To satisfy someone's whinings... I hung out with Robert and Amber this week. A lot. I was seen in public with them. I shared meals with them. I even got yelled at by my mom for hanging out too much with them. So there.

This past Sunday, we went to Magic Mountain. It was pretty fun. There were hardly any lines. The longest I had to wait was like ten minutes for X and Goliath at the end of the day. And yes, I said "I" because I rode those by myself. But we went on a lot of rides, and we went on every roller coaster that was operational that day, except one which sucked and I forgot the name of. But there was nothing else at the park, so we didn't get to watch any shows or whatnot. We did, however, get dressed up and took photos. Well, they took photos, I took a photo. They were dressed as an Old West gunslinger and "woman-of-ill-repute," and with me, we were a Victorian trio of I-don't-know-what. It could've been a Victorian couple with their Asian governess, or else an "unconventional relationship"-in-a-repressed-society. One of these days, I'll scan the pictures and put them on my website.

I was going to whine and sulk about my life, but I don't think that's interesting so I won't. Instead, I'll whine about the legal troubles we are in. My parents have been making angry racist remarks, and well... though I don't like it, I don't blame them. My mom barely hit the guy and it wasn't even on his side and he drove off afterwards perfectly fine. Yet... he had to go and hire Larry H. Parker and claim that he's at death's door. Such crap.

So tired. This past couple of weeks have been rather busy mainly due to hanging out with Robert and Amber (Ambert!), then visiting Erica, church stuff, and more hours at work. My store manager asked me to design something for their leadership conference, and the final image is due on Friday and I haven't even given her preliminary sketches. Meanwhile, I would still like to see Return of the King once again in the theaters and revamp my website. I'm kinda like my dad. I can't say no to social stuff. Well, I can, but if I really want to do it, then I can't. Sigh.

In the past four days, I've had 7-11 coffee twice. (It was late, I needed the caffeine.) And I gotta say... it wasn't too bad. They've got a big selection of flavored creamers and syrups, and they're free! Not 30¢ extra like at Starbucks. I'm sure there's a difference in the beans and brewing method, but I'm not much of a conoisseur, so I couldn't really tell.

It's too late to post my schedule for this week, but I have to work closing during the weekend, tomorrow I work opening, and Friday I have off and we'll see what I end up doing that day.

I'm am getting that bloodlust again. I played Legolas in the XBox version of LotR:Return of the King, and it's a spiffy game. They've managed to blend scenes from the movie flawlessly into the game interface. Phooey, though, that my dying actually affects the game. Phooey.

Update on F and T from work:
F is no longer working at our store, but that's not stopping her from calling T up all the time. T kept on telling F to stop calling him. But she won't. Her parents' solution? Put out a restraining order against T. Fuh-nee. Poor T. Apparently, he had nothing to do with F's little incident but everyone thinks he did.

Okay, final thought for the day: I'm on the mailing list for the LucasArts newsletter, even though I'm not much of a gamer. Mainly to see what kind of job openings they've got. It seems they always have art jobs open. Anyway, this week there's an opening for a Production Assistant. Basically, the Producter's gofer. It seems like a good way to get a foot in the game industry. Now, competition will be stiff and my chances of getting this job, should I apply, would probably be in the low single-digit percentage. But the thing is that this job is in San Rafael (Marin County). So if they should ask me if I'm willing to relocate to that area, the question is, am I? I'm not sure. I mean, it's a fabulous company (and I know, I know, I have a one in a gazillion chance of actually getting the job) and no doubt great experience, but the industry's in LA, some of the better schools (or instructional facilities) are in LA, and not to mention, it's really expensive to live out there. A part of me says to just go for it and worry about it if I actually get the job. But those of you that know me that I'm the type to worry five steps ahead, so I will. Can't help it.

Phooey.

Happy Birthday Robert!

Schedule this week:

Mon: too damn early
Tue: no work, hanging out with Robert
Wed: 6:45 to 10:45 pm
Thu: 6:45 to 10:45 pm
Fri: no work
Sat: 4:15 am to 12:15 pm
Sun: church

I had a good day at work today. I guess it's all about who you work with. I took a pilates class at the gym. That was kinda fun. I mainly wanted to see what it was about. Well, turns out, it's mostly ab work. There's a bit of upper and lower body, but it always involves the abs. Too bad I can't commit to the class. It could totally shrink my gut.

