I lost my credit car over the last weekend. I didn't even notice until about three or four days later. It was pretty sketch. I called in to report a missing card and asked for the service agent to review my transaction log. The lady says, "hmmm it looks like you have a whole lot of transactions for the 21 of september." It turns out I had a series of one dollar transactions, and then 3 or 4 gas station transactions amounting to over 150 dollars. The nerve...

[ esca | 1:10 AM | ]

 

Ivan the Terrible

Atlanta was the off the hook. The trip there was a little sketch and I lost my credit card and am dealing with some shady transactions, but overall made for an interesting story.

Things that I learned.

In theory, a flight from San Diego to Atlanta should only run about 4-5 hrs of total flight time. It took me 26 hours because of a hurricane named Ivan. Or tropical storm. Or big flurry cloud that spews water and shit.

Grits are so so. Actually, they tasted like gooey pooridge or oatmeal. I think I was envisioning something that would be greasy good, like bacon or runny eggs. It was just gooey. Oh yeah, don't eat at waffle house.

There is a Ranch 99 in Atlanta. Nuff said.

Atlanta, unlike san diego, is a place where you avoid people with nice cars. There was a vietnamese "tea" shop in the same strip as the R99 that I was strongly advised not to go near, as evidenced by the cars that were parked outside.

Southern people are a tad more polite than californians. Or at least the people I met were polite and gracious. I had a pleasant baseball conversation outside of a bar while slightly inebriated with a cop as he read me boxscores from his phone.

The rest of the world outside of san diego watches baseball! Its cool to meet people with the interests of comparable intensity.

In atlanta, Coke is King, and Pepsi is just a bad memory.

The rest of the world outside of san diego is naturally green and very beautiful.

-------------------------------
I was in atlanta celebrating or breaking in of Mr. Mike Andrew's new residence. Kai also came down and it made for a 3 year reunion of the insomniacs of 111 midmass. We is all never die soldiers.

[ esca | 4:25 PM | ]

 

Incestuous Tendencies


I want to write about incest. Not the real kind, but the pseudo kind that appears to be so prevalent in asian communities. If you're asian, I'm sure you've witnessed it before, where in the world of pseudo connectivity, guys and girls start to call each other brother and sister out of familiarity. Actually this is more of a korean or chinese thing.

So what does this mean? How does this happen? What makes the gears tick in the mind of these "social" inbreeds? I guess it not that hard to picture, the more time you spend with someone, the better you get to know someone and operate with. Sometimes its the temptress younger "sister" falling for the gentle older brother. Or its the lecherous guy preying on the innocently naive girl.

You call a girl your mei mei, or gan mei, and the next thing you know you're jocking her. What's up with that?

All in all its a very interesting phenomenon. Wait till you've asked for the 411 on a girl who appears to be seemingly available until you begin to unravel the tangled skein of "brotherly" interconnects.

On the other hand I tend to suffer from more despicable tendencies, so I guess its in my karma.

I'm attracted to all sorts of girls that I should not be. Friends, friend's sisters, friend's mothers, female bosses...I think I'm heavily attracted to power. Call it the black widow syndrome where the male black widow spider needs to carefully approach the female and where in 90% of the cases or so, the female eats the smaller hapless male after they've done their thing.

[ esca | 10:26 AM | ]

 

So I went to huntington beach over labor weekend, ate some food and hung out at Rich Park's house. It was pretty interesting as I saw a bunch of old dartmouth people I haven't seen in a long time. Besides Rich, who was our amiable host, was Rick, Chuey, James, Song, Morna, and Jess. Angela, who is Rich's gf but not a dartmouth person, but was there on several occasions to visit, helped add to the dartmouth feel. That's eight greenies within a 100 foot radius in southern cali.

