There's an attractive girl that works for the apartment complex's office here. She likes listening to techno, and has a thing for fast cars and motorcycles. She told me a dodge charger could beat my STI. I said I'd doubt it. Then she challenged me to a race. Not with her, no. Because she doesnt own a charger. No, she dared me to race her state trooper friend, whose squad car is apparently a dodge charger. So...I'd be racing a cop. I've imagined scenarios like this. I've seen a few on tv. Usually, in my fantasies, though, my car has smoke bombs and rear-facing floodlights and, well, a lot of other gadgets I probably won't ever put on a car in real life. Probably.
She assured me that it will be fine--I inferred that he would be arresting me. So now I'm looking up dodge chargers, trying to figure out if they are faster than STIs. And I'm a little worried. Police usually get upgrades, or something. Everything I have is stock. And, lets face it, I don't really know anything about racing cars. I know that formula ones are pretty much faster than everything. I know that nascar is really boring. I know that people really like Subaru's.
I've having a little trouble imagining something faster than my car though. And it might be a chance to see Heather someone other than the office when she's handing my package from the mail. Kinda scary though. Days after I bought my STI, Luke crashed his. And I still remember the fear I felt driving head on into a mini van a few years ago. And I still feel a pain in my chest, occasionally reminding me that I'm not invulnerable. So racing could be a really bad idea. However, I have this rule where I do things are afraid of. Since most of the things I've been afraid of so far include talking to girls, and climbing on some rocks, I've actually been pretty safe.
Waaaaaait a minute. Screw this. I was going to go on about...something. Something about...oh who cares what I was talking about: that was dumb. Subaru's are made for traction. At least, according to some random website. So if I want to beat that charger, all I have to do is find some sand, snow, or ice. And learn how to corner in it. Probably in mountains...well that sounds suicidal actually. Oh dammit Chargers have all-wheel-drive too. Stupid police.
Well, now I don't know what I'm going to do. I can race a cop in some car that probably got all upgraded so its way faster than mine even if I could shift--did I mention I'm a bit slow at shifting?--or I could just do something else with my time. We'll see.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The post that's almost as dumb as an episode of Gray's Anatomy
This week I am serving as my team's contact for all problems that our services cause. The week began with my pager not working, something my boss had a problem with because he gets pages 15 minutes after I ignore mine. Then the week got worse. I can't say much about how and why it sucked, but I was definitely regretting taking the job and moving out here and everything, adventure be damned. I oscillated between lamenting my situation, trapped here because it is waaay to early to quit, and trying to solve problems.
It seems, however, that things have a way or working out if you just keep at it. The people that handle the pagers never got back to me about mine being broken, but that didn't matter because I fixed it on my own. Some of my teammates stopped by and were incredibly helpful and all this pain has been a catalyst for learning certain things well. Even better, I am more than half-way done. Unless something happens over the weekend. Which is why I've kept my schedule clear.
The flight training is doing better. I think my flight instructor and I are getting used to each other. That, or I'm getting used to him. I have some kind of innate need to please people; it's really annoying.
My girl situation remains depressing. In fact, one of my friends from the East Coast still wants to be my wingman. From the 3000 miles away. This means that when I visit in a week or two, I can't complain about being lonely around him without getting a lecture about whatever he thinks I'm doing wrong trying to meet girls. I think I have this one: I'm not [trying]. Most days when I get home I have about enough energy to turn on the TV and watch House, or project my hatred at NCIS for being on in its place. If I am feeling particularly energetic, I cook myself some pasta. If not, well...you don't want to know: my fridge remains pretty empty. No where, in all of that, is there energy to go out and meet new people. I did deliberately smile at some girl today (usually the smile is unintentional) but it was mostly because she was right in front of me and I had nothing better to do. And there are some girls at starbucks. I'm afraid of asking them out though, because the one that I'm interested in is not the one that hits on me, and I worry that if I screw up I will create some kind of awkward situation that will threaten my Grande Vanilla Latte source.
