Supersonic

Hello after a long break. Sorry for the long delay between entries for you regular Dave blog readers. I could be like some other people who would add an entry lamenting on the lack of entries. There are several reasons why I haven't been blog absent. Of course, there is work, which yeah has been busy as of late. I have taken along several new projects and have been getting up to speed on them. In addition, I was taking a 5 week long boot camp fitness class that would routinely kick my ass three times a week, leaving me too tired to blog. However, it has been paying off since I have overall more energy. But of course, I have to admit a contributing factor to my abscence, is that good ole Dave got his good ole ass handed to him because of what I wrote in my previous entry. You see folks, I said some very not nice things about married people/people who were settling down who for no good reason, I felt were ditching me, claiming they were too busy with domestic life to say, return a phone call or come up with a better excuse for blowing me off than they needed to try out a new rub shampooer. So instead of pointing out that many domesticated, soon to be domesticated, and/or married people have justifably stressful lives yet still managed to be great friends, I painted all people who fit into that category as self-absorbed who had no right to claim stress as a defense. Needless to say, that was unfair of me. So I apologized offline to people and if I missed anyone, I apologize again. I painted a whole group of people with a broad brush, making me a hypocrite since I criticize Republicans, right-wing Christians, and others for doing the same thing. So that's all I have to say about that. My ego takes enough beating as it is.

So what else has been doing on? Well lots of stuff which is going to make this a super duper long rambling non-micro content entry. So those who prefer to read short things, you might want to quit now while you're ahead. Last month, I saw Tenacious D in concert with some co-workers and Phill. The concert kicked major ass . It rocked and was hillarious at the same time. I really liked they sang a crapload of songs from their little seen but much cult-loved HBO short series including my favorite, "Lee." Been doing a great deal of shopping also. Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), Drew and I tried to camp out for a cheap flat screen TV but we showed up at 10 PM the night before, and the line for Best Buy was already 100-150 people. Apparently we needed to show up at 6 PM. Instead, Jinah, Drew, and I went to the Napa outlets and got a whole bunch of discounted clothes. I then took advantage of Best Buy DVD discounts and got the 2nd season of Lost for 20 bucks off. The week after that, I went to the Google holiday party held up at Pier 48 in the city. Damn that was a huge party. There were 8 different party rooms, each with a different theme, food, and entertainment. It took me an hour just to see all of them. That's what a $500 stock price will get yah. The only downside is that there were so many people that I didn't get to see alot of the people who I work with. And yes, I did go stag since well ummmmm... nobody wanted to go with me (and no I didn't try Craigslist).

Two weeks ago, I (along with CWP$, DJ, Cameron and Chang) did take advantage of the friends and family discount at BR and Gap provided yet again by Camille. One of things I was on the hunt for was a black jacket since my previous BR black jacket (that I bought using the friends and family discount last year) was stolen from the Google gym. Like most company gyms I have been at (Cisco and Netapp being the others), few people lock their lockers. This is especially true at Google since well, we are not supposed to do evil. Well my black BR jacket was stolen because of my inherent trust in my Googlers. What really gets my goat is that most people at Google can easily afford to buy a BR jacket on their own. Why steal mine? Especiall y since i had just gotten it dry cleaned. Last week, I went out for beers with my coworkers a couple times. I did go to the Nuthouse in Palo Alto, which is distinctive because you can unlimited peanuts and throw the shells on the ground and the fact that it looks like a dive bar but is usually filled with yuppies or Stanford grad students.

Aside from doing actual work at work, I have been playing dodgeball in the company IM league. I thought it would be a light, fun affair but the teams we have been playing take it way seriously. They have strategy and are big sticklers on the rules. So basically, my group's team has gotten our asses handed to us every time we have played. In the first game, I was the last person on my team standing so basically I was the target in a shooting gallery of the opposing team of 4 players. I did knock out one of them before getting hit with a barrage of dodgeballs myself. I also took part in the Holiday 5K fun run today. Note to overweight and out of shape men: only women should be allowed to wear body hugging lycra running clothes. Yeah there were more than a few those guys (myself definitely not included). Now I know at least some people are wondering between going to holiday parties, playing dodgeball, running 5K fun runs, and going out for beers, do I actually do any work at work? Yes, I do, quite a lot. I came into work at 8 AM today and left at 8:30 PM. I coordinated a study last week, writing the reports this week, and prepping to run another study next week. In between all of that, I am doing training which will allow me to start interviewing candidates and serving as a mentor. Yes, me interviewing people for jobs and mentoring new employees. A scary thought I know.

So we are flying at supersonic speed towards the end of 2006. I can't believe it quite honestly. So expect one more entry from me before I wrap up the year with my customary year in review entry. But until then I gotta start my holiday shopping and most importantly, holiday drinking. Until next time, happy holidays, seasons greetings, and peace on earth.