David's Tangled Thoughts

From MSNBC: Car trying to win parking spot slams into store. A KIA maybe?

I could show you more of my home than you'd ever want to know. But let me show you my home away from home: Welcome to San Fernando, La Union. It is a provincial capital located on the Island of Luzon in the Republic of the Philippines. It is also my home away from home. Both my mother and my step mother have family here. I have been here four times. First when I was a baby. Second, when I was seven and my dad got another tour at Wallace Air Base. Third on a family visit in 1999. And the last, where all this media came from, in 2003 when I was on a Study Abroad program with the University of the Philippines, Los Baños which is about a days drive to the south. Because of the time and costs, I haven't been able to visit as much as I would like. I am actually more comfortable here than anywhere else in the country and have no worries about wandering around the city on my own--even though it would be smarter of me if I didn't. Since a couple people liked the vidcast, I t

My dad, in his retirement, has picked up a number of hobbies. Sometimes they annoy mother and me as we would much rather him fix the basement or paint the house. That's not to say that he doesn't do handy things around the house. I mean, he did fix the washer--for the fourth time. He did order replacement wheels for a vacuum--that sucks (in that it doesn't). And he made sure that you could watch two televisions four different ways because one simple way isn't enough. My dad got a radio operator's license. He's even installed a multistory antennae. Now he just needs to get broadcasting equipment. Last year he took up beekeeping. His first year turned out to be a bust. This year, though, he netted some results. A bucket of honey from the two hives he started. I guess we're set in the honey department for the next decade or so. (Honey never goes bad.) Click to enlarge. After the first round of filtering. It looks sort of like a bucket of ice tea.

These pictures were taken a few nights ago at Erin's house. There was a fire in the neighborhood. And even though there is just tons of things to do in Niles, we hung around a bit to see what was up. Jason, Erin's new boyfriend, works for a cleaning company in South Bend and was right on it--his company landed the job of boarding and cleaning out the place. After he had a chance to go over there and do a little work, we learned that it was a grease fire in the kitchen.

There was a mini potluck at work today. One of our co-workers is leaving and it was also her wedding anniversary. She was approved for time off because her mother is going through some health issues. Although she hasn’t been “let go” everyone is thinking that she probably won’t be back. The project is winding down and once it is done the vast majority of the temps are going to be terminated. 200 of us are hoping to get into the half dozen or so positions that are rumored to be opened. The potluck was a mini success. Sure there were only seven or so dishes for about ten people (it was mostly our clique) but it was some damn fine food. The spinach dip that I bought brought was a hit. Lori, the lady who is leaving, mentioned that she was interested in listening to some of the music that I listen to. Over the weekends, if we are working, we are allowed to bring in personal music players. One day another co-worker asked what I was listening to and at the time I let her listen to s

Well here's my first (and maybe my last) vidcast. Please be "um" gentle when you leave comments :)

There were plenty of movies that I wanted to see this late spring and summer. Then there was hardly anything to look forward to. Last night while accompanying Erin, Jason, and Kaitlin (I think that's her name) to see " Sydney White ," I saw the preveiw for " Elizabeth: The Golden Age ." I'm a huge fan of " Elizabeth " plus, I like period films anyways so I'm excited.

Spotted some new items on the shelf at Meijer* today. They certainly didn't seem appetizing. *Meijers for those in Michigan. My-Ger for those with fake Scottish accents.

In a few days, it will be my 3 year blogiversary. I've been thinking of doing a podcast or a videocast for some time and I thought that this might be a good opportunity to try it. But I don't have anything to talk about. At least, there isn't a subject that I can lift out of my head and have it be coherent. But I can talk about me. It's a subject I know a lot about. :) Here's the deal: For the next few days, I'd like you readers to give me questions that you might have about me. This is open to anyone so even if you are a lurker or just happen to stumble upon the site, go ahead and fire away. Use the anonymous option if you want. Ask anything at all and I promise to answer them all truthfully. (I'm opening a can of worms aren't I?) Bring it on! :) The vidcast will be put up about a week from now or maybe earlier. 42

The cake that I made for the Michigan-Notre Dame game turned out to be a hit with the crowd. At first it looked like no one was going to go for it but when I left there were only a few squares left. I got compliments from strangers after asking if I made it. So I’m all puffed up now. Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it: Blueberry Topping Cake Cake: 1 Pint blueberries (not the tiny Maine ones) 2 Eggs 2 Cups all purpose flour 2 Tsp baking powder 1 Cup sugar ½ Cup milk (I used 2%) 1 Tsp vanilla 1/3 Cup canola oil Beat eggs and sugar. Mix in flour and baking powder and milk until smooth. Add oil and vanilla and mix well. Put in a 13” X 9”. Add blueberries and fold in with spatula. Topping goes on next. Cake Topping: ½ Cup sugar (I used brown which I think is better) 4 Tbsp butter 1 Tsp cinnamon ¼ Cup flour Mix ingredients together. It should be crumbly. Sprinkle to cover. Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes.

