"Wubba, wubba, wubba! Good night! God Bless!"

Everybody have a good weekend, and good luck on the training Erin!

GD

It's gonna be a good weekend (knock on wood).

It's been a while since I've had a FULL week. This definately counts as one. Even though my busy-ness began Tuesday, I'm counting it as a full week because of the trend analyses for all the farms. I just finished those right before lunch. WOO HOO! I rewarded myself with a kick ass chicken tostada at Sarita's (decent mexican food).

After getting back to the lab, I went to check out some of our testing rooms to find out how some of our treatments are doing. There seems to be a lot of promise in one particular strain. I gave the good news to my boss. Boy, did that ever make his day. He's been stressing over tiny things lately. I hope this bit'o'news helps out.

Also, I'm gonna watch Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy tonight. I read the book years ago, I've been busy but tonight is a good night to watch the movie. Hardly anybody at the theater tonight. It's gonna be excellent!

Tomorrow's looking good, too. I'll be running a TH4 and verticillium PCR in the morning and by the afternoon, the gel should be done and I'll have the results for the requesting farm by the time I'm done for the day!

Aaaaand . . .

My uncle told me last night that his boys (23 and 25) will be racing their bikes at the Salinas Sports Complex, Friday and Saturday night. Tickets are cheap, beer isn't. It all works out in the end. I'll be tailgating!



Now time for another joke. This one requires a visual aid. What I want you to do when I say "NOW", make a fist with either hand and place your fist on your nose with the opening on the thumb side wrapping around your nose. This works better if you're telling it to someone. Trust me.

Now for the joke:

"Why don't roosters wear underwear?"
"Because their pecker's up" (NOW!) "HERE!"

GD

boy, that was bad!

This one's for Baabblu

Why do brides wear white?
So she can match the stove and refrigerator.

Pa da pump!

GD

p.s.
i feel a little guilty about that one.

Losing . . . focus! Must . . . stay . . . awake!

There is something that I have to do at work every few months:

Trend reports! These things are the most boring pieces of crap you can look at if you're not a mushroom grower.

Though I was a grower for a while, being a grower is not my cup'o'tea. I understand all the numbers and the graphs that go with the trend reports. I know what the growers are looking for. I just hate having to copy, paste and edit all the data so it all makes sense to the grower. Under the whole MMI, Inc umbrella, there is maybe . . . mayyybeee . . . two other growers that would be able to sort out all the information direct from our database. And of those two, I think only one of them knows how to copy, paste and edit from Access to Excel.

Each one of these damned things takes an hour to do. And guess what? Thats with me using the last report as a template. I open up the previous report and I copy the data from Access and paste that data to the old Excel report and edit the hell out of it. If I were to start from scratch (IF!) it would easily take me three hours per report.

I've got ten to do. I'm lucky most of the other farms don't need them. They do their own.

I've completed three this morning.

Lord help me . . .

GD

New image . . .

I figured it was time to change my profile image. I'd like to thank Sarahbelle for the link to Planearium.

Chances are that Sarahbelle has no idea who I am because I've never commented on her blog nor do I know her. I feel like a stalker just reading her blogs. I read them because they really are funny at times. I try to bookmark any good funny blogs I happen to chance upon. Anyway . . . try to make up your own Southpark character. I showed the image to one of my friends and he thought I had somehow got Matt Stone to draw me Southpark style. It's a pretty good resemblance of me.

GD

p.s.
move mouse over About Me on the top left of this blog.

Too heavy . . .

Ok, the last few posts have been a little heavy. Let's change it up a little . . .

Guy 1: OH MY GOD!! Did you hear?!!!!
Guy 2: No. What?
Guy 1: It's been all over the radio! Michael Jackson just died of food poisoning!
Guy 2: What?!! No way!
Guy 1: Yeah! He ate a ten year old weiner!

Ba da pump!

Here's another one, but this works out better telling it to someone in person. My barber told me this one.

Guy: Did you know that Micheal Jackson is tired of all the child molestation charges and the whole court issue that he's now going after twenty-eight year olds?

That's my time for tonight. I'll be here all week. Try the veal.

Ba da pump!

