I had dinner at Pizza Antica with my mother last night.    She wanted to spend time with me before she moved down to Cambria.  There was the obligatory nagging about how I don't work hard enough, and how I make excuses for why people don't like me blahblah. 

A waitress who was standing nearby, dropped a plastic cup of salad dressing on the ground.  Ranch dressing flew up and splattered all over my jacket and hair.  A waiter wiped off my jacket with a wet towel.   I told him I was going to wash my jacket when I got home.   The manager offered to give me a free dessert for my inconvenience, but I declined.  She replied that she could pack it in a to-go box but I didn't want a dessert, I just wanted to get out of there.   It wasn't that I was bothered by having ranch in my hair - I had to get out of there so I could go to Berkeley.  Jeff also wanted me to go to dinner with his girlfriend, his mother, and my friend Mike.   So I went over to my mother's house to pick up some more stuff to move to my apartment, then drove to Joshuya Sushi in Berkeley.   The sushi wasn't bad, except for the fly that kept hovering over our table.  I wish I had had a newspaper.   It would have been cool to catch the fly with chopsticks but I don't have THAT much manual dexterity.   I guess I need to play more Super Mario Galaxy to build up my hand-eye coordination.  

I got up for work kinda late today, but I decided to stop and get coffee anyways, so I didn't get to work until 9:30.   I think it's weird when I see people bringing small children to coffee places.  I understand it's probably because they have to take their kids to school, or to the mall etc. but it always seemed to be equivalent to those old Joe Camel ads.  *shrug*   Get your kids addicted to caffeine at a young age, by showing them that it's what cool grownups do.  :P

I wish people would leash their dog at my workplace.  It seems like the people who bring their dogs to work have the "hyperactive run all over the place barking at strangers" type of dog that like to hang out under my feet and eat the crumbs from my lunch/snacks.  It gets even worse when there's multiple dogs at work, because then they combine to form a jumping, yelping mass of teeth and claws.    Since there's only two days left at work,  I'm not going to bother saying anything, and I'll just eat my lunch/snacks in the kitchen instead. 

I think I'm just gonna skip the work party on Friday.  I don't feel any particular desire to socialize with all the former company employees.  Sure, I'm skipping out on a potential networking opportunity, but I just think it'd be totally awkward.  And I need to help my mother clean up her house before she moves to Cambria on Saturday morning. 

I found a blog posting about funny Facebook groups.  http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/9792  

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“Bring Back Captain Planet to Stop Global Warming”



Description: Captain Planet can pretty much do anything. He can fly, he has super strength and the ability to blow hurricane force winds, he’s capable of telekinesis, and he can even change shape and transmute matter. The only thing he can’t do is tolerate ungodly carbon emissions. And who can blame him? The earth is falling apart. The children of the world need a hero, not a monotone former Vice President. Today’s children worship purple dinosaurs, and some sponge that lives in pineapple under the sea. What kind of perverted message does this send to young people? No one can live in a pineapple under the sea. And if they did, they’ll soon be extinct because Captain Planet is off the air.
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edit:   Gah!  Co-worker's dog was licking crumbs right off my pants.  

When I went to UC Davis, it would get pretty hot (up to 105 degrees in May).  I would usually drink a six pack of Coke per day to sate my thirst (what a lousy idea, since caffeine is a diuretic) and one time I drank an entire 12 pack of Coke in one day.   But then again, I thought it was okay to eat Burger King and Taco Bell every day as well.   Morgan Spurlock (the guy who made the Super Size Me movie) got sick eating nothing but fast food for 30 days.  Fast food probably made up 90% of my meals for 360 days over two years (the time I spent in Davis, while I was attending classes at UC Davis).   

Back when I was taking classes at College of Marin in 1998-2001 (my three year vacation from Real Life) I would walk over to Woodlands Market in between classes, to get snacks/lunch/espresso.  I think the most I ever drank was three espressos in one day.  The Woodlands Market coffee wasn't very good, but since I was friends with one of the employees there, sometimes I would get espresso for free.   Caffeine was the perfect drug for me, as I was usually staying up until 2 am anyways, and it helped me "wake up" (but not necessarily focus) for early morning differential equations.    

Then, when I was going to Sacramento State, I had the joy of discovering Peet's Coffee.  No longer did I have to ask for "extra shots" of espresso to feel energetic, as Peet's drinks had a significantly stronger kick.  It felt like going from wine coolers, to highballs.   After drinking a Peet's mocha I felt like sliding across the floor Risky Business style.  Woohah!   Plus I discovered Rockstar Energy drink as well, so I could get a quick energy boost when Peet's was closed, or I didn't feel like driving over there.    I was routinely staying up until 2 am now to work on my computer engineering assignments, so I figured drinking mochas and Rockstar energy drinks was standard procedure as I burned away the midnight oil. 

Flash forward to 2008, when I'd become a full blown caffeine addict.   Sometimes I would eat an entire box of Ranch wheat thins, or an entire bag of Kettle Chips, while at work.  Then, combined with two Rockstar energy drinks,  I would feel nauseous and jittery the rest of the day, followed up by not being able to sleep until 2 am, which is drawback, since I actually have to pay attention to people in the morning, and having a slumped posture and glazed over eyes doesn't work well for that.  :P  And being hyped up on caffeine doesn't work well in meetings/interviews, either, since my train of thought is swerving like Nick Nolte on the Pacific Highway. 

I'm trying to cut down on my caffeine intake though, by restricting myself to only one mocha per day, and no other caffeine.   And I'm trying to cut down on my carbohydrates as well, by not buying bags of chips.  If I feel hungry, I'll just drink water or chew on some sugar-free gum.   Since I'm going to be unemployed soon, I can deal with the withdrawal symptoms without having to worry about being sluggish or unresponsive at work.