I sense much distrust in you...

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well. I've emerged from the car repair nightmare.

I get a similar feel when I go to the post office (but on a much smaller scale).

Here's what I mean.

I drive out to the post office with a package containing stuff that I've created or carefully purchased, packed all nicely and whatnot. I walk in to the post office, carrying my package. I give up my money and the box or envelope of stuff. And then I walk out empty handed with nothing but a receipt in my hand.

It's like the reverse of buying stuff. At least when I buy stuff, I have something to show for it (most of the time).

Car repair is similar in a roundabout sort of way. Work with me here.

I drive my car into the dealership. As far as I know, it works fine. I'm a good car citizen and I follow the owner's manual. It's due for service. As an added bonus, the service dude tells me other stuff is wrong. After another call back, I find out more stuff is wrong. I pay a ton of money, and I get the car back. Car still drives as well as it did when I took it in.

(shrug)

Besides the piece of paper that I get that says what's been done to the car I have no idea what they've done to it for real. Are my new fluids as new and squeaky clean as it's claimed to be?

Who knows.

One main takeaway from my one thousand dollar service - my car emits an unhappy odor when it's running. It smells like burnt chemicals and burning coolant. Lovely.

I feel bad for those that drive behind me. I often offend myself when I'm sitting at a stoplight.

So the pain is over. for now.

-Kirk

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

Tomorrow's part 2 of the car repair saga. Cross your fingers for me - I'm hoping this will be the last expensive trip for a while.

Classes for the week are over too. Next week is midterms. I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

I watched shorties watchin' shorties this evening. It took the place of Chappelle's Show. I don't know if it's better than Chappelle's, but Shorties was pretty damn funny.

Tomorrow's another early day, so I should get going. It's been an early week for me - I had to wake up earlier on Monday, and Tuesday, and now tomorrow. Ugh. I am definitely not a morning person, that's for sure.

-Kirk

Ummm, no thanks, I'll stand up for today.

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well. I

t's been kind of a not so fun day - I took the supaflyride into the dealership to get serviced. Yes, one of the things I dread the most about car ownership. My car turned 91k a little bit ago, so it was time to get some major service work done. Of course, any service at the dealer with "major" in front of it means major cashish.

The sad thing is that they didn't finish all that they needed to do today. I still have to go back Thursday for more of a beating.

Will the madness ever end? I hope so.

The silver lining is that I got to ride in a fully loaded Scion xB today. (it was the shuttle that took me to and from work). I'm talkin Bazooka Sub, supercharger (of some sort), suede in the seats, color changing interior lighting, LCD TVs in the headrests, and some other goodies.

It felt a little underpowered - Unfortunately, the supercharger installed wasn't working properly, so that was a bummer.

Tomorrow's another early day. And I haven't studied at all for Wednesday's clas.

Ugh.

-Kirk

Can you buy a 40 (oz.) in Canada or Europe?

Hi all,

Hope you're having a good weekend.

I've not written in a while. It's been a mix of writer's block and not having time to sit down without rushing off to sleep cause it gets so late. Like how it's late now.

But I don't have to work tomorrow :)

So what's up with the weather getting all cold again? Spring is back I guess (shrug). Not that I'm complaining. I had to machine wash the supaflyride, not handwash today.

So let's see what's on the mind tonight.

I was chatting with my IM/pen pal from Vancouver and I made reference to a 40 ox. (being the gangsta from the suburbs that I am). And then I had a Pulp Fiction moment (think Royale with Cheese). Apparenly, they have non-metric items in Canada as well. Who knew?

Last Wednesday was the Wellness Fair at work. It's what I call the "Low Self-esteem Fair." Pretty much everyone gets told they're overweight and have too high percentages of fat. I had to fast for 12 hours. I was so starving.

but it was fun anyway :) I liked getting out of the office and going to the other building. I got to walk outside too.