GD

Mother II

Ok, I reread that last post and I want to clear up something.

I know who my mother is. Here's the thing: My mother gave me up to my father and his wife when I was six because I was a pain in the ass and I screwed up her plans. My fathers' wife is the person I now consider my mom. My mother is my biological mother and my mom is the person who raised me since I was six. She put up with all my shit growing up and she still considers me her son.

In all that time, my mother has sought me out only a few times and then dissappeared.

I had a brother who would have been 26 this year. He passed on a couple of years ago.

By his own hand.

I blame my mother.

I didn't know my brother.

He was in juvenile hall somewhere in California since the age of 14. He took the blame for the "accidental death" of a friend of his. Eventually word got out that the person that caused the accident was an uncle of mine. He let my brother take the blame. He told other family members what really occured and nobody said anything. My own mother knew of it and she still let my brother rot in juvenile hall. My uncle was later shot and killed in a failed home robbery a few years after my brother was sent to juvenile hall. I don't really know my mothers' side of the family. My father wouldn't allow me to communicate with them. You can see why. Most of them are all fuck-ups.

Anyway, during all this I wasn't allowed to write to my brother. Nobody would let me know where he was. I was told that it was better this way.

I don't know when he was let out. It was sometime in the last few years. My brother had been wanting to visit me, but my mother said it wouldn't be a good idea to bother me. This is what I've been told by one of my mothers' sisters. She is one of my aunts on my mothers' side that actually followed the straight and narrow. My aunt kept telling my brother to visit me just the same. That it wouldn't be a burden.

I wish he would have listened to her.

My brother really loved the uncle that put him in junenile hall. He looked up to him for some reason.

The morning that he shot himself, my brother asked for my uncles favorite breakfast. That was a huge red flag there and my mother missed it. After having breakfast, he went to his room, pulled out a .22 and tried to finish his days on earth. It didn't quite work out too well.

He survived almost twenty hours on life support before my mother decided to take the advice of doctors. He was brain-dead. It was another five hours or so before his body decided to give up.

I tried to have some sort of relationship with my mother after that . . . but I couldn't keep doing it. She's made too many bad decisions. And as far as I'm concerned, only one good one. I could have been a major fuck-up myself if she hadn't been so selfish and given me up. I look at her and I always think what could have been.

I could have gone to baseball games with my brother.

I could have taught him how to rollerblade and play rollerhockey.

We could have gone to the bars, had a few beers, talk to some girls . . .

We could have been great friends. I could have had the relationship I see with my best friends and their brothers. I don't have that opportunity now.

But I do have another chance. I have another younger brother. He's 15. I have to make the most of it with him. You never know what may happen.

GD

Mother

"Mother! Tell your children not to walk my way. Tell your children not to hear my words, What they mean, What they say . . ."
- Danzig

Yesterday as I was arriving home, I passed my mother. She waved frantically at me with a big smile, I waved weakly back. I guess that run-in had me thinking enough of her to have caused the following dream . . .

I find myself with her and her husband. She's driving to her business just outside of town (as far as I know she doesn't have a business) and drives up to a mail box where she punches in a code and she gets her mail. I know what you're thinking. You've never seen computerized mail box. Neither have I, which was weird but it's a pretty good idea!

Anyway, it appears her business is supplying convenience stores. We walk in to her warehouse and there are teens working inside. One of them drops something and I help him pick it up. The place is buzzing with activity. Everyone knows what to do. My mother still has that big smile on her face while she explains what's going on.

We go to another section of the warehouse that appears to have been converted to a shelter and chapel. My mother leaves me to prepare for her sermon. Her husband appears and begins telling me that they help the community by hiring the teens and help the homeless with shelter and counseling.

I wake up.

Now, as far as I know none of what happens in the dream is real. I don't believe she is involved with stores, warehouses, shelters, or chapels.

I don't talk to my mother. I don't know her.

GD

The Pixies

Well, last night I found a whole crapload of cd's I'd bought when I was in high school and a few years after graduating. I think I was the only one listening to The Pixies at my school. Everyone else was listening to KDON, a popular top 40 station. You know the kind, MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Boyz II Men . . .

