I'm still alive!

I just realized that I mentioned that I was going bungee jumping this weekend, then failed to post again afterwards. Sorry about that!

This is just a quick note to say that I had a FANTASTIC time hiking 5 miles up to the "Bridge to Nowhere" (and then back down) where I jumped off it attached to a large rubber band. I've got a little bit of video footage (battery problems) and a lot of pictures to put together into something. I'm also trying to get in contact with some of the others that were filming video and taking pictures so I can incorporate their stuff into a video.

Okie dokes, back to work!

This entry is still sore from the hike!

Sorry, son...

Seven silly simians simply sang songs & sonnets subjecting someone solely to slumber. Suddenly smoke seeped in, similar to the smoldering scent of a cigarette. Symbolically the cymbals sounded & the strong smell of sweet sage sent centuries of souls soaring skyward.

This entry said it swiftly, so sue me.

Men riding dragons, throwing wolves at maggots

So yeah... the drums... they're calling me. I really want to get out and practice, but work, fatherhood, and various social engagements have kept me from actually getting the chance to do so. That's an absolute cop-out, I know. See, if I say it enough, I'm hoping that I'll actually start to place some amount of priority on it and eventually make it happen. The weather is cooling down, which is what I was waiting for, right? Yeah... gotta do it!

In other news: I'm going bungee jumping this weekend. It's one of those things I've said that I'd like to try some day and the opportunity came up and I took it. I'm really looking forward to it, even if it is rather scary. It will be 2 jumps. My boss said that I could borrow one of his many digital video cameras to document the journey - so look for an eventual YouTube link of it here, hopefully within a week after I take the plunge.

This entry felt the need to ramble on longer, but sadly it was already past bedtime.

Pickle me Elmo

So far, my life seems to be rather tame since the divorce. I've worked towards simplifying things in my life: finances, relationships, etc. since my divorce. Most of it has been good, which is all I can really hope for.

What I'm now working on seems to be something of a quandary. In the past I would tend to fall back on what I know works for me. This means repeating some habits, good or bad, because they were known or at least manageable for me. At this point in my life I'm doing what I can to turn away from the habits that I know, especially the ones that seem to eventually cause me trouble. I have a couple of friends that really understand me and who, to a great degree, I can trust to tell me things that they observe about me - even if I might not want to hear it. This is a good thing, since they have my best interests at heart.

Of course at the risk of sounding rather vague, right now I'm focusing on the relationships part of my life and trying to break the usual patterns I've adopted over the years. This means having to prune my list of friends a bit and only focus on those that are either like the ones I mentioned above, or those that are a stretch for me - people that I wouldn't ordinarily gravitate towards (probably from my own insecurities or preconceptions) so I can find new people that I might have missed along the way. So far it's been interesting, to say the least. Things seem to be coming to a head with a couple of them and I'm at a point where I'll need ascertain if the relationship is ultimately positive or negative to my life.

Mostly what means the most to me revolves around inclusion and the intentional pursuit of being a friend. Being that I tend to be a giver in most regards (aside from material things) it can sometimes mean that I can get used by others. Either by not seeming to find me worthy enough to be included in their lives - not just sectioned off as just a little piece of it, sorta off-set and in a box only to be pulled out when the need arises or a one-sided deal where I'm there for them, but they're not really there for me when I could use a friend.

A good friendship means a reciprocal exchange where value is placed upon the person enough to include them and bring them into the mainstream of their existence. You talk about and introduce them to some of the other friends you have. You encourage them to join you in the fun activities you share. You engage them in conversation and try to really know them, working towards building trust and rapport in as much of a balanced way as possible.

Not all relationships will fall within this, which can be just fine. This probably means more of them being a loose friendship but not really a bonding one... possibly just an aquaintance that you may see or talk to on occasion, but it's more of a superficial type of thing. There is a place for these people in one's life, but it should probably be to a lesser extent than those who truly place a priority on being a friend to you.

So this is where I am right now. Some of my relationships seem to be defining themselves rather clearly. The pruning has begun, so we'll see who sticks around and who I have to let go of in order to open up room to allow time for me to find other friends who care about me as much as I care about them.

