Saturday!

Posted by Thomas Sat, 30 Apr 2005 13:41:11 +0000

Yay, it’s the weekend! But a lot of things to do today.

  1. Shower, check.
  2. Lunch, in progress.
  3. Kroger/bank
  4. Do the dishes
  5. Take out the trash
  6. Tidy up
  7. Wal-Mart
  8. Pay bills
  9. Plane tickets
  10. Car rental
  11. Movies

Well, there’s some other stuff too, like getting my finances in better order, and making a media pc out of an old computer, so I better get started… Check back later and we’ll see how much I get accomplished today.

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Friday Night

Posted by Thomas Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:52:59 +0000

Well, I finally got my Netflix in yesterday and today. I semi-watched “Ocean’s Twelve” last night. I had seen it numerous times before, so I wasn’t paying too much attention to it. I had hoped that there would be an awesome director’s commentary to explain a bunch of stuff, but alas, there was none. I can only hope that they will produce one in the future. I’ve also got “Shaun of the Dead”, and “Garden State”. I watched an episode of West Wing or two, and had Arbys for supper. Exciting, I know. I did, though use a coupon to buy 8 sandwiches. We’ll see how far my $10 gets me.

Hmm, what else… I did get direct deposit setup in time, so I got paid! Yay! But, unfortunately I paid ~25% in taxes, et. al. DOH! Not as much mula as I thought…

And, I’m a little nervous now, since many more people read my blog that I previously thought… There are the obvious peeps, but if there are any other stealth readers out there, then I’d appreciate a shout out…

Posted in General, Movies | 3 Comments

Dating rants

Posted by Thomas Wed, 27 Apr 2005 21:02:16 +0000

Since I haven’t got much to say today, I’ll just post some stuff from other people. :)

I ran across this today in my bloglines from digg.com. For my own future reference, I’m going to post the text here:

Why Geeks and Nerds Are Worth It…

In the wide world of dating, there are many options. Do you go for the flashy guy with the smooth smile, or the dude in the corner typing away on his laptop? The following are reasons why I think my fellow females should pay more attention to the quiet geeks and nerds, and less attention to the flashy boys.

1.) While geeks and nerds may be awkward, they’re well-meaning 9 out of 10 times. That smooth dude with the sly grin and the spider hands? Wonder what HIS intentions are… plus, I’ve never had a geek guy not call me when he said he would. Score major points THERE.

2.) They’re useful. In this tech-savvy world, it’s great to have a b/f who can make your laptop, desktop, and just about anything else that plugs into a wall behave itself.

3.) They’re more romantic than they’re given credit for. Ok true, their idea of romance might be to make up a spiffy web-page with all the reasons why they love you, with links to pics of you and sonnets and such… but hey. It lasts longer than flowers, plus you can show your friends.

4.) Due to their neglected status, there are plenty to choose from. You like ‘em tall and slender? There are plenty of geeks/nerds who are. You like ‘em smaller with more meat on their bones? Got that too.

5.) They’ve got brains. Come on now, how can intelligence be a bad thing?

6.) Most are quite good at remembering dates. Like birthdates and such, especially if they know it’ll make you happy. Due again to their neglected status, they’re more attentive than guys who “have more options”. Plus, with all that down time without a steady girlfriend, they’ll likely have mental lists of all the things they’d love to do once they GOT a girlfriend.

7.) Sex. Yep. Sex. I’m not really familiar with this myself, but I’ve friends who’ve been intimate with geek guys and it’s raves all around. They say a virgin wrote the Kama Sutra… all that time thinking about sex, imagining sex, dreaming about sex, (they are male after all) coupled with a desire to make you happy? Use your imagination.

8.) They’re relatively low-maintenance. Most can be fueled on pizza, Twinkies and Mt Dew. No complicated dinners needed here, so if you’re not the best cook, eh. Can you order a pizza?

9.) Most frequent bars as often as slugs frequent salt mines. You won’t have to worry much about your geek guy getting his “groove” on with club hotties because, frankly, he’ll be too busy rooting around under his computer wondering where that spare cable went. You won’t have to worry about him flirting with other women because, 9 out of 10 times, he’ll zip right by them in a perfect b-line towards the nearest electronics store. I’ve seen this happen.
Me: “Eww. Victoria Secret’s Models… They’re so skinny. How is that feminine? You can see her ribs!”
Geek Guy: “ooooooo…”
Me: “Hey!” *notices he is staring lustfully towards the computer store*
Geek Guy: “What?”
Me: “Never mind…”

10.) Although he may not want to go to every outing with you, you can arrange swaps, as in, you’ll go to his Gamer Con dressed as an elf princess if he’ll take you to the ballet. Plus, if he doesn’t want to go someplace with you, you won’t have to worry much about what he’s up to. You’ll probably come home to find him asleep on his keyboard in a sea of Mt. Dew cans with code blinking from the screen. It’s ok. He’s used to this. Just toss a blanket over him and turn out the light.

