Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/02/10/georgia-on-a-fast-train/
I been to Tokyo on an airplane, honey,
I wasn’t born no yesterday.
I’ve got a midwest raisin’
And a college education,
Aint no need of y’all treatin’ me this way!
(You can listen to this guy‘s version.)
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/02/09/good-news-bad-news/
Good news is that the car is fixed. The bad news is that it ran me around $1,300.
The bad news is that I’m not qualified for unemployment compensation, because I voluntarily seperated from the Pizza Place. The worse news is that business is extremely slow at the Pizza Place right now, so even though one guy just left, Jefe is reluctant to take on new staff at this time. “The salad-maker just quit because I couldn’t give her enough hours.”
The good news is that there’s a room available for me up in the city, a block away from Golden Gate Park, not far from the ocean, that I’d share with Jessica’s friend Lisa, and a handful of other reputedly groovy people. The bad news is that it would take what money I have left to pay for it, so I must decline this opportunity.
The good news is that there are jobs out there. The bad news is that I may keep expenses light by hopping from guest house to guest house, which could make for some annoying commutes.
The bad news is that someone stole my license plate. The good news is that I can replace it at the DMV for $7.
The bad news is that I’ll have to hustle for a source of income. The good news is that I’m not completely broke. The good news is that I have friends, and family to help me stay afloat, if need be. The good news is that the economy isn’t completely shot to hell.
The good news is that I am healthy and capable.
The good news is that I’ve passed the first hurdle on the Perl job. The less good news is that twenty to forty others also passed. Those are odds I’m willing to run with, though.
The good news is that I shall be extremely motivated in my job search, starting tomorrow.
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/02/05/ouch/
The way the mechanic explains it, this little plastic thing that holds the throttle cable in place broke, which is why the car started acting funny. After awhile the transmission eats itself alive, and costs $1,250 to swap in a rebuild.
Ouch.
He says this is a common problem on Fords. He showed me the plastic ring in question, as he always has a few on-hand. What with the recent shuttle tragedy and the economic impact, I was thinking “O-Ring“.
Since the price is a serious chunk of change, at this juncture, I told him that maybe I’d pick the car up and hold on to it until I at least know my unemployment status. I thought about it some more and it really is a wonderful car. Everything else on it works awfully well, and I swear it is worth keeping. What’s more, I need a car around here – heck, my stuff is still in Oakland. I’m thinking on the question tonight, and I think I’ll call them back tomorrow and authorize the work.
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/02/04/californication/
Psychic spies from China try to steal your mind’s elation
And little girls from Sweden dream of silver screen quotation
And if you want these kind of dreams its Californication
This was a favorite song of the cover band in Hat Yai. I hadn’t heard it much before my time in Thailand. I thought it was a neat song about California. It’s also a neat song about America, a land of dreams and controversey that occupies the minds of young people around the world: the Italian guy who thinks that he should be able to vote for America’s president, the Argentine gal who feels reluctant to bring up America’s meddling in Latin America, the good-natured Jordanians who love America all the more despite the boiling conflict between our civilizations.
It’s the edge of the world
And all of Western civilization
The sun may rise in the East
It least it’s settled in a fine location
It’s understood that Hollywood
sells Californication
I was flipping channels at Mom’s place, and we stayed a few minutes on a BBC news report from Ivory Coast, where in among the crowds of people who had showed up to rally for whatever cause they thought would do their country right, several were holding American flags, mostly simple paper ones colored by hand. Why are they waving our flags, we wondered? At least they’re not burning them. The French are involved with their former colony, not us!
Everyone in the world has an opinion, an impression they have of America and Americans. The world is watching us. Please, countrymen, try to set a good example: we’re not alone in our own wilderness these days.
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/02/03/perl/
Much time today has been spent brushing up on Perl to write the answers to a technical pre-screen for a job writing Perl code. It’s nice to be “working” and even if I don’t get the job, the technical exercise is worthwhile.
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/02/03/the-car/
After this, I took the car to the mechanic. The estimate to figure out what’s wrong is around $80. Hopefully it is an easy fix and not a doomed transmission, that threatens to eat into that $2,000!
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/02/03/unemployment-insurance/
First day back to “working.” Telephone interview from EDD to determine my eligibility. They’re not concerned with Transmeta, they’re focused on the claim they’d have to file with my very last employer, the Pizza Place. Since I was voluntarily separated from that position, I think I may, in fact, be ineligible.
