Well, nothing really new is happening. Same old, same old. We went to Costco this weekend. I took Myles out for booze on Friday. Uh, that's pretty much it. We went to Pizza Hut and got Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey for free, that was cool. Summer is pretty boring when it comes down to it. I don't have much to bitch about...

I did, however, download lots of awesome vintage propaganda from the Prelinger Archive which was cool. I particularly enjoyed the two videos about Japan I got. One was produced in 1941, it provided a look on the Japanese as a curiosity out in the Pacific Ocean. How different the film from 1943 portrayed them. I also got one called "Perversion for Profit". You must download it. You must watch it. It's life changing. Sort of. The giant octopus that filters its pornographic images across the united states is very amusing. I also advise you watch "Molly Grows Up". It's an amusing little film about 'mens.. mesntur': 'the curse'. (You'll understand if you watch it) Yeah, old schoool films are coolified.

It's pronounced breasts.

I'm working on rate plans right now. They are convoluted. They are all a huge rip off; unless you live in Colorado. I'm stuck in my office toady. Well not stuck, I like being in here. I'd just rather not have to do work while I am in here. I'm building the files that give the rates for calling inside different states, it's pretty damn boring. It is easy though... much easier than say... EE. Nothing to exciting is going on right now. Sara, from Santa Barbara is coming up tomorrow. That ought to be fun. It's been awhile since I've seen her, once she got a boyfriend she got absorbed. You all know how it is. Beyond that... blargh. I'm just wasting time because I don't want to start on the new rate plan.

So I got the new Harry Potter. Great story that one. As most of you know I was pretty indifferent to the whole thing. Sure Harry Potter is all fine and well, I enjoyed the third and fourth books. The prospect of an 800 page sequel sounded good, but I didn't think I wanted to be $30 for it. Well, while I was stocking up for the continuation of The Deli Experiment I noticed a sign on Ralph's door.

Harry Potter book Five! 40% off with Ralph's Club!

or something to that effect. Well... with 40% I figured I could stomach that... So while Mary waited for her copy at Border's, I headed over to Ralph's. Pretty good amount of people... but not tons. Got a raffle ticket from the cute little girls who were probably the offspring of a store manager. Didn't think much about it.... but I ended up winning the first four books of the series. What's more, Ralph's had coupons for free six pack of coke bottles, and a free bag of cookies. I scored big time. I got all 5 Harry Potter books, a six pack of coke 20's and a bag of cookies for $19.67! I think I got a pretty good deal.

As for the book.... I won't spoil anything. It was pretty good, but I think the fourth will remain my favorite. It was nice and long though. And the cover is pretty and blue. Big time points there. I think JK Rowling does have good characters. They aren't always the deepest characters, but they are very effective. She makes you hate characters, she makes you fall in love with them. She does it better in this book than in the previous. I won't say more than that.

Nothing has really happened lately, at work or otherwise. Tim and I rented Lolita last night (the Stanley Kubrick version). I was dissapointed, it was long... it was boring. It sort of was like the book, it wasn't a bad translation of the book. You just didn't get the same feeling from the movie. In the book you had a very clear understanding of the characters, you knew their motivation. You could sympathize with them. The movie didn't have that... at all. There were a couple of good characters, Mrs. Haze for instance was perfectly cast. She was the most annoying person in the entire world, and that was communicated very well. All in all, it was worth watching... but only if you're too lazy to read the book.

In other news, work has been pretty fun. I'm learning a lot of fun stuff, and having my own office rocks. I'm hardly ever in there, but the fact that I have it makes it cool. Looks like they are going to change my schedule so that I'll have weekends off. That makes me happy, it'll let me go visit my family and friends on times they might actually be there. All in all, everything is going pretty well. Yup.

June 16, 2003

Lyle Kozloff
Assistant Systems Administrator
Paid Internship

Hours: 10-30 Hours Per Week
Dates: June 16, 2003 to September 15, 2003

1. Workstation Maintenance
2. Cypberlog Caps Maintenance
3. Cyberlog Switch Administration
4. Assist in the Development of Back Office Applications
5. Build Operator Services Rate Tables
6. General Administration
7. OS Customer Service Support
8. Other duties as discussed with your manager.


.............

Yeah, this makes me happy. What's more, I got my own office today ^_^

Christina Aguilera is HOT

My boss just told me we have special low-flow toilets. They went out today, evidently the circuit they are on blew. We have powered toilets. We have powered WATER-SAVING toilets. Does anyone else see the irony?

"How would you like to place this call, sir?"
"Huh? What do you mean? Like credit card or something?"
"Yes, I can place this call collect or by credit card"
"Yeah, that's fine"
"Which one sir?"
"1-800-COLLECT or whatever"

Oh man... people make me want to cry.

I have dreamy eyes

"International Operator, what number would you like to call?"
"United States"
What number?
"Laredo, Texas"
What number?
....
What number?
Laredo, Texas
Yes... what number?

