C'mon All the Kids in Japan Are Doing It

Let's make shiny mud balls!

Bowl Haircuts Were All The Rage

Photos from back in the day of me and the kid sis. If you couldn't tell, my mom loved pink and the oh so sensible bowl haircut. :) More background on the pics up at flickr.

One of The Reasons Why I Will Never Be Out of Debt

I am beginning to think that I am personally funding my dentist’s kid’s college fund. Despite taking immaculate care of my teeth there’s always something more I need to have done. I went in to see Dr. Pops today and this is what he had to say:

Resin Based Composite $186
Resin Based Composite $159
Root Canal Therapy $689
Crown $795
Prefab Post $233
Extraction $170

Grand Total $2232!!!

Thank God for insurance! But seriously though, I don’t know what else I have to do to be dental work free. This visit I have a cavity forming on a tooth that I thought was already practically a huge filling – was there really any tooth left to have a cavity on? But despite that price tag, the scariest thing on that list is the extraction for the last wisdom tooth I have left. If you’ve never had an extraction, what they do is they basically numb you up, take a pair of pliers, and just go in your mouth and pull the sucka out. It is so very crude and if you’re squeamish don’t look at what else comes out with your tooth. Not a pretty sight.

But anyways, met up for the third time with one of the companies I’ve been interviewing with. Turns out I was the first call back and I passed the psych test (yay! I’m sane!). Spent nearly 2 hours getting grilled again by a panel of three but this time around I wasn’t as tongue tied. The official verdict will come in three weeks…

To Sleep, To Dream

In a little bit I’m off to bed.

I was going to do a little blurb on the little things of today, like betta fish shopping, tearing up when Mildred said Friday was going to be her last day, the difficulty of finding a non fast food restaurant to eat in at exactly 2 pm, adventures in caring for a nickel sized frog, or some other mundane detail of the day.

But even though it’s the end of the day, I still can’t shake this dream I had last night from my consciousness. This morning I woke up from one of those dreams that you experience so vividly and fully that when you wake up, you question whether or not it was a real moment or that it really happened. You desperately want it to be true and you try to go back to sleep to try to continue where you left off but it never works. All you’re left with is blurry faces and shapes and the realization that something that felt so true in that moment really wasn’t. I’ve been trying to pinpoint details of this dream all day today but all I can remember is feeling so extremely connected to someone. It almost leaves me feeling unsettled because of how intensely close I felt to this person without knowing who they were once I woke up.

Ah dreams. I’m hoping to have some more pleasant ones tonight. Speaking of... I’m up way too late again. Damn insomnia. Has you up thinking all sorts of crazy stuff. Alrighty g’night!

New Toys Make Me Happy

My Rebel came in on Friday. I wasn't expecting it til later this week so this made my weekend. Yes! If you're in the market for one of these, this guide from Canon-Europe gives a good overview on the the controls and all that jazz. I love this freakin' thing!

-Food therapy continued today - I’m on a Latin kick. Argentinian yesterday and Cuban today at Café Laguardia w/ some of the ChE’s. Mmmm…the jibarito sandwich – marinated steak nestled between two slices of fried green plantain, along with tamales, fried sweet plantains, and cinnamon spiked flan. Have to have the sangria to wash it all down with of course 

- Another flickr related site: Flickeur.
“Flickeur (pronounced like Voyeur) randomly retrieves images from Flickr.com and creates an infinite film with a style that can vary between stream-of-consciousness, documentary or video clip.”

The music creeps me out a little but it's a nice piece o' amusement.

Tuesday Was Even Better

Today felt so LONG. Too much going on today that it feels like yesterday was a week ago. I had to be at work at 6am to run three test runs in the plant, two of which did not go smoothly. Then when I come back, Mildred pulls me aside and tells me she gave her two weeks notice! Mildred and I held down the fort at work for over a year when we were short staffed, just us two. She’s the one who put into motion switching me into R&D at SLC and we spent so many late nights at work trying to keep our heads above the water with the overwhelming workload. She practically taught me everything I know there with her unending patience and was always willing to help me with a smile. I was so bummed but happy for her at the same time because after all the years of long days she’s just going to chill in the Indiana countryside with her hubby. They both quit their stressful jobs today and from now on have no deadlines, no projects, and no worries.

But for me this is so not good. If I thought things sucked before, it’s not going to get much better. I’m the next in line so I’m not sure what the expectations will be. If things work out with me either finding another job or deciding upon school soon, my poor new co-worker will be left. Poor thing, he’s only been there less than three months and we’ll all have cleared out.

So what did I do? I called up Mich and said I need a drink...and now! I drowned my sorrows in a La Passion with a lomito thrown in to round out the meal. My lomito was good but I think I could have used another La Passion. And another and another and another.

Even Target Can't Fix This

Usually a visit to Target makes me ridiculously happy. I always go there with the intention of buying a few random things like shampoo or lotion but I leave with a cart's worth of impulse buys. Every time!!! Why does everything have to be so dang pretty and cheap??? Did I really need that that pair of brown suede flats, that mini console deluxe travel cooler and warmer, or that cylinder of cinnamon pecan caramel corn? But that packaging is just so appealing...

