rew | ff

Friday, March 26, 2004

Ah, Friday. Not too much to report. It was my first day of work, which went well. I think it'll be a cool job, although I found out that I have to work Saturdays, too. So it's 6 days a week minimum, maybe 7 if the Starbucks thing comes through. So the plans have changed for tomorrow, when we were going to do a cylinder head swap on Sean's car. Instead that will be Sunday. No rest for the wicked, I guess. In the Massachusetts, "That was a wicked slidah!" kind of way.

Funny story about that guy who makes the car noises... apparently yesterday he was in a car wreck on the way to school. He wasn't driving (it was his roommate's car), and he was OK. When I mentioned this to Sean and Dane, Dane said, "Is he making noises now like brrrRRRRRR (turbo) wwhEEEE RRRRRRR scrEEECHHH CRASH!!!!!" I really wish he would have actually done that... that would have been awesome.

I think I need arthroscopic surgery on my left knee. I'm starting to worry about my choice of second of five careers. That guy who took me out a second base two years ago must pay.

Thursday, March 25, 2004

Is Norah Jones adorable, or what? Seriously.

Happy birthday to me and Sean's brother Scott... a quarter of a century old.

There's a guy in my class who sits right behind me (the same dude who added 5 and 7 and got 11) who is always making car noises with his mouth. Yeah, like a little kid. "BRRRRRRRRRR (upshift), brrrRRRRRRRR," etc. I thought this was weird enough, but yesterday I noticed he was adding the sound of a turbo spooling up after each shift of the car's imaginary transmission. You may not know what it is when a turbo spools up, but you've probably heard it on the road at some point... it's kind of like a combination of a sucking sound and a squeak. So now he's going "brrrRRRRRRR (turbo kicks in - whEEE) (upshift), brrrrRRRRRRR - whEEE - brrrrrRRRRRRRRR..." etc, etc. Not sure what to make of this.

I'm writing this in the morning, as it will be my last chance to do so because I start work tomorrow. I got my Arizona driver's license this morning, and actually came away with a pretty good photo, allthough it's really contrasty and makes it look like I may be some race other than the lily white that I actually am. Anyway, I've got that Starbucks interview in about an hour... more tonight.

Well, the interview went very well. Not sure if they're going to need someone for the weekends, but I think it would be a cool place to work if I got it. A nice counterpoint to school. Speaking of school, the big news today was the Hummer limo full of strippers that pulled up in the school parking lot, spilling said strippers out and among the lecherous students to promote a new strip club. We missed this and were very nearly late to class due to spending too much time at Subway, watching Dane perform amazing feats of sandwich-eating (Sean to Dane: [pause] "If you wanted to, how much could you eat?"). All anyone could talk about all day was the strippers, and a bunch of guys were going straight to the club after class. Advertising 1, dumb men 0.

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

An early note: One down, one to go - I got the job at the repair shop. How will Starbucks react? Tune in tomorrow, same bat-time, same bat-channel!

Gigantic moths have infested the Toyota dealership parking lot, and are wreaking havoc on Sean's job, which is normally harmonious. They are being assisted by the likes of giant grasshoppers, and Sean has declared war on them, as they keep flying into him. This is quoted verbatim from Sean. In other news, Sean got a 9 out of 10 on his carburetor test today, apparently unfazed by his battles with the giant bugs.

Right now, we're watching the Lakers - Kings game on ESPN, which has turned out to be a blowout rather than the close game ESPN probably expected. The Blazers seem about to beat the Clippers after a crazy finish (my apologies to Frankie Muniz), a game we're watching the box score of on the internet. We elected to take a night off from the gym, but haven't escaped basketball entirely, as our bloodlust for the Lakers would not let us miss the chance to see them lose. As I was writing that last sentence, Sean wondered aloud, "How could you be a Laker fan?" to no one in particular.

Speaking of the Lakers, did you ever wonder if you and a small group of your friends could kick Kobe Bryant's ass? We all have a running debate over this subject. I am of the opinion that whatever number we initially attacked him with would immediately be reduced by half, as Kobe would cut 50% of us down with one or two sweeping punches. The rest would just be a matter of formality. Gabe, on the other hand, is sure we could take him. Any opinions, one way or another, are welcome... click the "contact us" link to the left.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Today Sean was given the opportunity to throw some unknown sticky object at a target drawn on the whiteboard in his class. On his first throw he failed to compensate for the ball's stickiness, and threw it directly into the back of his classmate Nate's head. Apparently this was all a normal part of the class. Dane had to run some scanners on Fords, an experience that almost every member of the class sums up with the statement "Ford's suck." Dane says the instructor just hands them a scanner and says "Good luck!" Undoubtedly this will be an eventual blow the the ego of the guy in my class with the Ford tattoo on his bicep, who I've mentally nicknamed Edsel, after Ford's greatest failure (the Pinto, Escort, and Mustang II notwithstanding). My class was less eventful, although I did make a gross mathematical error in front of the class, multiplying .0005 by 2 and getting .01. Maybe I'm not so smart after all.

Probably the highlight of my day was at the end of class, when we finished up early and watched video clips of various car-related happenings on the video projector. One of them was something I first saw several years ago on Heavy.com, in which a woman sitting on the back of a semi truck is blown up by a motorcycle jumping out of the truck's back door. It is very, very, very obviously faked. However, the class obviously thought it was untouched raw footage. They also thought it was hilarious. I'm not sure which is more disturbing - the fact that these people A) think that when the screen goes completely white and then returns to a similar but not-quite-aligned version of the preceding shot, it's clearly contiguous video, or B) that they think it's hilarious that the woman is ostensibly being killed on camera. We also watched a clip of an F1 car crash titled "fatal crash at Indy 500" or something like that, with "fatal" being the operative word here, which everyone thought was totally awesome.