11.) His friends aren’t jerks. I can’t stress this enough. You’ll more likely get “Omg! A GIRL!! Can I see?!” than “Hey hot stuff back that ass up here and let me get some grub on…” They’re awkward geeks too and will, 9 times out of 10, treat you with the utmost respect and, more than likely, a note of awe. A cute girl picked one of their clan to date? It could happen to them! Hope! Drag some of your single girlfriends over, open up a pack of Mt. Dew, crack open the DnD set and get working. Nothing impresses geek guys more than a girl who can hack-n-slash (well ok maybe if she can code… a geek can dream).

12.) They’re rarely if ever possessive. They trust you, so you can be yourself around them. You like to walk around the house in a ratty t-shirt for comfort? He won’t care. He does too! They won’t get pissy if you don’t wear make-up or don’t want to bother primping your hair. If you gain a few pounds, they won’t try their best to make you feel like crap.

13.) They’re usually very well educated. Physics majors and the like. See #5. You won’t have to listen to him blathering on about his car (ok maybe a little), he’ll have loads of other interesting things to talk about. Politics, world events, how much the chicken burgers down at the local place rock, so long as you douse them in hot sauce…

14.) You’ll almost never have to hear, “Yaw dawg whazzap!!” plop out of their mouths. Unless it’s in jest. They spell properly, use correct punctuation, and are able to tell the difference between the toilet and the floor. They almost never get “wasted”, so you won’t have to worry about coming home to find him and his friends passed out on the floor amidst a pile of beer bottles. Mt. Dew cans, perhaps…

15.) And the final reason why geeks and nerds make great boyfriends: They actually give a damn about you. Not how you look (though that’s a plus), not how skinny you are, not how much make-up you primp yourself up with, but they like you for you. That kind of thing lasts longer than “DaMN baby you got a fine ass!!!” Believe me.

Which made me dig up something that Ben actually had on his blog some time ago; which I will also post: (Note that the opinions expressed do not necessarily line up with my own…)

Ode to the Nice Guys
This rant was written for the Wharton Undergraduate Journal

This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.

This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they’re at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don’t end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.

This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn’t worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you’d ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn’t have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing “serious” between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: “oh, but we’re just friends!” And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you’re nice like that.

The nice guys don’t often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don’t seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can’t. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches. Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn’t possibly ask him out!” or the most frustrating of all: “no, it would ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can’t figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I’m going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn’t last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.

So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you’re sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.

Fu-zu Jen, SEAS/WH, 2003

I leave it as an exercise for the user to find the “Ode to the Nice Girls” on the web.

Posted in Women | 8 Comments

Monday

Posted by Thomas Mon, 25 Apr 2005 21:19:01 +0000

I finally got direct deposit setup (I hope), so that now I can be easily paid. YAY! I drove for what seemed like forever to pickup my large hand tossed Papa Johns pizza. The stupid thing costed $13.21. That’s highway robbery, or so I told the young lady who I picked it up from… an hour after I ordered it (oops…). Anyway, I got my pizza fix, as I had been craving it for most of the day. I asked if she would honor a coupon from Texas. She said no… :(

This made me laugh out loud. And this was good, too. Surely that is the best publicity that they’ve gotten in a while. While I did download it, so that I could help the cause of him trying to swim across the Atlantic, I have no intention what-so-ever to actually install it. Sorry, guys. Hopefully my Netflix will come soon, so that I’ll have something better to do than just watch the West Wing, or try to recover data from my external. :( I’m thinking about posting my wish list, so that you guys can buy me stuff! Edit: Ok. I did it. Only $1327 worth of stuff that I “need”.

Laters…

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Church 2.0

Posted by Thomas Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:43:13 +0000

Ok. This time, I tried a little harder. And I got a little further in the process of actually getting there. But the [huge] introverted monster in me reared its head and pretty much froze me up. Better luck next week.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Hard drives

Posted by Thomas Sun, 24 Apr 2005 00:09:18 +0000

AAAHHH! Not again. At first I thought that the power outages had fried my firewire enclosure (since everytime I plugged it in, it froze my computer, DOH!). So, I simply plugged the drive in directly. And that worked, but I started to see some errors, and checked the speed. It was excruciatingly slow. So, I’m in another mad dash to backup my data. And some of it I’m really doing to need here pretty soon. Looks like I’ll be in the market for some more disk space sooner than I had planned. Especially since I just bought that new drive… I really need to look at some long term solutions, but I’m afraid that they aren’t going to be cheap. But I’m tired of this crap! Man, so little money, and so much stuff to buy…

Posted in Technology | 2 Comments

Linguistic Profile

Posted by Thomas Fri, 22 Apr 2005 19:14:35 +0000

I usually don’t do these, but I couldn’t resist this one.