This entry doesn't like to lose friends but knows that those who
don't seem to make an effort at being one, really aren't one.

The Death of Shop Class?

Last night I attended the "Back to School Night" event at Rece's school. We initially gathered in the gymnasium (which was a very cool old-school, if you pardon the pun, style gym) where some of the faculty went over basic school info and some of the various groups and clubs (PTA and the likes) got to speak about what they do. Pretty standard stuff. After this we were on a school schedule where we got to visit each of our student's classes in the order they would during their school day. We were given 5 minutes to get to each class and each teacher would then talk to us for 10 minutes - this was complete with school bells indicating when that class visit time was over. I thought it was a pretty cool way of doing it.

7th period was wood shop. In both junior high and high school I had taken wood shop and remembered having a great time learning how to work with tools and creating things with my own two hands. Heck I still have the scar on my finger from when I got it caught in the jig saw. Anyhow, Rece's shop teacher told us that he had been doing this for a very long time. During his talk, he mentioned that there were now only 3 shop classes left in the entire Newport/Mesa school district - 2 wood shop classes (one of them his) and an auto shop class. This struck me as very odd, as I can easily remember the shop classes always being the most difficult ones to get into back when I was in school - they were always the most popular, especially with the guys. Beyond their popularity, the classes taught us that we were able to fix and create things from raw materials. We learned how to use tools and how to use them safely. We were given a chance to create something useful and often times in a creative way - my mom continued to use a chess board and cutting board for over a decade after I had made them!

I stuck around after the other parents had started to leave and talked with him for a couple of minutes to discuss this trend. He told me that this was not just the case in our school district, but also much of the other districts in the state. This was quite a shock to hear. He did mention that this seemed more the case with schools in California than with schools in the midwest - where there still appears to be a good amount of "industrial art" classes going.

Why this affected me so much still puzzles me now, but it just seems sad that so much has been eliminated from schools since I was a kid. Some of the art/music classes were already being cut back when I was in high school - and now seem almost a bygone era. Why is this? Why are our schools so focused on only academic topics and turning away from a more well-rounded collection of learning? Don't they understand that the world isn't all about numbers and writing and history?

I thought I had more of a point to this, but I can't seem to articulate it very well. It bummed me out to see how the schools have changed so much since I was that age.

This entry remembers enjoying band, wood shop, metal shop,
drafting, and over 6 years worth of art classes!

Get a grip, people!

Finally! Somebody out there put something together that helps illustrate how rediculous it is to worry about dying from terrorist attacks...

So folks should stop changing their friggin' lives over something happening to them that's more remote than dying just walking down the street!

This entry is more worried about dying from a hernia than from a terrorist!

Riding the cyclone

This weekend was Rece's 12th birthday. We ended up going to Wild Rivers with some friends and had a blast! After the wet and wild fun, we came back home to shower - then went right back out to have more fun at Boomers in Fountain Valley. Afterwards we went to Marie Callender's for some pie (in lieu of birthday cake). Rece seemed to really be enjoying himself and it was nice to see him so happy on his special day.

With the start of school, I'm beginning to also see the start of some challenges for Rece. With ADD, he's already got a lot to work around in respect to maintaining focus and on-task with school. While I'm not too worried about him in the classroom, my biggest concern is his homework. He's already starting some bad habits that I'm hoping to help him unravel and get on track. Now that he's with me full-time, he'll have more stability and the ability to form some consistency in his work habits.

This week is already starting to look very busy for the both of us. Monday he's starting his second round of karate lessons and that's going to be something he needs to manage into his system without it getting in the way of school. For his birthday I got him guitar lessons, which I won't allow him to start until he's done with karate and doing well with school. I admit that I feel a little bit of guilt for hinging a gift on his performance, but at this point I need every tool that I have at my disposal to get him to do what he needs to do.

Wish me luck!

This entry wants the best for his son in all aspects of life!

If u die

So after my earlier boring post, my friend Christine reminded me of one of the funnier things that happened during the drive yesterday.