Anyway, I just found some cd's I thought I'd lost or had stolen. I'm especiallly happy to have found all my Pixies cd's! I've just ripped them onto my pc. I'm ashamed to say that I also have some of those shameful top 40 albums (cough)hammer(cough)!

Since last night, I've probably listened to "Hey" about 20 times. That song just kicks ass! At work I just had my Rio Karma going all day with all the albums. Probably my favorite album is Death To The Pixies. It has some truly great live versions of their hits. The live versions of both "Hey" and "Where is my mind" are mind blowing. I get goosebumps every time!

I was also surprised to have found Nine Inch Nails' "Pretty Hate Machine". I gave a listen to it. It'd been a while. I finally listened to the lyrics after all these years. Pretty powerful stuff. That Trent sure had no luv for the guh'ment!

In the same genre, I also found Ministry's "Land of Rape and Honey". Boy, was I into some weird shit! I guess I was the typical angry youth. Of course, I was the quiet angry youth. My parents really had me in check then! I couldn't get away with almost anything.

Almost . . . >: P

GD

I luv my baby! <: (

For the last few months I've been putting off changing out my sparkplugs. I mean, to have it done at the stealership, it would'a run me almost $800!!!

At first, I didn't have the money. So I purchased everything I needed little by little. Then it was not knowing how to do it. So I went online and visited my New Beetle family on NewBeetle.org and searched the forums. Finally it was excuse after excuse: it was raining, it was too hot, it was too cold, I was too tired, I had to go to a party, I had to go to Penny Farthings (a pub) . . . excuse after excuse.

Well Tesla ,my New Beetle, finally said "ENOUGH!!!"

She put me in check. Literally! Her CEL came on. For those of you unfamiliar with automotive technical terminology, a CEL is a Check Engine Light.

When that happend, I nearly crapped my pants. I knew I was pushing it. That same day it was raining and cold, but I still changed out my sparkplugs. My fingers were raw and numb from the cold.

I know that once you've taken care of a problem, the CEL will clear and you can go about your merry way. My hadn't cleared. It took a whole week of driving and and reminding myself that it would eventually clear. It finally did.

But now I have an intermittent CEL. It's either my gas cap not tightend properly or the MAF sensor. The MAF is the Mass Air Flow sensor. It basically tells the computer how much air is available for the engine to use. Apparently the MAF is sometimes a problem in New Beetles.

I'm gonna wait until the CEL lights up again so I can take it to the stealership to read the code and figure out the problem.

Wish me luck!

GD

You're money, Baby!

Friday after work, I had dinner with mom. Later I was having a beer with a friend (Ernie) at Applebee's. A couple of hours after that I was on the road to Vegas . . . on a whim.

I got to Applebees a little after Ernie had arrived. I hadn't even finished my first beer when he gets a call from a friend of his asking if he wanted to go to Las Vegas. Ernie half-jokingly asked me if I wanted to go. We paid our tab, finished our beers and split!

We picked up some clothes and things, and left to pick up Ernies' friend, Raf.

When we got to Rafs' place, Raf and Mike were waiting. I've never met Mike, but he was coming along as well. We had room in Ernies' Vitara, so we all boogied.

We arrived in Vegas roughly at 3:30 in the morning. The Strip was kickin'! I mean the place was packed! People were cruisin' the Strip, music was blasting, people were drinkin' . . . and we had just arrived from an eight hour drive with no idea of where to start.

After cruisin' the Strip ourselves, we decided to head off to the Luxor (the black pyramid w/the Sphinx). We wandered a bit, hit a card table, lost some money, won some money and we separated into two groups. Ernie and I were done for the morning and we went to the car to nap. Raf and Mike were just getting started and kept on.

We woke up a couple of hours later and hit up a breakfast buffet next door to the Luxor, some castle looking casino that I can't remember the name of right now (great scrambled eggs). We hadn't seen Raf or Mike in a while and got back to the car for another nap. Raf and Mike arrive and woke us up and figured we should find a place to stay. We drove around some and found a ratty place for cheap.

Mike stayed to crash, Raf wanted to be dropped off somewhere and Ernie and I had slept enough to keep us going for the day.