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English
25% Dixie
10% Yankee
5% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

Posted in General | 4 Comments

Oops

Posted by Thomas Thu, 21 Apr 2005 00:41:28 +0000

Oops… I started watching The West Wing (big surprise, right?)… and then I’m in the middle of a huge thing between seasons 5 and 6, and I can’t seem to stop… :) It’s not going to be a good morning in just a few hours. Oh, and I really should have secured a girlfriend before I left Texas.

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Cell phone bill

Posted by Thomas Sun, 17 Apr 2005 17:12:23 +0000

Well, it’s official. 150 minutes over for last month. Makes my bill a cool ~$110 instead of its normal ~$40. Ouch. Oh, and I guess that I’m just like everybody else and receiving text messages on my phone cost me $0.10. Oh well, at least I haven’t used them a lot…

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Church

Posted by Thomas Sun, 17 Apr 2005 14:04:18 +0000

I don’t know what your motivation is for going or not going to Church on Sunday mornings. For so long, I have felt things like obligation, duty, and guilt. Three things that shouldn’t be involved in this process. Yeah, so I didn’t go to church today. And, it doesn’t mean that I’m not going to go at all while I’m out here. It just means that I’m going to “take some time off”. I’ve been surrounded by so many Christians and have been in such a Christian environment (since I spend so much time at Wesley… or did at least). And this was definitely one of the things that I have worried about ever since… forever. I have known that it could be a huge struggle when I finally moved out of College Station. I just need some time off. Some time to get back to where I want to go to Church, and hang out with people who, at their core, are really just like me. And, I’m not saying that I’m just going to try and be friends with people at work. I should be, and will be. But the thing is that this is probably going to be really the first time in my life where I’m not going to be in a place completely surrounded by Christians. This is something that I have felt that I have really missed the boat on. For too long I have not been around any non-Christians. So, now is the time… but then again, how can I minister if I’m not doing what I am supposed to be doing in the first place, e.g. going to Church.

I just long for the times when I wasn’t so engrossed in everything that is Church. I want to come to a place where I can enjoy it. Where I can just go and not have to do anything. I long to long for God. And I don’t think that going out of obligation is going to do it for me. I need to remember what it’s like to be away. To not really be surrounded by people that love you. To not be surrounded by people who support you. I need to rely on God. I need to remember what that’s like. And I don’t think that I can get to that point if I just go back to what I’ve been doing for what seems like forever and faking it until I make it. Well, I’m tired of that. I need to really make it. I need to feel whatever it is that I need to feel so that I’ll come crawling back. I need renewal. And hopefully I’m not being lured into some trap. Hopefully I’m not shooting myself in the foot on this one.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

DP

Posted by Thomas Sun, 17 Apr 2005 00:06:06 +0000

Yay for Rachel and tiny, late-night DP. *cough*jennifer*cough* She and Cole bought me some, and I’ve found an excellent use for them when I know that there is like no way that I’ll finish one at like midnight.

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Saturday Update

Posted by Thomas Sat, 16 Apr 2005 17:44:04 +0000

I figure that I might as well go ahead and maybe try and head off some of the more common questions that I seem to be getting.

We got here fine. We stayed in Birmingham along the way to break up the trip some. Atlanta isn’t too bad. Lots of traffic, it seems. I will be starting work on Monday. I bought a washer, dryer, and microwave at stupid Sears. Spent too much money… Then tried to open a bank account at bank o’ america, but missed it by like 30 minutes. So, I guess that I’ll have to wake up early on Monday to try and get that squared away. We pretty much got everything up the one flight of stairs in about an hour. The only things left were the couch, tv stand, and tv. We rested a little while, and then we carried them. So, total time was about 2 hrs. Then pretty much the rest of the day to take stuff out of boxes and setup stuff. After the guy called me about the intraweb here, I figured it out, and had it up and running in not too much time. I had to get around some stupid guy’s rogue DHCP server to get a real ip. But I did, so no worries.

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I don’t know

Posted by Thomas Sat, 16 Apr 2005 00:31:32 +0000

Warning: emo ahead…

I don’t know if you’ve ever had to leave a place that was more home to you than you’ve ever known, only to move to a new place where you know no one and have no friends.

Have you ever expected yourself to feel a certain way, only to not allow yourself to actually feel that way, because of that expectation? Like you know how you’re supposed to feel, but then don’t really want to feel that way; so you don’t let yourself.