What language am I speaking??

Yesterday was a hell of a lot of fun. After work I went over to Albertson's and bought a couple of six-packs of brew and headed over to Tim L.'s place for some BBQ type grub. My flat-mate Nik was there, as well as good ol' Bob and Pat, and randomly Joseph. It was quite fun indeed, we hung out, did nothing. I drank lots of beer. We finally ended up going and seeing the remake of The Italian Job. It was really damn good, I haven't seen the original; but it's probably better than this one... and that is actually saying a lot. Of course the fact that Joe and I snuck beer into the theatre made it all the much better. I've never really done anything so illicit as that. It was very fun, but probably a one time thing. It was rather nerve-racking... Post that we headed back to Tim's for some midnight BBQ, and I got home this morning about 3. Good times were had by all, at least I think so.

Uh, I screwed something up in the last post. Read it, but know I linked to Myles, not to me. I think I tagged his URL wrong, but oh well. It's just a post.

I created a fotolog. I don't really know anything about the service, but I found a picture of a cute girl, so the service can't be all bad. We'll see how great it really is though. I can post one photo a day... and I haven't figure out if I can link directly to the photos. Hrm. Oh well; it might be entertaining. I went ahead a put a link over there on the left, along with one to Myles

Shane is leaving on Saturday for his fabulous internship up at IBM. He'll be gone for 6 whole months! Which means I'll have my own room for fall quarter (hear that ladies?), but also means I won't be hearing "You're a copy-right violation!!" or the ever-present "What's up?" nearly as often. We'll miss you Shane! Come and visit!

Well, I was studying. I got some done. Really! I'm just taking a break. Yesterday was Myles' 21st birthday. His party was a blast, especially when I showed up with a 40 of the cheapest beer you money can buy. It actually said 'XXX' on the label. It was quality. We boozed, played charades. Even Sandy had something to drink, and that's rare enough. As the evening progressed Myles got even more hillarious. At one point stating "That's right Lyle, you have a 'y' in your name, because 'y's' are awesome". He also said "You have an asphyxiation on that, don't you?" (meaning of course 'a fixation'). We also went to Taco-Bell where Myles ordered food, and was basically a boistrous drunk. All was well, and I kept enough of my wits about me and a great time. Good Lord that 40 was gross though....

So I've basically done no studying today, lots of guitar playing... no studying. That's okay though, I ought to have plenty of time tomorrow. If not, oh well... I'll just take the class again... *groan*. We'll see how it goes. I picked up a copy of The Davinci Code. I didn't know anything about it, but I saw a link on Penny-Arcade and followed it. I found the most awesome little puzzle thing ever. It was very remincent of Majestic. If you have a free hour or so, go and do it. It isn't thrillingly rewarding, but that's the kind of puzzles I like. The book itself is pretty damn good so far, I had to make myself stop reading. I like it when stuff like that happens. Well, Brion just came into the car (yeah, i'm in the car listening to music) so I'm off.

I think I start too many entries with the word 'so'. I feel like Seinfeld: "So what's the deal with 'New England' anyway? Last time I checked 200 years old, isn't that new!" Yeah.

Finished Lolita today. Damn that book was good. You'll be disturbed if you read it, but it's worth the time. It's going up on the list of my favorite books methinks.

So I had pizza with Sandy yesterday, free pizza that is. Well it'll be free once they pay me for it. It was very delicious.

Still can't seem to hold conversations one on one. For some reason I feel very uncomfortable being alone with anyone. It's weird, and I don't much like it. It's like I seek either to be alone or the quiet anonymity of a group. It's just too dificult to be with just one person. I don't know what is going on with me...

At work now, should be studying. Math final tomorrow. 7am. Damn, that's early.

So I was going crazy looking for something to buy yesterday. I decided I would take my buddy Trevor's (don't know what he has on there at this point) advice and pick up a copy of Lolita. Damn, this book is so frickin' good. I started it yesterday... I'm halfway through. You need to read this book. The only downside to this book, at least for me, is that I feel like I identify a little too strongly with the main character. With a tad more depravity, and under circumstances I don't know how differently of a situation I would find myself in... if you know anything about this book: that's scary. In any case, this book rocks.

So I didn't get my ipod today. I decided that living for the next couple of weeks off of $20 wouldn't be so fun... It'll also teach me a little patience. I'm pretty damn impatient, and pretty impulsive. The problem is, I have money so rarely that when I get some I always want to run off and spend it. This is bad, this leads to me having less money. I am going crazy though... I want to buy something so badly! I just don't know what. Comment to tell me what to buy.

Blogs are weird. Really weird. At least they are when you have a blog like mine. You can't really talk to people any more, or at least share the same way you had in the past. People already know what you're going to say, they've already heard the story. What's worse is that people you hardly know, know things that you wouldn't probably tell your closest friends. It's very strange. What weirder is that you don't know if a person has read your blog or not, so you never know how much they know.

