Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Technimoron

I haven't updated in a while because I've been busy, and for the past few days I knocked out my internet connection at my apartment thanks to me being an idiot who can't figure some things out. It should be back again soon, as should some new posts here on Sitting the Apple. That is unless Halo 3 shows up in the mail around the same time that I fix my internet. If it does, this blog might be in limbo for a few extra days.

If I get around to it today I might write up a post from work, but I don't know how likely that is. In any case, something will be up sometime soon, as I had a pretty fun weekend.

Until next time, here's a picture of a rare albino ratfish for no reason:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Credit to the University of Washington.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Reflections On Success

As I sit at work, staring at my desk and mentally digging deeper and deeper, all I can think about is success. The fuckin word won't leave my mind. I need it, I want it, I know I can have it. But what is it? What defines it? How does one achieve it?

For the longest time I thought that success would come in the form of financial fortune and that it was possible to achieve in one hit through gambling. I've since been removed from gambling and playing poker on an every day basis, and along with it far removed from the thought of reaching wealth by means of easy luck.

Living in Santa Barbara and having gambling be such a big piece of my life for so long has increased my need to be financially successful in life. I can't get away from rich people, and I need a piece! Success in life is more than wealth. It's family, it's having great friends, it's being personally true to yourself, it's being comfortable, it's finding peace. At the same time one cannot deny the fact that money gives you an outlet to some of the latter descriptions of the word.

Every day I see success even from my post in the office. My big boss has turned his life into a never ending fairytale as he sits atop the hills of Santa Barbara in his multimillion dollar Italian villa that he's built from the ground up. He has a hired accountant, a slew of monthly bills that quadruples my paycheck, and a portfolio that looms over my salary like it was a bug.

He wasn't always wealthy, though. He started as a computer programmer before computers could function by themselves. When he found out the business of a family friend was being sold, he bought it. He worked, he turned it into something to be proud of. He was presented an opportunity and he took it.

My little boss married the big boss's daughter and now leads a life of luxury, opening his mouth wide daily to swallow the drippings of the family's fortune. He works a menial yet crucial job, as he's capable and willing to do. He works as much as he has to and a little more, but he's understanding and a fun boss to have, partially because he's in the position to be. He'd done well for himself already, there's no doubt about it.

He finished school, found himself a nice job as the dean of a large technical institution, and was able to provide for his family. He worked a difficult and stressful job, but stuck with it and made a healthy living as such. But when presented with the option to do half the work for almost the same pay, along with the rights to won a multimillion dollar company with his wife, there wasn't much debate. He was presented an opportunity and he took it.

Both men are outstanding people, and I can't be happy enough to work for them. On a personal level they are some of the funnest, most enjoyable people I've ever met. On a job level, they've worked hard in life and are now at a point where they can rest and relax first, and work hard for little bits at a time second. I can only hope to be at their level later in life.

But how do I get there? That's been the question roaming the empty halls of my head for the past months. So many success stories I've heard have been that someone has just been in the right place at the right time. They had info on a stock that happened to go big when it did. They were able to buy a business and they, even without the money, personally knew a wealthy investor to go in with. They were able to get a job for the right person and ended up in the right conversation when it was taking place.

Whatever the circumstance I see so much success come from random events. But that doesn't suit me. I know I can make it in the financial world by my own way. I have the brain, I have the drive for success. Perhaps not currently as I'm stuck behind a desk and a computer making less money than what's going to make me happy, but I have the drive.

I want to invest in the stock market, I want to own my own business, I want to invest in real estate. I've bought books and I've read about it all, but I haven't been able to figure any of it out on my own. I'll get to the point that I need to be at one day because I desperately want it, and I know I'm smart enough to get it.

I keep looking for a teacher though, I keep looking for a hand to hold. Perhaps this is one of my weak points in life. If it is the thing holding me back then one day I'll overcome it and achieve my goals.

For now, I'll just push through. I'll keep looking, I have to. Perhaps I need to go back to school to be happy, but maybe I just need to find my calling. Whatever is out there, I'm ready for it. I've settled my life in other subjects, and I'm ready to find myself in the financial world. Hopefully I'll make it.

This kind of turned into a thoughtless and random rant, but I have so much goin on in my head and in my life right now. Everything seems to be getting clearer and a lot of things have fallen into place to make me a happy person. The next step is close, I can feel it...

Until next time.

Monday, September 10, 2007

An Angry Couch Coach and Meeting Mom

Sunday was a disappointing opener to the season, as Philly lost what was supposed to be an easy win against Green Bay. Even though a couple big roster changes took place on the defense, it ended up being the Eagles' sophomoric special teams show that brought them to lose.

