this show existing was a sad commentary on the degrading intellect of our country. Then I watched part of an episode. It's worse than I thought.

Question: When standing on the equator, which way would you look to see the sun rise.

Contestant (a frat boy bio chem major): Well, since I was an Eagle Scout, I know it's either east or west... I'll go with east.

the fact he got it right is immaterial. he prefaces not being sure which way the sun comes up with "I was an Eagle Scout..."? Where's the standards for scouting going? I mean... Gah! This just pains me in a way I can't express...

Host: Let's see what your fraternity brother thought... "North". pause Wrong.

What the hell? This is a college student! WHAT THE HELL? A poli sci major, and there for possibly a future world leader.

The contestant has a "Cheat", the first time he gets a question wrong, but his fifth grade partner gets it right, he's safe. This guy whispers to his partner "I hope you got it." I... I... I just don't know what to say. I turned it off after the second question. I fear for the world.

Tech center

Silicon Valley has its definite oddities. I drove into work today behind a bus with free wi fi on board. I see someone on a Blackberry every morning on the elevator. There's an endless amount of technology here, it's built into the culture to a point I didn't think possible. Some of it's state wide. I can (and just did) schedule an appointment at the DMV online. But it's undeniably local too. It's funny being in the middle of all these tech companies. I can see Oracle from my cubicle. One of the gaming groups I found meets at the Yahoo headquarters. It's funny giving up programing in the programing capital of the US. Speaking of which, tomorrow is likely my last full day as a code monkey. After that it's on to analyzing.

Earthquake

So, I guess our house almost fell down today. Well, not really. Either way, we had our first earthquake experience today. Around 8 o'clock, 5.6 hit in by San Jose. Up here it was just a few seconds of rumbling, like someone was running around upstairs. I made a hesitant move towards the door frame, then paused, and went back to cooking. Just calling people and telling them we were OK provided far more excitement.

With the return of Nip/Tuck, we've got our guilty pleasure TV watching back. I'm far happier with it than the alternative secret show, America's Next Top Model. Reality shows in general, really, that particular one just happens to run marathons of full seasons. Nip/Tuck is so full of evil and self centered characters, with all kinds of raunch and perversion piled up on top. It really is the perfect show to pretend you're above but watch anyway.

Alternative music in an Alternative city

The music station I've been listening to out here (KITS) has played Boyz in da Hood 3 times in the last 3 weeks. That's the Dynamite Hack version, not the EZ-E version, of course. That's more than I've heard it on the radio in the past 2 years in Albany.

I've got pages and pages of notes on the cross country trip, and I've been meaning to keep up to date on blogging and what not, but work has been crazy busy the last few weeks. Case in point, when I clocked out last night (at 8:30) I already had 42.5 hours for the week. I'm looking at potentially another 10 hour day today, which is why I don't really care if I'm late getting in. Anyhow, I thought I'd start up this so I'd have motivation to post more. Well, off to get ready for work.