<-- See also: Leave pyramids to the Egyptians. I have a file that lists blogs that I've come across that I have found a tad bit interesting. If it looks like it might be worth a further read and if it looks like it is updated fairly regularly, it might go on that list. Very few blogs on that list will get comments from me. (There are some on the blogroll that don't see me very often either.) But--every now and then, I bring up the list and see if anything interesting has been written. Guess whose website I've had for quite a while now and didn't even know it. Yup, it's J___ the guy that is involved with the pyramid scheme. I soooo want to give you a link but to it but I would feel bad letting you all see him and read his stuff--which is mostly poetry. It's like pointing to a zoo animal and putting him on display for inspection. I'd feel bad about it. And then if one of you actually wrote something on his blog about the scheme, I would probably

It's like one in the morning and I'm up from a six hour nap. Yikes, I didn't know I was that tired. I've been up doing stuff since five in the morning and had been prepping for the until 11 the previous night so I guess, it's not terribly surprising. You see, today (actually, yesterday) was the Michigan-Notre Dame game which is a big deal around these parts. Notre Dame is only minutes away but you know how die-hard many Michiganders are about UofM. I took off early from work. I justified it saying that working on the weekend is optional anyways. I got there to see the last quarter of the Michigan State-Pittsburgh game. What a butt clincher that was. State has the problem of being a really good team--until they decide to fuck it up towards the end. Pittsburgh had a few minutes at the end to make a touchdown and squeak out a victory and I almost lost my cookies the couple times a long pass was successfully thrown. But State managed to come out on top, 17-13

A few times a year, I will get into some long speech with someone and then I will end it with, "...and that's the truth. *raspberry*" If you ever wondered where I got that from, I give you Edith Ann. I don't do it very often because I can't blow a raspberry very well. My tonuge is too tied. h/t to sawing14s for the YouTube video. Picture from lilytomlin.com . Check her out.

So on Tuesday night, I went ahead and went to the meeting for this business opportunity. I was finally going to get some more meat—something more than just vague statements on how to make money. Hell… maybe I was actually going to learn the name of the business that I’d be working for. Kapitano wasn’t the only one who told me to come down with something. I probably should have but considering that this was the second time I was approached, I wanted to know more. This time it was a bit more personal because now they are touching my friends. So I get there and there are a bunch of people coming in and looking sharp with their business attire. I found out that most of them are IBOs (although at the time, I didn’t know what an IBO was). They are all friendly people. But I notice that when coming in, they are paying money. Five dollar entrance fees from everyone except the newbies—me and a few others who get free admission because we were “guests.” By the way, before I left home, I

Sorry, I know I said six but I went with my mother to the sari sari store. She was sending a remittance back to the Philippines. And that gets us to this post about immigration. This was brought up over at Kapitano's who noted that whenever the illegal immigration comes up it seems to fall into one of two camps: there being too many of them or there being a problem with "tracking" them. I'm going to venture that it is that and a lot more. In fact so much that I could do a whole other blog on the subject. But I want to write about illegal immigration and my take on it and then get into immigration to the United States to close it up. My own take on illegal immigration? I'm against it. I think that any person that crosses our borders illegally needs to be deported and thrown into prison if necessary. It has nothing to do with who they are, where they came from, or why they are came but the simple fact that they violated the rule of law. So to start off with there b

I've got a case of blogarrhea coming on. Tomorrow should bring you a post each on: my meeting, the immigration issue, and an incident that happened to me today which is tied into the 9-11 anniversary. There's a possibility of two more but I may hold on to them for a couple more days. I hope to have them up by 6pm EDT.