I had dinner with a longtime friend on Sunday. Those of you in the know who I'm talking about. It's hard to describe my feelings towards it, and I don't want to publish them here cuz I want to respect the privacy of the other parties involved. But in the end, thing can only get better. Maybe not ideal, but better.

School is less than a month away. Considering that most other schools have already started, I'm kinda lucky. Though that means that my summer break is shorter. But this is good. I keep on meaning to start some art projects. I've been so tired lately. The hypochondriac in me thinks chronic fatique syndrome, but I'm not that tired. I should still try to uphold my new-school-year resolution of getting more sleep. Or more like, getting more regular sleep.

Right now, I think I should aim low and keep my rest-of-winter-break goals as 1) watch LotR:RotK again in the theaters, 2) watch LotR:TTT DVD with the various commentaries and the extra features, 3) watch various movies in my pile, 4) fulfill my duties as member of my church's website team, and if I can, 5) update my website in the process.

I should try to cut my TV-watching, but how can I stop now that American Idol has started? I won't be able to watch the Tuesday night shows once school starts, so it'll probably be like last year where I won't watch until the very end. Hey, it was enough to get me to buy the Clay Aiken CD. Not so much the Reuben Studdard CD. And the latest Josh Groban CD... isn't as good as the first. Dang it. I'm such a fangirl.

My legs are sore from leg bends two days ago. Tonight I just did some cycling and upper body stuff. I feel pretty good. But I've only got one more week 'til the free membership runs out and I better steel myself for the heavy sales pitch. But I've got one that's fool-proof: "I can't afford it." I mean, how can they argue with that? Yeah, I know I kinda sounded interested when I signed on, but if I counter with, "I just figured out my budget and I can't afford it," how can they challenge me on that?

That happened when I went to the free trainer appointment and afterwards they tried to sell me the service and I just answered, "Sorry I'm not interested." And they asked, "Why not?" and I replied, "Because of the money" and they replied, "Well, we can break down the monthly payment of $320 into four weekly payments of $80 and would that help?" and I replied, "No, it doesn't." They said okay and that was it.

Okay, on that point, how can that help? It's still the same amount of money in the end. They're targeting people that take their paycheck and spend spend spend until they run out, I guess.

So I realize that though LA Fitness looks great from the outside, it's still flawed in many ways. For one, some of the machines have worn or torn seat pads, and some of the machines don't have pins for the weights. And I'm guessing that since the days of 24-Hour Fitness during high school, a lot of gyms nowadays have indoor heated pools, yoga classes, and raquetball courts. Though I did compare the prices, and while they are on the high end, their prices are comprable to 24-Hour Fitness and other gyms.

Well, as I have plunked down yet more money to fix yet another problem on my aging car, the only gym I can afford is the treadmill-and-soup-can-weights plan at home. Hey, you'd be surprised how much you can do with just those. Now if only I can force myself to get off my duff to actually use them.

BTW, thanks for the comments! It seems the only way I get them is if I specifically ask a question. Anybody wanna know about how the LA SIGGRAPH meeting went?

Schedule for next week:

Mon -- 4:00 to 10:15 pm
Tue -- 8:45 am to 1:00 pm, LA SIGGRAPH meeting
Wed -- 4:15 am to 9:00 am
Thu -- no work
Fri -- 12:45 to 5:15 pm
Sat -- no work
Sun -- 10:00 am church

Two things today:

So the LA Fitness by my house has this deal where you can get a one-week pass for free. However, you can get a two-week pass instead if you pay a reserve rate, which is a percentage of the membership due, and at the end of two weeks, if you want to join, you just pay off the balance or else you can get a refund.

To start off, LA Fitness is a niiiiiiice gym. They've got a heated pool among other things. However, they are just waaaaaay too expensive. But... well, in order to get the two weeks, I did the second option. My question: was that stupid of me? I have every intention of not joining this gym, but I wanted an extra week's worth of access to that pool and the yoga and pilates classes, etc. I just hope I'm not getting myself into trouble.

