chaz720.net - journal

July 05, 2003

Do you worry that you're not liked? How long till you break? You're happy cause you smile, but how much can you fake? An ordinary boy, an ordinary name, but ordinary's just not good enough today. Alone, I'm thinking why is superman dead? Is it in my head? We'll just laugh instead. You worry about the weather and whether or not you should hate. Are you worried about your faith? Kneel down and obey. You're happy you're in love, you need someone to hate. An ordinary girl, an ordinary waist, but ordinary's just not good enough today. Alone, I'm thinking, why is superman dead? Is it in my head? We'll just laugh instead. Doesn't anybody ever know that the world's a subway?

Well then, I hope everyone had a good fourth, and as the weekend goes on, so do the festivities.

Work has been a little crazy lately. One minute I'm tinkering with the code on my website, playing with some new ideas, the next minute I'm in the lab burning through tests or sorting through graphs on a time-sensitive issue, trying to write up explainations on why something looks the way it does or discussing it with my boss. I also sat with a guy that works nearby me and played with a little hydrogen-powered fuel cell he came up with that was one of a kind, and contriubuted no doubt more than one step towards his gold badge (indicating he had at least 10 patents) There are definately a lot of talented people there.

For the fourth we went to the beach and got to see an excellent fireworks display. It's really weird because parking was an impossibility near the A1A, but it wasn't all that crowded with people. We ended up parking all the way in Las Olas (About 3 miles from the beach) and walking in. This ended up being pretty nice cause parking was 2 bucks, and we picked up our drinks from a gas station on the way to the beach for cheap. We even got Carolyn her first drink in a brown paper bag, it was excellent. After the fireworks we went and got some pretty good and very large pizza slices and hung out on the beach some more. People continued to set off their own fireworks which was fun to watch. One, however, went right by Phil's (my roommate) arm and hit a palm tree, going off about 10 feet from us. No one got hurt and the fire rescue buggy a short distance away wasn't even phased. I found that amusing for some reason.

On the way back to our car we saw no less than 5 cars that were in various stages of overheating and breaking down. I guess people don't understand you can't pack a car full of people and crank the A/C all the way up and idle in traffic with a car that's 10 years old. Who would've thought right?

In the last week I saw 28 Days Later and T3. They were both pretty good although both had their moments were I was kinda annoyed. Definately see T3 for the car chases and for Arnold's new slew of one-liners. And see 28 Days Later if you like zombie movies, otherwise I wouldn't bother.

Tonight we are going to The Culture Room to see Phil's brother-in-law's band play. Haven't heard of them but it's a Rock/Alt set so it has a lot of potential. I met the brother-in-law (lead singer) and he's a pretty cool guy, so I hope to enjoy it.

Yeah, my journal writing has been lax, but it happens.

July 14, 2003

Don't tell me to stop. Tell the rain not to drop, tell the wind not to blow, 'cause you said so. Tell the sun not to shine, not to get up this time, no, no. Let it fall by the way, but don't leave me where I lay down. Tell me, "love isn't true, it's just something that we do." Tell me everything I'm not, but please don't tell me to stop. Tell the leaves not to turn, but don't ever tell me I'll learn, no, no. Take the black off a crow, but don't tell me I have to go. Tell the bed not to lay, like the open mouth of a grave, yeah. Not to stare up at me, like a calf down on its knees. Please don't, please don't, please don't tell me to stop.

Work was great last week, blah blah blah. There's a new theme entitled "highway" in the home section if you care to throw a gander, but now on with the show...

So Friday we all decided to go miniature golfing over at this big place in Ft Lauderdale. It was fun, I suck at miniature golf though. I kept getting either 2 on a hole or a 20 depending, almost invariably, on how my second shot went. Our group was bringing up the rear of the outing and I think we were the only ones not actually keeping score. After that we hung around while Kendal's brother (whose name eludes me) wanted to go on this giant pendulum swing thing where they draw you back with a winch and let you swing down 180ft really fast. It looked kinda cool but meh, I'll find something better to spend the 20 bucks on :P

Saturday was lazy getting started, after waking up I lay in bed staring at the ceiling with my headphones listening to random music. Later we met up and drove out to Las Olas and took a water taxi around some of the various waterways in that area. Mostly spent staring open mouthed at the houses and yachts stationed around the place. We stopped at a place that had a nifty looking beer garden on the water and had a couple drinks and chilled while the sun went down. I busted out my one and only card trick I can do, it was excellent :)

Later we went to a restaurant called The Big City Tavern. We saw they had a menu posted and the prices seemed pretty reasonable so we went in and asked for a table. The wait wasn't going to be too bad, but looking around we were way underdressed to be there. In a compromise, however, we just got a table outside which ended up being nice anyway. I had this almond-trout entree (okay so I'm a sucker for fish... and palm trees, don't forget palm trees) which was very good.