I'm sure I've changed a lot since college, and in probably more ways that I'm not aware of, but seeing college folks made me feel like I was suddenly that other Victor. Was it nostalgia? I'm not sure, because I feel like I'm a lot happier now then back then. I definitely just hung out a lot more in college, something which you just don't have as much opportunity to do now with the standard work life. It felt like I had reverted back to the feelings and thoughts that I had so many years ago, but also that my current self was aware and passively observing.

It's interesting because I'm coming to realize that my personality is greatly influenced by my surroundings. Does this mean I have a weak personality? Quite possibly. Or at least one that is variable depending on factors I don't usually control. How I feel and talk and operate depends on the people that I'm around and interact with. I can't help it.

For instance, I have always loved massive gatherings of excited people, such as our freshman year bonfire, or a stadium full of people at a ball game. I want to try to the bull run in spain sometime in my life, if nothing more than to suck up the environment and experience into my being. If everyone around me is excited, I feel excited as well. If people feel crabby, then I will as well.

Anyways, it was interesting seeing everyone and if for only a day to be pulled back into a passed over section of my life. It was really just a relaxed upbeat day out by the pool and I finally got a chance to introduce Isabel and Trieu some of my college friends. I get a huge kick out of introducing friends to friends, its like connecting the dots within myself. They say alcohol and water don't mix, but they actually do! Makes swimming and sitting in the spa a lot more interesting. Isabel also started smoking and was trying to use a flame from a tea candle to light a cigarette. Instead she dipped the tip into the molten wax and put out the flame and then exchanged it with me and said "look victor, it doesn't smoke right, here you try it." I tried for a while, but I'm convinced that I actually just smoked wax. I got a grousing headache afterwards.

Everyone used to say college is the best time of your life, and although I may contend with that, I will state that it is probably when you feel most carefree and alive on a day to day basis. And even though you can think those words in your head and can regurgitate them if asked, you couldn't have possibly truly known the truth until everything is over.

[ esca | 8:21 PM | ]

 

oh geez...

check this out.

[ esca | 3:22 PM | ]

 

My boss just gave me two tickets to the Pads when the Cardnials come into town next wed. Anyone wanna go? Its a day game.

[ esca | 2:41 PM | ]

 

I was at jocelyn's bday gathering last night down in pb. Pretty interesting, we got her trashed, or at least filled her with alcoholic beverages. After I had about three or four beers, it became evident that she wasn't going to drive, as she was tasked to down a whole margarita pitcher and suddenly I became the DD. Why is this significant? Because at that point I became obligated to stop drinking. Or was simply specifically thus commanded.

I've been DD a lot of times, or rather, just the driver of drunker people. But usually what that means for me, is that I ease up a little. The key word being ease up, I definitely still drink. I suppose I've been in half denial about it, and depending who you are(responsible adult or low life like me) I might feign innocence. But i'm an atrociously irresponsible driver that has no moral qualms about driving under the influence any more. I've never gotten into irreparable trouble and I think that feeds my habit. And I've been in car accidents and I've hurt myself and I've been questioned by cops. But somehow I've adapted the cockroach mentality...what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. And more brash and more foolish.

When I get through a near-miss situation, I feel even more reckless. If I almost get caught by a cop for speeding, I speed even more recklessly. My mentality is that I've survived, and now I'm statistically set to not see another cop for a while. I suppose its not a one-time decision that I decided to make, that its ok to drive when feeling a certain way, but more of a slippery slope degradation of my limits. Gradually by gradually, you push the envelope, and one day you notice that the envelope is actually quite far from where you started from.

Your experiences let you know what you can get by with, and what you can't. I mean, you go with what works for you right?

But anyways, so back to jocelyn's party. Not drinking when everyone else is...made time slow to a crawl. All the funny jokes that everyone was laughing at, seemed very dull and pointless. I no longer felt in tune or in vibe with the rest of the group. I felt like I was the misbehaving kid who had been sent to the corner of the room by himself. After what seemed like an eternity, I drove her home safely, cold sober, made sure she was ok and safely inside her place.

Then I drove home, and then laid out on my bed thinking.

[ esca | 11:07 AM | ]