Just a few things from browsing.

First, an awesome Venn diagrams. I love Venn diagrams.

Secondly, I haven’t been able to stop watching this clip after it came out on Mad Men. thisrecording has a pretty interesting writeup on last week’s episode. Here’s looking forward to this Sunday.

NPR Reports that Reading Rainbow is coming to an end after 26 years.

Man what a bummer. I mean, I know I haven’t watched the show in about twenty years, but I’m still a little sad about it. The show was a huge part of my childhood; it was one of the few shows that mom would tune in for us.

Tomorrow’s kids will never have it as good.

I’ve been trying to eat oatmeal a little more often. I figure/hoped that if I just kept eating it, I’d eventually get used to it.

I’ve been trying to flavor the stuff with jam or honey, and I started getting sick of always eating it sweet. Then some days ago, I came across a recipe for savory oatmeal, which is just regular oatmeal, but cooked with sea salt, some green onions, and shoyu.

I tried it…dude. It’s good.

I mean, it kind of tasted like jook. I know the thought of salty oatmeal is kind of weird, but so is the thought of sweet rice. And people eat that, too.

I tried it again just now, and this time used yellow onions, a leftover hamburger patty, an egg, and even more white pepper. I shit you not, it tastes just like jook. Except it’s way faster to make, you don’t need leftover rice, and it’s a lot better for you. Try it. I’m serious.

After waiting one week to get a shipping label and then finally sending it out yesterday, UPS says that the expected delivery date that MS will get my redringed 360 will be another 5 days to cross three states.

That’s about two weeks before they even get to repair the thing.

Looks like Microsoft is skimping as much on delivering their failed product back to their repair center as they did building the thing in the first place. Thanks, guys!

It’s been a while since I last updated - We had out of town visitors last week, and spent a few days hanging out with them. We ended staying downtown over at the California, ate lots of buffet food, and I did a lot of reading (I finished Breaking Dawn [and subsequently, the Twilight series], and started reading another book called Greasy Rider.

It was fun, and a little hectic. Coming home almost felt like a vacation, except we came home to a hot, stagnant house with dishes still in the sink. It’s all good now, though.

I’ve been taking it easy this week. My Xbox redringed again a week ago and it took about one week for me to receive the shipping label (like I mentioned before, though, they stopped sending a box for you to send it in, so I had to find a spare box and buy some bubble wrap). It’ll take probably another month or so. Good times.

Not much else to write about right now. I finished reading Greasy Rider this morning. It was good; it was about a guy who buys a car, converts it to run on vegetable oil, and drives cross country with an old college friend on a sort of environmental quests, making stops along the way.

In other news, I started looking for a car. You know, I’ve never owned my own car before in my life… I’ve owned about eleven motorcycles (I should sit down and get pictures one day), but not one car.

Kerri turned 27 this past week. For dinner, we all met up at BWW and had some hot wings.

The rest of the week was pretty tame. I stayed at home for the most part and wasted my time playing Prototype, and then Red Faction, Guerilla. They were both decent, but I guess I was hoping for a little more. I was actually looking forward to Red Faction; I played one of the earlier RF games all the time when it was out on the PS2. The new one was…decent, but not enough to hold my interest for more than a few days. Plus, I hate multiplayer achievements (another reason why I think COD4 is one of the best games ever made, and I hope Modern Warfare 2 continues with the the no-online-achievements tradition).

My Xbox also red ringed a few days ago, so I had to port my profile over to Kerri’s console and I’ve been playing in the bedroom. The console’s right at the tail end of the 3 year warranty, but unlike the first time it bricked, I have to find my own box to ship the thing up to MS now. This would have been a lot easier if I were still living in Hawaii.

In other news, the weather’s been slightly cooler this past weekend, thanks apparently to some storm system around California right now. It dropped all the way down to the low 90’s, which meant that we didn’t have to use the AC yesterday. We also took a walk up and down the strip, stopping at good ol’ Casino Royale so I could double fist it with $1 Michelob’s. That stuff’s nasty!

Kerri had a hankering for poke today, and I realized I did too. When I was back in Hawaii, I didn’t really have too much, except this one time Lane and I went to Champions, and that other time, at Joel’s company party, which they let me crash. Kerri heard about this new place that opened, so we took a half hour drive up north.

The poke there was about $10-11/lb, which is a little more, but the stuff was really good. Plus, they had limu in their poke, which is way better than the chopped-fish-salad we tried back at L&L when we first moved here.

Other than that, it’s been a pretty tame weekend. The last time we were at the library, Kerri picked up this book called I Love Yous are for White People, based on the title, and I was reading it yesterday and just finished this afternoon. Real good read. It’s a memoir written by a guy about my age who escapes Vietnam with his family as a child, and grows up in LA. The guy’s been through a lot, and seems to have made so much out of himself despite all the opportunities he’s had in life to mess up. Shame on me!

It’s Monday night and I just got home again. I’m still a bit hung over and probably won’t be drinking again any time soon.

We went to Revolution again last night. And then I woke up this morning at Reid’s place again. That’s all I can remember.

No, not really, but last night was kind of fuzzy for me. We met up with two of Lori’s friends who just got in from LA. In the club, we got a table and a few bottles of vodka. From what Reid was telling me, and from what I remember, there were a few events from last night:

- We went through several bottles of vodka.
- There were these two korean girls there that we brought up to our table. Turns out they were a mother and daughter.
- There was a random white girl who Reid got introduced to, and grinded on him the rest of the night. And then her grandparents picked her up. Yes, her grandparents. No joke. You can not make this stuff up.

It was good times, though…from what I hear. I really need to lay off the hards; not being able to remember epic times is a tragedy.

So I finally got home about an hour ago, after meeting up with Kerri for some pho (which isn’t quite as good when the temperature is in the upper 90’s). I took a shower, and noticed that there are two red bruises on my shins, right under the knees. I have no idea what the hell happened last night, but I hope it was awesome.

In an effort to bring people in, the Palms has been mailing postcards to residents announcing random giveaways. The past few months, we’ve gone down to pick up sunglasses and a sweatshirt. Today’s giveaway was beer. Well, either beer or soda, so you know which one we’re picking up.

I also may have mentioned that they just opened a Lee’s Discount Liquor down the street from our house.

Not only is it a Lee’s Discount Liquor, it’s a Lee’s Discount Liquor Liquidation Center. Lots of 50 cent beers there. We’ve got a new favorite: Rolling Rock Light. Stuff goes down like water.

Anyway, we made a beer run today. First at the Palms, then we walked around the strip and did some walking (Casino Royale’s $1 beers included Bud Select today, which is a step up from the Michelobs they usually have). Then at LDL’s on the way home. Behold the fruits of our labor:

It’s not all for us. That big box of Miller is Reid’s birthday present when we see him tonight. Happy birthday, Reid!!

…In other news, I finished reading The Wauchula Woods Accord today. In the book, Siebert takes you on a very introspective and almost metaphysical journey as he attempts to connect with a captive champanzee named Roger, who seems to know him from somewhere before.

It was pretty deep stuff, and made me feel like I shouldn’t have been reading it at a pool full of screaming kids, girls in skanky bikinis, and old dudes who hike up their shorts when they lie face down on the lounge chairs. Oh well.