man, i have a lot of work to do. since i'm leaving for the UK in late october, i've been assigned to do some design for the next chip already. and the current chip hasn't even taped out yet! today was the kick-off/architecture review meeting for my next block, and everything's pretty much squared away, so i have the green light to start designing. i'll start tomorrow. there's quite a bit of things to take care of, including a lot of little annoying (and time-consuming) tasks. *blech*

my mom is extremely frugal. yesterday, after a quick dinner at burger king (she wanted "american" food), we stopped by walmart. she was looking for some wifebeaters/tank tops because she needed an extra layer to keep her warm. then, she was looking for some sneakers to wear while she takes her walks. i suggested going to a place like foot locker, but she said no, and looked at some $11 walmart shoes. man, i would never get shoes at walmart. in the end, she didn't get them because she didn't have space in her luggage to take them to LA.

at walmart, they had a giant, chaotic messy bin of DVD's on sale for $5 each. so i picked up four movies: spanglish, bull durham, traffic, and stand by me. i wouldn't have gotten bull durham, except the sign said "2 for $10," so i thought i had to get an even number of movies. how crafty! i haven't seen the first three. i got spanglish because i think paz vega is really sexy. i've seen her in _sex y lucia_, where she appears completely naked. there's also full frontal male nudity, too, including one of the biggest schlongs i have ever seen.

i almost got to the point today where i owned exactly no coins. i had a quarter in my pocket that i gave to D so he could get a snack at the office. and before that, this morning, i went to mcdonald's, and my breakfast cost me $2.80. and guess what, i had exactly 80 cents in my car! so i was all excited, so excited that i dropped one of my three dimes in my car, and i couldn't find it. ARGH. so i ended up just giving the guy $5, and i got back $2.20. DAMN. i was *so* close to owning zero change!

did you hear about chad johnson? if you don't know him, he's a wide receiver for the cincinnati bengals. he wears 85, and he officially changed his name to "chad javon ocho cinco." nuts! i read about it on espn.com, and it didn't really hit me until i saw a picture of his face on the side, and underneath it was "ocho cinco." i started laughing out loud in my cube. it'll hit me again when i see it again on the back of his jersey when i see him play. i wonder how much of a pain he has to go through to change his driver's license, social security info, etc. of course, he can probably just pay someone to do all that for him. but what if he changes teams, and they won't let him wear 85?

so far, only a tiny sliver of a basketball headache for me today. i've had four bottles of gatorade (good) and one can of dr pepper (bad). i didn't sweat as much today, though, so maybe i'm not as dehydrated. i'll still go home and take two advil, though. i can't stand headaches. i'd much rather have a stomachache because usually those can go away with taking a dump. but headaches really fuck you up; you can't think or function, and you have to take drugs to make them go away.

in the absence of the olympics, my mom and i have been watching the u.s. open at night. (that's tennis, folks, not golf.) my little brother played tennis growing up, and he was good, too, so my mom took him all over to lessons, tournaments, etc. so my mom knows a bit about tennis. thank goodness we have something to watch together in peace at night.

i freak out every time i think about what if my mom's on her deathbed, and she says that her last wish is for me to accept jesus in my life. what the hell would i do?

i had a really weird dream this morning. i forget who the guy was, but basically, we were talking, and then, he stuffed a thin tube of caulk down his penishole (OUCH). there was a great big calendar on the wall, and the gist was that he had to squirt the blue gunk from his schlong onto the days on which he was going to have sex with his wife. and on this month, he planned on humping her every single day, so he proceeded to spew forth the stuff all over the entire wall. it was nuts. i mean, wtf? where did i get the inspiration for this completely bizarre dream?

last night, i watched _america's got talent_, and i was very impressed by the taubl family. they're this hick family of musicians (two parents and lots of kids), basically like the von trapps from _the sound of music_ with a harp and other string instruments. i expected them to do a lame bluegrass song or something, but instead, they performed rihanna's _umbrella_. it was daring and pretty fucking brilliant. other than that, the performances were really lame. but i hope the taubl family makes it through and continues to surprise.