Man, feelings suck.

Posted in General | 1 Comment

The 37 Minute Song

Posted by Thomas Wed, 13 Apr 2005 20:16:55 +0000

Here’s the link for everybody for the 37 (thirty-seven) minute song by Callum and Marcus. Recorded by yours truly…

http://chobas.com/37_min_song.mp3

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You know how sometimes at the end of a semester

Posted by Thomas Mon, 11 Apr 2005 23:34:43 +0000

You know how sometimes at the end of a semester, you’ll have a crush on somebody, but it’s like the worst timing ever. But, it’s the end of the semester, and you know that feelings’ll change if you don’t say something. But it’s still the worst timing. Well, think if you were like leaving forever, and wished that you could still try and start something… that sucks… hmm… woulda, coulda, shoulda + regrets…

Posted in Women | 5 Comments

Slashdot

Posted by Thomas Sun, 10 Apr 2005 16:51:59 +0000

I’m a little disenfranchised with Slashdot as of late. Since I’ve discovered Bloglines, Slashdot is just another aggregator. A slow, moderated aggregator of other sites. I see tons more stuff that I just plow through in bloglines. By no means do I say that I read everything that I see aggregated. I look at what I want to. So, I see stuff on slashdot that I saw a couple of days beforehand elsewhere. Plus, the comments of any random story aren’t usually going to be that informative; mostly just flames… So, why don’t I just throw in the towel on slashdot altogether? I dunno… Maybe I’m just bitter that I can’t get a submitted story accepted.
</rant>

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Yay! Two posts in two days…

Posted by Thomas Sun, 10 Apr 2005 16:41:11 +0000

I’m going to try and keep more up to date with stuff, even though the next couple of days are going to be extremely hectic. I do have a place to live, or at least I am in the process of signing the lease. Hopefully I’ll have both a place to live and utilities setup by the time that I move in. I will be taking a trailer and a bunch of furniture most likely. And maybe even a washer and dryer. So, I’ll be recruiting people to help me load the big stuff on Wednesday.

Got to watch “Clash of the Titans” yesterday afternoon. Well, I say got to. I had the remote, and I decided to watch it. I’m not sure who I made mad, but I don’t really care. Let’s just say that it was so bad that it was good. I’m pretty sure that the last time I watched it, it was during junior high. Like 7th or 8th grade English. We’ve been watching a lot of MoviePlex as well. It has both good and bad movies, but no commercials. Oh, and Bond movies, too, as of late. It’s fun to watch a movie where you have no idea of really what’s going on, but you’re enjoying it anyway.

Ok, enough for now. If a blog entry is too long, then I don’t read it. I’ll take any comments on the length of this one…

Posted in General, Movies | 1 Comment

Woulda, shoulda, coulda

Posted by Thomas Sat, 09 Apr 2005 23:48:46 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about what would have happened if this or that was different. Like, as my last post mentioned, I got a job with Google in Atlanta. Now, I did have another offer in Plano. I don’t know what I would have done, say, in the situation that I would have had a serious girlfriend in College Station. Unless she was pretty close to graduation, I’m not really sure that I would have been able to go all the way to Georgia. Would I still be in College Station, looking very much to stay? Would I be so obligated to stay here or Houston or DFW? Would it have even been a consideration to go? I don’t think that I know now, nor do I even think that I could speculate that much. I guess that I just assume that it’s one of those things that you don’t know what exactly you would do unless you were presented with the situation for real. Too many things to weigh. Another person to consider. Other feelings to consider. Oh well, I probably won’t know how I’ll act until later in life…

Another thing to consider is whether or not I might have influenced the outcome of the TAMU Student Body Presidental election. Scott Smith’s campaign had (inadvertantly) asked me to run their my thing for them, or to at least give them a copy of it, so that they could run it. I refused, based on the fact that I didn’t want anybody else to have it, nor to run it for anyone else except as a personal favor to Pat. So, would he have won if he would have gotten a couple hundred more votes? Would he have made to the run-off? Would he now be the new SBP? I dunno…

Posted in General | 1 Comment

What to write?

Posted by Thomas Fri, 01 Apr 2005 01:16:13 +0000

Hmm… I wonder what I should write about… well, I suppose that I could say that…

I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!! I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!!I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!!I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!!I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!!I GOT A JOB WITH GOOGLE!!!

WHOOP!

So, if anybody knows anybody in Atlanta, I’m going to need a place to live. And, if anybody wants to go with me, then I’ll take audience with requests…

Update: Note that this is not an April Fool’s joke. I did, in fact, get a job with Google.

Posted in General | 3 Comments