Santa Clara County Libary - Milpitas

Spring break is officially upon me. Today, the 9th of March, marks the Monday that is Spring Break. Already, my weekend has graced me with heart-pulsing stories, gulps of gleeful laughter and adventurous tales of danger and daring.

However, one of the more exciting of these tales comes not during the days off, but rather, during the last day of school. Last Thursday, a few friends decided to get dinner for Sean's birthday. Those in attendance included Charles, Wooster, Jag, Michael, Thinh, Sean and myself.

Since it was his birthday, Sean chose to go to BJ's Brewery. On a Thursday night, restaurants are not usually crowded, and tonight was no exception. Thus, the service would supposedly be faster by compare.

Tonight was, in fact, an exception.

There were various complaints with the waitress, from her being too slow to her forgetting the surprise birthday Pizookie. My own personal complaint was that her voice was overly obnoxious and that she used it too much. If it were one or the other, I wouldn't have minded.

So, after a dinner replete with horrible service, Eric, Michael and I left early to get Eric to pep band practice. It was a good dinner, actually, as is any dinner with such company. Hilarity always inevitably accompanies meals with those particular friends. Yet, had the service been a bit better, I am sure we would have enjoyed ourselves more immensely, or immenselier.

Back at school, as Michael and I were talking, the rest of the group returns. Jag, Charles, Thinh and Sean return laughing and smiling. This is what happened:

After we left, the Pizookie arrived. Sean claims it was cold and she had just taken it out of a to-go box and put it on the platter. Obviously this was the last straw. Sean then proceeded to complain to the waitress (whose name was Cindy as I recall). She was evidently ashamed and let Sean talk to the manager.

The manager then offered to give everyone free Pizookies. However, Sean observed that almost half the party had left already and the Pizookie was beside the point. So, the manager offered him to pay for the meal.

A free meal.

We tried to take Sean out for his birthday, paying for him and everything, and he ended up nabbing US a free meal.

Something about this is backwards.

¿Dónde Está la Biblioteca?

So I'm at the library. Actually, the picture above has nothing to do with a library. I just thought it was an innovative way to store books. I think I would like to have a closet like that in my future house.

I realized today that I do crave meat. Before I started college, I was a vegetarian for 8 months. Okay, it wasn't a strict vegetarian diet, but it was certainly meatless. I allowed myself eggs and dairy products as well as seafood. Strictly speaking, I was an ovo-lacto-pescatarian.

It was very fulfilling in many ways.

But this story isn't about my 8 months of clarity, nor about how I arrived at the decision to ban myself of poultry (that is in and of itself another story). No, this story is about how I broke my ovo-lacto-pescatarianism.

There is a popular college chicken wings place just outside Santa Clara University's campus called University Chicken (formerly Cluck U's). They have a particular challenge called the 911 challenge, where prospective contestants must sign a waiver before partaking.

The waiver pretty much said that we were doing this of our own free will and the place wasn't responsible for any damages done. The challenge was simple: eat 12 chicken wings and get a picture on the wall and a T-shirt declaring your victory.

I know someone who finished it and actually did call 911 because of stomach pains, so you get the idea of how bad it can get.

So I decided to break my vegetarianism by taking on this challenge a week after one of my friends completed it.

Of the 12 wings I was challenged to eat, I finished 3. On my 4th wing, I ran to the women's bathroom to vomit. My eyes were burning, and the sauce from the wings were on various places on my arm.

I rolled around the front of University Chicken for the next hour along with a friend or two. I couldn't open my eyes for a good 30 minutes because they were burning from the sauce residues.

When I got home to take a shower, the place where the sauce touched my arm burned upon the washing of the water.

Then came the stool, nearly an hour of excruciating rectal burning that taught me my greatest lesson in life. It is a lesson that I think everyone should learn, though not necessarily and hopefully not the hard way: anything that burns in the anal area will burn forever in your memory. I learned that being raped would not be in my best interest, despite my previous mild curiosity ...

I can now honestly say that I know what it feels like in the hot seat.

I think I have a problem with challenges.




I hate anatomy.

Lenten Journey (March 2)

I hate giving up stuff for a reason other than my own volition. I hate New Year's Resolutions and giving up stuff for Lent. If there's something in excess and superfluous to your life, you should take the initiative to stop it yourself. you shouldn't wait until January 1st or Ash Wednesday to do it.