fyi, my mom is going to be 58 in two weeks. my dad is like 4 months younger.

yeah, i would LOVE to visit the jameson factory in ireland. jameson is my drink of choice, although lately, i've been drinking bushmills more because more places carry it. bushmills is a little bit smoother than jameson, but i have an emotional connection to the latter because it was the first whiskey that i really started drinking regularly. my very first whiskey ever was wild turkey, my sophomore year, and that was some disgusting shit. i didn't touch whiskey again until an indian friend of mine suggested it while we were in japan, and he was the one who introduced me to jameson. i bet the factory has some varieties of the stuff that are hella tasty; i can't wait!

i finally joined vox today in order to continue reading re:ignite's blog. she went private, which i think is a good idea. i'm having server space issues on my own webhosting service, and if i have to change servers, i think i might just move to vox. and i might go private, too. but the thing is, i really like having all of you readers, and i would hate for you guys to have to sign up on vox to continue reading and post comments. hm. but privacy is a good thing, especially with the stuff i write about. what do you think?

man, i am burping up garlic right now, and i've been doing so for the last couple of hours. they must have really put in a lot of the stuff in the jun pad poo i had for lunch. (i am not complaining; i fucking love garlic.) i took I there for lunch today, and he got it as well. i am the ambassador of jun pad poo! but never, ever get it there at that thai restaurant on murphy street (not thai basil). their jpp is horrible. btw, since i love garlic so much, how is the stinking rose in SF? is it worth going to? what's their best dish?

re: basketball and posting up. if the short guy was in front of me, couldn't my teammates just lob the ball over him to me, giving me an easy layup? i never understand why people don't do that more often in NBA and college games when that happens.

graceH sent out a birthday celebration evite for nelson for this sunday. apparently, we're going to raid his house during the 49ers game (nelson's a die hard niners fan) and get him drunk while he watches the game. hehe. i said that we should give him a hangover by the time dinner rolls around. it'll be weird, though, to drink during the afternoon. i don't remember the last time i did that. once, for a stanford football tailgate, i had a lot of tequila, and i was drunk before the game even started. i was in a full-blown hangover by halftime, and i just felt awful and shitty for the second half. i think it was all that sun exposure that sped up the process and dehydrated me. ick.

i went to see my psych today. i told him that my tics are a little worse, most likely because i cut my dosage of haldol and benztropine in half. right now, i can live with it, and the reason why i did it in the first place was because i didn't want to be so medicated. but if it gets any worse, i might go back to my full dosage. i had to get more refills this time because my UK trip will take me past two months until my next visit.

after i talked to him, i went to the receptionist to pay, and she was on the phone, apparently with her optometrist's office. she was visibly upset with them, and she told them that after she picks up her glasses tonight, she will never go back there again because of this and that, including rude service and stuff. finally, she hung up on them in a huff. hm. i think she should have picked up her glasses first and them go off on them, just in case they fuck with her glasses or something. sort of like how you complain to a restaurant *after* you get your food in case they give you "special sauce."

speaking of special sauce, how to male porn stars have so much spunk? i mean, some of them seem to have gobs and gobs of spooge when they come. it's quite amazing. and they can shoot it quite far, too. they must hold back as long as they can so their contractions are super-strong. i've shot it into my girl's hair maybe once or twice, but those were very rare occasions. how does the body know when to stop producing semen? there must be a point where halts production until there is expungement, and then it starts up again. the mechanism seems a lot more complicated than a girl's, where it just releases an egg once a month. hm.

ok, i gotta go home now. my mom has a deep chest cough now. i hope it's not bronchitis or anything.

basketball was pretty grueling today. when i came back, my neck just wouldn't stop sweating. i kept wiping it with my t-shirt, but for a good 20 minutes or so, it would just stay wet. for the last two games (4 on 4), the opposing team played man defense, and they put a much smaller guy on me, so i just went to the lower left block and posted up. a few times, i got good position, so my teammates passed me the ball, and i just turned around and banked the ball in with a layup. it felt good; i pretended like i was brook lopez (although he's right handed, so he's always on the right block). yay for height dominance!