In case you were wondering, they did have the tubes of fat display (refer to last year's blog entry if you don't know what I'm talkin about). This year, they had tubes of fiber display too :)

It was also the first time I got to experience the color changing properties of my glasses from the UV light. After being outside, I was internally griping about how it was dark and gloomy on my walk over to the other building, when I realized that my glasses had become tinted. I'm getting used to it now. My only gripe is that they do take a bit to change from tinted to clear again. I still have a few weeks to try them out.

I've had really really bad for me (but sooo tasty) food these past few days. Had Korean Bar-b-Que for dinner on Friday, and then I had mega bad for me pizza Saturday. Crizzaziness.

I had no idea how many Elton John songs I recognized (but didn't know the name of) until I heard tracks from his Greatest Hits CD. That guy is amazing how many hit songs he's written.

So who's great idea was it to put a non-rounded edge on an eye drop container where the drop comes out? I actually poked myself in the eye on accident.

It did not tickle.

-Kirk

When is it going to be my day? Small Cog in the Man's Machinery Day?

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

So the big news for today is that the new glasses are finally here. Good things come to those who wait.

Or something like that.

They were totally as advertised. When I went to take delivery of them, I was like the new father at the nursery who is worried that he wouldn't recognize his own newborn kid. But when I took posession of them, I knew that they were the right ones. Plus, it was a perfect first time fit - no adjusting required.

But of course, with my luck, it was overcast outside, so I didn't get to try out the the photocromic lenses (the lenses change color when it gets sunny). Maybe tomorrow, or some other day when it's sunny in the next month ;)

So I guess tomorrow is Administrative Assistant's day, (or it's this week, I forget which). The radio's been bombarding the listeners with florist ads.

Anyway, so our department got our admin some goodies and whatnot for tomorrow.

So of course, I think - When is it going to be my day?

Small Cog in the Man's Machinery Day?

It should be every day.

So the place where I got my glasses is in the shopping mecca, right? In the parking lot, there's this dude and he's got his stereo just pounding out tunes. He was doing something in the trunk, so I asked him about his gear. He had a pair of these 12" robocop looking subwoofers in the back, with this crazy head unit that had a foldout LCD monitor. His gear? $4000.00 (per him).

That's more than what my car's worth.

In a way, that kinda sounds wrong :)

-Kirk

Ugh. Curry egg no good.

Hi all,

Hope you're having a great weekend. It is so nice outside that it's nice to be inside as well. I know it sounds goofy, but I don't mind being inside when it's nice. As long as I look out the window and it's not all grey and crappy, I'm good.

You should feel honored. I'm tearing away from learning "Physical and Logical Topologies" to write in da blog today.

Ok Ok, so I haven't started yet. I just finished my stuff for my Monday class so I thought I'd take a break.

So let's see... What's been going on...

Thorougly cleaned out the interior of the car - vacuumed, took out the winter floor mats, and wiped all the surfaces down. Everything's all shiny and new until the dust settles :)

I am over at the city home, doing some work. While looking out onto the balcony, I noticed that the wasps were back. Ugh. A few were swarming around the corner of the doorwall (right where it opens). Last year, they had camped out and built two nests about 3 feet away from each other.

So kind of like how Britney was against the music, I was against the wasps. I took a page from the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding and sprayed the hell out of the area with Industrial strength Windex. Hey, it's all I had. The smell of the Windex even repulsed me.

We'll see what happens. Now the area is streak free clean too. (shrug)

This morning I had an egg for breakfast. I usually eat them hard boiled - just cause it's a nice way to eat them, all contained. And freshly sealed in a shell whose remnants provide a nice crunchy texture to the treat. Well, my mom had this curry seasoning stuff in her cupboards. I like curry as much as the next guy, so I decided to sprinkle some of the curried goodness onto my hard boiled egg. Not a good choice. I'll have to try it again sometime to make sure it was an isolated incident.

My favorite seasoning on my hard boiled eggs is actually garlic salt. But I usually save that for the weekends, so I don't offend anyone at work.

To celebrate the great weather, I wore my first shorts and t-shirt combo of the season. Dusted off the good old Tevas too. I miss the dot com when I could actually wear this stuff to work :) Now it's just after and on the weekends. (sigh) Oh well, we knew it would never last, right?