Not to worry greatly, there seem to be more jobs out there, including server positions, and the bank account is currently around $2,000, so I can float at least a month …
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/02/02/the-car/
The most noteworthy accomplishment of the day is that I got the car back. I did this by buying Jessica some lunch, then guilting her in to a ride down to Angel’s house. You see, Angel picked the car up from Dave and Rebecca when they moved back to the midwest.
When I got there, Angel was out, and his roommate Pat gave me the keys. I took some time to double-check the fluid levels and whatnot, before starting the car. That quiet quiet engine made me wonder if it had died, but no, it was just smooth as ever.
The car was full of trash. Bits of food, melted crayons, one baby shoe, one baby sock, and a couple bags of neatly-packaged garbage. Ahhh, yes, I knew well the mark of Dave from the days when I lived with him. Angel called at this time asking if I found his car-starter gadget thingy that he needs to start his high-tech car, because he was trying to find it and maybe he’d dropped it in my car. I couldn’t tell what he was talking about, so I asked about the garbage, and he said it came that way, and the first thing he had noticed was that the steering wheel was sticky! Oh, and by the way, they stole the license plate.
The rear license plate. The one the cops look for to nail you for expired tags.
I had to count my blessings: the car didn’t smell, there were no critters crawling around inside it. It seemed like it would go. I figured the bagged garbage was Dave’s way of collecting much of the trash that would otherwise have grown nasty on the floor. By Dave standards, this is actually pretty responsible.
I tapped the gas and was suprised by the eager V8 that I’d been away from for so long. Now, on the last day I had it, the transmission suddenly started acting funny: things weren’t shifting right. Dave and Rebecca consequently drove it almost not at all, as it fell into a state where it couldn’t top 35 MPH without making ineffectually eager revving noises. It was at this top speed that I navigated surface streets back to Mountain View.
It was quite the trek. I made two stops. The first to at a 7-11 where I removed the garbage bags from the car, then went inside where the nice South Asian guy behind the counter allowed me to borrow his wash rag, with which I wiped off the steering wheel. Further down the road I found an auto parts store, checked the transmission fluid again, and topped it off. Mike told me that there was this magic sauce that can reconstitute the transmission fluid after it has been screwed up by heat, but I couldn’t find this. The improved fluid level didn’t help; It was worth a shot, though.
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/02/01/gong-hay-fat-choy/
Jessica helped me welcome the Chinese New Year today by inviting me to join her family at her brother’s place. We stuffed our belly’s with Taiwanese-style hot-pot. Chiawen had invited me over to his house at the exact same time as well, but Jessica got to me first. Yay for my Taiwanese friends!
Jessica’s friend Lisa has a place in the city, and they have two rooms coming available, one for $500, and another for $600, with free DSL via a wireless network, blocks away from Golden Gate Park, and the ocean! Lisa says I’d love it and Jessica thinks I should move there because then she has an even better place to crash when she gets up there to party. Unfortunately, I can’t make it up there to check it out tomorrow without a working car. Public transport, without weekend Caltrain service, is two hours just to get to the city!
The current game plan is to rent from Brian this month. I want to try and live differently, somehow, and changing my environment is part of that. Brian responded that he kind of likes having the place to himself, but I’m welcome to stay the month. Works for everybody!
Brian woke me up this morning with the news that Columbia had exploded. I couldn’t do anything about the space shuttle, so I just went back to sleep. Seems like a crappy way to start off a lunar new year when the country’s been having a rough go of the economy, and we’re close to war. I hope its not a portent of a bad year ahead.
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2001/03/27/krispy-kreme/
Recently unearthed rant that became a discussion:
What the fuck is this Krispy Kreme shit?
I thought it was some sort of California thing, at first. You know, to go with the 50s theme of In and Out, you wander over to the Krispy Kreme, and then you have your gay donuts to go with your gay upside-down hamburgers.
But like, my mom is all hip to Krispy Kreme back in the midwest. And everyone LOVEs the brand for some reason. Back when we used to get Dunkin Donuts, bigger donuts, very fresh, chock full of evil, people would be “hey, i got some donuts …” but now NOOOOO, it’s “HEY!!!! I AM SO COOLL!!!! I GOT YA SOME KRISPY KREMES!!!!”
Where the hell does this shit come from? Why are people our age keen on donuts anyway? Especially nasty little Krispy Kremes? They’re just little chunks of lard that aren’t all that tasty anyway … ?!