so far, i haven't gotten a dehydration headache yet. i felt the beginning of one about an hour after i got back, but i have had two bottles of gatorade so far. i think the difference is that i haven't had any caffeine yet. but right now, i'm drinking a dr pepper, so we'll see if this gives me a headache. call it an experiment.

i think my left nipple is more sensitive than my right one. a couple of times, i've noticed that my left nipple is hard, while my right nipple is soft as melted butter. how odd, huh? and today, during the sweltering heat while i was playing basketball, i noticed during a brief stretch that my nipples were hard. that was strange, too. i mean, don't nipples get hard (sometimes) when it's cold outside? *ponder*

i had some really weird dreams this weekend. during one of them, my friend nelson was mixing in methadone into his oatmeal, and a cop came and asked him if he was doing any drugs. well, obviously, he was, so nelson just looked really vulnerable. he said, "no," but his face just gave him away, and then i woke up. and during another dream, this women came from behind and ripped a guy's facial skin off. she like put her hand through the guy's head and just tore his face off! *shivers* what a gruesome dream. i don't know where i get these funky situations and images from.

well, i'm headed into the home stretch with my mom. i can see the light at the end of the tunnel. i feel really bad that she was so sick this weekend. sunday was the worst, with her nausea and weakness. after we got back from safeway, she crawled into bed with her last gasp of breath, and she said in chinese, "oh lord jesus, i'm suffering so much." i felt like crying, i was so helpless. i got her water, gatorade, and two advil. ugh. it sucks to see people go through pain.

i need to get a haircut. i'm timing it so that one month from now, for my next haircut, i'll get it right before my smattering of october weddings. i have a wedding on 10/11, and one the very next day. yeah, it'll be a very tiring weekend. late september (two of my cousins in LA might be visiting) and october will be very busy for me; in addition to the october weddings, i might have a trip to LA, in addition to the UK vacation. and add to that a hectic work schedule, since i have to get all my shit done before i leave the country. *phew*

man, i am tired today. i got up at 8:30am because my complex was repainting all the speedbumps and parking lanes, so they demanded that all the cars leave by 9am, otherwise they get towed. yeah, i could have parked outside on the street, but when i got home last night, apparently everyone else beat me to it, because there was absolutely no parking out there. ugh. i want a good night's sleep tonight, except that somebody's coming to fix the showerhead at 9am tomorrow morning.

i really miss my porn.

one of the booze mail trivia questions on facebook was about seka, this early 80's porn stars. i looked her up on wikipedia, and it says that she was one of the pioneers of shaving her pubes, way before it became common among american porn stars. that's pretty bold. i wonder if people used to think it was weird to do that, because now it's pretty much expected. i have an old VHS tape of an 90's porn flick (_new wave hookers_), and it just looks really weird to see a full-blown bush in action nowadays. i mean, hair in the triangle is ok, but hair along the sides of the labia just looks messy and gross.

hm. i have a slight headache now. it's not bad, just a slight little buzzing in my head. i'm on my fourth bottle of gatorade of the day.

i wonder how often my dad's gotten drunk, given that he's a businessman now. when i was in taiwan last year, we talked about drinking, and he asked me, "have you ever woken up from a night of drinking and wondered how you even got home?" he asked it as if he had personal experience. hm. i don't remember if i've ever blacked out. i mean, i've passed out before, but the next morning, i am still able to piece together my memory of how i got home and stuff. one of the nastiest experiences i had was when i drank a 40, then 2-3 beers, and then some vodka. (yes, beer before liquor, never sicker.) i puked all over my shirt, passed out, and then i got taken home. it was disgusting. i will never drink a 40 again; it's simply too much volume. in fact, i don't even remember the last time i had a beer-like drink.

i'm really excited about trying all the whiskeys in ireland/scotland. they must have some good shit. since irish whiskey is my drink of choice, i'm most stoked about visiting ireland. i just hope it's not too expensive there. one of my goals is to get leeya to have one, hehe.

ok. i think i'm gonna leave early and get my haircut.

so, as it turned out, i had a pretty eventful labor day weekend. it was mostly because my mom was sick, poor thing. she had to spend the entire time at home, resting, so i took care of her as much as i could, but i did go out while she slept and rested.

