Any idiot can drive fast in a straight line

Thursday, January 29, 2004

Ok, so I updated the moblogging gallery without posting. Bad Mike. Here is a rundown of the updates:

Katherine in her natural habitat, Starbucks.


A store called "Lovers Package" in Redmond. Lovely.


Jamie, killing time at the airport since NWA forgot to fly out my luggage.


The Jimmy John's menu. A work of art.


The Jimmy John's menu and Alissa. Dual works of art.


Megan looking as holy as ever.


My second favorite mexican wrestler.


Emily Lahtinen, an old girlfriend that I ran into on a recent trip back to Detroit.


I wonder what movie they are going to see?


Crappy suit? Check. Old-model Porsche? Check. Talking on a cell phone at all times? Check. Sleazy lawyer? Of course.


Joe at Amer's.


Leah at Amer's.


Yes, that shirt says "If it has tits or tires, it's gonna' give you trouble!" Yes, I saw that in public at the airport.


I should have posted this as soon as I woke up this morning, but I can never seem to get going until 1.5 hours after I wake up. Unless I wake up late, I will kill 1.5 hours every morning. Granted, I consider my drive to work to be killed time simply because I am nowhere near fully awake and thus I drive by instinct. Listening to commercials the entire way there is not uncommon, simply because I am not paying attention whatsoever. Anyway, the post.

The remembered dream from last night consisted of some sort of party. It was possibly a party for me, or just a party in general. I believe it was a party for me since I was given a car (an Audi TT, or at least the shell of one. Someone said the rest would be in next week. Odd choice of car since I do not and have never wanted a TT.) and there was an interesting gag gift. Basically, someone took all of my prized possesions, which curiously included a house, shrunk them down and locked them in a glass case for everyone to look at. All throughout the party I never noticed this case. Once everyone had left, it finally revealed itself and of course I tried to pry it open to retreive my things! It was a long case, probably 12 feet long and 3 feet wide and high. The case was in segments, each with a sealed door. After attempting to pry each door open, the last segment contained what looked like just a piece of yellow paper. This door opened, and out flew a few miniature (fruit fly-sized) bees! I'm not allergic nor phobic of bees, but I am not a fan. For some reason, my mind told me that an ex-girlfriend, Emily, had done all of this. Made no sense!

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

CNN.com - Study: That Neanderthal was not your grandfather - Jan. 26, 2004

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

When visiting Cannon Beach for Valentines Day, here are some possibly decent restaurants:
The Nehalem River Inn Restaurant
Blue Sky Cafe
The Riverhouse

God, come in god, god, come in god. Damn you're a girl. Well, I guess the reason why I'm talking to you tonight is because I've been doing a lot of thinking. I consider mysef a pretty cool guy and I've never cheated on any of my girlfriends. Well, except that one lil' time in Japan, but that was just head and head don't count, right? Aww, thanks god, I knew you'd understand. Well, I just feel like, well to be honest with you, god, I just need a sweet bitch. Ya know, somebody not too fast, but not too slow, 'cause I dont have it all my damn self and life ain't easy. Ya know you just want someone by your side to help smooth that thang out. At this point, I'm not being picky, she doesn't have to have a big ol' ass, ya know. Just something well proportioned to her body, ya know a nice lil' tail. What, you say, you say you found somebody? Is she cute? So when do I get to meet her? Aww, god, you're the greatest. Well, I guess I'll talk to you later. Amen. oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, a-lady.

- "God" by Outkast.

No, Kat, this has nothing to do with you, this is just the worlds greatest interlude.

Monday, January 26, 2004

Tis the time to start questioning my health. Let's just say that for a past few months I've been having some odd issues for someone my age. Just today, I had a serious headache kick in around 2:00 PM. At first, it seemed to be another caffeine-based headache, but my caffeine intake has been quite minimal lately. Instead of trying to fight it, I just called it a day and went home to rest. Though I didn't feel tired until the headache kicked in and I've been getting adequate sleep, I ended up taking a 2.5 hour nap. I'm still feeling a bit groggy. Let's just chalk all of these problems to stress and not enough exercise (at least lately) and hope they all go away. Ignore it; it will go away.

Procrastinating between posts requires a Herculean effort to catch up. Sigh.

Well, last weekend I went back to Detroit for the second time in three weeks. The main reason for going back was to attend the auto show and to see friends and family. I arrived around 6 AM, rented a car, drove back to Livonia and just fell down dead in my bed. Once noon rolled around, my aunt and I went to the Plymouth Ice Show (image gallery) and just hung out for a bit. The ice sculptures cannot really be considered art, though some of the pieces showed some technical skill and creativity. Also, art doesn't usually melt after two weeks... It was cold enough for my body to shut down blood flow to my hands, so much so that I had difficulty using keys to get back into the car to get warm.

The rest of the evening was spent with Chris. We hit Twelve Oaks to grab some Panera (they really need to open one here in Washington: fresh and chewy breads, sharp cheeses and choice cuts of meat make a great sandwich) and then sat around his place until the Chris and Lindsay engagement party (image gallery) started. It was a laid back affair consisting of wine and beer and conversation. This was the first party I've been to with Megan, Iren and Lindsday where they didn't go on a 1.5 hour tangent about their childhood, a discussion which no one else can participate in. No offense girls, just don't do that again! I talked to Marty for a bit and his opening bit was classic Marty:
Ma: "Have you ever watched Twin Peaks?"
Mi: "Not really, a few episodes, but I know you are a big fan."
Ma: "So why did you go to Snoqualmie then?"
My first reaction was that this was just Marty being Marty (if you know him, you know what I mean. Otherwise, you aren't going to meet him, so don't worry about it), and then I realized that Twin Peaks was filmed in Washington, near a waterfall and then it clicked. I didn't feel like defending my choice to visit Snoqualmie for a non-Twin Peaks reason and Marty was just trying to show that he has been following my site. Casey, one of the Northvillians that Chris used to hang out with every week back in high school, was also at the party. By the eighth beer, he was becoming quite the extrovert. He knew what he was doing, so he was enjoying the party laughing at him whilst he laughed inside.

The next morning was the auto show (image gallery) with my dad and grandpa. Honestly and unfortunately, I wasn't terribly impressed with the show this year. That shouldn't be much of a surprise since this is the first year where I've been in the actual market for a car. Previously, I was most excited about the exotic concept cars but now I want to see vechicles that are in showrooms that I can and want to purchase. Since I just recently purchased a car, I was looking toward the future, toward what should be my next car. Based on the fact that the Focus is a three-year purchase, that will put my next round at the summer of 2006. Considering that I should be able to afford a much nicer car, I was looking at the BMW M3 and the Audi S4 as possibilities. I took many pictures of each, and got a good feel inside and out for the look of the cars. The M3 has a terribly dated interior and it will be redesigned within the next 18 months. The redesign could take the car in any direction, basically invalidating any observation of the current model. The S4 has a delicious interior and the exterior styling is sedate enough yet still sporty. While this car is a sedan, the back seat leg room is laughable at best. With the drivers seat fully back, I could barely fit in the S4. In contrast, I had plenty of leg room in the Infiniti G35 coupe, though head room was an issue there. Hopefully by the time I am completely fed up with the Focus, a new car will hit my target requirements:
0-60 MPH < 6.4 seconds
Mature styling, inside and out (no more thoughts of the STi or Evo)
High build quality (Odd, I didn't realize that Audi was so far down the list...)
Ample room for 4
More to come
I wholeheartedly recommend the Infiniti site for car comparison. Their tool pulls in just about every specification you need for comparing cars.

Ok, enough for one post.