After dropping off Raf at some chicks place he knew of (long story), Ernie and I took off to check out Fremont street. Now Fremont street is that one place you see in some movies/shows/commercials that has the ceiling that's a giant big screen. During the day, it's used as an awning. Nighttime is when the shows begin. As fortune would have it, we had arrived there at ten in the morning. No big screen shows for us.

We did the tourist thing and checked out the various shops and the clones of those shops and the clones of those shops. It was fun! We played cards at the Horseshoe just to say we did and lost some more money there. About three o'clock we called it quits and took off to the hotel to sleep some.

After a few hours of sleep, we took care of the three S's and had breakfast at Denny's. It was dark now and we figured we should be able to check out the Fremont street show now.

When we got there, the place was packed! All the kiosks were open now and selling their wares. There was this kick-ass artist there that would make awesome, detailed paintings with spray-paint. There were a couple of bands playing that were quite impressive. And the best part of all, some casino was selling monster cans of Fosters for a BUCK!!! Boy, did we take advantage of that! Whooo!

Well to make this long story short, we got back to the hotel about 1am, got some sleep, woke up about five, were on the road by 5:30 and arrived home at 1pm.

There's some more to this story but, I wanna have more material for later.

So much for the Histories!

GD

The Histories

I purchased a book about a year ago. It's probably something someone would read in Lit class. It's a book by Herodotus called The Histories. I like the era, I've read other books from about that time. I've picked it up several times since I bought it and I never get passed page 5.

Now, I've read the Oddysey say, ohhhh about fifty times since I discovered it in elementary school. I've read about ten different versions of it. I've read it with the protagonist called Oddyseus and Ullyses.

I've read the Illiad when I was in Junior high (not as good as the Oddysey). I've read Dantes' Inferno (GREAT read).

Julian (Gore Vidal) is one of my more recent re-reads. I've read that one about 5 time in the last two years. You pick up little details you missed the first (2nd, 3rd) time through.

What I'm trying to get at here is that I like that broad time period. So, why can't I get further than page FIVE in The Histories!

I am going to make the attempt this weekend to finish it. No, not an attempt. I AM going to FINISH IT!!!

GD

Hmm!

This is almost a perfect description of me . . .

You Are 55% Normal (Somewhat Normal)

While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

Who would'a thunk?!

GD

Boy! I'm feeling productive today!

I usually only post once in a great while. This, I believe, is the first time that I'll be posting two in the same day!

The reason for the second posting today is that there are a couple of blogs that I read during work breaks. One of those blogs led me to a personal friend of the bloggers blog that I read regularly. The blogger had posted about a Zellers commercial (according to that blogger 'awesom oh', Zellers is a cheap Target rip-off). The commercial had a diddy in it that called to 'awesom oh'. 'awesom oh' had to find out who sang it and what song it was. The song is by The Be Good Tanyas. I myself never heard of them, but the blogger posted a link to the original video for the song (not the commercial). I must say, the blogger was right. It's very fun and addicting.

Now this brings me to another obscure band. Trailer Bride (Bloodshot Records).

Trailer Bride plays what I call Alternative Country. Please, don't get me wrong. I'm not a big fan of country music. But Trailer Bride is VERY different. My favorite album is Smelling Salts. My favorite song in the album is Graveyard.

You may recall a show on Fox called Freaky Links. One episode dealt with the ghost of a girl that would possess a pregnant woman who would play at her piano at some superhuman speed. At first everybody thought it was an original song. But the shows star (lets call him Dave) took a recording of what the pregnant lady was playing to an audio expert. Turns out after the expert analyzed the recording, that the tune wasn't one song. It was a medley of several classical songs from Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi . . .

After some investigating, Dave found out there was a high school girl who happened to be a piano prodigy who would play that same medley as a finale of her recitals. She had been expected to go to Julliard, but had disappeared from the face of the planet.