But now, I have to battle another enemy - foot sweat. Ugh.

-Kirk

A day many months in the making...

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well on this fine day. I can't believe how nice it was. It was almost too nice. Like someone pushed the Fast forward button through spring and all of a sudden, it was summer.

Spring and Fall are my favorite seasons. You know, that in between where it's not too cold, and not too hot - You can go outside in a long sleeve shirt or a short sleeve and be equally comfortable. That's perfect for me. If only it were like that all year round.

Anyway, today it was supposedly in the high 60s - A very momentous day. I drove home with all the windows down and the stereo blasting. First time this year. Almost everyone with convertibles had their tops down as well. I wondered about the people who had all the windows rolled up and wondered - did they have the heat or the air conditioning on? (shrug)

I even washed and one step waxed the supaflyride.

Oh yes - I couldn't wait to get home, eat, and wash the car. I was chomping at the bit to wash off the residtual salt and crap from my car. There was also dirt and dust from the week's rainfall. I took off the coating of dingy winter crap from the rims. The car looks pretty good and happy. I'm happy. I just have to clean out the inside tomorrow.

-Kirk

Wishful thinking.

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well.

I'm not sure what it was exactly but today felt like it should have been a Friday. All day. I don't know if it was because it was so nice out, a few people were on vacation, or what. It felt like Friday without the jeans. I was even looking forward to the weekend.

The weekend that is day after tomorrow.

-Kirk

The look.

Hi all,

Hope all's well.

It's Wednesday already. Classes are done for the week. I had lots of reading to do last night, so I was up late again.

Don't know what it is, but I haven't been sleeping well again. I go to sleep by midnight, and I just can't seem to get out of bed at my 7:30 a.m. alarm. So I'm going to try and go to sleep a little earlier tonight. We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, 2nd week of classes over. It feels like tomorrow should be Friday.

But alas, it's not.

Anyway, what's on the mind today...

At work, my cube is next to the department printer. After clicking "print," I just get up, reach over the wall and get my printouts. The funny thing is watching people wait for their stuff to print. They all have the same look. I'm not sure what or how to describe the look. It's like a mix of boredom, cursing (the printer is rather slow), or just hope (that it prints)

My magic glasses frames have been found. Finally. I'm supposed to get them at the end of the week or early next week.

I was at the glasses place yesterday, ready to bail. After another response of "uhh, I don't know where it is, uhhh..." I demanded my money back.

The lady that originally helped me was pretty rude and looked like she had low job satisfaction.

Anyway, so she turns to her coworker and turns the assistant manager on me. Unhappy lady just fled the scene after that.

The manager lady did all the right customer service things and said that she'd find out what the dilly was today and promised to give me a call back. I figured an extra day would be no biggie so I gave in. I really was not in the mood to go through the trying on of new glasses somewhere else again.

Oh yeah, did I mention that she was absolutely lovely? Kryptonite, I tell you. Kryptonite.

-Kirk

Another weekend over.

Hi all,

OK, so I obviously am not leaving enough time to do homework :) I worked for most of the day today (and some of yesterday) and am still not done with my reading for the week. I've only finished 1 out of the 3 network chapters. The network chapter took me for freakin ever to finish too. The Dreambeaver tutorials went pretty fast (they seemed to, at least).

Nice thing about learning how to use Dreambeaver is that I'm getting a glimpse into how you're really supposed to use it. It's got some nice features that let you skate by with never touching code if you don't want to :) in the past, I've just been throwing stuff together haphazardly.

-Kirk

(cranked up the font size on the blog)

I'm getting old.

-Kirk

Sweetie... (poke poke poke poke)

Hi everyone,

Hope you're doing well. I would have written yesterday, but I was talking on the phone to the long lost Suzy.

Anyway after dinner my mom and I went out to the shopping mecca to follw up on the eyeglass frames fiasco. Of course, the fine people at the optical place had the wrong ones. And of course the ones that I'm supposed to get are out of stock, and they have to be ordered and they'll come in on Monday or Tuesday. (shrug).

