2/24/2003

We’re having a hard time finding an NIV bible for our PDA. The program with the best interface doesn’t offer the NIV version. Vanessa found a site with free older books for your PDA. She downloaded a Sherlock book for me. I was talking with Vanessa about the idea of clipping the index fingernail to sharp point to use as a natural stylus for the PDA, but then one might accidentally scratch people and things.

Over The Top was on cable again last night. It’s the arm wrestling movie featuring Sylvester Stallone with his signature “over the top” arm wrestling move in which he cunningly moves his fingers “over the top” of the opponent’s fist. Yes, one of those artsy intellectual films. I think this movie should be shown at immigration centers to show new Americans what is expected of them. They will be expected to arm wrestle, drive semis, grow large beards, double their weight and drink motor oil like the rest of us…yes, even that Latvian woman sitting in the back will be expected to do this. Allow me to paraphrase the wise words of Sylvie from the film, “When I turn my hat around. I change…I’m like a machine…like this truck.” I’ll have to remember that when I’m programming at my keyboard at work.

We saw flamenco dancing yesterday at UNM. The star of the show was some guy who looked like your average guy on the street…but he sang like Gypsy Kings and flamencoed very well. He sweated his heart out there on the stage. (He was literally flinging the sweat from his hair upon his “clapping crew” as he danced furiously. I saw one of them flinch.) There were many students dancing in the show. It included an unexpected “flamenco to classical music.” Anyway, I’d like to see these people play Dance Dance Revolution. They’d be unbelievable. After flamenco, we went to a Mexican bakery with the mum-in-law and gramma Peny. I got an apple pastry thing and something with “orange stuff” inside that was pretty good. For lunch, we had gone to Cafe Istanbul with me two brothers. They were not exactly crazy for the food. I have to give them points for trying though.

1/31/2002

Vince came over and we nerded till 2 AM. (on a school night!) The nerding included DDRMAX, Need For Speed, WC III, Jedi Outcast, many Euro music videos and lots of Crystal Lite for some reason. I installed the old realplayer 8. Realplayer 8 was evil, but the new Realplayer is just insane. They automatically check the “wanna buy a monkey” checkbox.

4/30/2001

The wedding date is moved up to September 29. They checked out Vanessa’s dog at my apartment office and said the dog’s not too big to live there after we get married. Very excited and wishing it was even sooner but there are other scheduling constraints. Got wedding bands this weekend. Went to bible study. Helped Vanessa rebuild her mom’s swamp cooler. (Well, not really but there sure is a lot of work in replacing parts.)

Went to some seminar about how the houses in the upcoming development are built. I look forward to installing stuff from smarthome.com…like robotic sentries. Well, not really.

Ya know, these 80s radio stations remind me that there really is a lot of unpleasant 80s music. From Journey to John Cougar Mellencamp to Billy Joel. It wasn’t all cool synths and rhythms. I guess there have always been ballads but you can avoid them if you try…unless you have a girlfriend. 🙂 Ever notice that Belinda Carlisle sounds surprisingly like a chipmunk?

Hmm, disturbing new trends in spam…”You’ve received 2 free cruise tickets.” Doesn’t that push into the realm of fraud? The spammer seems to be in Russia though. Wonder if it’s smarter than the old “Here’s that e-mail you requested” thing. Oh well, just keep reporting spam to spamcop. Gotta love that site.