After receiving some clues from that girls ghost(lets call her Ann), they found out where the accident occured. They also found out Ann had been pregnant. Initially Dave thought the boyfriend had done it. But when they found him, he was so emotionally drained that they figured that he couldn't have done it. He had been despairing all this time over the loss of his soul-mate, Ann. Dave visits the mother a couple of times during the show. That's how Dave found out she was supposed to go to Julliard. The mother was very proud of her daughter and her abilities.

Well to get to the short of it, Dave finds out the mother did it. The girl hadn't wanted to go to Julliard. She had found her soul-mate and wanted to live the rest of her life with him and her baby. The mother was so upset at Ann being pregnant and what her daughter was giving up that she picked up the nearest thing at hand and smashed it up against her daughters head (the object she picked up happened to be a trophy the daughter had won in an International piano competition). The mother then took Anns body to an old gas station that was being rebuilt and dumped her daughter in an old empty oil tank and closed the lid.

The mother had thought Ann was dead. But Ann had woke up in a dark container. She was so horribly injured and had lost so much blood that she didn't have the strength to get up, let alone get out of the tank. And the worst part about it was that people were working right next to the tank, but Ann couldn't be heard because she was IN a tank. It took her days to finally die.

When they told the mother what they found out had happened, the mother was completely devastated. She had killed her daughter in a state of rage. But she didn't know that it had taken so long for her daughter to die.

In steps in Trailer Brides' Graveyard. OH! MY! GOD!!!

With that song and what had occurred, I got totally and thoroughly choked up. I almost started blubbering. That song made the episode. It finished it. I became a HUGE fan of that show after that episode and I was upset when they cancelled it. Duh! I should've realized that was gonna happen. It's Fox!

Trailer Bride. GET IT!!!

GD

New Book . . .

Last week I started reading Jack of Kinrowan. It just happens to be another Charles De Lint book with two books combined. Jack the Giant Killer and To Drink Down the Moon (I think). I read the first half of it (book one) in two days.

So far excellent read.

I began the last half (book two) last night. The character I thought was gonna be the main character was . . . well, let's just say she didn't make it past the second half very far. Totally and completely took me by surprise!

I got a feeling I'm gonna be hating tomorrow morning after only getting 3 hours of sleep.

GD

My Quirks

As usual, I've taken my time updating this thing called "The Try". Try as I might, circumstances get in the way of things and I can't keep up with what needs to be done. Well, "need" is not really the word in this case. More like "want".

I want to keep up this blog just so I can look back on it and see where my temperment and thoughts happen to lie at that particular time. I find it hard at times to write because I'm always thinking ahead and sometimes my typing can't keep up with what's on my mind at the time. If I just typed what was in my skull, the words wouldn't make sense. It'd be gibberish. And having a tad of OCD, I'd have to correct it before I could go along and lose my train of thought . . . or just get completely derailed and continue on a completely different track.

I try to think of ways to go a little quirky on these posts, but it never works out. I always get a chuckle from reading some other peoples blogs. Why can't I write like that? In person, I'd probably be one of the quirkiest people in your general vicinity. I'll try to be a little more quirky here!

GD

Rain, Rain . . . Go Away?!

It's a beautiful day in North Monterey County. The skies are cloudy and it's drizzling. Yesterday, there were downpours. There were flood warnings all over the radio. We even got an Emergency Broadcast warning about floods.

Usually there is a sandbar at the road I usually take to get home from where I work. Everytime I see it, I think I'm gonna get stuck. Tesla is short! All NB's are short! I'm always afraid I'm gonna get stuck on top of the damn sandbar. Thankfully, the sandbar hadn't built up enough to cause a problem.

Now, the reason I'm writing about the weather is because I actually look forward to rain. I've always been fascinated by it. I almost got fired from a job once because of it. It was years ago and I was working at Target and every time I would get to the front of the store, I would just stand there and watch the rain. Weird, huh?

So, back to the loving of the rain thing . . .
I've known people that get depressed because of inclement weather. It's been written about in journals and it's been on Oprah. So I'm pretty sure you know somebody like that (Hell, it might even be you!). Well, lately (last couple of days) I've been feeling down. I'm wondering if it's because of the weather? I haven't been as fascinated by the rain as usual. I miss the awesome feeling I get when watching the rain. It's peaceful and relaxing . . . and comforting.

