A quest for sleep; Biology strikes back!

Shirley applied to 18 law firms for summer positions and so far she has 7 interviews! That is 39%! And there may be more! Way to go honey!
- joshy at 9:52 AM

Today is code freeze for our project. The marathon coding, debugging, and deployment sessions are over. All seems quiet. I have a list of things to do a mile long now that I haven't been able to tend to my own life while I have been working on my code-baby. I have a new person to post on my blog. Raj has generously agree to post random mutterings from time to time. Be aware that they may be incomprehensible to mortal men, but doubt not their underlying genious.

I am not going to comment of the attacks except that I don't think we should use nuclear weapons. Ever.

Oh, and all the appropriate people have been notified, so I can disclose - I have a girlfriend now. Her name is Shirley. :)
- joshy at 2:51 PM

Archaic sayings? The little beggars sing 'ring around the rosie' and celebrate the black death. And I find the USDA's silence on the remarkable herbalistic flummery of 'posy' to be suspicious. How much did Bush get from the Nosegay PAC?

[And yes, I know that the rhyme actually has nothing to do with bubes: http://www.ualberta.ca/~imunro/ring.html ]

- Raj at 2:13 PM

Today was miraculously not too stressful. I got a lot of work done. Wow.

As you probably have guessed, I have been too busy lately to post. Our project is coming very quickly to 'code complete,' whatever that means, and we are running around like little hamsters in wheels trying to make it all work together. Things are actually starting to come together. I worked Saturday and on Labor day and haven't been getting enough sleep in general. Last Thursday I was up all night doing integration work. I don't mind being up all night playing a game, hacking, or even coding, but doing integration work and troubleshooting is something best done on a lot of sleep and plenty of food. Such is the life of Joshua.

I apologize for promising to be interesting in my last post. No doubt this entry will be far from interesting. But I am posting and that is something. Man, I have all of these things that I want to do As Soon As This Project Is Over. But in my heart of hearts, I know that I will have to work really hard on bug fixes and design docs as soon as it is over so what the heck. But I want to redo my site really badly! There will be a new look and feel, use of orange, my new favorite color, and lots and lots of commas! Yay commas! [The reader should note that I overuse commas in my prose.] There will be a place for Ryan to post short stories, David will post movie reviews, and the whole thing will be in PHP4! [Here Joshua gets up and does a few revolutions of a Cabbage Patch, followed by a couple steps of Running Man.] Php and MySql are my new friends. Or they will be once I become cool enough to hang out with them.

Taking John out for his birthday was a blast. John is my hero. I can't believe that he is getting married and having a baby. And Mike has a house. We're all growing up. It scares me, frankly. [Don't be afraid. And don't call me Frank Lee.] I need to rent Airplane! and see it with Surely Shirley.

I would post some pictures, but I still feel a little rushed. I think I am going to bed at 10 tonight. Keep reading and I'll keep writing. I appreciate your support. My other goal for my site beside the redesign is to have more new pictures and sounds, etc. Look for an MP3 of me soon. Good night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite. Isn't that a scary saying? Can you imagine what small children think bed bugs look like? I don't know about some of these archaic sayings...
- joshy at 8:53 PM

Ick. Been working lots. Went to Grandma's 80th birthday party yesterday. A good time was had by all. Going to SF to take John out for his birthday. I will post more! I will be interesting! Just not today. :x Kisses to my readers!
- joshy at 5:49 PM

Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil. I have way, way too much to do. Praise be to Linux, the possibility of a new laptop, Sweet Tea, and 3 hour meetings.

Amen.
- joshy at 5:13 PM

"You know, it was really just Bad Joshua." - Jiri, project manager at my client site
- joshy at 7:19 AM

We all want to be big, big stars - but we all got different reasons for that. Today I am a big star. A big bright shining star.

In reality, I am trying to keep myself away from myself and me. Ok, it is impossible to have original thoughts when you are listening to Counting Crows. But I guess not having original thoughts never stopped me before!
- joshy at 11:58 AM

Just laugh and assume that I am witty, too. Thanks.
- joshy at 3:02 PM

6'2", 152 lbs. Please send food.
- joshy at 10:24 AM

I am back in Huntington Beach tonight. It is nice. It is relaxing. I wrote about 9 lines to this effect but they seem to have been eaten up by the Internet Explorer Fairly. Unfortunate.

