hello everyone from rainy sacramento. things are business as usual around here. new town, new faces, but everything else is pretty much the same. i’m still the same old silly boy you have all grown to know and love. don’t worry folks, i’m on track for keeping this blog fresh and exciting for the long haul.

work is going fine. i need to take more initiative on my own to push myself to learn new things. my ambitions and my drive aren’t quite matched up yet, and the fact that i never get enough sleep during the night is probably the #1 contributing factor. how does one fit all the things he/she wants to do in a single day?? i always have such high ambitions in the morning (at least after i have gotten out of the shower and feel somewhat alert). i’m gonna work hard all day, go to the gym, make and eat a healthy dinner, read a ton, program a ton, and get to bed by 10:30. hah.

i’ve made a few really cool friends, but i am afraid that the above mentioned me being a silly boy thing might have set me back a few steps in that area. does it mean i will miss out on a lot of cool opportunities? yeah, probably, but i suppose i need to learn my lessons. feel a bit like i am back to square one on the social scene, but i’ve been here before. one of my new years resolutions was to be more outgoing and social, so i will continue to do my best do that. wish me luck.

well, i think i had better shut up now for all of our sakes.

i have placed a new poll in the sidebar. please submit a response (yes, even those of you who use RSS readers, please take the extra 30 seconds). just wanting to know who all is reading this. thanks.

ok, so no, i didn’t go to a dance. i went to a little shindig at an acquaintances house. they had guitar hero 3. yeah.

afterwards a few of us hit up the international house of pancakes. i ate when i shouldn’t have.

i only got paid for 1 week since i had messed up my time card. that makes the next two weeks a little tight on cash, but my next paycheck should be sweet with 3 weeks of pay, plus my “relocation package” money (supposedly to help offset the cost of me moving here… which of course i am getting over a month after i already paid for moving here…), so that will be nice.

my family is starting a new website. its unclear as to how open it is going to be, so i don’t know if i will be able to share any of it with you. we already have a small photo gallery and the beginnings of a family history wiki. its fun so far, and i think one of my weekend projects is going to be designing an interface in iweb. right now all we have us is a microsoft publisher template page. it looks like it was written for netscape version 4… woo.

i got my second “kudo” today at work. it basically means i did a good job at something, so i get to print off a little certificate, take it to a manager, and pick up a $25 gift certificate for a store of my choice. not a bad deal. i think i am going to save up a few to buy an LCD monitor. i want one.

at work i have been studying google’s new mobile phone operating system, android. i am going to give a presentation on it to the software technical marketing engineering group on wednesday. google hasn’t released the source code to it yet, so its can basically only be run on google’s supplied emulator. a couple of people have hacked it to get it working on some hardware… i am actually thinking about picking up a sharp zaurus off of ebay to give it a shot. the binaries running on the emulator were compiled for an ARM5 architecture, which is whats inside a zaurus. but what i would really like is to get my hands on the source code, which may very well be possible since intel is part of the open handset alliance, meaning they are part of this whole android project. then i could play around with putting it on some of the x86 hardware i’m working with. the possibility is slim, but it would be pretty sweet. of course if it does, none of you would probably be hearing about since i would need to probably sign some crazy NDAs or whatever. so yeah, wish me luck.

i think i might get paid tomorrow. that would certainly be a happy thing. let’s cross our fingers.

there is a dance tomorrow night. do i go?

pros:

• possibility of meeting attractive women

cons:

• i am a bad dancer
• i am not good at meeting new people
• i am not good at asking girls to dance
• it takes me a while to warm up with the charm
• there is only a slight chance the girl would reciprocate the interest even if i make it past all of those issues

question: is the possibility of me meeting my jessica alba worth the pain and humiliation? good question.

ok, so, i need to get this story down for historical value.

i got sick on christmas. at least sort of. my tonsils starting getting sore. aside from that, i felt fine. just sore tonsils. so i let it slide and played with my friends over break anyway. it was good. but they were still sore as i got on the airplane to fly to san francisco. but i figured i would have a nice day of sleeping on the plane and a few days of rest in the warmth for me to fully recover. i had even bought the $30 seat upgrade for the airplane so i could be comfortable. well, i had the pleasure of sitting next to a very large man. i am sure he is a great person, but he took up about 1/3 of my seat in addition to his own. so, i had to lean out into the aisle. which meant that every time i started dozing off, someone would run into my shoulder. so much for getting rest on the plane. in fact, i felt terrible by the time i made it to my grandparents. that evening i couldn’t sleep i was in so much pain. the next day was spent lying in bed and going to the doctors instead of buying a car like i had wanted to. i got a prescription, and by the time i got to the drug store i was pretty delirious with pain. they put me through some run around with not being able to put the medication on my insurance, blah blah and lets just say i was not happy nor all with it. finally got my medicine and felt about 100x better after an hour of slamming my tonsils with anti-biotics. i felt good enough to go out and buy a car the next day and take care of everything, but my tonsils stayed really swollen. when your tonsils get that big, its hard to swallow, so stuff kept going up into my nose. i would need a tissue every time i drunk a glass of water because so much would come out my nose. and i sounded like i had the weirdest voice in the world. it kind of sucked even though i wasn’t in the all the pain i had been in before.

