Friday's is a great day for me. Not only is it the precursor to the weekend, but it also allows me to do massive slacking at work. I did nothing the entire day. Other's might say, "Hey, if you slack, you won't be picked up for those job promotions." Uh huh... sure buddy. Work yourself to the bone and you'll end up like Milton Waddams searching for that one constant in your life - a red Swingline stapler.

After work I dropped by the GSU Games room. The pool tables were all taken but Teresa and Jimmy were at a table. I joined in and later so did Zon and Shaun. Shaun did some major butt kicking in pool. When I'm down 4 after the break, I know my butt would be in a world of pain. Nearby, the chairs were filled by people taking part in a Super Smash Brother's tourney. Pretty cool. I like the game although I haven't played it yet. I'll be awaiting its arrival in March for the Wii. Woohoo

We all went up to the Academy Room where the VSA was having a Post Tet celebration. We ate and played cards for a good hour and a half before heading out to Case for free ice skating. Zon, Minh, Mary, and I packed into the car as we drove up to Case. Mary likes to tease me about how I almost ran a red light the first time she was in my car. When she got in today she said I'm a scary driver with a penchant for crashing. Way to exaggerate, Mary.

Later on I did get into a car accident. Way to make Mary's exaggeration right, Vinh! We were next to BU's Agganis Arena when I got distracted by Mary. I had lifted my foot off the brake and we bumped the car in front of us. Although the bump was slight, the bottom of the license plate was imprinted on the car ahead of us. The guy put on his emergency lights and I did as well. We were in the middle of the road so I wondered why he wouldn't get to the side so we could both survey the damage without blocking traffic. I went to his car and we checked it out. Yup, nice old imprint. We went into our cars and I grabbed my license and registration. Went back out and gave it to the guy. Before he looked at it, he asked me if I had any money on me. Haha right. I'm not going to fall for that little scam. I told him I had no money and I wasn't interested in paying that way.  He looked down at my registration. A slow 15 seconds passed by. I asked him for his information as well but he ignored me. I asked him again and he said ignored me again. The thought dawned on me that this guy didn't have any insurance on his car at all. He was a hispanic looking guy about 50ish. I know my hispanic's being from Lawrence. His english was really good though. He finally looked up and told me to just go and I jumped back into my car without another word. Ha, like I'd even bother to confirm what I thought. Back out and drove on. Later on I would find a tiny piece of his bumper wrapped around one of the bolts on my car.

Talk about luck.

We made it to ice skating. Despite being college students, we played tag where I fell right on my ass after doing 3 full flailing turns on the ice. Nice job chasing after the girl who played hockey Vinh.

Afterwards we all headed down to Good Times for some go-karting fun.

All in all a very eventful night.

http://corporealmusic.net/halo06ms.mp3

The
awesomeness of jury duty. A civic duty called upon anyone above the age
of 18. Twice I've been called to fulfill my civic obligation and twice
much time was wasted.
I
received my first calling three years ago. Exactly three years
afterwards, I got it again. It's funny how government is really
efficient with screwing the citizens over but slow at helping them.
FEMA anyone?

That
morning, I had left at 7 thinking that I had plenty of time to travel
18 miles even in traffic. There was no traffic whatsoever. Using google
maps, I had printed out directions to go to Salem. It included -> Go
on 114 east-> Continue on 114 east->Continually continue 114
East-> Bear right on to continue on 114 -> take a left! take a
right! take another right! You're there!

So
I'm driving. 16 miles and just two miles to go. I get to a split. The
signs say 1 south danvers & 1 north peabody. I know that peabody is
the area i'm supposed to be in AND it says "bear right" so I bear
right. I drive for 3 more miles and figure I must have passed it. I
drop into a Citgo and they tell me it's totally in the opposite
direction. They also tell me the last part where I go left right right
is totally hard to figure out and just drop by another gas station to
ask. Aw fuck... It's 8PM and I'm supposed to report already.

