in the april fool's days past i have always found clever little gimicks
and pranks to perform. this was probably the first in a long tradition
of april fools days where i didn't pull any gags. funny. i just didn't feel like doing them this year.

among my favorites pranks were the ones with jubei my freshman year in
college. the first year i set all the clocks in our room ahead an hour.
another year he got an email from his future self. and in my senior
year i taped up the doors to several people's dorm rooms with newspaper.

at the work place some folks though my pranks were quite clever...
though a good prankster does his best to hide his identity with stealth
and misdirection. the first year i did the simple act of rearranging
the name plates for each of the cubes. but last year was much more fun,
when i posted comments in front of every cubes on our side of the
floor. they each had quotes authored as "the voice of your computer".
for example:

"because you stare at me every day, you've made me so self conscious." - the voice of your computer.

"tell the truth, i won't get mad. who do you like better? me or the phone?" - the voice of your computer.

sigh... to me there are several characteristics that make a "good"
prank. i don't believe in the pranks that are intended to cause
mischief. to me the success of a prank is determined by the ability to
surprise the observer and where you can laugh with the victim of the
prank, not at them. so in a sense... they aren't really pranks... more
like witty acts that make the lives of others more interesting. i'm a
big fan of such things.

by the way. frank miller's sin city opens today.
there was a very good npr segment where kevin smith interviewed frank miller and robert rodriguez.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4569989

artists like frank miller's are a great, because they show that the
world of comic books can be incredible rich as a literary source and
sophisticated artform. i agree that there is too much bias out in the
mainstream that easily look down on comic book writers and artists as
secondary, when often their works are far superior than what is shown
on the big screen. i also recall clef mentioning that there is a
parallel conflict between manga and anime. anyways. it's always a
pleasure to see a perfect translation of an original story medium to
another, and the sin city movie looks real promising.

Heard this one on the radio and made me laugh...  an article is here:

http://www.tampabays10.com/education/education_article.aspx?storyid=12851

Type the following in MS Word and run grammar check:
"Microsoft the company should big improve Word grammar check."

Hand it to the masses for finding another imperfection of a Microsoft
product. You all remember the older version of MS Word... 98 maybe...
where if you typed in four z's ("zzzz") and ran spell check the program
suggests the word "sex" as the correct spelling?

here's a bit of advice to all you guys out there.

Rule 1. don't forget your girlfriend's telephone number.

Rule 2. if you fail rule 1, at least remember the area code.

Rule 3. the convenience of speed dial is no excuse to take an important number for granted.

Rule 4. if you fail rules 1, 2, and 3 carry your cell phone with you at all times.

Rule 5. if you fail rules 1, 2, and 3 then find it necessary to call
said girlfriend when you don't have your cell phone with you, cut your
losses and make the call on another occasion.

Rule 6. do not wake up your girlfriend's sister with a phone call at 1:30 in the morning.
Rule 7. do not wake up your girlfriend's sister with a phone call in
the middle of the night, by mistake and think it's your girlfriend.

failure at follow these cautions will result in fate conspiring to make an ass out of you.. and your friends laughing along.

(that may help clear up the vagueness of the last journal entry)

anways. i've been job searching recently and thinking about how to
perfect the art of answering an phone at work when a recruiter or a
company with a job offer is calling. i usually have to take it outside,
unless you can be careful enough with your conversation so that it's
not obvious. asking them to call you back is still probably the best
option. it's not too bad, but it can be somewhat distracting for me.
especially since this week is busier.

i got my salary increase last week.  woohoo! from my promotion i had since the fourth quarter of last year though. and it wasn't as high as i would have liked. still. at least i can say i make more when i apply for my next job.

argh. i can't believe myself. her sister must think i'm a total dork.
at times i can't help being dorky even if i try. and it's when i try
too hard that things just fall out of hand. sigh... i swear i'm not
that big of a goof.

St. Patrick's Day it is. I sported a light green dress shirt today...
the day for the Irish pride. Even though I don't have a speck of
European blood in me.