We ate lunch at Pea Soup Andersons and as usual I ordered the Travelers Special. This is a meal of unlimited beverage, bread, and their signature split pea soup. I wasn't especially hungry, so I only ate 3 bowls of soup on this visit. After the meal we got the bill and I was quite surprised by what the waiter had written on it...

(click image for larger view)

Call me crazy, but that looks an awful lot like "If u die." It seemed a bit disturbing at first, but quickly became rather funny after Christine guessed that the last word was probably "diet" which made sense because I was drinking iced tea ("It" not "If"), Rece had a vanilla shake ("V" not "U"), and Christine ordered a Diet Coke ("diet" not "die."). We were quite relieved, as you could probably imagine.

This post was made possible by a clairvoyant waiter with poor handwriting.

Mattress drive

On Saturday (yesterday) I drove 4 hours to pick up some things from my dad's place, one of the items being a 2-3 year old mattress. Christine was nice enough to volunteer to ride shotgun and help keep me entertained along the 4-hour (each way) journey. It was a nice day trip, really.

We stopped by Pea Soup Anderson's as we passed through Buelton on highway 101. Christine hadn't been this way before so I decided to also give her a motor tour of Solvang (AKA "Soul Fang"), which she seemed to find very cute.

We arrived at my dad's place around 1:00 pm and hung out awhile resting from the drive and talking. Then we loaded up the car and took off. One of the things I can't seem to get comfortable about is when I have things strapped down to the roof of a car I'm driving. So for quite some time I was rather nervous that our job securing the mattress wasn't enough. This resulting in 2-3 stops in the first 1.5 hours of the trip back... not to mention my driving like an old man. Once we reached Santa Barabara, I had had enough and decided to find a Target or some other place where I could purchase more sturdy rope. I ended up purchasing 50 feet of 1/2 braided nylon rope - the kind folks use to climb up mountains - and lashing the mattress down to the roof rack in a very secure manner. It was just enough to relieve my apprehension and no longer worry.

Yep, another post that isn't all too interesting. Where did my funny go? Hmm? I think my brain is still waiting for me to pick it up at Pea Soup Andersons...

This entry loves to slurp pea soup!

The boats have arrived

Just a quick note to add that my good friend Christine also tried to find an incense boat for me during her trip to Oregon over the long weekend. She found (and bought) me incense, but was unable to find a simple boat to hold the sticks.

She eventually came through and found not one, but TWO of them (at a college campus store of all places - duh) and gave them to me a couple of nights ago. Yay!

This entry has been enjoying burning these delightfully scented punks.

Incense boats and a pink sippy cup

And so it came to pass that Gabe didn't blog for 2 weeks...

What did you do during Labor Day weekend, you ask? If you can believe it, I did very little. In fact, I did my very best to do as little as possible! Improper grammar aside, and to re-quote one of my favorite movies, "I did absolutely nothing, and it was all I thought it could be." In order to confuse the point of me doing nothing, I'm going to tell you what I did end up doing.

Friday I was at the end of my rope, as far as social interaction goes. I was earnestly craving some alone time. Of course, being the male that I am, I was more than happy to offer assistance to one of my friends (who just happens to be an extremely HOT brunette) with her laptop. I took the laptop home with me so I could work on it in comfortable solitude. The problems were minimal, mostly fixed by the basic ad/spyware scan and removal and basic updates and defragging - plus un-tweaking her manually configured wireless configuration (the problem she needed to have fixed the most).

HOT brunette friend had to postpone picking up her laptop until Monday, so most of my Saturday was spent doing some necessary errands and the rest of the time relaxing at home. One of the tasks I held myself to was picking up some incense. The incense sticks were easy enough to locate, but it was the incense holders (or "incense boats" as everybody seemed to call them) that proved to be difficult to find. Not to be deterred from the pleasure of burnt fragrance, I made due with a candle and a plate.