Drove
back to the intersection and took a left instead. Drove drove drove and
got to the courthouse with seconds to spare. No not really. It was 9. I
searched for a parking spot beside the courthouse but couldn't find
anything anywhere. Half the spots were reserved and the other half was
partly taken by badly parked cars. I parked in a vacant parking spot on
the street.I went into 36 Federal Street building and easily walked
through the metal detector only to get turned away because... that's
not the courthouse.  Damn. I went to the building next door over which
was 34 Federal Street, the correct building. Went into the metal
detector and got beeped for having my keys still on me.

Wait.. how'd I pass the first one? (Hahaha Silly metal detectors. )

I
walked into the courtroom which was still filled with all the jurors
who were JUST finishing up the process of getting in. I guess that
adventure let me pass the time. Since there was no room at all in the
courthouse for us, we had to go to the basement of the church across
the street. Bare of anything but 5 long tables and a bench along the
side walls, we sat and waited. We were supposed to have someone get at
us at 9:30 but no one came. At 10:30 someone finally came down to get
us. We walked across the street and back into the courthouse. We sat
down and were told that there was only one trial for the day. Nice!
We'll get out faster. Oh lies

We
were asked a series of questions that would let us out of the trial. 1.
Do you know any police officers or related to any police officers. 2.
Do you know the defendant? 3. Do you know, worked, or were related to
any of the prosecutors or  defense. 4. Have you had any business with
the defendant. 5. Will gain anything from this trial. 6. Have a special
interest in the trial.

I decided to be truthful and paid it with 6 excruciating hours of my life.

The 15 or so people who did
raise there hands got out in 5 minutes.  Damn them. I should have lied.
I didn't even have to say anything. Just raise my hand and I'd be out.

A
woman came up to announce that another jury had a question for the
Judge and needed us to leave the court. We were promptly herded back
out of the court room and back down into the courthouse. We came back
up 30 minutes later and we began the process of choosing which juror
would hang for 2 more days. Juror #2 started first.  Ordered to the
sidebar beside the judge, he was chosen after 5 minutes of questioning.
5 minutes and he hung his head dejectedly as he was ushered to the
juror box.

And
on went the count. The people who were allowed out were incredibly easy
to tell. Before the Judge could say "Juror #'' is dismissed" they'd
already be halfway through the doorway. The ones who stuck around
looked around wildly and after locking their eyes on the juror box,
submitted to the judgement and walked slowly there. In my mind, I could
hear and see the chains dragging along as they plodded their way
through.

Each
of the ones who had honestly answered each question who weren't young
made it to the jury box. It started out quickly with 4 already on the
juror box before 15 was called up but I could hear and see the others
formulating what lies to tell them. My number was #39. I felt like Jean
Valjean from Les Miserables except with a much shorter number. (  
24601!)  I spoke with a few of the people around me. One woman from
Newburyport took a looked back at the bright day behind us. I muttered
"Freedom" She muttered "Yeah". That's how sad the courtroom was.  (She
also liked to jump on the Red Sox victory bandwagon. wooh Red Sox)

The
numbers ticked along but the amount of time a juror stood there were
longer. Why? Because the jurors were all getting smart. I could see a
few who struggled with lie after lie. Their eyes ticked, their lips
were licked. They stumbled over phrases they never used before such as
"No sir, I have a pet goat I must feed tomorrow who will die if not fed
and come back to haunt your corpse." "My corpse? You must mean your
corpse" "No, your corpse. He's my pet goat reme-m-mm-ember?"  *twitch
twitch*

As
the time ticked away and lunchtime neared, I looked up to the sound of
"Juror #38". YES! Sweet sweetness. Heaven was just a cloud away. All I
have to do is wait. In the back of my mind I started to formulate the
lies that I would use. Pet Goat? Already used... damn.. I'm getting
married? Too easy. I no speaka english? Damn my lack of an Asian
accent.

Just
as juror #38 is dismissed, I noticed the bearer of bad news. The woman
who had walked in to announce another jury having a question for the
judge announced, da da da daaaaaa, another question for the judge.

