As of yet, I've still had no luck finding a version of Superman by The Clique. I've got to admit, I'm quite taken by the 31.7 second clip from Amazon, and am desperate to hear the whole thing. It's sort of almost an obsession at this point just to hear the song even once. There was that really crappy version of the song that was used in the Lotus Notes commercial a few years ago. Some of the more naive REM "fans" bemoaned that REM had sold out when that song was on the commercial. First of all, they didn't own the rights to the song and even if they did, who the hell cares. I hate people who get upset when their favorite band gets popular and successful or gets a good record deal. Yes, I'm sure any band would much prefer playing The Roxy to RFK.

Speaking of concerts, it was exactly one year ago tonight that I saw U2 at The Pondin Anaheim. The concert ended at like 1 am, and then I had to catch a 5:30 am flight to visit my friend in Washington. I hada layover in Memphis, TN. During the 45 minutes I was at that airport, I must have seen like 10 people without teeth. No offense to any of my friends who live there, but I hate Tennessee. As far as I'm concerned, there should only be 49 states. Tennessee (along with San Bernardino County) should be kicked out of the Union. Of course, Katie is from San Bernardino County, but she's from Big Bear, which is an acceptable place to be from. Not that I have a right to talk, since I was born in 29-Palms, but I only lived there for a few months before moving to Fresno. Oh wait...that's not much better.

Of course, I didn't stay in Fresno for too long. From there we moved to Camp Lejeune, NC. In case you can't tell, my dad was in the Marines. From there we moved to Washington, and then we moved to Kailua, Hawaii. That was pretty cool, although I was only like 4 when we moved there, and 7 years old when we left. I did go to kindergarten there, though. Kindergarten was fun, except I had an arch-enemy named Louis-Boy. I swear, I hated that kid.

Ok...this post has been mostly nonsense. My roommate is gone for the weekend, which is good because I needed some "me time". Incidentally, if you ever feel like your life sucks, just check out this guy's weblog. It's seriously the most depressing thing I've ever seen.

Ok, I think I'll go to sleep now. I've got to find something to do tomorrow, because I don't really wanna have a repeat of last Saturday night, which sucked.

In case you're wondering, I tried to post this last night but something went horribly wrong.

Well, I'm pretty exhausted. This has been a tiring week. I've been up late every night, and getting up at about 5:45 in the morning to go to work. I guess I should also note that work has been quite stressful and will continue to be so until sometime in September.

I've gotten my commute down to about 45 minutes. After much experimenting, I determined that Wilshire is the best route to get there from here. Of course, next week might be a problem, because they are going to be doing some roadwork in Beverly Hills, and Wilshire will be reduced to one lane, so I might have to do something different next week. I wish there were more exciting things in my life for me to talk about than my commute. I'm sure you do also.

I had pizza for dinner tonight. But I guess that's not too exciting. In fact, I'm feeling somewhat ill because of it. Last night, I had sushi with my friend Josh Allen. I hadn't seen him for a while, and he called me last night asking if I wanted to go eat. That was good, because I was trying to get out of the house, because my roommate was having people over and I didn't really feel like dealing with that. Among the many things I ordered was an oyster shooter, and I spent the next hour or so trying to keep it down. It was good, but it was the equivalent of trying to swallow a raw egg.

Tonight, I was hoping to have the energy to stay up to watch ER. But the fact is that I'm exhausted and I'm not sure I'll have the energy. Oh well, that's why we have Tivo...now I can watch it whenever I so desire.

So, since I don't really want to stay up until 11:00, I am going to go to bed. I got my bed at Ikea like over a year ago, but that's a whole nother story and, because of my experience with that, I am boycotting Ikea. I won't even buy so much as a place mat from them for at least several more years.

Ok, so I didn't post anything for a couple of days. I've been kind of busy, I guess. Maybe busy isn't the right word, per se. I was just out Sunday night and I went out last night. So, those of you who look forward to my daily musings, I apologize for the gap in my pontification.

Sunday afternoon I watched Braveheart 2. That movie isn't so bad, but it's pretty much the same plot, except that it's in America instead. I don't think there's ever been a truly great movie made about the Revolution. At least nothing on the quality levels of Glory or Saving Private Ryan or even Three Kings (which just fucking rocks, even with George Clooney, from TV's Facts of Life).

Anyway, after watching The Patriot, I went to church, and then went to Ruby's, because they were donating 20% of their profit to the Kosovo Project that night.

