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Yesterday I went to the Indy 500 third day of qualifying. It was freaking awesome. No where else have I ever felt such a sense of raw power from a machine (but I don't hang around fighter planes, either). Quite franky, it turns me on. I have a theory that the raw speed a woman can travel increases her hotness proportionally with how fast she goes. Following this logic, Danica Patrick might be the hottest woman alive. Granted, she's only reasonably attractive to begin with. But because of her speed, you'd have to be something like four times hotter for me to even consider you.

Speaking of hotness, due to an unfortunate brain fart that I think you'll figure out pretty quickly, I sunburnt my right hand. I suppose that could be a lot worse. I had to use this sunblock that came in a stick form. The experience was similar to trying to coat all of your exposed skin with a giant tube of Chap Stick. Why this stuff comes in stick form, I have no idea. It's not convenient at all.

After I got back, I pondered going to sleep, because I really wanted to, being completely freaking exhausted and all. I figured I'd call up Kan Kan, and tell her I was back, since it was Saturday night and all, and she was probably doing something fun. Turns out I was right, everyone (Marty, Greg, Yan and Kan) were over at her place cooking. I went over, lazed around while they attempted to cook a few asian dishes, and ate dinner at around 11pm. When I say attempted, I don't really mean that as an insult, I just mean that none of them have really done these dishes before. It actually came out spectacularly. I had brought over some of my Triple Good Bars, which were received with rave appeal, even by Kan, who doesn't like oatmeal or raisins.

Afterwards, we watched The Exorcist, which I actually found pretty funny. Kan found it scary as shit, which I also found funny. Yan slept. Again, funny. It was a pretty well done movie, though. I enjoyed it.

Since my masseuse is out of the country, I've resorted to other means to get my fix. I got a guy who comes to Kan's apartment to play Halo 2 (135lbs) to walk on my back while I was laying down. It doesn't quite have the precision Chrissy has, but damn if I didn't pop every vertebrae in my back. I'm not sure that it really helped, though.

As college students are wont to, we talked until the wee hours of the morning about life, love, sex, and other things. Turns out things aren't as simple as I'd thought. :) Anyway, I've got to run. I'm learning how to play tennis.

Well, I'm here. At home. Not watching Star Wars. As of last count, this make me one of about three people out of everyone I know that isn't out in the theaters right now furiously wanking it to George Lucas' greatness. It's a very odd feeling, since I'm usually the alpha nerd, and the fact that I couldn't give two farts about Episode III is kinda making me feel left out. I mean, heck, Kan Kan is seeing it tonight, then going with Yan and me again on Friday. It is hardcoreness of that caliber that I just can't keep up with. *sigh*.

I wonder if this is how everyone else feels when I geek out about divide and conquer...

Ok, I can see some of you out in the audience murmuring, "Hmm, he sure mentions this Kan Kan a lot..." Well, you're absolutely right. I like her. She's stunningly beautiful, intelligent, perpetually giving, and always smiling. Yes, it annoys me that she responds to half of what I have to say with "^^;", but I have to admit, I smile every time it happens. And, I dunno, she might like me. I'm usually wrong about that sort of thing. In any case, I'm pretty sure I've hesitated just long enough to screw the pooch, so I'm going to not worry about it. g'night.

Holy crap. Check this out, from the Neon FM website:

Prototype Machine songlist (38 of final 60) ►

...
Cranky	Party4u (Holy Nite Mix)

CRANKY'S GOING TO BE ON NEON FM!!!!!!!!

Well, the semester has officially ended. Did I mention my last final was on Friday the 13th? Seriously, people. I'm not superstitious, but that's funny. I spent the entire weekend doing nothing, and it felt great. Ok, that's not true, I did eat at Ruby Tuesday's (bleh), then walk around the Busey Woods with Mike and Diane.

Oh, and for those of you who don't know, check out Chrissy's Photos from St. Kitts. Beautiful country, even if their food is awful and they don't allow anything pornographically related. On a related note, has anyone else tried to think of ways to smuggle a dildo into a foreign country? No? Moving on...

Much to my dismay, I'm going to see Star Wars Episode III this Friday. What, you say? I should be true to my geek roots and be ec-freaking-static about it? Dress up like a Wookie and whatnot? No, I'm really not that excited. I have to say that I'm neither a Trekkie nor a Star Wars fanatic. I'm one of the few who are stuck in the middle, doomed to enjoy nothing but Battletech and the Gundam series. I've heard good things about the new Battlestar Galactica series, too. Maybe I'll check that out.

Oh, I saw Volcano High (Whasango) tonight. Pretty good movie, for those of you who enjoy movies with very thin plots about high schoolers with martial arts mastery. I know I do (now). Oh, and for the programmers out there, check out The Daily WTF. It'll be sure to make you chuckle. I showed it to Mike, and he told me I need some programmer friends. I also tried to explain RSS feeds to Kan Kan today. Her response? "^^;".

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go dream of binary trees and hash tables.