As much as I think it is wonderful we sacrifice and walk with Christ during the Lenten season, I think that we should always be walking with Christ, sacrificing to show that Man does not live on bread alone, but indeed, on the Word of God.

That's the idea, and that being said:

[The Day After Ash Wednesday]
Stephanie: i just stole a girlscout cookie from my roommate
Stephanie: i hope she doesn't mind
Andrew: youre going to hell
Andrew: God minds
Stephanie: balls
Stephanie: i'll apologize later
Andrew: to whom?
Stephanie: my roommate
Stephanie: and god
Andrew: Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days and you couldn't resist a cookie for less than a week?
Stephanie: false
Stephanie: weeks
Andrew: days
Stephanie: nope
Stephanie: weeks
Stephanie: at least two
Stephanie: if not three
Stephanie: and jesus is jesus
Andrew: shouldnt we strive to be like Jesus?
Stephanie: we should indeed
Stephanie: but might i point out that you had meat yesterday
Andrew: and i might point out that i fasted for the rest of the day
Stephanie: hi, at one day
Stephanie: you fail.
Stephanie: and i fasted too
Stephanie: and
Stephanie: managed not to eat meat
Stephanie: i think i win
Andrew: fine
Andrew: i'm giving up meat for lent
Stephanie: for serious?
Andrew: just to win
Andrew: and yes
Stephanie: JUST TO WIN?
Stephanie: bah
Andrew: a victory for Jesus
Andrew: i swear
Stephanie: thats what they said on the crusades
Andrew: but i'm not killing people
Andrew: it's a bit different
Andrew: the crusades are the crusades
Andrew: don't even
[Pause]
Andrew: say something hilarious before i go
Stephanie: i can't do it on cue!
Stephanie: i don't even mean to be hilarious
[Pause]
Andrew: one more try
Stephanie: nope
Stephanie: but im not letting you win
Stephanie: we'll discuss this later
Andrew: i'm giving up meat starting tomorrow
Stephanie: wait
Stephanie: lent starts today
Stephanie: starting now
Stephanie: you have to give it up
Andrew: i have a dinner to go to
Stephanie: jesus vs dinner
Andrew: argh
Andrew: fine
Andrew: today



So yes, I'm giving up meat for Lent, but can you honestly blame me?

I mean, c'mon. Giving up meat for Lent vs. losing to Stephanie. Before you judge me, ask yourself, WWJD?

I Can't Wait To Be King.

The heart to heart of freedom's chain,
The liberty and choices made,
The options which we must attain,
We deem as ours, demand our pay.

Yet pay's demand leads all astray,
While work must wait another day.
Impatience shows its subtle scorn,
From which Pandora's jar is born.

The truth of pain relies on this:
That we are all too used to bliss,
Too spoiled by our fathers fore,
Thinking we deserve much more.

But once again the real cares not.
The time rolls on, and we're forgot.
Pandora's jar had Satan's keys,
But perhaps most harrowing of these,
Is unlocked, unleashed reality.

The truth can be the worst of all.





I said, no! I don't need professional help!

A Musing

Comedy via Tragedy.

The growing pains of growing up
Are showing signs of showing up,
Revealing somber seasoned trials,
Tripping in the narrow aisles.

Growing up is simply painful.
Still I feel a bit disdainful
Of those who hide their pains so well
While I claim my banes are hell.

I cannot seem to work it out,
To deem my life as worth it now,
To ween my flaws and change myself,
From my former me estrange myself.

Far stranger than my inner own
More foreign than what I think known
Is how, despite my earnestness,
My growing pains have grown?

And earnest as I claim I am,
My actions lose the loving lamb.
A failing shepherd cannot guide.
The flock of sheep already died.

But growing up and learning so
Experience will often show
That I go back to herding sheep,
And herd the beasts I'm supposed to keep.

Responsible for this and more,
I look ahead and must implore
My mind to change unfailingly,
Or fate will keep curtailing me.

Restricted by poetic shit,
I can't lament my fate a bit.
My choices shape my destiny.
I feel I've lost the best of me.

And now my pains are sleeping,
Replaced by laughs and leaping.
I'll still the woes I'm keeping.
My laughing is my weeping.
And my weeping is my laughing.