shaving costs money!

one day, i was shaving and i noticed that the razor was now not only cutting hair, but it was also cutting off chunks of my skin! since i could not recall the last time i had changed the disposable razor head, i went to the drug store to pick up a pack of a pack of razor blades.

when i went to the drug store, i fully had the intention of purchasing a nice pack of disposable razor blades--that is, until i noticed the price tag on them. $20? $15? for what? a couple of thin pieces of stainless steel and plastic?

i was ready to resign myself to paying more for the blades than i had originally paid for the stupid handle when i noticed an electric shaver perched on the shelf next to the overpriced disposable cartridges. it was a cheap generic brand electric shaver that also came with a free nose hair trimmer. and all of this was for a mere $10! so the high tech solution was actually cheaper than the low tech safety razor one, and hopefully will last longer.

jumping logs

having purchased a bike recently (well, two bikes, but who's counting?) i started biking to work a few days ago. since the bike i ride is a mountain bike, i take great pride in taking great 4 inch leaps from curbs and running over twigs and other items foolish enough to get in my way. the third morning i was biking to work, i found a stick foolishly blocking my path of travel. with a sneer, i quickly ran over the offending stick and was my way. not more than fifty meters down the street, i noticed that it was getting harder to pedal. this was soon followed by a rather eerie flopping sound. after struggling to ride a few more meters, i looked down to see that my rear tire was basically completely flat and that i was riding on rim. luckily, i had just turned into the parking lot of my work building, so i was able to get to work without any trouble.

patching the tire was a trial by fire as i had never done so before. luckily, building security had a kit and pump available for me. while patching the tire, i managed to knock off my front light and unseat the rear derailleur's cable. i also noticed that genius me ordered a schrader only pump when my tube has a presta valve. a mountain bike with a presta valve?!?! wonderful.

if i continue to get flats every 15 miles, i'll have to start looking into slime...

strange...

my mom called to tell me not to call her tonight. she's tired and wants to go to sleep. am i that annoying to talk to?

the strangest bit it is that i rarely call her. she's always the one calling me!

big bear skiing

this weekend, my cousin 'J' and i planned on going to big bear lake to go skiing. i arrived in westwood late on friday (too late to see the illusionist for $2) and we both decided that we were too tired to attempt to drive to big bear for morning skiing. so we agreed to get some sleep and try to buy the half day lift ticket, which started at noon. of course, we had a lively discussion on the merits of desktops vs laptops vs future palmtops until 4am, thus negating any sort of extra sleep we might obtain by going to the ski resort late.

we left westwood at 9am, which should have been ample time to traverse the 120 or so miles to big bear. unfortunately, as soon as we entered the mountainous highway, we came up against bumper to bumper traffic. but this wasn't normal every day los angles traffic. this was LA traffic to the fourth power. cars were moving so slowly, people were able to play around in the snow, use the (natural) facilities, and walk ahead in an attempt to find the cause of the backup. we had the honor of being entertained by a car full of nubile girls as they winked knowingly and made kissy faces at us. but what could possibly cause this small mountain road to be backed up?

after several hours of driving at 4 miles per hour, we found that people were stopping in the middle of the road to put on tire chains. what made this more puzzling was the fact that the road was completely dry! why would anyone bother putting on chains and clacking down the road when there was no snow? a few hours later, we found the answer as we pulled up to a cop inspecting every car for chains. he refused us passage beyond the checkpoint as we did not have chains. apparently the dry (!! no slush, no ice, not even wet!) ground was unsafe for the police to allow californian drivers to continue without chains.

it just so happened that just before the police checkpoint, there was a smaller ski resort that was open. with no means of getting to bear mountain, we decided to ski at this smaller place. after buying a night lift ticket, we were on the slopes by 4pm. at approximately 4:10pm, we had reached the top of the small mountain, ready to ski. at 4:12pm, we decided that it was way too cold to ski. when we got to the bottom of the mountain, we found out that with the wind chill factored in, we were skiing in -12 degrees fahrenheit. instead of using the skis that i rented, in order to salvage what value that we could from our night lift tickets, i chose to rent yet even more equipment. so we ended up spending the frigid evening snowboarding on the lower and (marginally) warmer bunny hill.

thank god for heated seats!

nerd != weak

today i had the opportunity to hang out in the server manufacturing building. i had to withstand the frigid (well, not really all that frigid) temperatures of the server room to work on a box that sells for tens of thousands of dollars. the pale complexion of nerds gained by hours of basement gaming and working on tans under the fluorescent tubes of lights in cubicles certainly has some merit; yet i would like to call into question the widely held belief that nerds are puny weaklings barely able to lift up the books they are so often associated with. don't believe me? try picking up a server from a rack. they are large enough to be awkward and at the same time, heavy enough to require you to use your back. try racking some servers a couple of dozen times and you'll see it's not easy been white and nerdy.

words cannot express...

one week ago, i thought i could not be more embarrassed.

today, it turns out that i was wrong.