Conclusion of Variety

On Saturday I went to Magic Mountain with Stephanie and a group of friends. My past with amusement parks have been off and on. When I was a kid there was an amusement park called “Western Playland” in El Paso. It wasn’t very big but had all the basic rides plus a medium rollercoaster. I hated the rollercoaster and didn’t go on it until my third time there when I got pressured by my Webelos (mini-boyscouts) group. I ended up liking it and from the point enjoyed medium rollercoasters.

However, I would not go on extreme rollercoasters. When I was 15 I was with a girlfriend and her sister at Kings Dominion in Virginia. I went on a few rollercoasters but could not bring myself to go on the one where you stood up.

Fast forward to the last few years and I have been going to amusement parks a lot. Disneyland twice, California Adventure, Knott’s Berry Farm, and now Magic Mountain. At Knott’s there was at least one rollercoaster I wouldn’t go on. At Magic Mountain there were about 10 I wouldn’t go on.

It was one extreme rollercoaster after another and though I was expecting this, I didn’t really comprehend it. The group was all ready to do the most extreme rollercoasters except me. We started on a rollercoaster called “The Viper” which wasn’t as bad as some of the others but still freaked me out having never done a rollercoaster as my first ride.

After the Viper we ended up waiting two hours to get on our next ride due to a ride breaking down. Overall it was an alright time and I had fun on some of the rides but constantly felt like I was dragging everyone down. I kept encouraging everyone to go on the rides and I would go on smaller rides by myself but this didn’t really happen.

I did enjoy a ride called the “Ninja” which was a fun rollercoaster the skimmed along the ground and fly between pillers. It could be the best rollercoaster I had ever been on.

Last week Stephanie and I went to Chicago for our vacation. This is partially due to there being a livejournal meetup so we decided to combine this and sight seeing into one event.

We flew out last Wednesday. We were a little nervous because of the security warning and as a result left an extra hour early. There was no need for this so we got an extra hour of sitting around. We arrived in Chicago around 6pm, got our hotel and something to eat.

On Thursday we got up and headed out. We hopped on the “El”, the public transit train in Chicago that is amazingly efficient and got us everywhere we needed to be. We headed to Navy Pier and went on the Architecture Cruise, headed to a bar on top of the Hancock building, saw a street show and then met up with livejournal friends, Paul and Nancy, who took us to a nice Pizza restaurant. We then hung out at their place until 3 in the morning.

On Friday we got up around 10am, hopped back on the El and this time headed to the art museum. It was raining lightly and even though it was raining you wouldn’t get wet. I thought this was very cool. The art was neat and I liked the midevil Christian art where baby Jesus looked like a little man. We then headed to the livejournal party where met up with everyone then watched “40 Year Old Virgin.”

Saturday was livejournal day. We met up with livejournal people at a Mexican restaurant at 11. After lunch we killed time at the mall and then saw “Snakes on a Plane” which is a bad movie but a good experience. After that we headed to livejournal members house for another get together where we watched two horrible movies: “Old School” and “Wedding Crashers.” No one seemed to be enjoying Wedding Crashers so everyone left for karaoke. I had never done karaoke but decided I would and went up to sing “Under the Bridge.” I ended up having a lot of fun and ended up getting very drunk. We got back to the hotel around 2pm.

The next day I was a little shaky. We headed for the Field museum for King Tut and other exhibits. I don’t know what the big deal with King Tut is as it wasn’t any better then the other exhibits we saw on Africa and Evolution (yeah, dinos).

Monday we rented a car and headed out to Madison WI. It wasn’t a bad drive but I wasn’t use to toll roads so they messed me up. We went to meet up with Joe and had a good time getting lunch and drinking beer on campus.

Finally, Tuesday we flew back exhausted and I think it was a great vacation. Now it is time to plan for next year, as I want to go to Europe, probably England and possibly France. I have money saved and made an appointment to get my passport next Wednesday. w00t!

Yesterday Stephanie, Jonathan, Michelle, and I returned for our second Acura Classic Tennis Final. It was Maria Sharapova (4) vs Kim Clijsters (2). We had a ton of fun and it was a lot better then last year. We left earlier and had lunch at a little French place in Carlsbad and then headed to the tournament where they had a little tennis convention out front. From there we took our seats but were ready with hats, water, and sunscreen.