Now as for myself, I can't say I know much about how the culture of
Ireland truly is. But remember being continually intrigued by it the
more I learned about it. An Irish high school friend was the first to
introduce to me the phrase "Be like the Irish, Get drunk". Then I read
about how the potato was the staple food in Ireland just as rice was in
China. And I learned about the potato famine.

Granted I don't know much the difference between Scotland and Ireland,
other than they are different locations. I guess much like how many
people are naive about the difference between let's say China and
Taiwan. But I'm guessing the two places have common roots. And among
the people I admire that come from Irish/Scottish lineage are Sir Ian
McKellen, Ewan McGregor, a young lady I had a crush on, my charismatic sixth grade teacher, and the baseball great Mark
McGwire of the Oakland Athletics. (my home team!)

And this St. Patrick's day, it is Mark McGwire that has moved me the most. He appeared before the Congressional hearing
today to discuss the impact of steroids and chemicals on Major League
Baseball. He is incredibly brave for speaking before the committee and
his words were genuine. I was disgusted by the numerous report
headlines describing how McGwire's implies incrimination  after
refusing to answer if he himself did or did not take such substances.
For me it was more important for hear him speak from his heart than for
to pass judgment on him. As for Jose Canseco. Damn this guy
disappointed me. I liked him in the early years, but not as much as the
other A's players. I still remember the year the Oakland A's won the 1989 World Series. Sweeping the San Francisco Giants 4-0 in what was known as the Battle of the Bay. We had a monster roster. Eckersley, Stewart, Canseco, Dave Henderson, Ricky Henderson, and of course McGwire.

I greatly respect sports players who exuberates the love and spirit of
the game in all they do. Mark McGwire I have faith that you have good
intentions and will continue to do great things. May the luck o' the
Irish be with ye, lad. Cheers!

Went to see a phenomenal performance by the Berkely Octet

Opening for them were Princeton's Tigertones and California Golden Overtones. All right! Go all female a cappella groups.

Was thinking that perhaps Sixteen Feet from Swarthmore would also show, but it happened to be yesterday.

Anyways. I've always loved listening to collegiate a cappella performances. Their light and informal atmosphere in an academic
environment show home grown love for good ole fashion vocals.

Oh. You're the best! You know who you are.

Also thanks to all my good friends for the calls, emails, etc.
Trivial or not it's always nice to hear from you all.

Solving this jigsaw puzzle and posting about this sweepstakes for Big Red makes me eligible for free Xanga Premium for life...

me sleepy...

been redoing my homepage. hopefully it will all be worth it. my old
swarthmore one has been relatively untouched for a good two years. about time it was renovated.

i've noticed that the program cuteftp is no longer freeware. that use
to be my ftp application of choice. today i just tried out this one called "my
internet files" which i got from the tucows site. it's works pretty well.

had an interesting dream two nights back. i dreamt that i was one of
the people in the first colony population sent to the planet venus. it
was really trippy. rather than houses, they had what looked like train
cabooses. and each room was essentially a set up like a room on a
train. the colony was pretty small and mostly only the basics of
shelter, farming, transportation, and communication were set up. odd
enough they had an arcade available and i tried one of the games. go
figure.

Two liters of Asahi and one shot (Tolstoy I think it was) later...

I hopped on the ferry home. Then stopped by a Korean BBQ restaurant at
Jack London Square to sober up with some food and clean fluids before I
drove back. I asked to sit at the bar since I didn't feel like a table
for one. They were generally nice about it. And it helped.

Later on in the night the headache came on. Did I ever really have a hangover before? Sheez I feel like crap.

I grabbed a blanket went to my couch with a laptop and decided to rest
it off. Upon my perusing the internet, I stumbled across an article. Of
which I shamelessly stole the title from.
http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=8726

Jamie Wakefield.

Maybe you never heard of the name. But to those select few of
us, he is a legend in his own right. The best writer of Magic gameplay
I have ever come to know. He exuberates the spirit of the game in a way
that is at the very core of what makes Magic great. The man has not
played for five years. But man, reading his writing again sure brings
nostalgia. It was such a pleasure to read.

And that's what I learned tonight. Jamie Wakefield articles help ease hangovers. If only for a bit.