Riftwave.net - Kevin's web log

Wow. Almost two weeks since I checked in. Sorry to those of you who peruse/read here regularly (which is approx. 2 people I think ). Most of the reason that there hasn’t been any spectacular goings on with me lately. I have had a very run-of-the-mill week of work at the gym (though I did work two lock-ins the past 2 fridays)… there haven’t been any job related phone calls or emails… and I haven’t met any new people. I still don’t have much to report, but I thought I should write something for fear of losing my ‘blogging’ habit.

I did not make it to my bible study this week or to grouplink at northpoint. I still want to be part of a bible study, but the timing feels off right now? I decided last minute not to make the hour-drive up to Acworth. When I do find a new study, it will hopefully be a much shorter commute.

Sarah and Tony are getting married next week on Saturday. I’m not in the wedding, but I have been invited to the rehearsal dinner on Friday. I’ll have to skip work to make it, but that’s alright. I’ll have to buy a gift for them this week too! Sarah has been toying with the idea of not taking her husband-to-be’s surname…. how scandalous! How radically feminist! Hmm, Sarah *did* start her higher learning at Agnes Scott, an all-girl liberal arts school that is no stranger to strong-willed females… but she left after the first year. I imagine that her former classmates would burn their bras with glee to know that Sarah has become an independant womyn, despite her premature departure from the campus. (All Praise Hestia! )

I only got a few hours sleep last night due to waking up for no-apparent-reason, so i shall digress here and try to take a nap before heading in to work.

I lost track of her when she went off to college at the The University of Memphis, graduated, and disappeared into the ether of adulthood. Luckily, we ended up getting back in contact with one another. Its still been a few years since I have seen her , but she has threatened to drag me to our 10-year high school reunion (which should be coming up in 2005).

Speaking of high school…. Roxanne! I am sorry that I did not take you to the Janet Jackson concert back when we were sophmores! I hope you can forgive me

Also, sorry about taking so long to get that photo you sent to me up on the site.
Here is my 3-picture shrine to Roxanne!

Roxanne as a junior in US history class
Roxanne visiting me during christmas ~1997	Roxanne recently with a tiger cub

I probably have just missed out on a really good job opportunity.

Monday night I received the following email:

It sounded like a very interesting… almost tailor-made position for me. For those of you who may not know, Spanish and Japanese are my 2nd and 3rd languages of the 4 that I can speak (Mandarin is the 4th). I called Mr. Tanaka (not his real name) the next morning, very eager to find out more about the job and submit my resume for consideration.

I did expect Mr. Tanaka to ask me to converse in Japanese in order for him to gauge my skill. What I did NOT expect was how poorly I understood and responded. It was pretty disheartening, and a little bit embarrassing at the same time. After we were through, Mr. Tanaka thanked me, but did not ask me to submit a resume. I was a little disappointed, but not surprised. My japanese wasn’t up to par enough to be considered for the job. …which sucks. I would have performed significantly better were it a spanish conversation (as i’m fluent), but I doubt Mr.Tanaka speaks spanish at all.

Upset about missing out on such a rare oppportunity, I sent Mr. Tanaka an email in an effort to prove that I was at least competent with Japanese… albeit not accustomed to speaking it. (Turns out, I made mistakes in writing that, too).

[ Thanks for my resume.(I meant to say ‘interest in in my resume’, but forgot to put that word in) It is regrettable that I did not understand most of the Japanese speech. In reality it was 2 years ago that I used Japanese. By your reaction the fluency you need is superior to my Japanese. I understood little but learn quickly.] I encourage you to consider me for other future positions. Thanks -kevin

I also attached my resume to the message. This afternoon, i received a reply from Mr. Tanaka:

[ Thank you very much for writing me that email in Japanese. It was difficult, wasn’t it. The differing use is really dreadful, isn’t it? Keep trying , keep studying. Yesterday was fun. ] I know how much it is difficult to master another language… I am having difficulty to improve my English. Anyways, it was quite good to talk to you. I enjoyed the conversation. Regards, MR. TANAKA

And so ends this particular story. If any of you know where I might go to improve my japanese (and mandarin too), then clue me in. Right now it just feels like a useless half-skill

-kevin

That trip to stone mountain which I tried to organize as a group outing ended up being a meet-up trip to meet up with Liz and Kathryn early Saturday afternoon. Liz was there with some Macon church acquaintances and Kathryn was there to meet with Liz.