Brian and I had noticed an inordinate number of attractive women walking out of the restaurant but didn't think much of it until he went to the washroom and came out claiming that somewhere deep within the confines of the stock room they must have some sort of machine from which the production of attractive women is not only possible, but rampant. Skeptical, I entered the establishment in question to investigate further. Sure enough, the population was rife with women who could just as easily have been strutting down a runway as having dinner there. Ironically, there I was in my white t-shirt proclaiming that I was "generally feigning interest." More inappropriate, I don't feel it could have been.

July 22, 2003

Cold Brains, unmoved, untouched, unglued, alone at last. No thoughts, no mind to rot behind a trail of disasters. A final curse, abandoned hearse, we ride disowned, corroded to the bone. The fields of green are bent. Obscene, I lay upon the gravel. A worm of hope, a hangman's rope, pulls me one way or the other. A final curse, abandoned hearse, we write this song, corroded to the bone. A bird of song is heard no longer in the evacuated heavens. The drain is drawn, and drained and gone, and on and on, it doesn't matter. A final the curse, abandoned hearse, we rock the salt, corroded to the bone.

So hey Ryan, how did it feel to turn 21?

I don't remember.

This weekend was really cool. Saturday was my roommate's birthday and Sunday was mine. We had a great time at Jalapenos where they have enormous margaritas and excellent Mahi Mahi. Saturday night we started out in Las Olas going to a few different clubs and Enjoying some of the bands that were playing and chewing the fat. We made our way (myself somewhat haphazardly) to riverfront for a change of scenery. We hung out there a little longer, but they were really big about carding to get in and we had a youngin' or two with us so we didn't stay there for too long. I remember comically running down the up escalator to avoid shots being purchased for me (to no avail) I managed to keep myself in one piece but needless to say Sunday morning was a long one.

Sunday afternoon we went to South Beach which was great, we had lunch and hung out on the beach, swam, attempted to throw each other as far as possible, buried Hailey, the usual beach-going activities. Cruising around in that area was cool, and I think we may try to make our way back there before we all take off at the end. Saw a lot of really beautiful cars around that area.

So joel has revamped his site a little, added some color and whatnot. I'm even a pal now, I can't tell you how delighted that makes me. His new style kinda reminds me of using an old-school mac ... you know ... back when they sucked.

My exercise setup has gone through a little restructuring since it's inception. I now run a 2k and walk a 400 to cool down every day after work. I couldn't do the m-w-f thing, it just wasn't working. I always felt like I wanted to die at the end of my runs when I hadn't done it in a couple days

As for the last couple days, they were spent at a leaderSHAPE MOTOvational conference. If that name doesn't start setting off little bells and whistles that scream "run away" in your head then maybe you should consider getting it looked at. The conference was alright I suppose. I did feel it could have been condensed into one day as most of the good points they had were among many pounded into your head over and over again in a kind of semantic do-si-do if you will. The overall goals of the conference were fair enough despite it's short-comings, but with one exception I'd like to punctuate.

They had this personality test (reminding me of those "which kind of car are you?" or "which kind of drink are you?" aim profile quiz things) that we took in advance of coming to the conference, and whose results I think they had altogether too much faith in. Worse still were the attendees who ate it up saying things like, "Well, as an 'I' I have to be careful to present things to an 'S' in a way that won't make them... well, I don't want to say sugar-coat it... but tell them in a way that won't make them feel offended or overly pressured."

Well I hate to upset your best laid plans Steinbeck, but speaking as an 'S', your condescension offends me, and I do kinda feel pressured to punch you in the face, but maybe that's just my 'D' talking.

The highlight was definitely our tea-, I mean cluster's utter domination of the balloon castle building competition. Our tower was not only the tallest structure, but was also a marvel of engineering and modern art all rolled into one. I'll have to get Ed to send me the pictures he took of this thing, it was most definitely a sight to behold.

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