My original intention was to pick out new frames and just not get the ones I had originally chosen. But I was in an odd state last night - I was not in the mood at all to go through the whole process of picking out frames again. It was cool when I used to wear contacts because I could clearly see what I'd look like in frames that I picked out - Now I just see blurriness and I have to be like 6 inches from the mirror. You just don't get the full effect.

I wasn't in a bad mood - I just didn't feel like doing the "try on" that night.

So afterwards we go to one of the department stores to look for some random finds, just in case. I was totally turned off while shopping at one of the sections. There was this couple that just made me want to gag and poke my eyes out. Well it was the lady of the couple. The entire time, I heard her say 3 key phrases:

- "Sweetie, do you like (insert brand name here)?"
- "Sweetie, I think that looks better than the (insert brand name here) that we just bought"
- "Sweetie, you don't like (insert brand name here)?

Over and over. Oh yeah, I think she said, "Sweetie, why are you snapping at me?"

(snicker)

I'm totally serious. So by the 7th sentence starting with "Sweetie," I was looking around for stuff to gag or poke myself in the eyes with. I was only able to find the hangars. Not very effective since everything is rounded off.

OK, so you're probably thinking I'm of low tolerance, right? They were standing at least 4 or 5 clothes racks away from each other. And she was talking very very loud.

Now the best part of all of this was the guy that she was with was getting annoyed too. He had key phrases too:
- "No"
- "Ungh"
- "Yes"

Plus a few mumbles in there. And of course, there were the ignores (prompting her to ask her questions again).

I think he was looking for sharp objects too. He was eyeing my hangar.

-Kirk

One hour kicks my arse.

Hi all,

Hope all's well this evening. Again, just a quick note before retiring for the night.

I don't know what it is, but this recent 1 hour time change has really kicked my ass. I've been dragging all during the day. I'm totally drowsy and falling asleep during the day! Crazy.

Class today was ok - The best part was when my instructor said "crack" instead of "stack." heh. Easily amused, that is correct.

-Kirk

I am learning more about networks than the average human being should know.

Hi all,

Just a short note before going to bed. I was dragging pretty badly today so I need to get my shite together for tomorrow.

So I had to read 3 chapters for my computer networking class, right? It's never taken me so long to swim through 3 chapters. I'm being good and taking notes, right? I'm pretty much rewriting the book on my laptop. Crizzaziness. Do network admins really know this stuff? Or is this just part of the hazing process? I'm already a broken man. Work owns me and tells me what to do on a daily basis. It even tells me what I can and can't wear. It's like I'm in a bad relationship.

The eyeglasses place called to let me know that they wacked my order. They got the frame order wrong, and needed me to go in again to verify that they had the right ones. It turns out that they didn't. To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't be able to pick the right ones out of the display case again, but I was pretty sure that the ones that they had were not the right ones. I even had my mom there to verify (who helped me pick out the ones in the first place). The frames that they had were smaller than the ones that I picked out, and had a different shape to them. Same brand, same price, but I'm pretty sure not the right ones. (sigh). I can't believe it took them 1.5 weeks to figure out that they had the wrong ones.

As an added bonus, the theoretical "right pair" is not in stock. I guess they'll find out when they'll be restocked tomorrow I guess. I have an out now though, if I want to wuss out and get cheaper frames.

we'll see what they tell me tomorrow. If it's more than 1 more week, I'm bailing.

-Kirk

My face felt like rubber!

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I had my first class of the term today. It was ok. This instructor seems even more laid back than the laid back one I had last term! Kind of nutty. We'll see though. We'll see.

I was kind of bummed at class - I was surprised I didn't know more people in the class. Quite a few new faces (mostly dudes though).

I tell ya, I gotta change majors or something. IT is too dominated by dudes.

Brian had hurt his back somehow and had been hurting all last week - He took Friday off to see the doctor, and was apparently laying in bed for most of the weekend. He was telling us about his adventures on medication (muscle relaxers) (where the first line comes from). Kind of goofy.

-Kirk

Trying to stay positive.

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well and have had a great weekend.

This time change is going to kick my ass tomorrow - I can just tell.