In starting Lewis to return punts for the first time in his NFL career, they allowed numerous mistakes. In general it looked like the team forgot about special teams training altogether. Every punt return looked even worse than my unrated high school team, resulting in a fumble recovery for a touchdown, a turnover, and a tackle that could have been misconstrued for a decapitation.

As I sat on my couch and yelled at the multi-million dollar franchise and its players and coaches, I saw the fresh defensive team make plays and bring on the power that Jim Johnson so awesomely creates for the team. Unfortunately, the punt return mistakes are what ultimately lead to their first loss of the season against a team that should have presented less of a challenge.

Although I've abandoned the thought of betting the season through this year, I thought about betting this game this weekend. In the end I'm glad I decided not to, as I'd be pretty upset because of the way the game was lost. Overall, it was pretty disappointing.

Saturday was a more satisfying day. I went to Ventura to meet Steph's mom and have dinner, and it was a great time. From the stories I'd heard I knew I'd like her mom, and she seemed just weird enough to like me back. Upon first impression she didn't disappoint!

I wasn't sure what to expect at first, but when she showed up she had a cute style and a personality that I knew I could get along with. We hung out at Steph's while I sat on the couch and listened to the two of them talk about stuff for a little bit before we went to dinner, where I really got to talk and get to know her mom. Towards the end of dinner Steph began to get irritated with her, as seems to be the norm with a lot of girls I've been around for whatever reason, but I still thought her mom was awesome fun.

I'm sure I have a great time comin with her as Steph and my relationship moves forward. I'm heading back out to Ventura after work today for a barbecue at her mom's place along with Stephanie's friends and roommates, and I can only assume that it's gonna be a good time. I'm eager to get to know the crew better, so hopefully things will go smoothly...

As the year moves forward I'm thinking more heavily about what I'm going to buy myself for my birthday this year, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna be a new TV and a 360. I don't watch too much TV nor do I play too many video games, which is why I've yet to make these specific purchases. But I would like to have both nonetheless, so as December nears I'm thinking more heavily about exactly what TV I want to get and whether or not it's going into the safety of my room, or if I should leave it in the hazard zone of the living room.

Blah, too much thinking for a Monday. I'll elaborate more later.

Until next time.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

A Turning Stone and a Tender Bender

If it's not my eternal laziness that keeps me from updating a week at a time, it's some sort of venial interruption. This past week a new stone was turned with Joe's 21st birthday. Although Joe and I have been drinking for years previous to each of our legality-introducing-celebrations (and gambling for just as long), a 21st birthday should never be overlooked or under-partied. This was no exception.

Unfortunately for Joe's birthday we had to skip Vegas as he is a mere student at this point, having been removed from poker for over a year now. He did receive a small lump of money for his birthday, but he had other priorities with which to allocate that cash. Us three apartment-ies are planning on going in December, so we knew he'd get to visit the sinful wonderland soon enough. But for the time being, there was drinking to be had.

On Tuesday night we managed to pull Darsky up here for the drinking extravaganza. I took off from work a little early and he met us at our place with beer in hand. As soon as he walked in the door we almost instantly set up a game of Bonedoneskis.

Unfortunately luck was on Darsky's side tonight, as he ended up taking a decent amount off of both me and the birthday boy. We eventually switched to PLO to get rid of some of the luck factor, where I managed to gain back a lot of my stack for a short amount of time before I missed a couple of huge draws. Towards the end of the game Steph and her friend Chelsea showed up and we decided to 3-way flip for the rest of my dwindling stack. I flopped huge, but Joe hit turn and river to swipe my cash and it was time for the night to begin.

We went downtown for dinner with the girls, where Joe enjoyed his first legal public beer at a local microbrewery. We had some decent food, a couple rounds of decent beer, and I footed the bill before we headed over to Q's to play some pool and to enjoy some more drinkage.

Our friend Amanda surprised Joe by coming out from the valley, when he had previously thought she wasn't coming down to celebrate until the weekend. She showed up at Q's and joined in on the birthday fun, but not before arguing with the waitress about what a Black Russian was. For the record, according to Wikipedia:

The Black Russian is a cocktail of vodka and coffee liqueur, sometimes topped up with Coca Cola. It is traditionally poured over crushed ice in an old-fashioned glass.


