Please note that all blog posts before 8 April 2007 were automatically imported from LiveJournal. To see the comments and any LiveJournal-specific extras such as polls and user icons, please find the source posting at http://brianenigma.livejournal.com/2006/01/* Had great time two nights ago at a party at Les’ place. Photographic and video evidence are forthcoming.
* Returned home to a trash can that had “ripened” with age and some great log entries that left regarding cat sitting. These made Kim and I chuckle and included great things like: “Ebenezer is running around like a spaz,” “Ebenezer demanded bathtub,” and “Ebenezer would not leave me alone until I fed him a small serving of raw food.”
* Had a mellow time last night with an evening that included a small group of friends, some tofu stir fry, some decent Sake (I thought I did not like Sake, but it turns out that I had only ever had “the cheap stuff”), Colonial House, and Napoleon Dynamite.
* Shopping, shopping, shopping for all the foodstuffs that ran out before leaving as well as food for the next week. It was fun and surprising to run into David Kraft at the Wild Oats.
* Homemade hummus (good), homemade falafel from a box mix (seems to technically conform to the definition of falafel)
* The Doctor Who Christmas special is shaping up to be pretty good, but I am not too keen on the world-changing events such as contact with aliens. As long as plot elements are low-profile and “below the radar,” it is easy and fun to suspend disbelief and go with the flow of everything occurring here and now. When you start throwing in alien contact being reported on all of the news channels, mass hypnotization, and the Prime Minister’s emergency news broadcast, it is a little jarring. The references to Torchwood were cool at first, but became a little too in-your-face by the end.
The semi-annual California list:
(-) weather. Previously, this would have been a plus, but a constant temperature–day or night, any season–now feels a bit creepy. It is nice to actually have seasons and weather.
(+) friends
(+) favorite restaurants and foods of the past. This includes Shin Sen Gumi, the #112 from Tummy Stuffer and the BBQ’ed crab legs from Joe’s. Yes, I realize that The Crab Cooker is supposed to be better, but this was more about comfort food and atmosphere than gourmet.
(-) Family
(+ / -) Kim’s family
(-) The yearly virus removal from the Parents’ computer. This year was a record low in viruses (10), but a record high in spyware (100+ files.)
(+) Getting my parents a Mac Mini
(-) Discovering Bluetooth doesn’t work when performing the initial Mini setup
(-) Discovering Mac OS is scary and foreign to the parents and sister and that the Mini may possibly not be used by anyone but my mom.
(-) Unnecessarily oversized vehicles, such as the Hummer 3, being driven by everyone
(-) Everyone in an SUV also happens to have a cellphone glued to their ear
(-) Advertising everywhere
(+) Amoeba records in Hollywood
(-) Traffic
(-) Surrounded by plastic people and their plastic personalities–Orange County is very likely the trophy-bride capital of the world.
(+) Returning to real people of all shapes and sizes
(+) The new coffee shop
(-) The coffee at Diedrich’s
(+) Returning to the land of good coffee (and quite often microbrew) at nearly all coffee shops and many theaters
(+) Disneyland
(+ / -) The fire in our hotel at Disneyland (no sleep, good stories, no fun at the park the next day due to lack of sleep, $300+ refund)
