Play Calvinball

Boom!

One, house obtained. In the Mission District. 16th and Van Ness, one block away from the BART (BART is San Franciscan for Metro). Living with three other people: a bartender, a salesman and a hairdresser.

NO, this is not a sitcom, though the house sounds like it could be one, because the downstairs neighbor is a 60 year old woman with a lot of cats. If my predictions are correct, she will look like this:



Two, job obtained. Sales / Recruiter at MacArthur Associates, putting IT professionals into the best position for them. Don't want to get to into this because I don't want a House like situation where something bad happens because of expressed opinions dictated to the Internet.

Hopefully, it will be something like this:

[Insert image of storefront of "Fireworks, Candy and Puppy Dog Store"]


Three, bike. Well, this is like a wash. Ole' Dawes from DC is making the trek out there courtesy of The Ferd because bikes out here are way too expensive and for the money most people expect, I could get a Ducati (don't know? look it up). So, crappy bike makes it ride out west for some upgrades and inevitable flat tires.

Besides that... I got a Toblerone courtesy of the family, a cough that sucks it hard and a potential for beach Ultimate every Saturday. Things are looking good. Just need to lock down a gym membership and I might have a life for the first time in sixth month. [Gives self pat on the back]...

1. http://eddieonfilm.blogspot.com/2005/12/foreign-art.html

This is a list of the top 100 non-US made movies of all time. It is sorta ridiculous that I have seen maybe three of these (City of God, Amelie and Run Lola Run). Though this is some guys post about survey conducted amongst his friends, most of them I have never even heard of or knew about. I would definitely like to start tackling this list. What are the odds that Netflix has even 50% of these?

2. http://streamednfl.blogspot.com/

You guessed it. Streamed live, over the Internet, from this brave and selfless man comes every NFL game right to your computer. He provides the links, you just need to download the applet for it and play it. And, if you look in the program, you can find some movie and independent channels as well. This obviously doesn't apply if you have the NFL ticket but it could help out in those local blacked-out situations.

PS I would like to throw a vote out for "Lagaan" in the top 100 non-US movies, and give credit to Nikhil and Sheetal for throwing that movie my way. Big ups. (Bears.)

I should probably stop counting at this point, but I needed a title and that's what I came up with.

Recent Developments

The job hunt. Sucks. As usual. But it's getting a little bit more fruitful. I eventually locked up a recruiter who's finding me some jobs, very hit or miss. She is a little too bubbly but she's working and hunting so I can't really complain.

I went to three job interviews yesterday. First one was a pyramid scheme thing and I figured it was gonna be going into it but tested the waters and went anyway. Plus, it got me up before 10am for like the second time since I've been here. The service industry schedule rubs off onto you pretty quickly and it ain't cool.

Second one was... Well, they forgot about me. First guy talked to me for a bit, then was gonna go get someone else. So like 15-20 minutes later, the first guy came back in and was like "Oh shit. Sorry about that. The guy had an emergency." Reschedule. AWESOME.

Third one was a second round interview for a software sales position. Hey, it's a job. I need one. I spoke with two higher ups, British and a little off. The Senior VP was this late 30's, very stuffy kinda guy who definitely has spent time fine-tuning his accent to the point that at the uttering of the word 'Cheers,' all the panties in a 6 foot radius are wet. Then, the lady was like early 30's and was rocking the club hand stamps on both hands. I called her out on it (in a professional way) and it made me look good.

Then, there is the house search, which is absurd-ridiculous. Some of these places are like out of Silence of the Lambs, some are spacious but run down, and some are down-right scary. Like, I saw one, where the apartment is broken up into locked rooms so you get a room, with it's own lock, but you share a kitchen and bathroom with all these other random people. It's like a college dorm style but dirtier and shady as fuck.

But, I've found some good rooms, cheap rent and small security deposit. I need to lock one up soon so I can get off their couch (present location).

What else? Oh, Zeitgeist. Dive, chill bar here. The actual bar area itself is pretty small, with full and empty kegs stacked along a wall totally in the way. Pool table in the back, I think. But, you go through a side door in the place and it opens up to this huge outdoor area, like 40 x 80 feet, with a huge tree, portapotties and hooks to hang your bikes. Best part, is that the open area is just a bunch of long picnic tables that everyone just hangs out, meeting new people, shootin' the shit. Oh, and the Tamale Lady. Yeah, I said it. She's awesome and sells pretty good tamales. A staple of the place.

Ummm... biking around the city is cool, but not when you get lost and are surrounded by hills. I have made use of The Wiggle, which is a way to get north in the city without hitting any friggin mountains. Good, well paved bike route. Eventually, I wanna be able to rock the fixed gear around here because that makes you pretty bad ass. For those that don't know, fixed gear is a type of bike where you have to keep peddling the bike and typically don't have brakes. You stop by slowing down your peddling and if you take your feet off the pedals while in motion, the pedals will just keep flying around... and fuck up your legs like whoa. But since they don't have gears to change to, you need to know how to avoid hills and also be in shape enough to get up the hills you do encounter.

The other search I am doing is for a bike. And that sucks because SF is such a bike culture and people have crazy expensive bikes. I've seen some cheapo bikes, and they have been horrible. Like 30 pounds and 40 years old. So, looking like I am gonna get my old one sent out here and just fix it up... even though that's a beater as well.