I really like it here. It really feels like home. It feels like where I belong. But I know that in my heart of hearts that I am a Bay Area Guy now and that is where I am going to stay. It is sad to be torn. But I can always come down and visit. Like now. My room is not currently being rented and I still have some friends down here. I even have an internet connection that I can use to post to my website. Life is good.

So I flew down here with John and his girly-girl, Emily. It was an interesting experience. John and I had a blast of course, but it seemed that John was at a loss as to what to do with Emily. I always have an itch to entertain my lady fair, but I have learned that often she doesn't necessarily want to be focussed on. Women.

Quotables: Jill - "Yesterday I was reading TCP/IP for dummies. I knew you would be proud of me!"
John - "If you brought your laptop, I would totally be on the Dreamweaver tip; Just workin' it."

Life has been full lately. Between getting to hang out with Megan and Raj more often, work, and hanging out with Keryun and Shirley and their posse, I welcome the break. It is not that I don't enjoy all of these people immensely, or even work for that matter, it is just that you can even have too much chocolate sometimes and you need to step back and rub your tummy with a smile. That is where I am now.

So tomorrow I am going shopping with Jonno and his lady, with the possible addition of Dave's wedding party. I am not sure how that is going to play out. But while I am down here I am just going to go with the flow because that is what vacation is all about. And of course, the orginial purpose of coming down this weekend is to go to Mikey's Housewarming Party. It should be neat to see him with a house and a girlfriend and all. I bet he will just be beaming.

Good night all. Have a great Friday. I think I am going to sleep in.
- joshy at 10:42 PM

Ok, so here goes. I need to post because I am getting less and less hits. I think that is because I am too slow to post. People come to the site, and dang - old content. I already read this crap! Well, here is new crap. Actually more like the same old crap with a different word order. Same crap different day. You know the story. Maybe I could write a content generator and plug it into Outlook and it would automatically describe my life. It would probably be more accurate and maybe a little easier for me. Who knows?

---

Movie Review:
Rush Hour 2 Great Movie! Wasn't the best in the world, but there was nothing wrong with it. Formulaic parnter movie a la Lethal Weapon, but it was funny, well put together, and has Jackie Chan doing his usual awesome acrobatic martial arts. Some of the asian jokes weren't funny, but every line that Jackie Chan delivered was really funny. I give it 3.5 stars.
A.I. 2.5 stars, Good concept, weirdly done, feel-good plot mixed with a cursory examination of the moral issues surrounding aritificial intelligence.
Shrek 4 stars! This is an awesome flick. Even my parents said so. Funny, exciting, good ending. I think I cried. Great making fun of dozens of other movies. And all computer animated.
Planet of the Apes 2.5 stars. Good action, non-existent plot, dumb ending.

---

Ok. That's enough of movies... Ok - whatever. I have to go to bed so I don't start complaining that I am ... you know.
- joshy at 11:06 PM

Last Sunday I saw Planet of the Apes. Most of it was fun and a little interesting, but the ending was absolutely idiotic. It doesn't hold a candle to Shrek. Why would a guy leave two women who are obviously in love with him and a world that considers him a hero? Sure, one of them was an ape, but she was pretty cute if you ask me.
- joshy at 5:46 PM

I was driving home tonight at 1:48am and there was this group of 8 motorcyclists doing tricks going 60 mph on 101. It was interesting. There was a lot of walking on the pavement while in motion and standing on the bikes. Though I would post - otherwise I will think it is a dream.
- joshy at 2:13 AM

Ok. Vendor filter is long done. That is how fast and frantic things are in Joshua Land.

Last Thursday (8 days ago) I went to dinner with my friend Keryun. David, Burntsand's Director of Sales, showed up too - he just so happens to be working on an account and Keryun is the point of contact. Small world! Anyway, it was neat to see David and Keryun in the same context. David really reminded me of my dad in that situation - plenty cool enough to hang out but still hanging on to a feeling that he is too old... Anyway, I left early because I had to wake up at 5am the next morning.