I am not a happy camper right now. On Friday I got a call from a friend of Stacey. She had given him my name and so he called to arrange a meeting to see if I would be interested in a business that was expanding in the area. Cool. So we set up a time to meet at Starbucks today. My first tip off that this wasn't on the level was his glossing over the name of the business and what they do exactly. But do I pay attention to my gut? No. I was having the same feeling when I was scouted for some i nternet company last year. I bailed out on that meeting when the guy talked about going to some workshop and paying for it. Mentorship . Passive income . Earning $50,000+ in the first year . --Yeah right. So I go to Starbucks and I spot Stacey's friend. He's with two other people and it's pretty evident he's not the one that is going to talk to me. Tubbo is. Tubbo did. And Tubbo pulled out the same damn pamphlet that I saw last year. Fucking hell! Of course, I'm too p

Michigan lost to Oregon 7 to 39. ESPN says it's the most lopsided loss since 1968. I am actually concerned. As much as you can hate a family member, you don't want them to be killed. Anyone in need of a football coach? Read about it here .

We all know that Microsoft is evil but so is Apple ! They are tempting me to cross over to the dark side... from the dark side. Hmmm... how does that work? Anyways, I really wanted an iPhone but the price and the AT&T contract pretty much sunk it for me. But now comes the iPod Touch. Ooooh. I was this || close to buying one over the internet the day they did a story on it. This || close. Unfortunately for them my VISA bills were on my computer desk reminding me that I still owe them a couple thousand dollars. I did my best to suppress that little voice in my head that said, "What's $300 more?" Anyone who is planning on upgrading, I'll gladly take in your old iPod. :) On a related subject, I don't listen to much radio music anymore. Since high school, really, I have lost interest in the latest pop music. You have those damn Backstreet Boys, Brittney Spears, and their clones to thank for that. So much of it seemed to be the same and there really

In the late 80's I was living in Key West, Florida. My dad had decided that it was time for me to meet my grandparents. I had met them before but now I was old enough to actually remember it. So he and I went, leaving my mom because she couldn't get off work. As we were leaving Georgia he asked me if I wanted to visit Mammoth Cave since it was on the way to Michigan. At first, I was excited about it and said yes. I had never been in a cave before and with a name like "Mammoth" it has to be good. The longer I had to think on it, however, the more I got freaked. I was imagining a large cave that would swallow me whole (because now "mammoth" seemed more like "mouth"). So when he asked me again, I said no and we ended up driving by it. I regretted chickening out but I made it there eventually on one of our first vacations with my new step mom. The other night I was having a drink with Dusty and he told me that he had accepted an offer from GE

Happy Labor Day . (Has anyone actually said that?) I was off from work today and so I thought that maybe I'd take advantage of some Labor Day sales. Eh, they weren't all that great but I'm a buyer and not a shopper so regardless if there was a sale or not, I had two things on my mind: speakers and shoes. The Boston speakers that I got in 2002 weren't cutting it anymore. The the connector was worn so bad that I had to press it against the socket to make it work. When I started having to fiddle around with it for a few minutes, it was time for it to be replaced. But money and the lack of it caused me to put off purchasing even a set of cheapies until today. So I go into Best Buy hoping that I can find something similar to my Bostons. My Bostons cost me $80 when I bought it. And for a 2.1 system, I loved them. They were definitely a step up from those shitty Compaq ones that I got when I bought my computer. The store did have comparable 2.1's that were in the same pr

Ask any of my family members if a I am a patient person and they would probably laugh. But when it comes to certain things that I know are beyond my control, I do stay calm and collected when many others would loose their tops. Yesterday I went to Master Cuts in the mall for a haircut. It had been a couple months since the last time I had it cut and I was getting tired of actually having to comb it. So I get there and there are two workers each busy with a customer. A teenage boy is sitting next to his mother who is getting her hair colored. He was waiting for his turn for a perm. (I did not know that guys got perms but whatever.) Ahead of me was another guy. I put my name down on the sheet at 1:55. Mostly because of dye lady and perm boy, I did not end up getting into the chair until 4:00. To be fair, the girl working repeatedly told me that I was going to have a long wait. Well, I had nothing to do. The guy in front of me got pissy and left so I was next on the list. I could wait it

Okay season openers had Michigan State over the University of Alabama 55-18. Unfortunately I had to work but since openers are cake walks anyways, I didn't really mind. I was getting paid time and a half at work plus my cell is programed to send me txt messages updating the MSU vs. UAB game every quarter. The real story to today (at least so far) is the Michigan upset . And I mean upset . Big Bro just got his face slapped by the Mountaineers of Appalachian State . Who? Yeah, exactly. Who the hell are they? But whatever... I love 'em already. I mean, in all honesty, it's humiliating enough for Michigan when they loose to Michigan State but to loose to a second tier school... aww man do I feel the pain. You might even say that I feel sorry for them. Read another article here . UPDATE 09/02/2007 @ 1549: After Penn State concluded their game, the students lingered on in their stadium to watch the final moments of the Michigan game. Watch their reaction as the