My dad had driven down for the weekend with his little family to enjoy some time off. He loves Orange County (the sick bastard) and comes here as often as he can. He dropped by and I helped him with a new website he's been trying to put together. After this I announced that I was officially burnt out on helping with any computer problems and I was done for the duration of the weekend. I hadn't eaten much, and my dad was wanting to take a walk, which lead us to drive out to Newport Pier for donuts and coffee. Along the way we stopped at Pier Records (where they sell bongs) in an attempt to locate an incense boat. They had the incense sticks, but not the boats for some reason. The guy working there suggested the Jamaican store (go figure) down the block, but they turned out to be closed. So we spent the remainder of the evening talking and dad eventually called it a night, because it was night I suppose, and took off. I forced myself to stay awake until around 3:00 am playing Civilization 4 and reading.

Sunday was spent doing even less than Saturday. The trick of forcing myself to stay awake until the early morning worked - resulting in my sleeping in until after noon. The afternoon/evening was passed by watching a couple of movies:

Lucky Number SLEVIN - a decent and entertaining movie, despite my having already figured out some of the big twists within the first 30 minutes. What I liked best was that it was a good attempt at something different.

Capote - Great acting and a good story, but honestly it was like watching a Kubrick film on Valium. It was all I could do to stay awake through the whole thing.

My dad called and convinced me to join them for dinner in Seal Beach. Dinner was very good and rather expensive, so I was glad that he paid - which was only fair considering that I would expect him to have warned me of the prices if he had expected me to pay, right? That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Oh, so backtracking a bit... my dad's little girl had left her sippy cup at my place the night before. I wanted to return it to her so I brought it along to dinner. Well, I drove to Seal Beach and found myself walking down Main Street with a pink sippy cup with "Princess" in big letters on it trying to locate them. Either I was rather conspicuous or it was just my paranoia, but I swear people were staring at me funny.

For some reason I felt this post would be a lot shorter and much more entertaining... but, well, it's 4 days late and I can't seem to find the funny button anywhere. Aw, hell...

This entry was brought to you by the elusive incense boats!

pounding mountain Thai

I've found some wacky subject titles and sender names while dealing with our spam mailbox at my office. Some are downright crude, while others make no sense at all... some just seem to have something magical about them. Today I've decided to start saving some of these or using them in odd places (like this blog title).

This brings up an interesting topic that sometimes comes up with friends after I make a post: What the hell did that blog title mean?

Sometimes it's from a conversation with a friend, turning into an inside joke. If the topic I'm writing about relates to that person (or persons) I might use that as a little something to make them smile. Other times it's just random stuff that relates to absolutely nothing... and now, some of them will be spam titles and the likes. So there ya go!

This entry now realizes that even dynamite, let alone a jackhammer, will do him abolutely no good.

Ouch.

"Hi!" I said as I leaned over the seats to give my friend a hug.
"Hey!" she said as she responded to the hug.
"Who's this?" her sister inquired, with a slight air of suspicion.
"This is my friend Gabe, I work with him" was the reply.

Ouch. That's not how I'd introduce someone that I considered a friend and confidant.

This entry feels a bit butt-hurt by that one.

Did he say "Safe Erection"?

The concert we went to early tonight was a lot of fun. We got the tickets for free through work. Because we got a bunch of tickets all over the place in the arena, a few of my friends resorted to mobile phones and text messages to communicate. I ended up bouncing between a couple clusters of them between bands to say hello.

This was Rece's first concert and he really seemed to enjoy himself. He handled the noise level well and got into the music and feel of the concert crowd. Christine would perk up during some songs, but I could tell that most of it just wasn't her cup of tea - I'm guessing a bit too heavy for her liking. She did seem to enjoy herself, which I'm glad for. For me the music was good - a bit heavier than what I'd typically like to listen to, but they sounded great and they really put on a good show. Quinn was the Nickleback fan of our group. He knew the words to every song and knew some of the older stuff I hadn't ever heard before. Watching his enjoyment helped me enjoy the show even more. Very cool.

This entry feels a little hoarse and his ears feel like they've
been pounded on for hours - which I guess they were!

Half of Hardly Anything

Heart pounding in my chest.
Dorky grin on my face.
Having difficulty concentrating.
Blurting words I can't contain.
Captivated.
Wishing I had a jackhammer.
Sigh.

This entry... yeah, well... nevermind.

Over-Qualified!