So Raj picked me up at 5:30 am the next morning and dropped me at the Santa Clara Convention Center where I checked in to start my Avon Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk. It was a great event. I walked with Randi pretty much the whole way. There were 3016 walkers, about 80 of which were men. I was a celebrity just because I was a guy. An interesting feeling, no doubt. We walked through Sunnyvale and up to Middlefield St, which we followed for the duration of the day. We pretty much passed my house! Then we took the train from Menlo Park to Belmont. It was really odd that we took the train for part of the walk. Because of this whole train incident, we didn't really end up walking the whole 60 miles. But I am sure that I walked 60 miles that weekend. The whole of it wasn't just from San Jose to San Francisco, that's all. So we made camp at the Bay Meadows Race track for the night. My tentmate, Robin, was a really nice guy - and got it early and had the tent all set up for me. That was especially nice. Robin was an early to bed, early to rise type. And he was pretty good at tent type stuff. All in all, he was the perfect roommate. I slept like a log.

So Saturday morning I awoke to the sounds of people breaking down their tents. GOOD GOD, I thought as I looked at my watch, it is only 4:45 am! Well, I laid in sleeping bag for a while - until I felt that the whole event had picked up and left and that Robin was probably somewhere in Daly City by now. Then I got up. Of course, most of the tents were still there, but I got up and packed my stuff, helped Robin break down the tent, brushed my teeth, etc. I know, this is an exciting, fun-filled description of mundanity. But it is to prove a point. After all of this, I got to Randi's tent at 6:15 am to find her totally asleep! So I had to pack her stuff up for her and generally prod her on through her morning routine until we finally got going at like 7:30 am. The shut down the campground at 8 am. So we walked and sang and met a lot of new people. It seemed like everyone I talked to during the training walks remembered me, but I am bad with names, so it was weird. "Hey Josh!" "Uh.. hey!" I had that conversation a lot. I even saw someone that I knew at Berkeley there, whom I hadn't seen in something like 6 years. It was cool.

Once we got to camp at Skyline College, I was really, really windy. I found a guy driving steaks around my tent in a vain attempt to keep it from completely blowing away and over. It was basically a shape of a man with a lot of blue tent flapping behind and around him. This is not too far from the truth. Apparently, our tent plot was on a bed of rock and at the corner of the campsite where it was the windiest. It turned out this figure was my neighbor and he helped me get the tent situated so it wouldn't blow too much. That night Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums played! Even though I had walked for two days, I still danced. I even got to dance in the front and be part of the show for "Down Boy, Down Boy." It was a lot of fun. That night I got to add Swing Guy to Elvis, Cindy Lauper, and Singing Guy - all of my other titles. Unfortunately, Randi had shin splints so I couldn't dance with her. But I dances with a few other people. But the girls called me all of these song-type names because I apparently know the words to many more songs than the kind of people that do this walk.

I slept that night almost completely enveloped in the tent as remained in a perpetual state of blowing over me. We sure did a good job of securing it.

The third day everyone was crabby and tired. But we still sang. I got blisters, Randi still had shin splints, and Irene, the girl from Berkeley, had to get picked up by the sweep truck. It was hard. But then we finished it and all was ok. When you cross the finish line you go through this line of people congratulating you - all the walkers that had just completed it too. That was really cool.

Then there was the closing ceremony. Then Randi and I ate pizza at Joe's. Then I went home and slept for 12 hours.

Monday, I went to dinner with Keryun, ostensibly to talk about the walk. At the dinner, I got invited to see Moby and the Orb for free the next night. So I did! Tuesday was great! I have loved Moby for a long time and go to see him from the VIP booth. Yasmin got us in - it was quite an experience.

Wednesday, Thursday, and today I worked late. And that, my friends, catches us up. Sigh.
- joshy at 8:00 PM

So here I sit, debugging my Vendor Filter, wearing a six foot tall Mircosoft cape, jeans, a t-shirt, and converse sneakers. It is 8pm and I am at work. I am at one with my computers. It has been a long day, but I have much energy to spare. What has happened lately...

For starters, this weekend I walked the Avon 3-Day Walk for Breast Cancer Research. It was quite an experience.

I am sorry - I am ... you guessed it. I will have to post more fully tomorrow or something.
- joshy at 9:46 PM

I promise to post tonight. Much has been going on.
- joshy at 11:50 AM

web economy bullshit generator is quite possibly the coolest tool on earth.
- joshy at 4:40 PM

Wow. I haven't posted for a while. I have been trying to relax more and I guess part of that is not worrying about how my stocks are doing or about what to write in my blog. What has happened since last Wednesday.