Joe was enjoying his drinking, and let it be known quite a few times that "Dude...this is fuckin fun man...seriously...this is fun..." After we shot pool for a while and lounged around, we decided to head over to a local Irish-pub-in-America, Dargan's. We've had some good times at Dargan's and it never seems to let us down in time of needing fun and drunkeness.

On the way there I had to take the girls back to their car, as they were going back to Ventura to retire for the night. Darsky, Joe, and Amanda all went ahead and enjoyed some Irish car bombs without me (those bastards), and when I returned the drinking continued. A few rounds of Green Label and beer made for a good time, some fun/awkward/interesting conversation, and of course more of Joe's increasingly drunken admittance that yes, this was indeed, fun.

I took the crew through Jack in the Box on the way home and as soon as we walked in the door we all started hungrily tearing through the wonderfully delicious yet bodily harmful food. We popped on Bob Saget's standup and I quit about halfway through, thanks to having to work only hours later.

Wednesday at work went just about how I expected it to, with me feeling like hell and scrounging around...until lunch. At noon I was treated to lunch and multiple rounds of beers at lunch, and it turned out being quite a day as the boss left early to attend to family business and I sat in front of my computer all day plugging away at Excel like I usually do. The plentiful beer at lunch helped me not a give a crap about the rest of the day, and the buzz tied in nicely with the previous night's drinks to send me through the rest of the day in a state of haze and easiness.

On Thursday Joe and I started the drinking way early, and by six o'clock we'd cleaned through another case-worth of beer. We consumed more alcohol before Steph came out, and again we drank the night away. Work the next day was about the laziest Friday one could ask for.

Coming into the week, I knew that Joe's 21st birthday would lead to a continual stream of alcoholic celebration, and I was dead on. The goal of the week was to find that delicate balance of drinking regularly while keeping mind enough to handle yourself at work. I refer to weeks like these (and yes, I've definitely had them before) as tender benders, for it takes a bit of care to pull off smoothly.

As for Friday, the drinking began early and continued as we hit up another bar after dinner. We ran into some fairly odd and interesting people downtown, and managed to pass off a random home-made rap audio CD to a scared yet curious couple. I was then supposed to go down to Ventura for the night to drink with Steph and her roommates, but ended up passing out until about 1 o'clock in the morning.

I had yet to get a good night's sleep since Monday, and it turned me into a walking zombie by Friday. Mike, Amanda, and Joe's brother and sister and their respective girlfriend and boyfriend were coming up that night and Saturday afternoon, but I couldn't hang with them that night. I recharged my batteries with a few hours of impenetrable shuteye and took off late. When I arrived everyone was sleeping, and Steph and I passed out rather quickly.

I drove back up to Santa Barbara on Saturday afternoon, and arrived to a couple stories of the previous night's inebriated horseplay. Once Tina (Joe's sister) and Ben (her boyfriend) arrived, we all headed out to lunch downtown to let the day's festivities of booze begin yet again. We ate at another place on State and had multiple rounds of margaritas and beer, and three of us raced to the bottom of a $25 bucket of alcohol.

We had some good food and again, shared a lot of funny stories and had an all around great time. We hit up the store to load up on a $160 worth of alcohol before returning back to our place to drink the night away. We accomplished our goal.

We ended up playing some N64 and some Halo2 before things really got rowdy. Steph showed up later in the night to join us, and by that time the eight of us were on our way to crazy drunk. We were playing guitar and singing when Steph had let me know she arrived, but there was no parking so she ended up having to park quite a bit aways. No fear...there was eight of us who loved picking people up, and we had a guitar. To the sidewalk!

We all took off in our haze singing loudly while Joe lead the group playing the guitar on the entire walk. On our crazy walk we sang a song about reacharounds, I freestyled a little bit, and by the end of the night Joe had been hurrican-rana'd inside our apartment, we shotgunned almost an entire case of beer, we built a waterbottle trampoline on Sunny's bed, and the pizza delivery guy drank a beer.

It was a blast and an amazing time was had by all. In the morning I made breakfast for everyone while we drank mimosas, and after we watched Grandma's Boy everyone took off. Joe and I spent the rest of Sunday being dead and watching movies while eating Taco Bell. Towards the end of the night we decided to play a Sit N Go marathon on FT, which ended at about 3AM.

As soon as we got up on Monday afternoon we cleaned the entire place, went to lunch, and eventually came back to couch up the rest of the day. Steph came out, we watched another movie, and hit the sack pretty early.

All in all, it was an amazingly fun week and I'm thinking of taking a break from drinking for a few days. It probably won't happen, but it's a thought.

Until next time.