friday night, she went to church, and i went to ringerhut with john and mikeC. i really don't like ringerhut all the much, but i got their yakisoba. it was only so-so. the yakisoba in japan is fantastic. then, we went to duke of edinburgh for some drinks. i got a black bush on the rocks ($8), and then i asked them if they had pim's and lemonade. this was a drink that i got in oxford that k2 recommended. it tasted good back then, but i think it may have been my memory that colored it. this time, it had this weird chinese herbal taste to it. we hung around for a bit, and then we all just went home. when my mom got back from church, her voice sounded a bit weird, and this was the start to her illness.

saturday morning, she woke up with a cough, so i got us some breakfast at mcdonald's, and then i got a coldbuster plus immunity boost at jamba juice for myself so i wouldn't catch what she had. then, i went off to greg and cheryl's house for the big trip to fort funston. there was a dog beach there, and all in all, there were eight dogs in our group. on our way up, we made a detour to the baja fresh in san carlos for lunch. i wasn't hungry, but i got a carnitas quesadilla anyway. it was horrible.

grace brought this dog called einstein. i really liked him. poor thing, he had a flea infestation before, which caused him to lose all his fur. he was going to be put down because he was "unadoptable," so grace took him in. he was really cute, and he seemed to like me. anyways, we stayed at the dog beach for a while, and geoff stopped by as well. there were a lot of hang gliders in the air, and the weather was cool, with a nice breeze.

after we left, we grabbed drinks and smoothies at starbucks and jamba juice in daly city before heading back. i went home to check up on my mom, who was doing worse. she had developed a fever. i got us some arby's sandwiches, and then i headed out again to just hang out with the gang at corner place (korean food). then, we all drove to campbell for some gelato, and then i met up with edric, char, jessica, and some other people at tartini before heading back to edric's house for some rock band. i didn't stay long because i needed to go check up on my mom again.

sunday was the worst. my mom threw up her breakfast in the morning, and then i took her to safeway to buy ingredients for some vegetable soup. she couldn't stand up for long, as she felt nauseated and dizzy. at one point, she felt like passing out in the supermarket. i took her home, and she just got into bed. i went out for a quick lunch with john and mikeC at yiassoo (gyros and fries, yum) and came back. my mom was in bed, and i just went upstairs to watch some u.s. open tennis and take a nap. then, i watched some more tennis with my mom.

for dinner, i went to red robin with mikeC. i got the prime rib dip, which was expensive and not worth it. i did get a bushmills on the rocks, which was only $4.99. cheap whiskey! then, i went over to jay and margaret's to hang out with the gang; teddy and carol were in town for a wedding, and the guys played _resident evil_ on the wii. of course, one person played, but the rest of the guys provided commentary and advice on what to do. the shotgun rocks.

monday, my mom was feeling better; the nausea and fever had subsided, but she was still weak and coughing. at least my mom could walk and go outside, so i took her to ryowa to get some soupy noodles. then, i introduced her to frozen yogurt at sweet corner. the, at 3pm, i went to alan and ting's house to hang out. we watched some tennis, and then grabbed two XL pizza's at applewood and then dessert at la tartine in downtown redwood city. they rented _in bruges_, which i wanted to see, but i decided to go home early and check on my mom.

after i got home, i watched a PBS _masterpiece theatre_ movie called _my boy jack_ with my mom. she really likes _masterpiece_. the movie was about rudyard kipling's son john/jack who went to fight in WWI. jack was played by daniel radcliffe of _harry potter_ fame. what interested me the most, however, was that jack's sister was really cute. i looked her up on IMDB, and she was played by this girl named carey mulligan. be on the lookout for her.

i actually enjoyed watching tv with my mom. (oh, the i taped _gossip girl_ on the VCR. remember that i think leighton meester is really hot. i'll watch it after my mom leaves.)

anyways, this morning, my mom seems better. her voice is more normal now, although not 100%. but she says that she has a lot of chest congestion. ugh.