I tried earlier (in vain) to plan a trip with a gaggle of friends to visit the park and climb the huge hunk of granite. I sent out emails and invitations about a month in advance, but nevertheless all sorts of problems/excuses started popping up from folks.
I’ll break down the responses/excuses I got from these saboteurs….

IDENTITIES OBSCURED TO PROTECT THE GUILTY

“I’ll be in Jekyll Island for GSU Cheer camp on the 14th. I have a pre-season game on the 28th. I can make it on the 28th as long as it is early and I’ll have to leave by 2pm to get ready for the game.”	“Not sure if —– & I can go either of those days. We’re busy on the 14th - have a wedding to go to. Then, the 28th I think (?) an aunt & uncle are in town. Depending on their plans, we may/may not be able to go. We were maybe gonna have a cookout or something while they were here with other friends & family in the Atlanta area.”
“I hate stone hill (it’s not a mountain)”	“Sorry for the late response, I have had an insanely busy week. Unfortunately, the insanely busy week is followed by an almost insanely busy weekend… -Hopefully, soon, my life will resume normal speed, and I will have spare time again. Though I’ve been saying that for months now. Oh well. Hope you have fun!”
“can’t. i’m in the uk”

To make a long story short, Kathryn ended being the only one to try to arrange a time to go with me. Since Liz already had plans to visit with a group, we ended up coordinating with her. It was a good trip. I got some good exercise, I got to try out my hiking boots (I wouldn’t reccommend climbing stone mtn in sneakers, you will feel every single pebble and piece of gravel through the soles of your shoe), and I got a blueberry icee to cool me off during my descent.
I took a bunch of photos. I will eventually get them up on the site here. However, I haven’t even finished my Six Flags photo gallery yet, so don’t hold your breath.

Liz, Katheryn & company stayed for the laser show, but I decided to come home instead. I didn’t feel like spending the whole day at the park (and also I didn’t want to miss justice league unlimited). I spent the rest of my day working on Nicole’s web site.

Hmm, I wonder what tomorrow will hold?

-kevin

After an impromptu visit to my cousin and aunt out in Vinings, I headed over to Reed’s house to hang out and watch the guys play some poker.

I am not much of a poker player. I know the hands, the odds, and the general strategy of the game, but I’ve always shyed away from gambling ever since that time during freshman year that I taught a girl in the girls’ dorm how to play poker… after which she promptly ended up taking all of my pennies. I’m not sure whether I was just *that* good a teacher or perhaps it was me that sucked *that bad*… but ever since then I have avoided playing for money.

Such was the case this night. I came over to watch. The world poker tour with the professional players which is currently shown on television bores me. I dont’ know enough about any of the players to care who wins whose money… but I do enjoy the celebrity poker shows. Those games are a lot more friendly (as they are playing for charity), and there is a lot more banter to make the game more interesting. There are also some pretty odd match-ups as far as celebrities go.

My reasons for not buying in at Reed’s was simple. A burning desire to not give any of those punks any of my hard-earned cash. I’m already poor. I don’t need to make myself poorer by gambling it away! There was one table with 6 people playing 5-card hold’em when I got to Reed’s place. Soon after I arrived, Aaron showed up with his friend Neil. Aaron used to run a regular poker game back when he lived in Home Park, close to tech, so I was interested in seeing how he handled himself. Justin and Ryan, playing at the table, were going off about some bull*** “small straight“-hand that they claimed to have seen on TV (a 4-card straight). It sounded like al oad to me. Aaron, Neil, and I cried foul and so the “small straight” was rightfully disallowed at the second table they set up. Neil, Aaron, Reed and Otis played at this 2nd table.