Well, one thing that’s cool about Dunkin Donuts, they don’t keep stuff more than four hours, so if you’re homeless you can go by the Dunkin Donuts and get lotsa OLD donuts. This only makes sense, because all the powerful medicine those donuts are stuffed with could go really evil after about four hours. Best to let the bums have them, for they have more powerful stomachs.
Anyway, where’s there a DunkinFuckinDonuts around here?
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/1999/03/30/grow-up/
It is a damned fine day out today. Sun is shining, and the Quad is filled with students, many of whom are attractive women.
At 12:30 I had an Interview with Cisco. Cisco, like EnterAct, is one of the few companies I’d particularly like to work for, and in both cases the biggest part of that reason is that both companies seem to have their act together, and know what they’re doing better than their competitors. Cisco to an even greater degree than EnterAct, though to be sure, EnterAct is the “local” favorite.
I can’t tell how well or not the Interview went. I’m not worried.
I’ve been reading more lately. It is good, I believe, for my morale. Though it tends to make me even more quieter and introspective than usual, I think. I haven’t been talking to too many folks of late. Any time I get like this, it is usually followed by a reaction in the other way. I’m a bit sensitive about getting too nerdy or shut off or whatever, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, even if someone needs the occasional vacation from humanity.
I’ve been thinking about this bombing Serbia thing. I can’t say that I see quite why NATO is taking the initiative to bomb Serbia. If Russia had the resources to cause a fuss, things would be very messy about now. I don’t think anybody in Yugoslavia knows what the heck they’re doing, with the possible exception of the pilots who fly in there on their assigned sorties.
The other day, a lot of pro-Serbian chalk appeared all over the Quad, comparing Bill Clinton to Adolf Hitler and saying that NATO was an evil baby-killing terrorist organization. Later in the day, these chalkings were countered by others sharing the opposite point of view and comparing Milosevic to Hitler.
My reaction to the chalkings, presumably by Serbian-Americans, is that maybe if you have sense enough to get your ass out of a fucked-up situation like that, you might just shut the hell up instead of stoking the fires. But then, maybe I have too high of expectations. Hell, if it were me, I’d probably be a fire-breathing hothead myself. Human nature, or something.
And while I may not understand the logic or the authority under which the bombings are carried out, another gut feeling of mine is that if we are going to take so much military action, why not ground forces? What is perhaps the best solution is for the UN to raise its own Army, and then march it into the whole of the former Yugoslavia and occupy the place for a good fifty years or more, treating the entire population like the children they allow to lead them, and lecturing constantly about how all people are basically decent human beings and you shouldn’t be an ignorant little fascist pin-head.
I saw in the DI a little editorial excerpt from Singapore or Malaysia which was somewhat bemused by the fact that we were taking military action to defend Muslims for a change.
I don’t know … any wonder I’m more introspective? I guess reading two Kurt Vonnegut novels doesn’t help much. I think I said something about ripping one off my sister? Well, I borrowed another from our Library, which was an autobiography of a Nazi war criminal written from an Israeli prison cell. Now I’m reading Arthur C Clarke, still got the title here … “Childhood’s End” – basically the aliens come and make Earth a Utopia. I’m getting to the part where Earth has been a Utopia for a while now, but the other shoe is supposed to drop soon. It has been … foreshadowed!
A man walks down the street,
It’s a street in a strange world.
Maybe it’s the Third World.
Maybe it’s his first time around.
He doesn’t speak the language,
He holds no currency.
He is a foreign man,
He is surrounded by the sound, sound ….
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/1998/01/23/all-aboard/
This section was written Sunday evening on the Pilot.
I was waiting on Green Street for the bus to take me to the train station. A campus bus called the Illini pulled up and I nodded my head “no” to save him the trouble of stopping. He stopped anyway, pulling the door open.
“What bus are you waiting for?”
“Green.”
“That one aint running anymore.”
“I need to get to the train station. Any suggestions?”
Clearly this was a difficult request. He hopped on the radio and asked about another bus.
“You can catch the yellow. It’s up there. Hop on.”
I rode with him a block towards Wright. He stopped in front of the Union to pick up a group of students.
“See that bus up there?”
“Ya.”
“That’s the yellow – he’s waitin’ for you.”
“Thanks!” as I took off running in front of Everett to catch up with the bus resting at the Wright Street shelter. As the doors opened I looked at the driver and tried to explain myself.
“The other guy sent me.”
“That would be Chip.”
“He’s a great guy!”
“Yup.”
Yup
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