Well, Thursday I had dinner with Randi at SFO. It was good. It felt like we were friends again. Her family is having some tough times and she went out to Philadelphia to support them on Thursday. I also swapped cars back with Laura that day, getting 'Essie' back for my own nefarious uses. Not that her little black CRX wasn't fun, but I like *my* car. Laura is also going home to support her family in time of need. Hard times these days. Thursday I even met Liz's mother, since Liz came for a second interview and brought her mom with her.

Friday was Keryun's birthday. I didn't get to do anything with Keryun on her birthday because by the time it was Friday, she was already in New York with her schmoopie, Brian. I got to take her out on Tuesday though. Friday was a rather forgettable day, except that I do remember that after everybody on my project left early, I got a bunch done and would have stayed all night coding if Raj hadn't called and convinced me that I needed to spend some Raj-time. We talked about life for an hour on the way to Mercy's birthday dinner and an hour on the way back. Her birthday dinner was ok, but the real fun of the night was talking with my man. Oh, and singing with Mercy. I then proceeded to play Starcraft until 5am. Seriously, it is crack.

Saturday, I worked a lot and did laundry. I then had a hunkering to see a movie, so I called Megan. C'mon, you've never had a hunkering? I saw you hunkering just the other day, I'll have you know. Anyway, she convinced me to play bridge instead. I realize that most people's idea of a fun saturday night is NOT bridge with three married people, but hey, I wanted to relax and she lives close to me.

Sunday I slept in and met my sister at Pac Bell Park. We saw the Giants get beat up on and got sunburned. And I got ripped off by a scalper. Jill says I am not allowed to buy tickets for them anymore. I got to meet this guy Scott. He was cool. I was surprised. I think Jill may have stopped hanging out with losers. Not that Adam is a loser. Everybody loves Adam. Anyway, the guy sitting next to Scott kept hitting on him. That was funny. And the Giants did get three home runs in a row! But Arizona still killed them. Then I went home and did more work, because I LIKE TO. It is fun right now. And now I have to pack for New Jersey tomorrow, where I will no doubt not blog.

This will have to tide you over. Oh, and try out manbeef.com. A web site for cannibles. I am serious.
- joshy at 11:29 PM

BLOGGER - Template Contest - Winners
These are really cool templates! I think I am going incorporate one of them into my new all php site design. But this will have to happen later when I don't have so much to do for work.
- joshy at 7:14 PM

"Installing Bugzilla assumes you know your variant of UNIX or Microsoft Windows well, are familiar with the command line, and are comfortable compiling and installing a plethora of third-party utilities." - Bugzilla admin documentation

I can't believe I actually read the word plethora in a technical document. I think they must have just replaced shitload from the previous version.
- joshy at 3:52 PM

I'm like a bird, I only fly away. I am emotionally tired. I talked with Randi for two hours last night and we got a lot out in the open, but now I feel like I got run over by a large vehicle. At least I don't have a lot of spare energy to bounce around the office and not do work.
- joshy at 10:54 AM

Captain Action Item I'm sure works at my company.
- joshy at 9:43 AM

Oh my gosh! Laura told me that she reads my website, so now I feel that I have to talk about her. She has many ... interesting ideas about people. They are like little granades that she throws out just to see how people will respond. The Explosive Conversational Method. I, at least, find it highly amusing.

Getting late. I brought a cake to work today. Tomorrow is Charlotte's last day. She is the head of accounting and has been with my company for 5 years. It just won't be the same without her. Sigh.
- joshy at 10:41 PM

Not as hectic as Monday. Lately working on my project has been like walking through syrup. It takes so much energy to get anywhere and it is so much easier to just chill.