The tournament itself was a lot better with two top players. In the end of the first set there was an amazing rally that lasted almost a minute. Here is is described from tennis.com

“Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion, and Clijsters played one incredibly long point with Sharapova serving for the first set at 6-5. The point featured a number of outstanding shots and saves on both sides before Sharapova drove a forehand into the net. The crowd erupted into a prolonged standing ovation as both players struggled to catch their breath.“

We stayed for the doubles match which was disappointing. A blow out 6-2 6-2. However, it was made ok but my little snack of beer and ice cream dips. After the match we met up with Erik and Emily and had Thai food.

We are now looking into going to Indian Wells tournament. Apparently the girls want to watch some mens’ tennis, of course, I could watch the girls play all day.

Last weekend was comic-con. It was a lot of fun. This time I took half days and Thursday and Friday and went with my friend Marc. We started on Wednesday for preview night and walked around the dealers hall. I discovered one of my favorite comic, Red Star, was back in print and Marc was excited to stop by the Privateer Press and Neo-Tokyo booths.

On Thursday we continued our journey in the dealers hall and spend most of our time shopping and got dinner around 5. On Friday we saw Battlestar Galactica panel and I discovered the 50% graphic novel booth.

On Saturday I went with Erik, Jonathan and Michelle and we arrived around 10am. It was packed around 1pm they weren’t selling anymore tickets. I spent most of my time in panels or watching indy movies. After that I was exhausted and decided to call it a con.

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This Saturday was Stephanie and my second date night. Date Night is a night where one of us takes a turn to be romantic and spoil the other. A few months ago I started it with dinner and dancing which did not go well. Stephanie had ran a hard run and her back hurt.

This time it was her turn and it went a lot better. Stephanie started out with buying me four bags of M&Ms that say “I love Chris.” She then took me to African Singing in the park with wine, cheese and crackers. We had dinner at a great restaurant called “The Linkery” which served gourmet sausage. We finished it off at a fancy dessert place.

Wow, wasn’t even Valentine’s Day. Now it’s my turn and the pressure is on to come up with something as romantic as that evening.

Last Friday Stephanie and I headed down to Cox Arena for the Sonic Youth/Pearl Jam concert. We got there about 30min before the concert and I picked up a Sonic Youth t-shirt.

The concert opened with Eddie Vedder coming out with a mandolin and playing a short song and then he announced Sonic Youth who I thought were great, even the noisy parts. Stephanie would not agree as she decided to get up and leave for a bit and pick up a Pearl Jam shirt she thought would look cute on her. SY only did songs from there new album “Rather Ripped.”

Pearl Jam came on soon after. By that time the arena was packed and they rocked the house with tons of songs and two encores. The great thing about the show is that Eddie Vedder use to live in San Diego so he knew a lot about the town and would name off suburbs with ease. He told a story about this teacher he had and how the proceeds from the concert tickets were going to a theater that he was building in his name up in Encinatas.

Later in the weekend I hung out with Tabitha who I hadn’t seen in years. She was a friend in Las Cruces who is a bigger anime dork than me. She came down to San Diego for a convention on how to teach The Constitution. On Sunday we hung out at the beach with a few of her coworkers and then went to the anime store where she bought 19 mangas. We then went to Misuwa which is a Japanese grocery store with a bunch of little Japanese mini-stores inside like a toy store (manga, anime, models), appliance store, book store, kitchen store, and a little restaurant were I got a rice ball and a taiyaki (sweet pastry shaped like a fish).

On Monday a bunch of us headed over to Niban Sushi restaurant that I frequent. I had dinner with my close friends Jonathan and Michelle and Tabitha along with her friends Veronica and Less came along. We even headed over to the gaming store afterwards but less refused to go in because he said it was too geek for him.

Last weekend was nice and relaxing. I ended up getting all four days off so that was nice. On Saturday I played some tennis and went to see Superman. On Sunday Stephanie and I went to see a play “Fully Commited” which was a one man play and hilarious. On Tuesday we went to our friends and had a barbeque.