You know, just writing that previous paragraph made me realize it's not the weather. I'm just getting sick! I'm thinking about it now and . . . I'm getting sick! It's such a subtle cold!

I'm taking tomorrow off and I'm gonna watch the rain!

GD

It could'a been a good day . . .

I know I said I'd get more in detail about my past and some of the crappy things that have occurred. But it is too beautiful a day to ruin thinking about sad and unhappy events.

The days this past week have been warm. Almost hot, but with a comfortable breeze. My lunchtime walks have been ok because of the breeze. I'm what people used to call fat people big-boned. But truth be told, I'm 200 pounds of muscle with 5o pounds of padding. It doesn't look right, which is why I surprise people when I can move with a quickness not typically reserved for big-boned people. I know how to move my frame around. I'm 5 foot six and I can intimidate, if there is a call for it. Otherwise, I'm the cuddly teddy bear who wouldn't hurt a fly.

In my thirty-one years, I've had to learn what make people tick. Give me an hour with you and I'll know what kind of person you are and can be. All my life I've been the spectator and I can read plays better than the players making them. I know when to back down, I also know how far I can push something or somebody. Like in Fight Club, I'm always sizing things up. I know my limits and how far to push them without breaking.

I know I make it sound like I'm all cock'n'balls, but I'm not. I truly enjoy making people happy. But in my opinion, you've always gotta be ready. Even with friends.

GD

Changes

Well, as you can see, I've changed the look of my blog. Not that many people will notice because I think I'm the only one that actually looks at this blog. But, as I've said before, this is not a useless cause. For me this blog is a practice into getting into my own feelings and emotions and learning to express them.

HA!! Sorry that was a little funny. Some people already question my sexuality. Even my family at times.

If you were to look at me now and interact with me, you would see a normal heterosexual male. I'm not disrespectful to women and I'm not a dog. Like everyone else, I have a select group of friends. I get along great with everyone. But if you get to know me, you can understand why some of my friends/family questioning my choices. I for instance have had ONE past relationship with a female. It went on for about a year. But we never went very far physically. Just kissing, hugging and a little touchy-touchy. You know, under the sweater over the bra sort of thing. Another thing, this relationship occurred over ten years ago.

As I was growing up, my life was a little skewed. I know this is going to sound like an Oprah/Springer show, but I had a mother who decided to hand me off to my fathers' wife. My mother must have been about 19. I was born when she was 15. My father was a year older. My parents didn't stay together very long after. But my father was a responsible father. He took care of his business. He later married when he was 20. Not long after my mother gave me to him and his wife. My fathers's wife has since become my real mother. I've had very little interaction with my birth mother.

There is still much to this bio that I'm not feeling very up to typing up at this moment. But, you will be seeing more about it. You will understand why some people think certain things about me and still not understand.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not wanting people to think I'm a sob case. Far from it. Because of the life I've lead and the things I've seen, I know my life has been excellent. Just as in movies they say there is always someone stronger, the opposite is true as well. There is always someone worse off than you.

GD

Whoo! It's been a while since last I posted. Maybe this whole diary slash whatever isn't working out as well as I'd hoped. Anyway . . .

There are a few blogs I read that are interesting. On one blog (http://baabblublog.blogspot.com/), Baablu had a weird thing on her post (well, not weird) that I thought was pretty cool. Below is what I chose to do. Baabblu chose to use The Dave Matthews Band. Me, I chose Tool. I found it a little difficult to do, but it works . . .

Describe yourself using one band and song titles from that band
Created by naw5689 and taken 17636 times on bzoink!
Choose a band/artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band:	Tool
Are you male or female:	Jimmy
Describe yourself:	The Patient
How do some people feel about you:	Useful Idiot
How do you feel about yourself:	Third Eye
Describe your ex girlfriend/boyfriend:	Eon Blue Apocalypse
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend:	Blank
Describe where you want to be:	Merkaba
Describe what you want to be:	No Quarter
Describe how you live:	Sober
Describe how you love:	Opiate
Share a few words of wisdom	Die Eier Von Satan
Create a Survey | Search Surveys | Go to bzoink!

GD