Archive for June, 2005

Nerd Up!

We celebrated Brandon’s birthday yesterday the geekiest way possible.

That’s right. We went to see the special screening of TRON on big screen in Santa Ana last night.

I know that I’m a self admitted geek and all, and DAMN! I’m highly stealthy for the crowd standing around outside the theater last night. Holy crap. I mean, even with the people I spent 27 hours with the Hollywood Boulevard in line for Episode I, I don’t feel such a geeky vibe.

I guess when it comes to Tron, it’s as geeky as geeky gets. Therefore I have completed another part of my journey into the Great Geekdom.

Geek Pride, baby!

Ow…quit it

From the Nation, Bangkok’s English language newspaper:

Fire drill goes awry

Lance Corporal Bunlert Polphra, a police commando from the elite Arintharat unit lowering himself from a helicopter and hitting the ground during a fire-rescue exercise at the Police Aviation Division yesterday.

Upside: He was only 10 meters away from the ground out of the 35-meter drop when he repelled down Aussie style. So yeah, he lives.

Office Lament

I do miss my old office sometimes. Mostly it’s the privacy, but more so the view…

Search Word Gallery

Now that I am crawling up the rank of a respectable blogger of over 10 viewers a day (Rude Cactus is laughing at my celebration I can tell), I think I’d start a new thing with the weekly report of the odd search words that lead people to the OakMonster’s Den.

We have a few in the past already, but now we’re going to take a peek at the BlogPatrol report every weekend and see what kind of things people are looking for out there.

crispy anakin (Google)
Nah. I’d prefer original recipe.

where in huntington beach does norm chow live? (Google)
Why? Are you going to stalk him until he comes back to coach one last season for USC? I’m wayyyy ahead of you on that, bro.

“Instant Amish” (Google)
Nothing beats a side of Instant Amish with your Crispy Anakin.

ake rbsc bangkok (Netscape)
Looks like someone is looking for my brother Ake. RBSC = Royal Bangkok Sports Club, another one of my brother’s haunt other than the RBSC Polo Club.

boys burping on command (Google) / little boys burping on command (Google)
A pedophile with a burping fetish is prowling on the Internet. Kind of disturbing, don’t you agree?

In Therapy

Peroneus Longus Tendon. It goes from your foot, around the bottom part of your ankle, all the way up your calf.

That’s what I stretched when that blonde-zilla ran in to me a few years ago. That’s the tendon that never quite got back to normal, and has been causing me pain and suffering.

I’ve been prescribed one session with a physical therapist who’d teach me how to work that muscle back to its original glory. And rub Aspercreme on it a few times a day. If in a few months, it still bugs me, then I may need a special shoe insert to help stabilize my foot.

No heels for a few more months over here. Yippee!

But that was it. I didn’t get the cortisone shot or anything. He said it’s not localized enough for a shot.

As for the pain, take Ibuprofen or Aleve as needed. I can keep the ankle wrapped up if that would make me feel better, he said.

So, folks. There it is with my ankle saga. For now.

Even AP needs a spell checker!

Let everyone be my witness. At 2:56 p.m. today, this is posted on Yahoo! and I “Blog This” the page without altering anything.

Jones’ Illness Closes ‘On Golden Pold’ - Yahoo! News

If the site’s spelling is corrected by the time you get there, fear not. I have a screencap I will post later.

Wide awake

I have a glass of wine in me. And my body screams “Go to bed already you stupid bitch.” But my mind ain’t having any of that.

I’m tired. But my brain is racing.

I can’t seem to turn off the music that keeps popping into my head. I guess that’s just me adjusting to having music device in my life again. Brandon bought me a beginner’s kit of Lexar JumpDrive Sport MP3 player. Stick a USB flash drive into your computer, get your music, and stick the drive into the player. The one we bought only have room for about an album and a half, but it’s much better than going through one CD at a time, or sitting in silence at work, or flipping through the channels on my commute home. (I have Kevin & Bean in the morning, so no need for a player then.)

I’m also a little nervous about seeing my doctor tomorrow. It’s my follow up appointment for my ankle. It has been over 6 weeks. And the damn thing still hurts occasionally despite my taking an Aleve everyday (because we all know how Ibuprofen made me insane) and keeping it wrapped. I guess my ankle just doesn’t like me carrying heavy things since I was hauling cargo back and forth yesterday as I moved my office. It’s been swollen all evening and the nagging pain returned.

I’m just afraid Dr. Pham is REALLY going to put me in a cast. Perhaps I could persuade her to not put one on me until after the New Mexico trip. We shall see. (By the way, you can see the pictures from previous trips to Red River on my home page. The link is up there in the corner.)