I’ve noticed that the one man plays I’ve seen have been real good. I’ve seen three of them and they all have been entertaining but “Fully Committed” had to be the best so far. It is about a phone receptionist who takes reservations for a high class restaurant in New York. Not only does the actor play the receptionist but also everyone he is talking to. So, the actor is basically talking to himself but playing different parts doing so. It took about a minute to get use to it but after that it was a great ride.

My D&D program for kids at the library is going strong. I have gotten a steady group which might change at the beginning of the new semester. Anyway, here is my current group:

Not a whole lot going on. Last weekend we went to Knott’s Berry Farm. As a kid I remember seeing commercials for it and I knew I wanted to go. So, 20 years later I decided to satisfy that curiosity and Steph and I headed to Knott’s.

To my surprise I had actually been to the general area because right next door is Medevil Time where they have a show of jousting and knights fighting but we didn’t have time for such distractions, we were on a mission and that mission was Knott’s.

Knott’s, overall, was disappointing especially when compared to Disneyland. Might have been our timing but the waits on average were about 10-15min longer, the people were scarier and there were a lot more kids. Disneyland had the charm of Japanese tourists, Knotts has loud and annoying kids.

We even got the joy of going on a horse carriage ride with the religous right. They only had 6 kids. Needless to say I have no desire to go back even though some of the rides were fun.

In other news last night I took home a George W. Bush standy that came from work. I put George in the doorway and left a not on him and left to go game. It ended up scareing the crap out of Stephanie. So, we had GWB stay the night and of course in the morning was time for photo op.

Things have been pretty slow as of late. For memorial day Steph’s dad and his wife came down and we went to the baseball game. It was way too hot and I forgot to put on suntan lotion so I had to cover up the best way I could (I’m the hooded one).

In other new I’ve been playing in a tennis tournament. It is basically the group I normally play with which is about 20-30 people and we all signed up to compete in a ladder. It cost us each $15 and the winner walks home with a gift certificate. So far I have lost all three of my games. A lot of it is nerves as I become an emotional wreck when playing these matches. After the third match I started to get use to it. The rest of it is just playing poorly and having lot of unforced errors.

The D&D for kids has been crazy as usual. It is fun but their is no consistancy at all. Each time it seems to drastically change. It slowly built up to 8-9 players, more than I could handle and just in time I got some help running the game. Soon after I get the help 3 of the players disappear so my helper has nothing to do.

Back in January I started an online PHP/SQL class. For those who don’t know, PHP is a popular web based programming language and SQL is a database. The two work together to create such applications as blogging software, online forums, e-commerce shopping carts, and CMS (Content Management Systems) that are becoming more popular.

So, I just finished up the class and got a 100%. I don’t want to brag, but really, I got a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT! Anyway, I really enjoyed the class and learned a lot though not as much as I would in a normal class. I have had a love/hate relationship with programming since high school. The class was easy and we had plenty of time to complete the assignments.

What I noticed about the online class is that you basically teach yourself. You read the book, read the instructors notes, and then complete the assignment. If you get stuck you can email the professor. I find that without the assignment or the little help from the instructor I can’t teach myself. I might try and read a programming book but won’t get past the second chapter, won’t do any practice programs and basically don’t learn anything.

So, this summer I signed up a javascript class. Javascript has been a thorn in my side forever. For some reason it seems twice as complicated as PHP and I don’t know why. It should be interesting.

It has been three years since I moved to San Diego. Needless to say this last year was much more calm then last. No breaking up, hooking up or disappearing roommates. If anything this was the year of getting my life organized including getting health insurance, going to the dentist, new glasses and an IRA. It was the year I made San Diego my home and everything started to stablize.

Last weekend I got to relax. Went and saw a play, The Cherry Orchard, on Saturday night. I was put on by SDSU theater company so there were a lot of students in the play and it reminded me a lot of a performance by NMSU. It was fun but it was done as a comedy which when I read the Cherry Orchard I didn’t see at all. The further you get into the play the less funny it becomes and the better it got. I find the humor jarring and inappropriate and it felt like a bunch of college kids goofing off.