We
were hearded right out. This time I decided to stay outside of the
courthouse despite the colder weather. I sat down on the super short
brick wall as I waited and waited. 45 minutes passed and the guard came
out to announce a lunch break. Aw fuck you.

1
Hour break and we have to be back at the basement of the Church. Wooh.
Now you've got us forced into that basement. Another Fuck you. I was
getting really pissed. So pissed I forgot that I had to formulate a lie.

1
Hour later after sleeping in my car, I came back to the basement of the
Church. I finally looked at the other people and lo and behold I saw a
Reese Witherspoon lookalike playing Sudoku.

I
kid you not. That was exactly how she looked minus the red lips,
earings and the not so provocative dress. Amazing how VERY eerie the
resemblance is. She went by the name of Jennifer Turner. Was that a
pseudonym and she was in fact Reese Witherspoon? I'll never know. She was one of the 8 presently on the jury seat.

As
we waited and as 2 passed by, ... well nothing. Nothing happened. I was
so bored out of my mind. I finished a book and had started on my second
but decided not to read because I was so tired of reading in that
fluorescent lit room. I wanted to go outside. Who the hell wanted us to
stay in that basement for so long. Another hour passed until someone
finally came down to tell us that we'll be waiting some more as the
judge had something coming up and would explain to us what happened.
Another hour passed and they finally came down to herd us right back to
the courthouse.

So
we sat back down at the courthouse and no explanation was given for the
long wait. Thanks, jackass. "Juror #39", the judge yells. I stand up
and realize that I did not think of my excuse with my awesome 3 hours
of nothingness. As I slowly approached the sidebar, I let the first
thing popped in my mind be my excuse and used my awesome experience as
a poker player and my anger come right to my face. Intense!

I
stood there with the defense, prosecution, and judge looked right at
me. With a mic between us, I was given more questions that followed up
on the last.
 
[Judge]"Did you speak to anyone outside of this courthouse about this trial?"
[Me]         "No"
[Judge]"Do you have any medical conditions or anything at all that would restrict you from serving as a juror?"
[Me]          "No"

[Judge]"Do you.."
I cut him off.

[Me]          "Sir, I do have something that would restrict me as a juror. I hate Latinos."
He was surprised.
[Judge]"What? Is this a bias for or against Latinos."
Umm.. dumbass, I just said I hate latinos.
[Me]    "Against"
[Judge] "Well this would be a problem. You're dismissed"

Juror #39 is...

a liar, I know. But God, sweet God. Getting out of there was fucking wild.

I took one last glance at the suckers still in there and I was out the door

My next song that I'll learn to play on the guitar. 

Arctic Monkeys - When the Sun Goes Down

John Mayer - Gravity

    This expensive weekend.

Friday night, I met up with Zon and Jesse at Bedford and went driving right back to Boston. What a waste of gas. Picked up Mary and went to Cold Stone. The two of us went in while Zon and Jesse kept the cars warm. Inside we chose Strawberry Passion and had the cake say "Happy Birthday, Teresa" because.. hey it was Teresa's Birthday. Ok, I lied. It was earlier in the week, but we decided to do it Friday since everyone was getting together anyways.

We headed up to the Bayside Expo where the girls were practicing for the Tet celebration. We caught the end of the show that included Christina, Teresa, Kim, Minh, Amanda, and Karen. May was watching in the audience. We got together to plan what to do for the rest of the night. It was after 9PM and it was a bit late to be going to Jesse's so he ruled it out.

  Good Times IS good times

We decided to go to Pho in Dorchester but later ruled it out because of the closing time. In the end, we met up with Jimmy and co. for some pool at Good Times. While everyone sat down to order some food, we brought out the cake and sang an impromptu and terrible out of sync Happy Birthday, but what can you expect from Asians.

After eating that horribly delicious cake, we played some pool and ping pong. We decided to go and check out the go karts.

  White kid can't trash talk

The go karts were 8 per person but luckily Teresa brought the 50% off so we all were in for $4 per person. Very nice. It was a little scary watching the people going around the track even though the speed wasn't all that fast. The crashes and the ensuing embarassment of having to have your cart get righted after crashing was enough to get me to second guess going.

