Chatting with American Beauty Guy

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Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring arrived last night. Kate is the happiest monkey ever! Also last night, I got to talk to scary American Beauty guy as I drove up the alley to the house. His wife is packing up and leaving him (I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying “good for her!”), his kid is staying with some friend in San Diego, he got moved from night-shift to day-shift putting together planes for Boeing, he is on a Grand Jury and indicting shady sales people, his car got crunched, he is experimenting on the paint of the rental that he was able to talk down to $25/day, Kate is okay, and I need to wash my car. All of this information was conveyed over the longest 20-or-so minutes of my life. I was glad to finally be home.

Today, at lunch, Brian C and I went back to the nifty little hole-in-the-wall ramen place (Shen-San-Gumi, I believe it was called). Good, good, good! Everyone working in the restaurant yelled a greeting to us as we entered. I filled out the little paper form (normal noodle hardness, normal oiliness, strong broth, side of rice this time instead of Spam rolls), which was handed to the chef. This time we got to sit at the varnished plywood counter (since the two varnished plywood tables were taken) and watch them prepare everything. The food came and was tasty. The fried rice had bits of shredded pork, green onions, and eggs cooked into it. The soup was tasty (especially with a little chili oil added). This time, they were not playing Japanese rap music in the background–I think it was Snoop Dogg. They all screamed a farewell to us as we left. For some reason they tend to say “excuse me very much” instead of “excuse me” or “pardon me.” The way that everyone there uses it makes me think it is a cultural thing, but I have NEVER heard it before. Maybe it is just something they do in that particular restaurant…?

“Other People's Code” sucks. Especially when it is code that was farmed out to minimum wage programmers in India. Why use typed arguments in your functions when you can simply pass in multiple hashtables and not document the expected/required/optional name-value pairs that are supposed to be in those hashtables? Everything is a string that you can typecast to other datatypes if you need them! Grrrrr….

Supposedly, DCA is going to be opening a new ride called The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror–another of which exists in Disney World. It looks like it is a well-themed freefall ride. Thank the gods that they are finally starting to put themed rides into the Disney California Atrocity. People pay $monkey$ to Disneyland even though there are a bunch of lame rides and a few good ones because of theming! Not only are the rides fun and interesting, but the whole experience is as well. DCA is a bunch of generic cookie-cutter rides that you'll see at any generic amusement park and many good fairs, with not much more added. Hey look, it's a generic roller coaster! Hey look, it's those swings that you sit in and they spin around and you hope your shoes don't fly off. Hey look, it's an IMAX-type movie about California that I saw last time I was here and never need to see again. DCA has absolutely zero of that “magic” that makes Disneyland so cool every time you go.

Well, that's all for now space rangers. Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine. Over and out.

Posted in: Dear Diary

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