A lot is going to happen once we get back from our one week in mountain paradise. Brandon’s big side job would be rolling by the time we get back. While he’s busy doing that, I’d be in West LA in Quark Xpress class from 9-5:30 for 4 Saturdays. A LOT of things will be set in motion then. I’m nervous about that too, but I’m not going to worry too much about it.

One day at a time. Make do with what I’ve got.

To many people, it’d seem that I’m too passive about my life. A wee bit too Hakuna Matata. Perhaps so. But in a way, the not very religious me comes to terms with the core concept of Buddhism: balance.

Anything in excess causes suffering. For example, I can worry about how my life is going, but worrying about it too much is excessive and therefore causes me to suffer.

I am content with what I have in my possession. After all, another Buddhist teaching, none of the material things matter–it doesn’t go with you when you die. I am content with where my life is going, with a roof over my head, food on the table, husband beside me, and both of us good health. Okay, fine…in okay health.

I’m just not all that worried about anything right now. But I’m doing the best I can not to worry about Brandon.

A polar opposite of me, Brandon carries a burden. A problem solver, he sees that our situation could be better, and he wants to fix it so badly it causes him stress. I had a conversation with him just the other day about this whole not-worrying thing. My way doesn’t work for him. He couldn’t help himself but be stressful about the way things are.

THAT worries me, coming home to see him stressed all the time and there is nothing I could do to help. Behold the vicious circle, Brandon does notice that I’m worried about him being stressed and therefore stressed out about not appearing too stressed out for me so I could be happy, etc. etc.

Unfortunately, financial gain would relief a lot of stress around here. But the odds of winning the Lotto are against us.

Then again, when the time is right, things will go our way. I have the patience.

Life as a Cubicle Rat

My boss’ assistant occasionally would turn into my cubicle out of habit. So that was entertaining. :)

I’m still trying to get my bearing of sitting out in a noticeably noisier area, but I’m sure I’d get over that soon. I don’t miss the view too much yet because at least I can get to look out the window when I go up to visit with my boss’ assistant.

The real task has just begun for me. We found a huge box of CDs, floppy disks, and ZIP disks from the marketing lady before me. I’ve started going through all of the CDs today, pulling some good info out, and prepping them to be stored away. The real challenge will be going through to floppy disks because I don’t have a floppy drive on my brand spanking new Dell.

Who the frell has floppy drive any more these days anyway???

As for the ZIP disks, I would turn that over to Kinko’s to get transferred to CDs for $5 a pop.

ZIP disks. That is soooooo late 90s.

Another pile of dren I will inherit is my boss’ newspapers and magazines. I hope a lot of scanner use doesn’t cause radiation sickness. He has a tall stack of those things and I have to scan them all.

Upgrade: The boss is actually joining the 21st century in turning toward a paper-less office.

Downgrade: For weeks, I will not be doing anything more creative than figuring out how to fit all the pieces of a news article on one-page.

I will take the picture of my cube and upload it hopefully tomorrow. Then again, I said the same thing about photos from my old office.

Feh. It just doesn’t want to download my pictures tonight. Sometimes, you really can’t tell your computer what to do. Like creator, like machine. (Brandon built this thing… heheeh.)

Goodbye to Hollywood…

…sign.

The dreaded move from my office into a cubicle has arrived much sooner than we all thought. Apparently, the CEO rented out my and the VP’s office already, and we have to vacate by Monday evening.

I will post the picture that will go on my desktop later on. My reminder of the view I used to have. Heh.

Bueller? Bueller?

Got the promo email from Regal Entertainment Group which includes Edwards Cinema and United Artist theaters. They are doing a flashback re-run series for $6!

I’d pay $6 to see Back to the Future, and Indiana Jones movies on big screen.

See your favorite movies AGAIN on the BIG screen!
Wednesday & Thursday nights at 9 P.M.
Tickets on sale NOW! Only $6 bucks!

June 15/16 - Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
June 22/23 - Back to the Future
June 29/30 - Tron

July 6/7 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
July 13/14 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
July 20/21 - Purple Rain
July 27/28 - The Princess Bride

August 3/4-Robin Hood: Men in Tights
August 10/11 - Beetlejuice
August 17/18 - The Breakfast Club
August 24/25 - Ghostbusters
August 31/September 1 - Office Space

Wednesday Nights at 9:00 PM
Edwards South Coast Village
1561 West Sunflower Rd., Santa Ana
Across from South Coast Plaza

Thursday Nights at 9:00PM
Edwards Rancho Santa Margarita
30632 Santa Margarita Parkway
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688

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