Watching the game was a lot of fun. Otis went lost a few of his chips at the start, but ended up winning the most at that game… especially after his royal flush. Neil was crazy. I could see his cards early on and he was playing hard on weak hands, probably trying to seem unpredictable and cast doubt for later in the game. Poor Aaron played fairly competently, but got slaughtered time and time again by ‘the river’ (the last community card flopped over). Reed in particular won the bulk of his hands by getting lucky on the last card.

I didn’t watch the game on the original table, but it seemed to me that playing conservatively there would net you some chips.

All in all, not a bad night. I actually did put a dollar in to play a ‘for fun’ game with Aaron and Neil after they’d lost. Neil just barely beat me by 1 pair (I had 2-pair 7 high, he had 2-pair 8 high).

The game is supposed to go weekly, but I don’t know how long that will last if folks keep losing their cash .

I just might go again. Just to watch, of course.

-kevin

I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami on a reccommendation from Meg Andrew, a sister of a friend of Catherine Knight nee  Peisher’s.

Meg is out in California in grad school at Stanford (i think?). This was the gist of our online conversation which led to my reading this book.

About two weeks later I bought it at the Border’s in Buckhead. The original novel was written in Japanese by a japanese author. The book is set in Japan, but aside from some historical and geographical references, the foreign setting does not preclude the reader’s comprehension of the story (in other words, familiarity with Japan neither helps nor hinders reading this book).

As for the writing itself…. I haven’t read all that many modern novels, but I was impressed by the depth and illustration of everyday details in the story. I don’t mean to say that every landscape or scene is tirelessly described with 2 pages of adjectives and imagery a la Tolkien. The author does an impressive job connecting events, giving information and descriptions with a precision that makes you not question at all whether or not the events in the story happened at all. It *is* a fiction novel, so nothing in the story (save some historical references) really happened, but it crafts a wholly believable world with very round characters (at least, compared with what i’ve been reading *cough*JKROWLING*cough*)

Wind-Up is a strange story about a very peculiar set of events that center around the main character, Toru Okada. Toru is a middle aged man that lives with his wife in a suburb. He first notices things that have gone awry when his cat goes missing, but soon learns that the missing cat is just the start of peculiar happenings, trials, decisions and forays he will make as his normal life starts to unravel itself. He is counseled and aided by two sisters with psychic talents that tell him just enough to make him wonder why noone can give him any real information. Soon enough, he starts to realize that the causes of problems aren’t necessarily their real root… and that is when things really start to get even more strange.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Its not the best book that I have ever read, and I’m not even sure how good a re-read it will be… but I found it very very hard to put down every time I picked it up. I often stayed up till 4, 5, and even 6 in the morning just reading to find out what was going to happen next. The main story is not difficult to understand, but I don’t feel like I could nail down or isolate any themes in the book because so much happens. I’m not always good at that sort of thing anyways, and its not requisite to enjoying the novel. The author does go out of his way to explain the main theme of the title, the wind-up bird, which is mentioned here and there at a few points in the story.

The book has a good length, and as Meg pointed out after I’d finished it… long, good books tend to have seemingly unimpressive endings. This is probably due to a raised level of expectation from having taken to the first part of the story. I would reccomend this book to anyone looking for a solid read. When I say solid, i mean something with a little bit more to it than the pop-narrative (like Clancy, et al) that won’t disappoint you. I’ve never gone to a coffeehouse to read anything, but I imagine this is the kind of book you could spend hours there reading. Don’t bring this book there if you’re looking to socialize, though… you’ll end up not talking to anyone

Well, those are my thoughts. I’ve never really reviewed a book before, so forgive me if this review lacks the proper form. Thanks to Meg for a great reccomendation! My only gripe is that the book cost $15 for a TPB (trade paperback). Which is what I’m used to spending on hardbacks.

-kevin

Earlier today, I unwittingly broke one of my own personal rules:
-Never, EVER, go to the supermarket while you’re hungry.
Why not? Well, *I* shouldn’t go whilst hungry because I invariably end up spending 2-to-3 times more than I originally set out to.
Just this evening I found myself in this very situation. I went across the street to make a Kroger-run after not having eaten anything all day. My plan was to buy tortillas, and maybe some chicken to make quesadillas (should have cost under $10). I came back with cookies, crackers, cheese, chicken, pork, beans, and strawberry milk at a total cost of $25! (In my defense, the butcher *did* give me half-price on the pork, and it is something I never buy…. so I decided to try cooking some).