Wow I don't even know why I'm writing here. Nothing interesting happened--nothing worth reading. Yet I remember standing in line at McDonalds thinking "that would be an interesting post." I think there is an xkcd about that. Wait, no, actually. That comic is about doing something really interesting and ironically thinking about writing about it. What I did was do something that's not interesting, and then write about it. Ah, this reference is more suitable. In summary, I've just wasted your time. Seriously. I normally pour over my entries, trying to fix spelling and grammer errors, but this one is just so boring I can't get two sentences in.
It seems, however, that things have a way or working out if you just keep at it. The people that handle the pagers never got back to me about mine being broken, but that didn't matter because I fixed it on my own. Some of my teammates stopped by and were incredibly helpful and all this pain has been a catalyst for learning certain things well. Even better, I am more than half-way done. Unless something happens over the weekend. Which is why I've kept my schedule clear.
The flight training is doing better. I think my flight instructor and I are getting used to each other. That, or I'm getting used to him. I have some kind of innate need to please people; it's really annoying.
My girl situation remains depressing. In fact, one of my friends from the East Coast still wants to be my wingman. From the 3000 miles away. This means that when I visit in a week or two, I can't complain about being lonely around him without getting a lecture about whatever he thinks I'm doing wrong trying to meet girls. I think I have this one: I'm not [trying]. Most days when I get home I have about enough energy to turn on the TV and watch House, or project my hatred at NCIS for being on in its place. If I am feeling particularly energetic, I cook myself some pasta. If not, well...you don't want to know: my fridge remains pretty empty. No where, in all of that, is there energy to go out and meet new people. I did deliberately smile at some girl today (usually the smile is unintentional) but it was mostly because she was right in front of me and I had nothing better to do. And there are some girls at starbucks. I'm afraid of asking them out though, because the one that I'm interested in is not the one that hits on me, and I worry that if I screw up I will create some kind of awkward situation that will threaten my Grande Vanilla Latte source.
Wow I don't even know why I'm writing here. Nothing interesting happened--nothing worth reading. Yet I remember standing in line at McDonalds thinking "that would be an interesting post." I think there is an xkcd about that. Wait, no, actually. That comic is about doing something really interesting and ironically thinking about writing about it. What I did was do something that's not interesting, and then write about it. Ah, this reference is more suitable. In summary, I've just wasted your time. Seriously. I normally pour over my entries, trying to fix spelling and grammer errors, but this one is just so boring I can't get two sentences in.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
"Cessna 63634, you're still transmitting on the tower frequency"
I made a landing today. It was my first landing, and exciting, yes, but the downside is now my instructor is going to make me do more of them. They are not easy. In fact, immediately after landing I forgot to change my radio frequency before getting my taxi clearance. It wasn't a big deal (this time) but I still felt like a dumbass.
My instructor says I am about 1/3 of the way to going solo. Going solo is 1/3 of the way to getting your license. So I'm a ninth of the way towards getting my license. More importantly, I don't have much time before they expect me to get in the airplane by myself and go fly it around. I've considered it in the abstract, yes. I've imagined me in a plane, flying, sort of from a third person view. I never really thought much about me actually flying alone, about all the sensations of sitting in the left seat and dealing with the controls and the tower and the fifty million things I have to remember all at once...alone. Thats going to be interesting. I've heard that In Real Life when you screw up you can't just hit a button and restart back at the beginning of the runway.
Tomorrow, starting at 9:30am, I will be the primary on call for my team at work. What that means is suddenly I will be responsible for troubleshooting and fixing a complex software system that I don't even know how to turn on. Between flying and being on call for a while, I'm going to have my hands full for a few weeks. Hopefully, though, I'll have some time after that for meeting new people.
