1 march 2001, 2:15am.
well last week's update was written when i was really tired and sleepy and laying in bed with my laptop. this time, out of sheer lazyness, i guess i'll try it again. but i'm soooo sleepy right now that this is gonna be pretty minimalist.

i have been getting junk mail at work lately, and it's weird because it's addressed to: "BRYAN HONG DEFENDER OF THE FREE WORLD". i don't really remember filling out any forms that way at all. nothing too useful comes anyway.

i didn't know what to expect as far as the reaction from last week's update goes. i mean, i just figured that people would just think that i'm some kind of whiny something or other, but the response seems to be more positive than anything else.

i think i need to go outside, be more active more often. and play guitar more too. less computer. but not too much less!

i don't know what else to say. i'm super sleepy. maybe i should get some sleep then, eh?

more more more more more more more more more
yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum
i love my love my sunflower seeds
yeah, my sunflower seeds.
--Gerbil Liberation Front, Seed

Ah, the Gerbil Liberation Front -- definitely one of the finer acts that were on the short-lived Independent Music Network on TV.

What's in Bryan's CD Changer? Radiohead: Kid A Moby: Play U2: All That You Can't Leave Behind. Beatles: Blue album disc 2 Sting: The Complete Chicago Sessions (bootleg) Police: Everybreath You Take: The Hits

10:45pm
Perhaps this minimalist stuff will continually get less and less so. Right now I'm sitting in a coffee shop with my laptop. I used to always wonder who these people were who brought their computers to coffee shops. Are they just here to show off their expensive toys? I remember once I saw a guy with his Powerbook G3, and he was just playing around with his fonts on Adobe Type Manager... so I'm pretty sure he was just there to show off... I decided that today I would try it and see what the big deal is. It's amazing how many people here are just sitting there talking on the phone. Constantly. Why are you coming to the coffee shop to call people?

I just used the ordered list tag in that thing on the right. Does anyone still use those? Only ghetto hand coders like me, I guess. I mean, here I am using Dreamweaver typing into the raw code window. I guess I just like it better that way. Or maybe it's just that when you already know exactly what you want, it's faster to just type it out instead of navigating through all the windows selecting options and stuff? I dunno.

After days and days of rain... the sun came out and it was a glorious day. And oh yeah. I slept through my alarm clock and got to work really late. You know I used to wonder back when I was in school about those people who claim to study for hours and hours a day. I think sitting here at the Barnes and Noble coffee shop (yes, it's cheesy, but it's the only place around here that's open... I tried to go to the Coffee Bean but I got there right when they were gonna close)... I have realized exactly what was going on with those people who claimed to study for hours and hours...

Why get together with a bunch of friends at a coffee shop to study perhaps 10% of the time you are there and just screw around the rest of the 90% of the time? What a waste of time. I mean, that's time that you are devoting to "studying" which is time that you are not able to go out and really have fun. Yes, hanging out with friends is fun, but if you're gonna spend all that time playing around anyway, why not just all go out and have a rip-roarin' good time, without having to pretend that you are going to study, and well, without having to worry about school at all? Then consolodate all those 10% effort study sessions into one, 100% study session where you do nothing else but study, so you can spend all that other time that you used to devote to studying, but instead were having fun, but not having any real fun. Yeah. Or at least, that's the way I see it.

Of course, that's not really the way I see it, becase if I even spent 10% of my time studying myself, I probably would have finished school by now. But hey, who needs it anyway? Maybe people just need to feel better about themselves by pretending like they are going to go study or something.

Is this turning into another rant? Hmmm. I suppose if I write enough, this background image will start tiling. I also suppose that if I don't write enough, you won't get to see it all. Hmm. They turned off the music here. They were playing the Beatles before. I wonder if it's so everyone would feel awkward and get the hell out of here. It's not quite closing time yet though.

If someone set up us the bomb, should we take off every zig for great justice? Becuase when you have no chance to survive, you'd probably be better off if you'd just make your time, otherwise, you'll just be on the way to destruction. Ha ha ha ha.