But I digress. Today me, Pepito and Emerson stopped by Target after work and after doing the usual damage we're wheeling the cart to my car when we see it.

Running down the diameter of my spare tire's shell is a LONG and DEEP scratch. Nooooo!!! My car is only 6 months old and already it is scarred. Dangit. I was so pissed. 1. The scratch was not there yesterday and 2. The little sis had my car all day today. Grrrr...

Birthday Boys

Saturday was all for the January birthdays. Kevin, Salvador, Rocky, and (next week) Yone, are all 1 year older. Woot woot! The day was filled with knights, horses, presents, Kung Fu Hustle, mahjong and food, food, food. Haha, Xin left some *cough* creative tags up at flickr which I'm sure the guys will appreciate. :)

Listening To:
The Soul Sessions
By: Joss Stone






Do you ever call those numbers you don't recognize on your cell phone? Most of the time I just ignore them 'cause I figure if you're calling for something important you'll leave a message. But today I checked my phone after work and I had three missed calls, 2 of which were the same number. Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to call that number back. Four rings pass then someone answers "N******** Foods". !!! That's the company I was interviewing with last month, the one that made me take all those tests. Turns out they emailed me earlier asking me to come in again.

I mean, that's a good thing and all, I made it to another round, but I'm not feeling as happy as I thought I would be. With this company it's a step up, but with the other company I interviewed with, the culture there was awesome. I really liked the people and the energy, but in this case, I'm bordering on being overqualified for the position. Argh and add to that, now things at SLC are actually going pretty decently, dare I say things are going great. With my new co-worker, the work load is much more bearable. Sooo what to do? Well I shouldn't even be thinking too much about this until I have a written offer in my hand. Soooo there. I'm done. :) Ideally if I could I would chuck the food industry for a year or so and just travel the world...now that would be cool...

But anyways, behold, Kaizen's fave group EVAR: The Dormitory Boys !!! Gotta love that Video Gallery. :)

Whatever You Want

The current issue of Snaps Magazine has a lot of cool pics to see. This issue's theme "Whatever You Want". Issues 6-8 are still up too so get to clickin'!

---
Boy am I having a bad case of the blahs...

A Million Little Lies?

Like countless other people, I bought A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, today at Barnes in fact, after watching a compelling Oprah show. Then I find this from The Smoking Gun. I'm thinkin' Oprah's not too pleased.

Can You Tell

Which one is the robot? In case you're wondering the robot, Repliee Q1, is on the left and her co-creator Hiroshi Ishiguru is on the right. It's a bit hard to tell isn't it? From the National Geographic site:

"Repliee Q1 (at left in both pictures) appeared on June 9 at the 2005 World Expo in Japan, where she gestured, blinked, spoke, and even appeared to breathe. Shown with co-creator Hiroshi Ishiguru of Osaka University, the android is partially covered in skinlike silicone....Internal sensors allow the android to react "naturally." It can block an attempted slap, for example. But it's the little, "unconscious" movements that give the robot its eerie verisimilitude: the slight flutter of the eyelids, the subtle rising and falling of the chest, the constant, nearly imperceptible shifting so familiar to humans..."

Creepy. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Un-Meaningful

Hey all-back for the new year. What day is today? With all these random days off for the holidays, I've been kinda disoriented time-wise. For the past two weeks I'd wake up and wonder do I go to work today? I always have a hard time wrapping my mind around accepting a new year. Another year has passed so quickly with more weddings, more babies getting born and more old people event things. Crazy!
I was resolved to write meaningful posts this year. Posts of importance, posts of substance! So I tried to do that today and...I got nothin'! So posts about meaningless crap it is. :)
No work today, so I tried to do some after Christmas/New Years clearance shopping, hence the Pier One mirror shot. Nothing much to speak of left which may be a good thing because I am thinking about getting this:


I want this camera.

I need this camera.

It's the Canon Digital Rebel 350D XT. I could really go for the Canon 20D, but for the money and my experience level, I think the 350D is the way to go. I've been looking to move up to a dslr for a while and Canon is having a rebate promotion going on until January 15th where you can get up to 3 times the rebate amount back depending on the items you buy. So should I take the plunge? The holidays have left my wallet hurting but when can I get the camera any cheaper? Oh dilemmas, dilemmas. Don't even get me started on what lens(es) to get. I've been doing research and it looks like it's practically a crime to not get the 50mm/1.4. I'm just wondering if it's going to work as a "walk around" lens for me.

The last time I had an slr in my hands was probably high school so I've been itching to get my hands on one again. My lil p&s has been loyal to me and it will still be my "take everywhere" camera but I think the 350D will give me that extra bit of freedom I'm looking for in composing shots. The past year has largely been about dusting off old hobbies as a result some of my pics have been featured in some other places - nothing huge and I'm not quitting my dayjob, but it's a neato feeling when someone asks for your permission to use your stuff. :) So hopefully more of the same in 2006. Here's to doing what makes you happy!