So, last night I got home from work and there was a message from Katie telling me that she had broken up with Pete, and she was trying to get people to go out and celebrate. That's a good thing, because Pete is an idiot. I don't think I've ever met somebody named Pete who I could stand to be around. Actually, scratch that. There's Peter McWilliams, from Minnesota, whom I met in Kosovo last year. That guy rocks. So, anyway, we went out in a modest sized group to Hollywood and first we went to Dublin's, then to Bar Marmont. I had too much to drink, particularly since I had given blood earlier that day. I'm pretty sure it's not a good idea to give a pint of blood and then go drinking, but oh well. Luckily Katie drove, not me.

So, needless to say, it was hard as hell to drag my ass out of bed this morning and go to work, but I managed to do it, and had quite a productive day, despite my pounding headache. I received an e-mail from my supervisor today that was filled to the brim with kudos for my performance thus far. Hooray. Anyway, I was supposed to go have coffee with my friend Angie, from the Shoah Foundation, tonight. But seeing as I am completely exhausted, I'll have to take a rain check. What I'd really like is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, so I'm going to go make that now. Cheers.

I'm not sure what it is, exactly, but I've spent most of this afternoon/evening in a strange mood. It's funny...sometimes I'm perfectly content to sit at home with nothing to do. Like last night, I had no desire to go anywhere. Tonight, I wanted to, but I'm not sure I would have been much fun for anybody to hang out with mostly because of my odd mood. I wouldn't say it's a bad mood per se. More pensive than anything else.

The day started out pretty good, and I was in high spirits. I went and had lunch with Katie at Tony Roma's in Pasadena. My food sucked, but I wouldn't say that was when my mood changed. Lunch was fun. The waitress was also named Katie, and was really cute. But, as some of you will no doubt recall, I've had bad experiences asking out waitresses. Anyway, Katie (not the waitress) gave me a thank you card for me and some other friends to thank us for planning a surprise party for her birthday last week. I, admittedly, had very little to do with it, but I'll take whatever kudos I can get. Anyway, when we left I forgot the card on the table and she made me go back in and get it, but the busboy had already cleared the table. But the poor guy was nice enough to dig through the trash for me, and he gave it back, now slightly covered in BBQ sauce, so I'll have to explain to everybody that it was not originally covered in BBQ sauce.

Not to be too mundane, but we went down to Ralph's because Katie had to buy something. So, when we get back to her car (except hers is a 2001) she asks me if I know how to make her headrest not lean forward like it was. She's been trying to figure it out for two years. So, I just reached over and moved it into in upright position. I seriously laughed at her for like 10 minutes. She'll probably kill me if she finds out I posted this story, but I like to live life on the edge. I'm not even sure how funny that story is, but I'm still laughing about it.

Anyway, after that I went to Canterbury Records, in an effort to locate that album by The Clique. They didn't have it, so I went to my post office box, which is inconveniently located in Burbank, because I used to work there. While I was there, I checked Atomic Records. I would just order it from Amazon, but I don't actually want to own the record just yet. I just want to hear that song. Anyway, Atomic didn't have it either.

So, that brings us to now. I've been sitting around all evening in my somewhat foul mood, not certain exactly what the cause of it is. If I was a stoner, a neo-Nazi, or an advocate of schoolyard shootings, then today would be cause for celebration. But, since I am a sensible person, it's just a regular day for me. Well, that's certainly a morbid way to end this post.

So I added a comment option to my html template here, so my vast readership can comment on my mundane life. I told my friend Lawral Wornek about this site now too. She goes to Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, which is also, coincidentally where Margaret went to college. Some people might consider that to be ironic, but it really isn't.

I visited Bryn Mawr during my East Coast trip last year. I visited a friend who lives in Arlington and works for the CIA. During my trip there I also did a quick day trip up to Bryn Mawr. An added benefit was that when I returned to where I worked at the time, it gave me an excuse to talk to Margaret. Prior to that, she showed little interest in anything I had to say.

One of the greatest things about working at the Shoah Foundation was the complete flexibility with vacation time. If you wanted to take a trip, all you really had to do was tell them when you would be gone and when you would be back, and there was no problems with tying up loose ends before you left or anything either. Now, however, I'll have to have my vacation time approved and it will have to be scheduled for when others will be there to pick up the slack. If I were to ever be a teacher, it would really only be for the benefit of the vacation time. My friend Katie, for example, is a kindergarten teacher and she's going to Tibet for two months this summer. I'm thinking that I might try to go to Germany sometime in late September or early October. But then I also feel slightly obligated to visit my parents, who live in Hawaii. I'd rather go to Germany, primarily because my parents will no doubt come here quite often. (As a side note, I hate No Doubt.)

Well, it's 9:35 am, and I've been up since 7:30. Even though I didn't go to bed until around three, I just can't force myself to sleep in on weekends. Damn circadian rhythm.