Second thing, this involves what happened at work:

So this afternoon, I got woken up by my cell (yeah yeah, I was asleep in the afternoon) and it was "T", a lead at my store, and I guess you could call him the VIP of leads since he was the store manager's right-hand man since the beginning until recently when we got an assistant manager. Anyway, this is the guy who's only 19 or 20. Anyway, he asked me if I wanted to take over someone's shift tonight, not mentioning anyone in particular. So I say yes.

Cut to the end of the shift tonight. We were almost done when this older couple bursts in the door. They are the parents of "F," who's shift I took over tonight. They came to pick up F from her shift. We informed them that she didn't work tonight. The dad just goes ballistic. Y'see, F is only 16, and still a minor. The dad yells, "How can you lose track of a 16-yr-old?" See, he was blaming us for not taking responsibility over her. Y'see what happened, right? F pulled a fast one over her parents. Apparently, the mom dropped her off at the store at the beginning of her "shift" so it seems she lied about not working. But I guess F isn't smart enough to realize that if she wanted to keep up the ruse she ought to have come back before her shift "ended" or else called her parents up and told them that she left early and got a ride with someone, etc.

Anyway, after I told my co-workers that it was T that had called me and that I had no idea I was taking over F's shift, they all cracked up. Apparently, F has a thing for T, and she's absolutely ineffective at work when T's present. I could almost say vice versa, too. We were talking about how T should be careful since in California, if they should do the horizontal mambo it's considered statutory rape.

Anyway, it was an upbeat ending to our shift. I mean, it will suck for F and possibly even T, but for us witnesses, it was just hilarious. I just hope I don't get caught up in the middle of any trouble. We were joking about how we'll know what happened if F is allowed to show up for work the next time.

We did wonder something, though. I mean, since F is a minor, who is responsible for her? I mean, since she didn't even set foot in the store, is Starbucks responsible for her whereabouts? Technically she was scheduled to work, but she never clocked in. This is probably one of the reasons why people don't like hiring minors. I don't know the specifics of work permits, though I worked when I was 17. I'm trying to think what I did then, but I don't remember getting anything 'cept a physical.

Wow, it's been a few days since I've even checked e-mail. It's always a nice thing to finally have things to read (e-mail and other people's blogs). Hey, does anybody even care if I post my schedule or not? Right now I just use it as my reference whenever I want to recall my work schedule outside of my house, but I meant it so that people who want to contact me would know when I was home, or else if they've got a similar schedule and wanted to hang out, and such. Eh, whatever.

Things are less hectic at the store now. Good cuz it's not neverending madness. Bad cuz then there's less hours and tips. We got a tip today that the health inspector was coming today. He didn't while I was there, but boy, never has the place looked cleaner!

I've been sleeping erratically, lately. Yeah, what else is new, right? But it's weird cuz now I can't go to sleep before 4 am nowadays, so of course I wake up tired and groggy, so I have to take a nap in the afternoon which means that I'm not tired enough to go to bed before 4 am.... So last Monday night, I actually fell asleep early... only to wake up in the afternoon! The total hours ran in the double digits. Right now I'm forcing myself to stay awake even after only three hours sleep last night....

Meanwhile, I will be actually working on my website! I corrected a few problems on my Flash homework assignments from this past quarter so I'll be putting that up sometime soon. Yeah, I know, empty promises. Later dudes.

In the Year of our Lord, Two-thousand four. Ooh.

I saw The Hours today. It's... a challenging movie. The acting is superb, I gotta say, but I don't quite get the story. The other ppl who saw it with me were saying it's about lesbianism in repressed societies, but I don't think so. I mean, if it is, then they did a poor job of it. I was saying it was more about being trapped by despair and hopelessness. I think they just got caught up with the whole woman-kissing-woman thing and didn't see the broader aspect of it. Or maybe not. Maybe they really are lesbians. Anyway, the movie was pretty good and I could understand the emotional tone of it just from personal experience. I mean, I never wanted to kill myself, but there have been a few times where I felt so blue that I wished life ceased to exist. Ah well....