is it okay for a close friend to ditch you when they find a significant other? ("ditch" as in, stop hanging out with you almost completely when you two hung out together on a regular basis)

what if you guys continue to talk online? does that constitute or deserve merit to the effort that is put in to maintain a relationship, even though you used to spend time with each other in person, or is it a sure sign that the friendship is basically over...?

do you remember the part in "The Matrix" where Neo experiences a Deja Vu event? when he sees a black cat cross a door way, looks away, looks back, and sees the same cat do the same thing? then how trinity explains that it's a change in the programming of the matrix, and that something has been altered... blah blah blah. well, in any case, i think that happened today.

i woke up, to my roommate's routine daily morning clamor, grabbed my glasses, and looked at the clock: 7:49 am. jason needed a ride to work this morning and he wanted to leave at 7:50 am, so i got up and got ready. i noticed that jason's door was still closed, and figured he was still sleeping. "that bastard... making me get up so early and he's still sleeping..." so i went online and perused the usual websites... craigslist... cnn.com.... espn.com... fantasy.yahoo.com... and jason came out and noticed me all dressed and ready to go. he asked if i was in a rush to go to work this morning, and i was like "umm... noooo..."
i then looked at the clock and saw it read 7:35. what?!?! i woke up early for nothing?!?!?! no WONDER jason was wondering if i was in a rush! so i went back to bed for about 5 minutes... then woke up again to the sound of a blow dryer/hair dryer (yes, i'll make it public... my male roommate uses a blow-dryer or whatever it's called). it was a time shift... the matrix was changed.

so we got in the car, and jason looked at my clock. "you're clock is really behind, right? it's really 8:20."
the clock read 8:00 am "umm... no, it's 8 o'clock."
"what?!? i looked at the clock ony my cell and i could have SWORN it was 8:20!!!" he checked his cell phone, and it read 8 am also.

the first thought in my mind was... world's gonna end... the Second Coming is going to happen...

did anyone else experience it? maybe we can start some sort of cult website.

aileen made a joke about the Mastercard "Priceless" ads...

World Series Tickets: Priceless.

There are some things even money can't by, and for everything else there's MasterCard (with a super-low credit limit).

ER is the bestest showest everest. EVEREST!!!!!

so i went back to using NedStat after 4 years of not using it... and man has it changed.
in any case, apparently someone found my website by putting these words in a search engine: alanis, american, idol

i put in the same words... and my webpage wasn't even close.

I have to write this as soon as possible because i really don't want to forget. today, pastor fred, the head pastor for City Church gave a very interesting sermon today. The topic was David's reliance on God rather than material goods to provide security for his life (it's going to be very hard concentrating on this because i'm listening to the chargers/raiders game right now).
in any case, during the sermon, he had an aside about people's reliance on money and how money in itself, a neutral object, shows the true character of the heart. Money reveals to us what our heart really longs for, it shows on the outside what our needs really are on the inside. Money reveals to us who we really are. It forces us to choose sides... and the more money you have, the more you are going to feel physically secure about your life no matter how poorly you are doing spiritually. Jesus once challenged a rich young ruler who wanted to follow Him and become Jesus' disciple. Jesus told the rich dude to sell all his posessions and to follow Him. What happened was the young rich guy was forced to choose sides between money, and Jesus... and because the young ruler was so attached to his money - he chose money over becoming a disciple to God. Jesus then told his disciples, "It is easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." This doesn't mean it's IMPOSSIBLE, because remember, All things are possible through God.

Pastor Fred then commented that sometimes people talk about certain things so much, it just annoys the heck out of you. For instance, there are people who ONLY talk about sports, and it becomes so mundane or even annoying, you just have to say to yourself "Oh geez... he's not going to talk about sports again..." while you roll your eyes. For Jesus, He loved to talk about money and posessions. 1 out of 4 times, Jesus talked about posessions, and i'm sure it annoyed people. why? because He knew that it was what hindered people from seeking Him. He knew how important it was in our lives.

So think about it, even if you are a Christian, sometimes you become so consumed with spending or earning money that it's really money that alters your living style rather than God.

Money really isn't that bad. How you spend it is really an indicator of who you really are. You spend your money on cars, houses, electronics rather than giving to the poor, to church, helping your friends - doesn't it just seem so obvious who you are? What you really care for? What/who really is in control of your heart?