This was sort of a difficult week as far as work was concerned. The stress levels are building, and it's only going to get worse as the summer approaches. From all that I have heard, summer is high stress time there, and I'm joining at just the beginning of it. It's a little unfortunate because I was really looking forward to going to Kosovo again this year. I went last year with a team from my church, which is located in Pasadena. Our trip was organized through a group called World Servants Organization, which is based in Minnesota.

Ok, I'll concede that most of those links are boring, but I'm not really all that energetic at the moment. Margaret came over tonight and we watched Training Day. It was decent, although somewhat of a downer. Certainly it was not the feel good movie of the year. Anyway, I gather this entry is not too exciting to read. I did my best. Dang it...now I'm depressed.

I think my daily readership might have increased. But then I don't have a comment thing set up, nor do I have a tracker. I'm going based solely on the fact that I told somebody else to read it, and I don't see why she wouldn't. I mean, it's not like she has anything better to do at her "job".

And who knows...maybe some random fool has stumbled across it at some point and decided that he or she wants to know more about my life than a person has a right to.

So, since I was talking about stolen music yesterday, I might was well continue that thread. At the moment, I am listening to "The Sweetest Thing" by U2. I don't think that really counts as stolen since I own the album it's on. That song always reminds me of New Zealand because while I was there with a team from this church back in 1999, that was like the only tape we had for the car. So we listened to it like over and over and over.

Anyway, back to the original topic. I've been searching all over for music by The Clique. In particular, I am looking for the original version of the song Superman, which was covered by REM on their album Life's Rich Pageant. I listened to the 31.7 second clip at Amazon, but that didn't quite cut it for me. It sounded really good, but I want to hear the whole thing. So if anybody happens to find it, let me know.

Well, I've got to go downstairs and grab my laundry. I have a huge pile in my room that I have been unable to get through. I wash about half of it and then my attention is diverted elsewhere. I honestly don't know how long it has been since all of my clothes have been clean.

Despite all of my best efforts, I am stuck here at home tonight with nothing to do. Phone call after phone call has met an impasse. I guess not every night can be fun and games. So here I sit, quite bored. Oh well...if I'd gone out tonight, I probably wouldn't have had much energy. This week started out going by really fast. But then, all of the sudden, it came to a screeching halt. I'm not sure exactly what it was. Today was just incredibly stressful at work, so naturally I didn't really want to just come home. But enough about that.

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine, Alisa. I think I pissed her off. I'll have to try to fix that later. So, Lisa, if you're reading this, I'm sorry. But you still look like Pippi Longstocking.

Well, there was no stern phone call from the guy from the Navy. Perhaps he gave up. That's a little disappointing. I feel kind of bad, because I know how irritating it is when I call somebody and they don't call me back. But, as I said I have no interest in the job and the only time I can call him is when I'm at work.

Today I drove home by way of Sepulveda. It wasn't as great of an idea as I thought it would be. It went pretty fast for most of it, except there was a hell of a lot of traffic going through the pass by the Skirball Center, so it ended up taking about the same amount of time as it would have on the freeway.

So now it's 9:00. Normally at this time I watch The West Wing, but it's a repeat this week. That is one of my favorite shows, along with 24, which seriously kicks ass.

At the moment, I'm listening to some stolen music. I used to be like majorly opposed to file sharing, based on principle. And I sort of still am...it bothers me if the group or artist is opposed to it. So, I guess I won't be downloading any Metallica or Dr. Dre. I'm guessing that sometime soon I'll have an attack of conscience and delete all of it.

Well, yesterday I noticed that it is now only one month until the second biggest disappointment ever. I've forced myself to just accept that the movie is going to blow chunks. If the last one is any indication, it surely will.

I didn't clean the bathroom last night like I planned. I just lack energy to do much of anything after my commute ends. Today I got home in less than an hour. I took the 405 to the Ventura Freeway, then took that to the 2. I'm thinking I could cut even more time off if I were to take Sepulveda instead of the 405. But we'll see what happens.

I got a message from some guy with the Department of Defense. Actually it's like the third message from him. It's kind of hard for me to call back, since I'm at work all day. Each time he calls me though, he sounds a little more stern, as if I'm missing out on a great opportunity by not calling them back. The thing is, I gave my resume to some guy from the Department of the Navy at a career fair at UCLA last October, shortly before I was laid off. And then they didn't call me for months. But now that I have a job, they keep calling me. The thing is, I really have no desire to work for the government. At least not for DOD. The last time I tried to get a job with the government ended up being a great disappointment. Back in 1999, I applied for the CIA, and they led me on like some cheap cocktease who promises more than she gives. They offered me a job and then flew me out to DC and subjected me to a whole series of physical and psychological exams, including a completely faulty polygraph test, and then a few months later sent me a Dear John letter. The Dear John letter wouldn't have been so bad, had they not made be think I would get in by beginning the background investigation. Bastards.