then comes sunday morning. i woke up still feeling a bit nasty, which was making me nervous since work started the next day. grandma had me stay in bed instead of going to church, so i slept a few more hours. when i woke up, i felt a little better. by now, my left tonsil had shrunk, but the right one was still very large. my mom called, and as i was talking to her i started tasting something weird in the back of my mouth. if you are queasy, skip to the next paragraph. i told my mom i thought my tonsil might be leaking, so she told me to go gargle some salt water and hopefully clear it out. so i did just that. and i started spitting out some of the craziest gunk ever. it was a mix of blood, pus, and mucus. big green globs surrounded by yellow and red spit. all of this coming out of my tonsil. i gargled salt water and spit that junk out for around 20 or some minutes.

when i was done, my tonsil was almost completely shrunk down to normal size, and i was in absolutely no pain. i no longer felt feverish or anything. it was quite a relief. so, that is the story of my christmas break sickness.

just got back from a dope partay. i was totally shredding on guitar hero 3 and looking like a total nerd in front of everyone else. hurray for being awkward in any and all social situations.

i like the weather here. since a lot of you who read this are still enjoying your time back in utah, i promise this is the last time i will mention the weather until winter is over. then i might start complaining about it being too hot, and we can commiserate together. anyway, i opened the windows on saturday afternoon to let the breeze in. yes, i opened the windows on martin luther king jr. weekend. i remember last year spending my day sitting in a hospital waiting room while latenighthunter recovered from puking his brains out all night. it was hella cold out. like single effing digits cold. and here i am with my windows open. word.

i’m meeting people. its a good thing. i’m still not quite past the awkward stage. perhaps thats a good thing?

work is going well. a new intern just showed up today, so i am no longer the new kid. which i think is good; i just need to get out of that mindset. i am still in the mode that i am so worried about messing something up that i either ask a question that i already know the answer to or i screw up because i am too nervous. blah. so much for good first impressions and such. obviously not a strong point. but i am starting to get the swing of things. and as long i can stay awake during meetings (whoops), i think i will learn a lot.

i think i get paid friday. that will be a happy thing. no more life of poverty and what not. i really want to buy a cool suit.

goodbye to tangerine from the board. if it wasn’t for your stalking, i probably would have never gotten involved as much as i did. namasté.

enough for tonight? ok.

well, it has only taken me 10 days, but i think i am pretty much unpacked. my room is basically organized, and its pretty dang empty to be honest. i really don’t own that much stuff, and maybe about a third of it is sitting in my friends' basement back in provo (thanks girls!). but i guess its good to stay lean and mobile during this part of my life.

so as i was unpacking i started getting hit with some nostalgia. i was trying to organize some of my office supplies, and i was realizing how some of them were the same ones my mom helped me buy at walmart back in wisconsin a few days before i left for byu. so, yes, i was having office supply nostalgia.

man, these three years have gone by fast. i should be more grateful for the time i have.

ok, well, we finally got internet at home today. hurray! don’t have time for much more of an update than that, but now that i have access, i hope to start posting on a more regular basis. peace out.

yup, got it yesterday. a dark green 1997 saturn sl2, 78,000 miles for $5000. not too shabby. definitely not a babe mobile (no built in magnets i’m afraid) but it will get the job done i hope.

what should i name my car????

work starts monday morning. i’m freaking nervous.

goodbye 2007. hello 2008. it will be a year of changes, i can feel it.

i made some resolutions last year. how did i do?

• “be a nice guy again.”

i think i did at least a decent job. see this. i will keep working on this.

• “straight A’s.”

huh.. well. not quite. but i am happy with my grades still.

• “bring sexy back.”

indisputable.

• “less procrastinating.”

sigh… i will get around to it.

• “find a hobby.”

i think i did pretty decently. at least i feel like i was much more involved this year that i have been in the past. i felt like i spent a lot more time out of the apartment for things other than school.

• “fall in love.”

done.

• “have someone to kiss next news year eve.”

oh wow. no comment. puke

ok, so i did decently. i mean, not perfect, but i would say this year, post winter semester went a lot better. plus this was kind of an exciting year. i:

• had a speaking part in a musical
• went to japan
• became a teaching assistant
• secured an internship at intel and did all the prep for that
• made a lot of new friends
• went on quite a few dates with some awesome girls
• was vindicated in my love for cho chang on multiple occasions

good times. this year appears to be building up for just as much excitement. i leave wisconsin tomorrow for sunny california to give myself a few days before i start the internship. i need to buy a car. unfortunately, i can’t move into the apartment (that i hope i have.. still no confirmed contract) until the 7th, the same day i start at intel, so thats fun. lots of adventures.

anyway, i guess i had better make some resolutions.

• make everything i can out of this internship. learn a ton, experience a ton, make a ton, and enjoy a ton.
• be more friendly and outgoing. i am moving to a new city and state where i know no one. i really want to make some good friends.
• get in good shape. i have been away from the weight room for over a month now with sickness, finals, etc., and i can feel it. time to get back.
• stop being afraid to fall in love. who knows if it will happen or not, but i at least want to allow myself to have it happen.

i like them. i think this year holds a lot of promise. i suppose those who read this blog might get a pretty negative view of my life at times, since i usually only blog when i am upset about something. but my life is good and i need to be grateful. thanks to all of you friends and family out there who read this that have helped me this last year, and i look forward to spending another great year with you all.