Fortunately, for now I do have my friends that come over every week and play Settlers. I bought an expansion for it called "Traders and Barbarians." Amazon sells it for $35. I paid $50 for it at some stupid toy store that only had one wall for Legos, all because I didn't want to wait a day or two for shipping. The add on sounded promising because it lets you play with two people (cause, you know, a romantic evening of wine and dancing, then home to get comfortable and play a board game. Thats not weird at all) and there were a bunch of other cool sounding variations, including the ability to play games that are all connected into a single campaign. I imagined it would be something like one of the Dawn of War games I played. We haven't played with it yet, as the normal rules for Settlers are enough for most people to keep straight at once. This game is so complicated it made me wonder: am I now traversing a slippery slope? Am I going to get bored with just Settlers and start buying all of the extension games? Am I going to become some kind of board game nerd? I can already feel the lure of deeper rules and more discrete game states. Gameplay complexity lures me like a siren's call. If I give into this, I'm going to end up with bookshelves full of complicated board games and about zero friends willing to sit still long enough to play them with me. I already know that something is wrong because of the slight twang of disappointment when I win: I feel a strong to desire to continue playing, just so I can continue placing little wood pieces on the game board to expand my kingdom. One of these days, I will be found in my apartment, sleep-deprived and unshaven, playing Settlers all by myself. But I digress.
Nevertheless, I have mostly positive feelings about this add on I bought. You can pick and choose, and even combine (oh boy!!!) the different variations. There is one that replaces the robber with some fish--I'm excited about that. There is also one that lets you get victory points for having the most harbors, in the same way that you points by having the most roads, or the most knights. So maybe I'll convince my friends to try those.
Or maybe I should move onto other games....
My instructor says I am about 1/3 of the way to going solo. Going solo is 1/3 of the way to getting your license. So I'm a ninth of the way towards getting my license. More importantly, I don't have much time before they expect me to get in the airplane by myself and go fly it around. I've considered it in the abstract, yes. I've imagined me in a plane, flying, sort of from a third person view. I never really thought much about me actually flying alone, about all the sensations of sitting in the left seat and dealing with the controls and the tower and the fifty million things I have to remember all at once...alone. Thats going to be interesting. I've heard that In Real Life when you screw up you can't just hit a button and restart back at the beginning of the runway.
Tomorrow, starting at 9:30am, I will be the primary on call for my team at work. What that means is suddenly I will be responsible for troubleshooting and fixing a complex software system that I don't even know how to turn on. Between flying and being on call for a while, I'm going to have my hands full for a few weeks. Hopefully, though, I'll have some time after that for meeting new people.
Fortunately, for now I do have my friends that come over every week and play Settlers. I bought an expansion for it called "Traders and Barbarians." Amazon sells it for $35. I paid $50 for it at some stupid toy store that only had one wall for Legos, all because I didn't want to wait a day or two for shipping. The add on sounded promising because it lets you play with two people (cause, you know, a romantic evening of wine and dancing, then home to get comfortable and play a board game. Thats not weird at all) and there were a bunch of other cool sounding variations, including the ability to play games that are all connected into a single campaign. I imagined it would be something like one of the Dawn of War games I played. We haven't played with it yet, as the normal rules for Settlers are enough for most people to keep straight at once. This game is so complicated it made me wonder: am I now traversing a slippery slope? Am I going to get bored with just Settlers and start buying all of the extension games? Am I going to become some kind of board game nerd? I can already feel the lure of deeper rules and more discrete game states. Gameplay complexity lures me like a siren's call. If I give into this, I'm going to end up with bookshelves full of complicated board games and about zero friends willing to sit still long enough to play them with me. I already know that something is wrong because of the slight twang of disappointment when I win: I feel a strong to desire to continue playing, just so I can continue placing little wood pieces on the game board to expand my kingdom. One of these days, I will be found in my apartment, sleep-deprived and unshaven, playing Settlers all by myself. But I digress.