So I got called into work today... it sort of sucks, but every hour I work is one step closer to the iPod which I so greatly desire. I could theoretically buy it tomorrow... I haven't decided if I should though. Well I guess the obvious is that I shouldn't, but everyone is leaving... and it's not like I'll need the money for something else... It would be awful sexy. I did find out they sell them at El Corral for the academic discount price. That makes me leaning towards buying... I guess it really all depends on how much my paycheck actually comes for. If it comes for about 500 I may just bite the bullet and get it. That'll let me pay off a good amount on my credit card, as well as afford me a little extra cash; plus the ipod. I dunno though... we'll see. Damn it'll be sexy if it works out.

So I was training the other day at work. It was fine, mostly boring... but I did notice something interesting. The guy I was training wasn't too hip to the computer scene. In fact, he couldn't type or do 10-key (which to my surprise isn't that rare, but that's a different story). So he knew a little about the internet... but not really that much. He referred to google as "that googly-thing". Yeah. So any way, watching him type was frustrating (he did one hand hunt and peck), but watching him navigate the internet was painful! The weird thing was that I wasn't getting frustrated at him... I was getting frustrated at the internet! I've come to the conclusion that the internet sucks. I mean, we're all pretty damned accostmed to its ins and outs. We know what a pop-up is, and close things without worries. He had like 50 windows up at one point, he was afraid to close things. He had no idea how to get to places he wanted to, and why? Not because he was dumb, not because he didn't know how to use a computer. It was because the internet sucks. It's filled with crap. Those of us who spend all day on it are just too used to it, we're the locals that have been around since the beginning. Yet, my internet bretheren... take a look at the new comers, they are drowning in a sea of pop-ups, blind-redirects, and just plain lack of knowledge. What should we do? Probably nothing, if normal people figure out how to use the internet we'll lose our elitist edge, and can no longer feel good about ourselves. So this is it: my call to inaction! Unite and do nothing!

At work now, not really too thrilled to be here... but on the upside I get paid on Thursday. That makes me happy. Of course I'll have all kinds of money during finals week when everyone will be studying... and the week after when everyone will be gone. Oh well... it'll go towards the iPod fund.



Yeah, so I'm still pretty bummed out. I think it's just cause everyone seems to be hooking up lately. I know like 5 people that have just recently found a significant other. To make matters worse more than half did as much as swear an oath that I would have a girlfriend before they did =P I guess really that's just irony. I'm happy for all of them, but a bit jealous too. Not because I want their significant others (or them, as appropriate)... I just want their experience. It sucks more because summer happens soon, and that means all my potentials leave. Not that I have any promising potentials, but the dating gets chopped to 10% of what it normally is. Heh, I guess if I'm not doing well with the whole pie a reduction won't really make that big a dent. I don't even know what's going on, oh well. At least I'll always have Brion

Had my concert today. It went pretty well, although I couldn't find my bowtie. Somehow it ended up 5 feet from the place where my hanger was... found it after the concert. Oh well.



Dance was yesterday, that was amusing. Tim and I dressed up as women. Pictures will at some point follow.



I feel pretty crappy right now. I don't really know what has been going on lately. I haven't been feeliung my usual self. I must be having my man-period, or some sort of mid-way to mid-life crisis crisis. Who knows?



Been doing thinking lately, I've really begun to close down my heart. It seemed like last year I was a lot more open and excited to share things. I can't seem to do it anymore. For example, people will talk to me... and while I'm (generally) interested in what they are saying; and could probably listen for hours with no discomfort, I find coversations with people difficult. No less than 3 or 4 times today I found myself incapable of carrying on a basic conversation. I don't get it... It's like I just don't care anymore. If you talk to me, I'll talk back. If I need something, I'll talk to you. If it doesn't fall into one of those two categories, you probably won't be seeing me talking. I feel like I used to have a presence among a group, now it feels like I'm a breeze, blowing dander about and accomplishing nothing important at all. It sucks.



Since I'm bitching already... actually I can't bitch about what I was going to bitch about any more. It's funny, I was going to complain about people who say they are going to do something, and then just do what ever sounds fun at the moment and ditch any arrangements or agreements they'd made. But she actually came, and even though I didn't find out until now. I feel a bit better. All isn't right with the world yet, but there I guess there is a soft spot in my heart yet.



It's still depressing though... I feel so alone. I miss having a girlfriend, but the thing is... I don't even know if I want a girlfriend. I don't know what I want. It's like; I feel like I have chances but when the time comes to actually take the chance I back down, or run away. I think I just like living in my fantasy world. If anything real ever happens, I retreat that much further back. Gah, I don't even know what I'm talking about any more... So i'll just hit post and leave it to you, the reader, to figure out what in the hell I'm whining about.