In the end, we all went together with a couple of random people who were in line as well.

I thought it would be tough to handle the go kart but it was surprisingly straight forward. Of course, I had the slower kart so it was easier to decide on just keeping the pedal all the way down on every turn. Zon passed me twice and was really nice about it for the rest of the weekend. Whoopsy, I lied again. He bragged about it for the rest of the weekend. Will I ever live it down? Haha.

There was one white kid who was a tremendous jerk the whole time. The first time we stopped so that the attendants could right Jimmy's cart after crashing, this kid started pointing at all of us and said, "I'm better than, you, you, you, you, and you!"

Nice, you ass. We went on our way again, and as I rounded the middle s curve, the kid passed me. It was about 3 others in the middle as we rounded the final bend when he decided to ram into me. Ouch did that hurt. I was hit from behind as well as I slowed down to get around the bend without spinning out.

On the next turn, I was going around the S curve again without a person around when we all stopped. Mary was hit from behind by that white kid as she rounded the curve before the S curve. She looked me down with a hard stare and blamed me for hitting her hard from behind. (Oh baby) Ok anyways. (No, go back)

It's too bad that I wasn't the one to do it to her. Once again the kid pointed to all of us and did his thing. For some reason, I can't believe I forgot that I'm the master of trash talking and totally missed my opportunity to get back at him. (Grow some pubes first before you can start talking trash, kid).

   Oh but you still love me

As we all regrouped after the go-karting, Mary still blamed me for the crash. (Oh baby, I love it when you talk dirty)

But this time I let her know it wasn't me (nooo go back, go back). She apologized but next time I'll give her a reason to give me a good tongue licking next time(Awww yeah)

To Be Continued:
  Saturday Night

It's finally Friday and what I'll be doing is telling you a piece of my totally insecure self. Why? Because I can and I like to write in this thing called a diary. (I'm so girly tee hee hee)

I was talking to Zon yesterday about how likely a person would go up and start talking to a total stranger. He says that he'd find it difficult and Aditya only does that in clubs. I find myself thinking back on when I would talk to someone that I totally did not know. It's not that I'm outgoing and it's not that I'm extra friendly. I'm actually insecure.

The two sides of me

Wait, what? Haha, let me explain. I have two sides of me that are most distinct when I'm out in public. The side that thinks every person is criticizing everything that is the being of me.

And then there's the side that doesn't give a fuck because that inner insecure side of me backs me up against a wall and until I get numb in the head and dumb in the brain.  That's when I do silly things that I'd never do when I'm sane. Like talking to a stranger that happened to sit down next to me. (And Giao, if you remember this, this is how we met the second time on that bus home. )

The Rollercoaster Ride

But that insecure side of me comes up often when I really like a person. Questions come up like, "What does this person think of me?"

And it really gets to me. When I talk to that person, and it seems as if they're hinting that they like me, I feverishly think, "Was that about me? Nah, can't be. Was that about me? Nah, can't be. Wait, what if it is? What if it's not? What am I doing? Huh, 2 minutes passed? Just laugh. Hahahaha. Not in your head idiot!"

And sometimes I'd just sit their smirking because I'm laughing in my head to try and fend off my insecurities.

Then the I-don't-care-what-I-do-because-I-can't-sink-any-lower attitude crops up. However, instead it only lasts for at most a day, and then I wake up and we're back at the grind again.

But then I come to the realization that nothing's progressed and then I finally realize it's not about me and that I'm in the friend zone.

And it's just like that. The end of the roller coaster ride and you're sick to your stomach and you think, "How pathetic. Why did you even care in the first place?"

And then I go on a sabbatical swearing off women for the rest of my life. Or at least a couple of days.

And then I find someone else that comes along to start the whole roller coaster ride again.

Or so I think... yes, no, maybe so? Oh, you tease.

Edit, I did not get bum raped. Boots didn't fit anyways.

The intensity of  this song sure matches the intensity of the smell in this office. It reminds me of the smell of urinal cakes