Nevertheless, I have mostly positive feelings about this add on I bought. You can pick and choose, and even combine (oh boy!!!) the different variations. There is one that replaces the robber with some fish--I'm excited about that. There is also one that lets you get victory points for having the most harbors, in the same way that you points by having the most roads, or the most knights. So maybe I'll convince my friends to try those.
Or maybe I should move onto other games....
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Well, That Was Easy
Did you know that you can take some frozen broccoli, throw it in a skillet, cook it for about three minutes, and then dumb some salt and soy sauce on it, and it will taste delicious? WTF? In my last apartment, due to an odd set of circumstances that always took ten minutes to explain, I couldn't really cook anything. I used to buy these microwave meals that took like ten minutes to cook and almost always tasted like crap. And the veggies would be all mushy, and they were expensive. I don't get it. I thought cooking was usually more work. After I found out how ridiculously healthy broccoli is, I put it on my list of things to figure out how to cook. I thought it would be some ardurous quest, where I try lots of stir fry recipes. Apparently, not. It only takes three minutes to cook. I can made that as a snack. Well, the problem is the saucepan is dirty afterwards. And I feel a little weird running the dishwasher. I think the solution here, is to just own like five skillets. Then I will always have a fresh one on hand, and I'll run the dishwasher on the whole batch when they get dirty. I have a feeling, somehow, that this solution is not at all what a normal person would do. I think its a good solution though. I could wash the dishes by hand on occasion. I think I'd rather have 5 skillets.
I am still getting used to my new car. After seeing Wolverine with Luke on Friday, I decided to see just how fast Jessica--thats what I might name her--could accelerate. I figured my only shot at doing this without a ticket would be to gun it right as I'm merging on to the highway. That would be my fun for the night: accelerating to the pace of traffic. So I get onto the on ramp, and practically coast all the way down to the highway. There were some cars ahead of me; I was going about the same speed as them. Finally I am down in the merge lane, going incredibly slow, probably in third or fourth gear, and think, this is it. I glance down at my speedometer to see how much room I have to accelerate before I hit the speed limit and realize...I'm already at the limit.
My fun for the night would be a zero-second power burst in my amazing and expensive rice burner. I began to wonder if I really made the right purchasing decision. If I can't even use the turbo maybe I should have gotten a much, much cheaper and slower car. In fact, my jeep used to start wobbling right about that speed. That was always exciting...kept me busy holding the jeep in the lane. I hung out in the right lane with a frowny face for most of the ride home. I let loose in the tunnels, but had to slow down almost immediately so I'd be at the speed limit when the tunnel exists came into sight: you never know if some jackass cop is sitting there pointing his laser at the entrance. Hopefully I'll eventually get a feel for how the cops work the area. Or maybe I just need to find a road that is abandoned enough.
I am still getting used to my new car. After seeing Wolverine with Luke on Friday, I decided to see just how fast Jessica--thats what I might name her--could accelerate. I figured my only shot at doing this without a ticket would be to gun it right as I'm merging on to the highway. That would be my fun for the night: accelerating to the pace of traffic. So I get onto the on ramp, and practically coast all the way down to the highway. There were some cars ahead of me; I was going about the same speed as them. Finally I am down in the merge lane, going incredibly slow, probably in third or fourth gear, and think, this is it. I glance down at my speedometer to see how much room I have to accelerate before I hit the speed limit and realize...I'm already at the limit.
My fun for the night would be a zero-second power burst in my amazing and expensive rice burner. I began to wonder if I really made the right purchasing decision. If I can't even use the turbo maybe I should have gotten a much, much cheaper and slower car. In fact, my jeep used to start wobbling right about that speed. That was always exciting...kept me busy holding the jeep in the lane. I hung out in the right lane with a frowny face for most of the ride home. I let loose in the tunnels, but had to slow down almost immediately so I'd be at the speed limit when the tunnel exists came into sight: you never know if some jackass cop is sitting there pointing his laser at the entrance. Hopefully I'll eventually get a feel for how the cops work the area. Or maybe I just need to find a road that is abandoned enough.
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