Yesterday, sitting at home with nothign to do, as I’d finished finished The Wind-Up-Bird Chronicle, (i’ll put up a short review later), I got in the car and headed to Newton Park. I have passed the entrance dozens upon dozens of times, but I had never checked out the facilities. I was pleasantly surprised. It seems to be about the size ofEast Roswell Park, but isn’t a creepily constantly deserted ghost-town like East Roswell Park is. Portions of their soccer fields were closed, but thankfully there was still a large area with soccer goals open for use. I spent about 15 minutes taking left and right footed shots on the kiddie-goal, and then played a pick-up game witha group of mexican fellows that were there.

I ended my evening with a trip to Best Buy to purchase the No Doubt Hit Singles CD, and No Doubt videos DVD (I would have saved ~$10 had i bought them when they came out). This is the first CD I have bought in about 10 years or so. I hope No Doubt is proud of that fact.

In other news:

-kevin

Six Flags was fun. I finally got to ride most of the three new rollercoasters that I missed, or had been built since my trip during the last century (1995, GT student six flags trip during spring of my freshman year). Batman was probably my favorite, with Superman a close second.

The Batman ride pulled the most G’s i’ve ever pulled experienced on a ride. I could feel my vision start to blur for a tiny instant, presumably from blood rushing away from my head on the end of a loop. Superman would have been a LOT better if we’d stuck out the extra 6 minutes in line and waited for a spot at the front. The line for superman took FOREVER, and it was definitely one of the shorter (if not the shortest) ride we went on. We were in the second row of seats for superman, but we did get front row for Batman (also a short ride).

Fortunately, the first 4-5 rides we went on had short, fast moving lines (10 minutes or less). Superman and Thunder River (which I waited for, but did not ride for fear of soaking my digital camera) were about 30 minute waits…. and it wasn’t even a particularly busy day at the park as it was a Wednesday. I’ll make it a point to never visit Six Flags on a weekend if i can help it; all of the lines would probably take at least twice as long.

I haven’t put my photos from the outing online yet, but when I do I will put them here. One bad thing did happen. I think that I lost a spare CF memory card that I’d had in my pocket. I’m not sure if it fell out in the car or at the park. I only paid $15 for it… but it was a 128MB card, so that’s bad. I’ll probably eventually replace it with a 512 card to avoid having to carry around a spare (and possibly losing it) in the future.

-kevin

This week has certainly been more interesting than the last.

Tonight, as I left the chinese takeout place across the street from where I live, I got a call from Jeremy at 10:01PM. He was stranded with a flat tire on his motorcycle 10 minutes down the highway. He said that he’d already made arrangements to get his bike home, but that ride was an hour away and he needed a lift to a gas station to buy a drink since he’d been stuck for 2 hours already. 30 minutes and a few phone calls later, we finished dinner at a different chinese place and drove back with his girlfriend and his pick-up truck to retrieve his bike from the shoulder of a highway off-ramp. After the tricky bit of getting the flat-tired-motorcycle up the ramp into the truck, all was well.

Yesterday, an hour after I finished my latest round of monster.com resume submissions for jobs, I actually recieved a call from one of the employers to whom i’d sent my resume. Unfortunately, it was for a web consulting position, rather than a scientific or engineering spot, but its at least a lateral step, if not one in the right direction. My original meeting with the hiring manager was scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10AM in midtown, but I am supposed to get a phone call to reschedule it since the hiring manager won’t be present. Could this be the end of my late nights and hours of free time during the day? I suppose it depends on what the job is like and what it pays. I’m not thrilled at the prospect of fighting rush hour traffic everyday from here. Holcombe Bridge (the exit I live off of) is gridlocked every day without fail. There are other concerns as well, but nothign to worry about until after I’ve gotten all the information I can first.