Rogue elements are organizing a revolt in my GI tract as we speak. The Legendary Nitaya Thai Dinner (as it shall henceforth be known) was tonight, and I must say that I was wholly impressed with the quality of the food there. I had a beef green curry and a Thai iced tea that blew my mind. (Note to self: Find a nice Thai girl who cooks. This might just be better than having Chinese food all the time...) Yan and Marty had food so spicy they sought out extra glasses of water. It was a great time, and I hope we can all do it again.

As for now, I've got to study for my ECE exam tomorrow. Well, it's not so much studying as bracing for impending DOOM. And this isn't your father's DOOM, either. This DOOM comes in a small, fuzzy form factor with razor-sharp teeth. By the time you realize that it is in fact DOOM, and not a small, cute animal, you're already dead. I need to figure out an adequate defense for that by 1:30pm tomorrow.

And then... blissful freedom, at least until Monday, when I go back to work.

Takeshi rushed up ten flights of stairs to Koneko's room, and hesitated only a moment before opening the door. His hands shook slightly, partly due to exhaustion, and partly due to the adrenaline rushing through his system. His entrance barely disturbed two figures cuddled together, watching a movie. Takeshi recognized one of them as Koneko. He did not recognize the man who had his arm around her. She turned at his footsteps.

"Takeshi..."

Takeshi dropped the package he had in his hand. It made no sound as it impacted the carpet. His heart made no sound, either, as it fell to his stomach. Takeshi spoke, struggling against his dry throat for the words he'd wanted to say in Okinawa.

"Koneko... I love you. I've loved you for a long time, I just never had the courage to tell you." Takeshi paused, drawing in a ragged breath. "And I thought you loved me, too, but I guess not. I'm sorry."

Takeshi left quietly, closing the door behind him. Koneko noticed the package he had dropped, and picked it up. Slowly, she opened it to find a stack of pictures and a note. The note said, "Maybe someday we'll go back." The pictures were ones Takeshi had taken of him and her from their school trip to Okinawa last spring. Koneko opened the door and yelled at the departing Takeshi.

"WAIT!"

---

No, the above events weren't inspired by any real-life happenings. It's just an artifact of my emotional state. Believe it or not, I'm a pretty emotional person. I'm just horrible at letting it out. Usually it stays bottled inside, and this is how I let it go. Most of the time, it comes out in a sarcastic diatribe against something or someone. Occasionally, it comes out as a creative work, like the above. Look forward to more of this as my lack of sleep compounds with my desire to play DDR for $0.50 a game to create delusions involving naked females, whipped cream, and a teddy bear possessed by the spirit of the late Benny Hill.

[Erickson] UPDATE: MOSIX DOESN'T WORK ON OPENBSD
[Me]       THIS JUST IN: DUH.
[Erickson] CORRECTION: MOSIX DOESN'T WORK ON PLAN9
[Me]       CLARIFICATION: OR WINDOWS 3.1
[Erickson] ADDENDUM: OR SOMETIMES LINUX
[Me]       REPLY: TOUCHE
[Erickson] REQUEST: TO STOP CONVERSING IN THIS MANNER
[Me]       RESPONSE: GRANTED

I finally got some beer for the Italian Beef, and it's cooking in the crock pot as we speak. The thing is, I just remembered that a three pound roast usually makes enough for my whole family. Seven people. I'm going to have lots of leftovers... unless someone wants to come over and help me finish it. Really, I can't keep the stuff for more than a few days, and I don't want to eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I'm not going to put my contact info up on here, so if you know how to get in touch, get in touch and let me know you're coming. Oh, and don't worry. If it doesn't dissapear tomorrow, it'll be here the next day. That's the best part about Italian Beef...

Leftovers.

For Mother's Day, the family gathered at Allerton Park. We had a picnic lunch (Bratwurst mit sauerkraut und baked beans), then walked around. My brother and I discovered that hot dog buns skip along the surface of a mossy pond, and I learned about the park's two Korean Fu dogs that I had no idea existed. After we all got tired we left for cake and ice cream at Danielle's place. I was driving off, and as I passed this family, one guy yelled at me, "Hey! Slow down!" I was doing 30. Unbeknownst to me, my mom (who was following me out) slowed down to yell back at the guy, "Hey! Slow down!" I laughed when she told me that.

My mom is awesome.

Ah... such a beautiful day. So little useful work done... That's spring for ya.

I biked all over campus today. That was fun, haven't done that in a while. Afterwards, I went down to the Rec Room to find Darek (quite literally) working up a sweat trying to dominate the Pump machine. Yan and Jen showed up, and we hung out for a while, ate at Antonios, and went home.

I got to talk to Chrissy online. Apparently, she's got cable internet at her place, now. She's going crazy trying to get in touch with Mike, and I can understand. We had kind of an interesting conversation... (edited for brevity)

Chrissy: And why didn't you call me?
Me: ... 'cause you never gave me your number. I figured you'd get in touch once you got things sorted out.
Chrissy: A little relaxed about your friend going to another country, aren't we?
Me: Do I worry about anything?
Chrissy: true

What, me worry? :) It is one of my beliefs that it's useless to worry about things you can't change.

If it were only that easy. Keep it together, man... Only a few more days.