Anyway...suffice it to say, I really have no desire to work for the DOD. I'm tempted to just let the man keep calling and see how much more stern his voice gets, but since I hate it when people don't call me back, I won't be so cruel.

Well, another day another dollar. I just got home from work. The drive wasn't that bad, actually. Mostly because I've started taking a new way home. I think it might actually be a greater distance, but it takes less time because I don't have to take the 10 and 110 freeways through Downtown Los Angeles, which is not to be confused with Downtown Brown from TV's Simon and Simon. Instead, I just take Wilshire all the way through Miracle Mile, to K-Town, then go left on Rampart, right on Temple, left on Alvarado, to the 2 freeway. That's probably too much information, but as you may have noticed I am having quite a bit of fun finding links for these random things. I'm sure I'll tire of it soon.

So, my day was pretty busy, actually. I have one student who is literally a royal pain in the ass. He just got kicked out of his fourth hostfamily here. He has finally decided to just get an apartment for himself and not bother with a host family. Hopefully that will keep him happy and out of my hair.

I'm thinking that I should clean my bathroom tonight. Since there's nothing on TV tonight, I might just do that.

Well, here I am again. I woke up somewhat early this morning...about 7 am. I guess, technically, that is sleeping in since I have to wake up at 5:45 on the weekdays. Of course, I did go to sleep at about 3 last night, because I was out with Margaret pretty late.Yesterday, I slept until about 9 am, and then woke up and did my taxes. I'm getting a refund, so that's pretty cool. Uncle Sam owes me $278. Meanwhile, Gray Davis is going to be giving me $178. The Feds taxed me on my unemployment, but the State of California was nice enough to deduct it from my gross income. So, that's not too bad, I guess.

I did the dishes this morning. It'd been a while since they'd been done, and since I'm the only one who really cleans things up here, it seemed like it was time. I also took out the trash for pretty much the same reason. I've been in the process of trying to get my room in order since like last November. I usually get about halfway through it and then give up. The problem is that I have so much stuff, and really no place to put it. One of the drawbacks of not having your own apartment. See, my parents recently moved from our home of 17 years in Fallbrook, CA, and so everything that had collected in my room there had to go. I'm a bit of a pack rat, and threw away boxes and boxes of sentimental crap, and brought some of it up here. Since then, I've been slowly forcing myself to throw things away. Yesterday, I threw out an old broken radio that hasn't worked right for about 2 years.

Seeing as it is now 2:00 in the afternoon, I think I'd better go do some more productive things. For example, I still have to enroll in my benefits for my new job, before my PIE runs out.

So, I have decided to follow the example of my pal, Shane, and start a blog. This is actually not my first real entry. The fact is, I started one last night, and wrote this really long, brilliant opus describing the colossal mishap that is my life. But, sure enough, when I went to post the damned thing it crashed, and the genius disappeared somewhere into the ethernet, never to be seen again. So, I'm going to try again, and this time I will remember to copy it before I attempt to post it.

Rather than trying to capture the glory of my former post, I have decided to simply begin again, as if that post never happened. I'm seriously wondering how long I'll keep this blog up. I mean, on the one hand, I might end up as one of those odd guys who has a strange internet cult following for some reason, with people from all over the world logging in to see how my life is going. Or it could end up like some Julia Ormond fan page that was last updated on March 13, 1995.

Well, in the off chance that somebody I don't know stumbles across this blog, I guess I ought to give some sort of background on myself. Where to begin, though, I don't know. At the moment, I currently have a decent little job as a Housing Coordinator at the ALC at UCLA. I like my job, but my commute from my current home in the suburb of Montrose is a miserable hour and a half or so. Montrose is a cruddy little town filled primarily with Armenians and old people. I pretty much hate living here, and would really like to move over to West Los Angeles.

Before I got this job, I spent five months living off of unemployment, because I was laid off last October from my perfect little job at the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. I loved that job, and would have been quite happy there for quite some time, were it not for this man. He was single-handedly responsible for casting me into five months of desperation, and I shall forever curse his name because of it.

But, no matter. My life is pretty cool at the moment. As I said, I like my job. I'm sort of casually dating a delightfully wonderful woman. And there's other things to be happy about, too. I'm just too tired to express them at this moment in time.

So, in my last attempt at an initial post, I gave a detailed account of my life up until now. Of every interesting thing I have ever seen and done. It was quite good, and I'm sure you would have liked it. But, as it stands now, I feel Ill have to save it until a later day. Like maybe tomorrow.

This is a test. This is only a test.