I believe this is very true. I have so many friends who depend so much on their money and who they spend it on, how they spend it, and how they think it's going to solve all their problems. They buy nice cars, eat only the best foods - and keep deluding themselves that their life is good and complete. If they are missing anything - ANYTHING - money will solve their problems. Girlfriend? Just flaunder your money and girls will flock. Friends? You'll have lots of friends when they know how rich you are. Happiness? Buy a new car. Then a new house. Then a big-screen TV. Then a wife. Then another car. Then a computer. Then the nicest clothes. You get the picture.

Having a lot of money isn't a blessing at all... Pastor Fred went so far as to say maybe it's even a judgement against you from God.

speaking of bad movies, here's the list:

1. Ballistic
2. The Pest
3. Mafia!
4. The Players Club
5. Ghost Dog
6. The Kings of Comedy
7. The 13th Floor

to be continued...

any thoughts? post a comment.

you know what i hate? i hate it when you think something is so ridiculously funny, you HAVE to show your friends. you hype it up for an eternity, and the moment finally comes where you can show your friends what you have been talking about.

and there is this... awkward feeling of pressure. why? it's because you hyped something up so much, it's going to make you look like an idiot if it's not funny to your friends. and the funny thing is, the majority of the time it's not going to be funny to your friends. i mean, if they discovered it on their own, it would be really funny... but because you hyped it up so much, it's not that funny to them.

i'm sure everyone has experienced this on both sides. i remember during freshman year, my friend made us all watch this movie, called "The Pest." Ever since day one, he talked non-stop about it and kept on telling us we all have to watch it, not to mention all the scenes he acted out for us. so one day, we finally saw it... and "The Pest" has to be on my all-time top 10 list of worst movies i have ever watched. most of us fell asleep, except for the person who referred it. and as i recall, he was the only one laughing that whole nite. everyone else was sleeping.

on the flip side, i've hyped up "Spaceballs" to the point where everyone that's been around me has lived the entire movie through my impersonations of Rick Moranis as Dark Helmet. i mean, it's such a great movie - and this has been something i've been preaching since 7th grade. no joke. bus rides to school, all we ever talked about was Spaceballs. so after talking about it for so long, i finally showed my friend Janette. she fell asleep, and i felt like a moron.

what is the moral of the lesson?
Don't ever watch "The Pest" and you haven't lived until you've seen "Spaceballs."

if any of you thought the poem had anything to do with aileen, you're all idiots.

she's deep inside of me,
constantly craving attention,
constantly creating a debt that i cannot afford.

she must be pampered,
and the more she is pampered the fatter and uglier she gets.
yet i still need to satisfy her.

when i don't treat her right,
she physically hurts me.
i can't walk or even sit withing wincing.

i hate her,
i can't live without her.

i hate my stomach.

so i have a collection of pictures of aileen and i... should i scan them?

if you know me at all, then you know that i am not very picky about the food i eat. you would also know that i don't know the first thing about cooking and i have tendency to stay away from healthy foods. my mom always tells me to eat "greens and veggies" as does my roommates and aileen. well, i am finally eating fruits and vegetables.
i actually bought a bag of apples, for the first time in my life, and ate an apple for dessert. that really felt weird.
today for lunch, aileen gave me a white nectarine. this whole time, i thought it was a peach until it finally occurred to me halfway through eating it that maybe peaches should have some peach coloring in it. i asked my coworker and he said it definitely wasn't a peach. he thought it was a cross between an apple and a peach. i was amazed that they have those out in the market nowadays. my other vegetarian worker simply looked at it and said, 'oh, that's a white nectarine.'
so what i thought was my first peach eating experience (as in, eating a fresh peach instead of in a fruit salad or snapple) was really my first white nectarine experience.

did i like it? not really. i'm seriously craving jack in the box now.

last nite, i decided to eat healthy, so i had a 1/2 pound of spinach fried in oil and garlic.

with 3 slices of bacon mixed in.

for some reason, i have a lot more money in my checking account than i really should. this is getting really scary because i have accounted for all my bills, checks, etc... i just don't get it. am i starting to finally save money?

i'm so afraid of spending anything now because i feel like a whole onslaught of checks, bills, and other random things are going to randomly start going through.

what a weird feeling... i have money.

i've been getting really lazy about posting, but i just need to say what i have been telling everyone else:

this is my year baby.

clippers just beat the lakers tonite (granted, it's only an exhibition)
chargers are still going strong (granted, they got clobbered by denver last weekend)
and the padres... well... next season baby... next season.

still thinking about my company's layoffs (which i survived) and how devastating it can be to a company's morale.

layoffs are a scary thing... will write more about it later.