Job. House. Bike. Go!

So, I'm here. The weather is nice, the sun is shining, and I am three hours behind real time. I might eventually consider Pacific time as my time zone, but let's be honest: EST 1, PST 0.

I just hit hour 48 of being in San Fran. Uneventful flight here, got picked up by Erin and Chaz (not Mr. Small). Preceded to go to a BevMo, which is like Keg City but of beer and liquor instead of kegs. Ghetto, and awesome. Handle of Jim Beam? It's been so long. How's it going? Nice...

Saw Matt Shiel within 90 minutes. Off to a good start. We went to a Pub Quiz, team named SplaDOW Jones, and sucked it hard. Night cap at Erin's house, then pass out.

Thursday: Hungover all day. Saw Matt's place and got some food. Best Part of the Day: Matt Shiel got his motorcycle. It's big, it's awesome, it's intimidating. But, it doesn't have a battery. So... he had to push it 1.75 miles (we gMaped it out) to his house so he could work on it. That only took like 50 minutes. And I came to the realization that no matter what city I am in, I always end up doing the most random shit in it, without fail. And usually, they involve Shiel.

Case in Point: Senior year of college, Matt finds a FREE Ice Luge holder on Craigslist. Matt, why do we need this? Adam, it's gonna be awesome! So, we use Lee's car, drive up towards American U and then find out it's too big to fit in the car. Matt, you idiot. BUT... Adam the Problem Solver is there. So, we roll down the windows, open up the sun roof, take off our belts, and strap our belts around the wood frame of the ice luge holder and the metal frame of the car and pull tight as we fly down 16th street.

Friday: Send out e-mails all day to houses, jobs and finding a bike. Then walk around and find an auto part store with Shiel to get a battery charger. There are three within 4 blocks of his house yet this still takes 50 minutes. Thanks again. Afterwards, head downtown and open up a Bank of America account because Wachovia doesn't exist around here. Good to know.

On tap for the weekend: Umm... run. Find a job. Find a house. Repeat.

In that many hours, my decision will be finalized and made into a reality. That's the departure time for my flight to San Francisco (via Atlanta of course [damn Delta hubs]).

Anyway, I imagine no one reads this anymore because in comparison to Ed's blog posts, I am about as funny as Kathy Griffin but I figured I'd write something just the same and try to achieve something that could be misinterpreted as funny or meaningful.

Home... has been boring to say the least. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been me sitting in a room watching the carpet slowly fade but it really hasn't compared to the constant entertainment (though sometimes repetitive) of the District. But it's been the cause of the lack of material on this blog. A typical week went something like:

Mon-Fri - Up at 6:30am, Work at 7:30am, Lunch at 12:00pm, Home at 5:00pm, Nothing.
Sat-Sun - [Choose one] A. Travel somewhere and do something awesome B. Nothing

Though there was the occasional sprinkling of non-nothing in there, yet these typically revolved around birthday or graduation parties. So you can sort of see why I'd be in the mood to go out and return to the city lifestyle I've grown accustom to and enjoy. Some things I am looking forward to:

- Places being within walking distance
- Getting back into Ultimate (though which team?)
- Finally buying my motorcycle (probably from this website: The Bikeyard).
- Having a job that doesn't entail boxing up awnings
- Meeting tolerable hippies

Let me explain that last one. Hippies, as I am used to, are uber-Hippies (thanks to Erin for coining that term). They are all natural, hybrid-driving, baby-sling carrying, dreadlocked, hemp-clothed, patchouli smelling vegan crop growers who participate in drum circles, seances and read tea leaves. This... to me... is infuriating, NOT because I don't understand it, because I do (well some of it); rather, it's because they are so blinded by their views that they are intolerable to anything else, it makes them retarded. My hypothesis is that it's because they are such a green, small town area that they aren't privy to many other points and therefore dismiss them. I am assuming that there will be a larger cross-section of enlightened hippies who actually can form a cogent argument about some of their beliefs out in San Fran. As usual, I have no evidence to back this up but instead have a feeling and that's enough for me.

And this all ties into the fact that while at home, I've had zero friends. Well, that's not fair. Some of my high school friends have popped through which as been great cause I haven't seen them for what seems like years. But from day to day, it's pretty much Ferd, Moms, Morgan and me. I have a couple cousins my age but they all aren't legal yet so can't go out drinking and everything else is kinda... shitty. Hence, my almost crippling loneliness during my term at home. But, like Calvin's dad would say, 'It builds character.'

Anyway, this blog has been out of service because I've been packing, organizing and jettisoning all of my belongings (again) to make the move out there. I'm going with a giant yellow duffel bag, a ghetto Rubbermaid plastic locker and a backpack. The parental units will ship out the rest of the stuff once I find a place to live... which hopefully be like the place Shiel lived in while in NYC (RIP Canal Street).

In closing, though I will be three hours behind the next time you communicate with me, don't forget about me. I don't and never have expected a lot but if you get the chance and are bored at work (and I KNOW that most of you are at least once a day), shoot me an e-mail. And I'll see ya when I see ya.

PS That last line does not indicate that I am done posting on this site. Unless most of you want me to stop. Then I will do it twice as much just to piss you off.