Well, I lack intereting stories to share, but I will try to muster 20 random details about today:
- I am drinking an Anchor Steam Beer to break the monotony
- My desk has too many papers strewn about it
- I've changed my background from Megan and Clay feeding each other cake to a landscape of Santa Cruz
- It seems like everyone is coming out of the woodwork and wants to have a meal with me
- I've swapped cars with Laura so that she can drive to work after her ankle surgery, I am driving her stick
- I just started using ICQ because our IT guy refuses to use Yahoo!
- My number is 101411293 for ICQ
- I just spelled 'their' as 'there' on ICQ
- My new friend Liz is interviewing at my company
- 20 random details will probably take me an hour to complete
- I was reading about calling java classes from PHP
- I read a chapter of Neuromancer this morning
- I think have read Neuromancer before, but I am up to page 44 and I am still not sure. It seems awfully familiar
- I went for Chinese food for lunch today with some of the guys and Canadian from Alberta
- My fortune told me "You are going to have some new clothes."
- That is good, because I really need new clothes.
- I even shaved this morning!
- We got a new paper shredder today - it is like 4 feet tall! Everybody is very excited about it
- I am going to volleyball today, but I am going late because not that many people are coming anymore
- I am bored of writing on my log and am going to get to work
- joshy at 5:06 PM

Hectic Monday. Hectic weekend. But now there is a lull as the Early People prepare to Get The Heck Out Of Here. Today I desperately tried to make the client, my development team, and 4 linux servers happy, and I believe that I have been successful. Just a little more spreading the Love around, ie getting my project manager's Honey-Dos done. Then I can get maybe an hour in of working on my own part of the project. Who would have thought that I get to do my own work!

This weekend was great. Friday I just sat and deleted/filed emails for two hours. I guess it is the electronic equivalent of cleaning out your garage. It felt great. Then I woke up at the crack of dawn, met a friend from work, and drove up to Mount Diablo. We started out with much energy, water, and good spirits. But we lacked a map. Undaunted, we started the paltry seven mile trail to the summit. We came to a fork in the road and ... chose poorly. We took the road less traveled. We ended up going very wide of the mountain, but through random closed trails we eventually emerged at the top. There we bought two maps. Then we left, thinking that we could walk straight down back to the car. But still we found the worst, most painful trails. Finally, after nine hours of walking in the sun, we got back to the car. My friend from work was in much pain. Luckily, I have been training for the Avon Breast Cancer Walk, so I was unaffected. Mostly.

That night I went the 9th bi-monthly Game Night at Raj's. All the people I invited flaked, but that was ok. There was much game playing - we played Pit for several hours, with the number of players swelling to 8. We were all shouting like stock traders, drowning out the other game players. It was glorious. I even did a little swing dancing that night. Very fun. And I didn't win a single game.

Sunday I went for a walk with Liz. I didn't really know her at all when we started, but I we talked all day and we really clicked. It always nice to find new friends. I may even get her a job. That night, I went to see Texts for Nothing by Samuel Beckett. It was totally weird, and there I was in ankle socks, shorts, and a windbreaker, just adding to the weirdness, lost among old people with patches on the elbows of their sports coats.

These have been exciting times.
- joshy at 5:22 PM

Ganesh's Site
My buddy Ganesh has a web site! Lots of pictures of his new wife, who we've all only met a couple of times. :)
- joshy at 1:42 PM

I can't believe my sister still thinks I am weird after all these years. I can see new people in my life thinking I'm weird, but my sister? Sigh.
- joshy at 8:29 AM

As with the rest of my things that I am doing lately, I have been slacking on the old blog. It has taken me over four days to wash, dry, and fold two loads of laundry. I have been about to implement personal developer logging since last Friday. But one thing I haven't been slacking on - herein lies the thing at the base of my slacking - reading. I am almost done with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. 2 or 3 more chapters and I can get back to the land of the living. The laundry will get folded. Checks will be cashed. My surroundings will be clean. I shudder with anticipation at the thought. But all in all, I really like reading. It is a great escape. It makes me feel great without the guilt of playing a computer game.

Things are coming to a point in several areas of my life. I am walking all the time during the weekends in preparation for the Avon Breast Cancer walk. I am walking on Mount Diablo on Saturday and going from SF to Tiberon on Sun. My feet and legs are tough and cool. My project at work is behind and we have to really focus and get stuff done. I think as I get more organized I will make time to do other things that I have really been wanting/needing to do. My life is a green field before me. I look upon it with awe.
- joshy at 3:29 PM

"That problem again can be overcome with a good pager or a simple crontab entry that kills and restarts MySQL monthly. Not that I find that at all acceptable, but it is a solution. " - Tim Perdue

I thought it was funny.
- joshy at 11:12 AM