Tomorrow I should find out something about the auto job I applied for, and maybe something about Honda. I'm thinking seriously about trying to work two jobs - at a shop in the mornings during the week, and at Starbucks on the the weekends. This would probably suck, but it's the only way I can figure out that I'd definitely have enough money to get by. It would probably also take up enough time that I wouldn't be tempted to blow all my money by the wiles of the local junkyards, which I still have yet to visit. I have no idea how Starbucks would feel about this... I guess I'll find out on Thursday.

Monday, March 22, 2004

I realized this morning that a major measure of how good my days are has become how many times Dane and I can catch the Britney Spears "Toxic" video before we have to go to school. This is sad news. It wouldn't be so bad if I could honestly say I'm just watching it to leer at Britney, but I actaully, uh, kinda like the song. And we did manage to see it twice this morning, once all the way through. And then we watched it online. So it was a good day.

Oh, Britney. Britney, Britney, Britney.

Actually, kind of a lot happened today. I found a potential job at a Lexus dealership while looking through the paper at Dunkin' Donuts, but realized halfway through the drive there that it was way too far away. The more time I spend on the road, the more likely it is that I won't make it out of here alive. So I turned around and headed to our school (which remains nameless in this text as I'm not crystal clear on libel issues and stuff like that) to check out the leads at the employment office. I breifly entertained the idea of applying as a security guard at the airport working from midnight to 8:30am, but I think that would be a recipe for walking in front of traffic in the middle of the night (suicide, Phoenix style). Instead I went by a small automotive shop and applied / interviewed there, and it went pretty well. They said they'll let me know by Wednesday if I've got the job. Sounded pretty good, although I still want to see what's up with Honda... but then everyone's favorite megacorporation, Starbucks, threw a wrench in my plans by calling me back to a second interview on Thursday. So I've gone from no prospects to two pretty good ones... good news, but more complications. Starbucks is the clear favorite in all the important categories (proximity, money, free coffee, potential to meet girls), but supposedly BMW looks fondly on students who were actually employed at a shop before they put their $50,000 cars in our hands.

But anyway, we continued our cycle of work (or job hunting, as the case may be), school, basketball, weight lifting, sleep, repeat. I bumped into Dane on my way back from my class's lab today (measuring engine parts, woo hoo!). It occured to us the other day that there's probably a chance that I could end up in a class with Sean or Dane at some point, because the school does not have any set pattern of classes that the students go through. It'd be fun if that did happen, but it's probably a long shot. Anyway, it's getting pretty late, so I'm going to hurry up and post this now, and maybe I'll add a bit in the morning. If I don't, not to worry - I don't think I've missed any major news.

Sunday, March 21, 2004

Today my car arrived from Portland, just as we were on our way out the door to go to a spring training game between the Mariners and the White Sox. It was in one piece, although they managed to bash in the front grills pretty good. Sean and I then made the foolish decision to drive the car to the game in Peoria... in 96 degree heat, with the crappy old radiator that I've got in there, this was not smart. Especially given my track record with cars overheating. But we went for it, and made it within a mile or two of the stadium before the car got too hot and we had to pull over and walk the rest of the way. Anyway, the Mariners won, which frankly doesn't do much for me, but I'm glad Sean, Dane and Aaron got to see their team whup ass 12 - 2.

My car, which I'm thinking of naming Tommy John (due to its reconstructive surgery that has made it better than before), made it home, running pretty hot the whole way. I'm pretty sure it's just the radiator, and given the heat down here I think I'll replace it with a gigantic Volvo 240 one, if I can ever figure out where the junkyards down here are.

Sean and Bobby and I then tested out the apartment complex's swimming pool and surveyed our sunburns. Our legs got the worst of it. Both Sean and I have a hard defined line between the white of our feet and the beet red of the rest of our legs from where our socks were. My sunburn streak is officially over. Dane cooked another gourmet meal (after our first post-shootout trip to Albertson's), and I should probably be studying for my Cooling and Lubrication test tomorrow. Oh, wait, I already know all that shit. Never mind.

Saturday, March 20, 2004

Since we weren't up all that late last night, we were all three up by 11 or so, and after the requisite run to Dunkin Donuts (have I mentioned that there's a D & D within walking distance? Amazing), Sean and I met Dane at Ski Pro, where our friend Aaron works. Dane was there buying a ton of snowboarding equipment. In Phoenix. The fact that a shop called "Ski Pro" even exists in Phoenix is weird enough.

Then we went folfing, as usual for a Saturday. Sean and I broke down and got some sunscreen, although at SPF 4 I don't think it was doing a whole lot. Folf was a little bit of a drag, but not for Dane, who kicked the shit out of both me and Sean. I continued my run of coming within 5 feet of the pin on one particular hole, but in the grand scheme of sports, even if I do eventually ace it, it will fall well short of my ultimate goal of throwing a perfect game in the majors.

After that we played basketball, and I was again accosted by the annoying salesman at the gym, who still thinks he can convince my to buy a membership even though I get one now for free. Basic capitalism, dude. Aaron and I watched something on the Discovery Channel about some poor kid getting a piece of rebar thrown down his throat. Then we went to Scottsdale to meet some friends from Portland at a bar called Gilligan's. It was another meat-market place, except more crowded. Dane realized he'd forgotten his wallet at home and had to drive all the way back home to get it. Kind of a mediocre night. Our neighbor Katie managed to cross-park her car up against a pole in such a way that it couldn't be backed out again... I'm not sure how this got solved, because I opted to go to sleep rather than help her out.

© Long Shot Films 2004