The job that I interviewed for (twice) 2 weeks ago washed out. The guy from the second interview called me yesterday and told me flat-out that since I'd be working for him and we're pretty much at the same level of experience and knowledge, they didn't think it such a good idea to hire me. It makes sense, and I told him that I was afraid this would be the case seeing what he needed.

I'm not really disappointed, since this was a worry of mine as well. I sent my resume in after a friend tipped me off about an opening they had, with no idea for what job I was applying. This was some good practice and a healthy boost to my confidence in the job market. The notion that I could make at least what I'm making now for a lower position helps me put things into perspective.

This entry wants a job that's challenging and worth-while - that pays what it's worth!

Could I Borrow Your Jackhammer?

So yeah, I've been blogging less lately. No reason for it, really - I just haven't.

So let's see... hmm... last week I cleaned my apartment. Now to say this seems rather mundane, but for those who have actually seen what it used to look like, it's a big change. If you looked at my webcam before (or even after) I cleaned, you wouldn't have seen it either - as that was the area I kept the most clean. Just out of view there were piles of clutter - lots of piles.

When I got back from my camping trip the sight of my messy apartment hit me full-force. I guess I had simply gotten used to the mess over time. Seeing it after being away for nearly a week put it into perspective. So I had started cleaning, but not really as hard as I should have. Last week I had a friend coming over for dinner and it was just the push I needed to get my ass in gear to clean. It looks great! Now I just need to maintain it to keep it this way.

My friend came over, remarked at how clean it was (YES!), we had a lovely dinner, and then had a great time hanging out at the beach.

On Saturday I picked up a couple of things from Ikea to help spruce up my pad a bit. The 2 chairs in my living room had become rather dirty and because they're made of canvas, they absorbed pretty anything that came into contact with them - but were a bitch to clean. Well now they have covers on them that can be removed and washed if needed.

---

Coming up on Thursday; Quinn, Christine, Rece, & I are going to see Nickelback in concert at The Pond of Anaheim. We got free tickets through my work. They're far from being my favorite band in the world, but I like a couple of the songs I've heard on the radio, plus the tickets are free - so why not?

---

An aside from my life: The terrorists won, sorta, with their plot to blow up planes with liquid explosives. See, even though their plan failed, they put themselves and their cause into the minds of millions. Scaring people and governments to the point where many people's lives were disrupted. It's getting to the point where they don't even have to kill anybody to terrorize them. Just the potential of it is enough to get people to change their lives, live in fear, and see/hear/think about terrorists.

I came across this little comic strip that helps illustrate my view on this.

This entry would like to get out of the box. He doesn't
know how he got in there, but he really wants out now!

Irene Rodriguez

I was just informed that one of our long-time staff members passed away last night. Her name was Irene Rodriguez. It was apparently cancer that took her.

While I can't really claim myself as a friend, we had worked closely together on many projects over the years. She was a very hard-worker and a dedicated employee. From what I understand, this was the only job she ever had - it was her first, and ultimately her last. She worked here for over 30 years.

She will be missed.

The next step

Well, the second interview went pretty well. It was pretty different, being more of a sit-down and chat with the guy that I would have been directly working under. He wants to set up a meeting between me and the head honcho for I.T. to see what he says. I'm still optimistic about things... we'll see how this turns out soon enough, it seems.

This post was made possible by the power of flying pigs. SQUEAL!

Cool & Confident

Well the first interview (yesterday) went well. Though after finding out more about the position, it seems like a step backwards in position with only a modest increase in pay (see how much less I'm making where I'm at?!? I can find a job in a lower position for more than what I make at my current job!). I'm afraid that I might be over-qualified for this one, possibly to the point where the position wouldn't be challenging enough. If the pay difference was significant enough, I'd likely take it, but for just a few thousand more a year I'd be more inclined to just stay where I'm at - at least for now.

Anyhow, less than 2 hours after the initial interview they called me and left a message to see about setting up a second interview right away. From what I can tell, that's a pretty good sign. So after work today I'll be going there to meet the department head and see what he has to say. I feel that I owe it to myself to ride this out to the end and at least see what they're offering. We'll see what happens!

This entry feels much better after 2 cool nights of restful sleep.