Welp, I guess that will be the end of my coffee shop nerding experience. Even nerdier considering that this is really a bookstore with a coffee shop attached and not a real coffee shop. "Good evening, Barnes and Noble shoppers. The time is now 10:45 and we will be closing in fifteen minutes..." hmmm... I guess my watch is five minutes faster than whatever clock they are using.

2 march 2001, 9:25pm
Worship me. Yes, you too can worship me by purchasing your very own, designed-by-me t-shirts, mousepads and coffee mugs. Through the wonders of modern technology, and cafepress.com, I am able to offer this to you. It's a pretty cool site. Basically you just send in your graphics and they will put it on stuff. They dont' make anything until it's been ordered, so there's no up-front costs. Whatever you set the price beyond their base price, is profit for you to keep. Unfortunately, they recently hiked up their base price so that basically, you won't be able to make any money because if you set your price any higher than the base price, no one will buy your stuff. For example, a white t-shirt used to cost $10.99 -- if you wanted to make $5 off each one, you could sell them for $15.99 -- not a bad take, and there are lots of people out there that would buy a t-shirt for $15.99. But now their base price is $13.99 -- so you'd only make $2 on that same price. If you wanted to keep making $5 a shirt, you'd have to sell them for $18.99 -- and not so many people are willing to throw that much away on a dorky t-shirt. But whatever. Cuz if I hold the mug the other way, i can see Trista, and then spread the encouraging words from the wise old 8 ball to the whole world.

Anyway, I ordered my own stuff a few weeks ago and it finally came today. I ordered a mousepad, a t-shirt and a coffee mug. On the mouse pad is that picture I took of the Mirage in Las Vegas with the ominous clouds behind it. The t-shirt has the "Grumble, Grumble..." guy from level 7 of the original The Legend of Zelda on Nintendo. Geekified all the way, baby. And the mug -- now that's a real gem, with a collage of the Magic 8 ball, a dorky picture of me, and the Trista sunset picture from the I Love Trista page. I like the Magic 8 ball part because if you hold the mug with your left hand, every time you take as swig, you get an affirmative "It is decidedly so", to give you a bit of encouragement with every sip. But now I kinda regret putting the picture of me on there. I mean, it is 180 degrees from the handle, so any way I hold it, I'm basically showing the whole world that I have a coffee mug with my dorky picture on it. It makes me feel dorky, like a guy who wears a t-shirt with a picture of himself on the front.

When I came home from work, no one was there. So I went to Baja Fresh for some food, and now I'm back, trying the coffee shop thing again. Yes, I am a young and artsy intellectual with expensive toys. Come to Butthead. Come a little closer. Pics on the right grow if you click on them. Yup, I might as well just bring my whole office in here cuz I even got my camera and everything. And no, I'm not afraid to look nerdy or vain by taking pictures of myself while I'm sitting in here. That's because I am both nerdy and vain, and I am damn proud of it too. That's an arty guy sitting in the corner sketching in a sketch pad. The old fashioned way is pretty cool too. Too bad I suck at it.

My legs are nice and sore right now. I came home a little earlier than usual, like, 5:30 or so, and the sun was still out. So I decided to go for a little run. I mean, I bought those running shoes like I don't know how long ago, and I've only actually used them once before... and that was like a month ago, or more. Man, do I need to get back into shape. My cardiovascular strength is definitely not very strong right now!

The "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" craze. Yes, I've jumped on the bandwagon too. I've been steadily photoshopping one or two pictures a day for the last little while. You can see them at http://makeyourtime.areyoutheone.com, unless you are Cami or Leanne (or someone else) and you are reading this update from inside the apartment, in which case, clicking on that link will make the router blow up, so don't click on it!

Boy am I just rambling here or what? Oh well, whatever, I got 72% of my battery remaining according to the meter. Also according to the meter, I've got 2:21 left on it. Maybe there's something else I can do while I'm here.

9:55pm
Ok. I am a dork. In reference to last week's update -- the real me just sat here in a coffee shop with his computer and played solitaire for 20 minutes. It's time to go home, folks!