Gnarler's Blog - June, 2003

		Sunday, 6-29-03. Perpetually sunny and warm
		I've been playing a lot of Strategic Command in my free time.. probably too much. I usually invade the USSR before the UK and US, but last night I did the opposite. No big deal, but I did defeat the entire world by October 1945. What fun. The weather's cooled off a little, and I am glad. It was around 100¡ F most of last week. Katherine Hepburn, RIP. You will be sorely missed on this Earth. Finally, like the Highlander, there can be only one: Bacteria on toilet. Now with 15% more Nerdygirl in every nutritious bowl.
		Saturday, 6-21-03. Perpetually sunny and hot
		Paramount in implementing my wish to eventually whittle down my "movies I need to see" list, I went out and rented a couple of them this week. The first was Requiem for a Dream, a film about the downward spiral of drug addiction in the lives of 4 inner-city folk. A good movie overall, but, and I don't say this lightly, it was probably one of the most shock-inducing films I've ever seen... and I've seen some nasty ones. Most of the movie is oddly serene until you get to the last 10 minutes, when suddenly you're faced with a seizure-inducing crescendo of electro-shock therapy, amputation due to infection caused by heroin overuse, and Jennifer Connelly doing "ass to ass." Not for the weak-hearted, but highly recommended, particularly if you liked PI (also directed by Darren Aronofsky), or are a fan of the works of Stanley Kubrick. The second movie I rented was Max, a post-world war 1 tale of a jewish art dealer, Max Rothman, that befriends a troubled vagrant, Adolph Hitler. Though the movie is grossly inaccurate historically, it was quite good overall. However, the level of anti-semitism presented is a bit on the side of unsettling, if not excessive. John Cusack did an excellent job playing Max, the one-armed art dealer, and Noah Taylor portrayed an interesting rendition of Hitler that doesn't do the infamous former dictator any favors. Highly recommended. China and India sittin' in a tree? Interesting... Nerdygirl: Bacteria on toilet? Who would've thought...
		Thursday, 6-19-03. Perpetually sunny and warm
		In regards to the rash of recent protests in Iran, the US responded saying it had absolutely nothing to do with them. No really, I'm like, totally serious dude... uh huh. I had a rather odd experience last night. I was about to nod off at around 2 am, when suddenly I heard what sounded like a garbage truck pull up outside my house. Shortly after, someone started knocking on my front door. Needless to say I was a bit shocked, so I peeked out a window and was surprised to see a fire truck. I didn't answer the door, and they left to go farther down the street. Shortly after, an ambulance also went down the street as well, so I'm guessing somebody had a heart attack and the paramedics just went to the wrong house... who knows. There's been an unfortunate rash of deaths lately... sucks. Hume Cronyn, RIP.
		Monday, 6-16-03. Perpetually sunny and warm
		My spring pilgrimage to Oregon is now at an end. It was a fun trip, though short. Here's some highlights: Fried Rice Leaburg Dam Jamming with Ryan Smoothie shots Pool with Cherz Tech program reminiscence Bike ride out to Greenhill Rd. Rise of Nations netgaming Seeing friends and family And, as always, a hearty thanks goes out to Mike, Sandy, Eric, and Cherz for putting up their homes for me to stay. The world has lost a great actor. Gregory Peck, RIP. To leave you on a positive note, Nerdygirl: Bacteria on toilet is kicking some serious ass.
		Saturday, 6-7-03. Perpetually sunny and warm
		I finally bought the registered version of Strategic Command the other day, and I've since been playing it like a crack addict lights up rocks. I almost forgot to eat the other day because I was playing it into the afternoon... not a good sign. I finally beat the USSR though, and that was worth the $25 plus shipping all by itself. My mom's office reserved a bunch of seats at the Giants game today, so my whole fam went. It was the first baseball game I'd been to since I was in high school, and it was wholly enjoyed by yours truly. I got to see Barry Bonds hit his 328th home run, and the Giants beat Detroit 7-5. I'm heading up to Oregon for a short vacation tomorrow, so you 2 or 3 people out there that read this probably won't see any new entries for a little over a week. I will, however, see most of you in person... except for the stalkers, as they lurk in the shadows.
		Tuesday, 6-3-03. Perpetually sunny and hot
		Today I helped my dad out with delivering a truck to one of his customers in Nevada. I drove his car over there while he drove the truck, and then he drove back because I had about 4 hours of sleep the night before and by the time we got to his customer I was practically napping at the wheel. It was a good trip with some of the best scenery I've ever seen (we took the scenic route on the way back), though I am particularly glad that my dad's car has A/C... temps were in the 90's the whole way over. I finally got my laptop, though it is not without some rather blaring problems. When I looked at it originally, it had Windows 98 installed, and I assumed it came with an external CD-ROM (how else could you install anything on it?). When I got it, it was reformatted with Windows 3.1, and there was no external CD-ROM. It's a Pentium 100 mhz with no USB, so even a cheaper USB CD-ROM is out of the question. Anybody have any ideas? If not, I'll have no choice but to donate it to a high school or something, and hope they can put it to some use.
		Monday, 6-2-03. Perpetually sunny and hot
		Now that I'm unemployed and out of college for a few weeks, I've resurrected my unfortunate habit of playing the Strategic Command demo. The other night I decided to use a different tactic against the USSR and my new tactic was delivering in spades, as the saying goes. Unfortunately, my computer has the unfortunate habit of resetting itself randomly when I have Internet Exploder running, which it did just as I was surrounding Moscow. Thank you Microsoft, may your CEOs eternally burn in hell. Finally, a hint of vindication for all that is sane. What took you guys so long?

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