The book i’m currently reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is great! I find it really hard to put down once i’ve read a page or two (which is why I was up till almost 6AM last night reading it). As much as I enjoy the Harry Potter books, reading a book like this makes the shortcomings of a children’s series like that all the more evident. All i really need now is a place to read. Beth suggested Caribou Coffee, but Ryan from the gym says that noone goes there, and reccomends the Starbucks between here and the gym. I’ll have to try them both I guess… though I might be done with this book by time I get around to it.

Sarah Burgoyne called me up today. She and her fianceé, Tony (old suitemate of mine) are on their way to Georgia (they are going to wed here next month) and plan to go to Six Flags tomorrow. I’m invited (Sarah remembered that I have Wednesdays off). As long as I take care of contacting the web-consulting people then I should be set. Stay tuned to this space for pictures from Six Flags Over Georgia

I got an email from Philipp Heinickle, whose Spiderwebs No Doubt bass tab I corrected. He writes:

Hi Kevin! Thanks very much for your correction of my bass tab! When I have time, I’ll listen to the song and check it out again with the help of your tab… So maybe I’ll be able to play it more originally on our next live-gig on 18th august How long have you been playing the bass guitar and in what kind of band do you play? I am 19 years old and I’ve been playing bass for four years. At the moment I have a cover-band that covers mostly rock-songs but I’d really like to have a band writing it’s own rocksongs in the near future… Bye, Philipp (Philipp-Heinicke@web.de)

His tab was pretty already mostly correct. He’s also the 4th person to ever contact me regarding a bass tab I did. I actually have an AIM buddy that found me as a result the tab I wrote for Gone by Switchfoot. She’s an aspiring bassist in a praise band. Pretty cool! Maybe one day I’ll get to join a band myself.

Update: I got an email from Valerie saying that she and Brannon won’t be able to make the Stone Mtn trip. Their plans include family which means that Natalie might not be able to make it either. Nicole has to cheer the Falcons game that weekend (she’s an Atlanta Falcons cheerleader). That’s what I get for trying to plan stuff :-/

It seems like these entries are starting to become weekly occurrences. I’m afraid of boring the few folk(s) that do occasionally read (i got my first comment last week) this site, which is why I try to wait until some noteworthy event happens. I could just fill more posts with more introspective material (thoughts, wishes, etc), but I’m uneasy with giving everyone in the entire world potential access to such personal meanderings.
I’ll compromise. I’ll put more personal content up more often, but i’ll password protect it so that only folks who 1. Want to read that sort of junk 2. Have my approval can access it. Contact me if you want the goods!

The icon for this entry is an animated gif of Gwen Stefani from No Doubt’s It’s My Life   video (can you guess the lyrics she’s mouthing?). Its a song I play along with on my bass guitar. I spent tonight correcting and re-writing the bass tab for it. You can take a look at the tab right here. I’ve noticed other errors in the bass tab for Spiderwebs, but its only missing a few flourishes here and there, so I’ll leave it for another night. I guess i’ll have to start putting up all the bass tabs i’ve written on my website (only about 4).

Lacking companions to hang out with, today I went to Galyan’s on the advice of the Events section of AccessAtlanta.com to see a ‘Pugmo skateboard demonstration’. It turned out to be a product demonstration of a product that was so lame that I refused to embarrass myself by participating or taking any photos. Its a skateboard that the rider makes ‘go’ by working the deck like the lever on a railroad hand car. The deck sits about twice as high as the deck on a normal skateboard. They were allowing people to try it out. I don’t think it will catch on.
Bored with the demonstration, I ended up buying a book at Borders. I bought The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, which was reccomended to me by sister-of-a-friend, Meg Andrew. I’m going to start reading it as soon as I finish this entry (and play a game of Warcraft 3 perhaps).

There is a gym-wide trip tomorrow to the Lake Lanier Islands. I already know that i’ll probably sunburn a bit if I go (yes, black folks can sunburn and peel). I’m allergic to sunblock, (clogs my pores and gives me a rash), so there’s no way around it unless i cover up. I went last year and had an okay time. The kids are all great, but I feel like I don’t spend enough time around my peers. Hopefully that will change, starting with the Stone Mountain trip i’m trying to put together. I don’t even know where people my age hang out! Sad, eh? Maybe you can tell me… leave me a comment!

-kevin