all in all, it was a good labor day weekend, but i'm really worried about my mom's health. it seems like her immune system isn't very strong, with her old age and everything. i really hope she can fully recover swiftly.

so i was IM'ing graceL (her maiden last name, not her married one), and i noticed that on her facebook profile, she's a fan of starcraft. she, blushingly, admitted that she was a big SC player back in the day, and she was really excited about the forthcoming SC2. she pointed me to the SC2 website, and i must say, the game looks pretty good. it doesn't seem to make any big changes in the game (same three races, lots of familiar units), but the graphics look spectacular. i wonder if i would get back into it if i had a newer computer. (they did announce that there will be a mac version.)

starcraft was the last big video game addiction of mine. there was a time when i played 8 hours a day on the weekends. i also played with some coworkers, and we called our little group "the homewreckers" because of our knack for ignoring our significant others. and k2, bless her heart, even bought me the SC expansion pack (the brood wars) for my birthday, knowing full well that it would only fuel the fire. i think when she bought it, the video games salesman told her that she was a good girlfriend. man, i was so addicted to that game. (and btw, i was mainly a zerg guy, although i did play a little bit of terran. but not once did i touch protoss.)

the bowling guys play RTS games even today. they play command and conquer 3. just last night, after they had dinner at southland, paul asked john and nelson if they wanted to play. however, they don't play against each other, which i think is really the best and most enjoyable (and challenging) way to play. "too much confrontation," they say.

so yeah, i was at paul's house last night, and i booked the final two plane tickets for the UK trip. after i bought the first ticket (in euros), bank of america shut down my credit card, citing "suspicious charges." i had to call them up and re-authorize my account. i guess they're looking out for me. i'm going to have to call up both my credit card companies before i go to let them know that i'll be making purchases in foreign currency.

i had lunch with some ex-coworkers at choi's today. while driving there, this woman cut me off and then proceeded to drive a measly 20mph on el camino. then, she turned into choi's! i was going to have a word with her, but then, she turned out to be a coworker of mine. (not in my group, but on the same floor.) so i decided not to. but anyways, i went korean potato crazy today. i had like three plates of the stuff; it was so fucking good. i know, it's a lot of empty carbs, but it was such tasty shit.

the cute girl at work looked good today. i guess she takes casual fridays to heart, because instead of wearing her usual snazzy business attire, she was in some mid-calf-level jeans, heels, and a red t-shirt. and her hair was in a high pony-tail, which i love, because it exposes the back of the neck. that's sexy stuff.

does anyone know of a good webhosting service that comes with SSH access? my service is pushing me to move servers (because the old servers keep running out of disk space), but if i do so, they will no longer give me SSH access, which i find completely unacceptable. so i'm looking to move. hm. maybe i should just go to some free blogging site like vox or wordpress.com. what do you think?

i get a free night tonight. my mom's on her way to a church meeting as i type this, so i don't have to worry about taking her to dinner or babysitting her afterwards. hm. what shall i do with this free time? *ponder*

so i don't know if you're heard, but the LPGA (women's professional golfers) has placed a new restriction that all members have to be able to speak english. otherwise, they get suspended. i think that's pretty fucked up. i mean, isn't that downright racist? the men's side (PGA) have expressed outrage at this, and rightly so. like many sports, golf is an international sport, and excluding players just because they don't speak english is ludicrous. what does that have to do with your ability to play golf? what if yao ming wasn't allowed to play in the NBA years ago because he spoke broken english? fucked up, man.

last night, while driving home from paul's place, i was listening to a bit of _loveline_, and this caller was on the air talking about how his girlfriend was giving him a blowjob, and then bit down on his shaft so hard that it drew blood. and now his schlong is all swollen and stuff. wtf? why would a girl do such a thing? i mean, accidental biting (bad technique) is one thing, but a blood-drawing chomp has to be intentional, right? *shivers* dr. drew was saying how the bacteria in the mouth and teeth are extra-toxic, and how the guy should definitely go to the doctor to get his injury checked out. man. scary shit.

ok, time for my 5pm smoke. have a great long weekend everyone! the blazing bay area temperatures are supposed to drop 15 degrees tomorrow. not a moment too soon!