I studied for a bit at the city house today - Not as productive as I wanted, but I got a few chapters read. Yes, it's starting. School. Tomorrow. Ugh.

I have to read 3 chapters for Wednesday's class. Not sure what I have to do for tomorrow's - I haven't heard anything.

So I'm going to try and be more positive and less whiny and grouchy about school. I'm going to try :) But learning about networks is hard work :) heheh. Seriously though, this book is going into super detail, that is for shizzle.

As a diversion, I took a detour to the country home and passed by the Pontiac dealership to see if I could catch a glimpse of a GTO on the lot. I didn't get a glimpse, but I got quite the eyefull - there had to have been at least 10 of them sitting on the lot, shiny and new. (like a virgin, hey!)

I must say, the red gauge faces are pretty cool along with the racy red leather seats.

At 33k, it seems kinda high for the price of admission, but (shrug) who knows.

-Kirk

That is obviously not his car.

Hi all,

Hope everything's going well.

So I was at Costco getting some gas this evening and I was at the pump behind some guy in a white Jaguar S-Type. His license plate said "CATLADY"

Something tells me that it wasn't his car...

-Kirk

You're a gentleman and a scholar...

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this morning.

Just a quick note:

I had to make a run to the post office this morning (yes, Saturday is my post office day) - All was just as expected, until I was leaving - I held the door open for an elder gentleman, and again, not sure if it was a mood thing, what he said, how he said it, or what, but he just made me smile.

He said, "You're a gentleman and a scholar," and pats me on the arm.

That's it.

After that, I just walked out to the car with a huge smile on my face. Like I said, I don't know what it was. Maybe I figured it was a goofy thing to say about someone that's a complete stranger and just holds the door for you. Don't get me wrong, the gesture was very pleasant and genuine. I appreciate people that express gratitude when you do something nice for them, no matter how small.

-Kirk

Coworker 1: Your car is older than my kid!
Coworker 2: Your car is older than my marriage!

Hi all,

Hope you're all doing well this evening.

It's springtime, and the geese have come back from hiding out from the wintertime to hang out at the office parking lot. It gets so bad that you have to watch where you step when you're going from the car to the office building. It's especially bad after the weekend, because the geese have their 3 day continuoous rave when nobody is around and just use the entire parking lot as a big giant public toilet.

Grossed out yet?

I usually park on the side of the building that's furthest away from the entrance - It's the only area that offers shade in the late afternoon so I don't have to get into a super hot car in the summertime. And, well, old habits die hard, so I just continue to part there during the rest of the year too. Except in the winter, when I try to park closer :)

Anyway, so on the side of the building where I park, there's usually geese hanging out - Not sure why. They just hang out there like high school kids at the mall. No real purpose. I think they dine there once in a while maybe. Maybe use the toilet too. So yes, it is just like high school kids.

So you're wondering what my problem is, right? They're minding their own business, I should do the same, right? That's the thing - the geese hiss at you. Like I'm trying to stalk them for dinner or something. In reality, I'm just trying to get to my car so I get the hell home.

So I have this secret fear that one day, the geese are going to hang out and chill around my car...

And I won't be able to get into my car and leave. Because they're hissing at me.

(shudder)

Could you imagine what my call to security would be like?

Me: Ummm, I need some help
Security: What's the problem?
Me: Well, I can't get to my car...
Security: Why?
Me: There are geese surrounding my car and I can't get to it!
Security: (laughing) What would you like us to do?
Me: Can you come by and scare them or something?
Security: Aww hell no - Those things hiss!

(or something like that)

So my coworkers and I were crossing the street, talking about my goose fear (and laughing, of course).

Coworker 1: Don't you have a panic button on you alarm or something?
Me: (laughing) Umm, no, my car is old. It doesn't even have an alarm.
Coworker 2: Come on, how old can your car be?
Me: It's a 1992 :)

Well, you know the rest - Just read the first two lines of this blog entry.

I mean come on, the supaflyride doesn't even have power windows or locks. (shrug)

Unfortunately, I'm not like my coworkers who only drive around cars from last year or nothing older than this decade :)

-Kirk