bryan2306

I know, I've been away from this for a long time, but it's time to get back on in. 2008 will be an exciting year, not only with my first child due, but also with the upcoming presidential election. It makes me sad that my child will be born during the Bush Administration. Hopefully my child won't have his/her first memories of his/her daddy yelling at the president on TV if someone named Romney or Huckabee becomes president. 

All the hype over this election is really kicking in for me. I've been following the campaigns loosely for the last year. How could anyone who pays attention to the news not be. Now that 2008 is here and the Iowa Caucuses are tomorrow things are going to kick into high gear. After Iowa and New Hampshire, a few other primaries will follow, but then us Californians get to have our voices heard as well. 

About a month ago, I realized that I would have to choose two candidates. One who I would vote for believeng they would be the best president and one who I felt best fit the first requirment plus actually having a chance of winning. I believe the best president would be Joe Biden (who?), a man who has tons of foreign relations experience as well as solid ideas for how to deal with Iraq (a confederacy of three states). The guy has no chance of winning, but would be an awesome Secretary of State. 

Falling into the second catefory (actually electable) I'm torn between Obama and Edwards. While I don't want another president with a southern accent, I'm leaning toward Edwards due to his more grounded ideas (Obama can tend to be a bit idealistic) and his emphasis on class difference in America. 

This is one of the most important elections in recent history. I hope more people pay attention and don't sit on their asses on election day.

So today Sharon and I signed all our mortgage documents and got ready to recieve our keys Friday and move in Saturday. We went to do the final walk through and the sellerrr is still there WITH ALL HER CRAP STILL IN IT! She says she can't move until this weekend, meaning we can't move in until Monday.

The seller knew that escrow was going to close on Friday. She should have had her ass out of that house last weekend.

On the brighter side, I negotiated us buying her washer and dryer for $300 (she started at $500). I should have offered her $50 simply because she "didn't want to have to move it". Well move the rest of your stuff OUT OF OUR HOUSE!!

So I've been busy looking at an INSANE number of houses online, and while I've found a few gems, a certain number of oddites come up.  The first is media niches. I don't like these for a number of reasons, but mainly because the home builder tells you where your TV must go, and also because you can't fit a plasma/LCD TV in one of these narrow slits. I saw this following one tonight and it made me ill:



On second thought, maybe that's where you put your fridge for easy patio access? Next is a disturbing trend in color choices. This following house is on Blue Sapphire Way:



Maybe it's a halfway house for members of the Blue Man Group. Finally, I've been startled by this house no matter how many times I look at the listing. It's been on the market for months, so of course it always pops up on Metrolist.



Sharon seems to think an old asian lady should be sitting in front of the house offering to do peoples nails or something. I don't quite understand converting a garage to an extra room, especially since most homes have a living room and a family room.

There's plenty of good houses out there, I just wanted to share some of the monstrosities. For all of your sakes I didn't include any of the stucci beasts that popped up everywhere in Elk Grove a few years back.

This is what is has come to. More and more people are fed up with the current Giants organization, and I have the solution. We must sign Gahhl (of the Swedish dark metal band Gorgoroth) to play against the Yankees this weekend. It is the only way the Giants can triumph.

So now that I've completed everything required for college (basically 6 hard years of work ending officially today), I've decided to challenge my brain further.

Mike Portnoy, drummer for Dream Theater, recently came out publically with his ten favorite albums of all time. For me to make this list represents a huge challenge. I ask all of you to follow suit and try to do it.

1. Dream Theater - Awake - This one is a no brainer. My first DT album, this one has the best songs, the best solos, and more emotion than a Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks movie.

2. Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon - An absolute classic album that is perfect from start to finish. Other Floyd albums could have made this spot (Wish You Were Here, Animals), but this one has such a soothing quality to it.

3. Tool - Lateralus - Absolutely a masterpiece, not listened to nearly enough. Tool is kind of like a fine wine, you don't want to listen to them constantly, but on the rare occasion you do it becomes obvious how perfect a progressive band this is. Emotion is the key ingredient here. Listen to "The Grudge" and if you don't feel the negativity flowing out of you, then there's something wrong. This album is a religious experience.

4. Jeff Buckley - Grace - A man who passed way before his time, this is a unique album with some of the best pure songwriting you'll ever hear.

5. Opeth - Blackwater Park - A unique metal band, mixing growling vocals and double bass with acoustic passages and clean vocals. From start to finish, this is their best work. To sum up Opeth, they have perfect grooves in their song. They just catch you as you go through any of their songs.

6. Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory - The only other DT on this list, it is the perfect conept album. A solid story of murder throughout generations, and some of the best blended technical and emotional songwriting that ever was. When someone complains about prog being too much about "how many notes you can play", tell them to listen to this album. Specifically "Home" or "Beyond This Life" for an example of how progressive music can be done right.

7. Porcupine Tree - Deadwing - This album grew on me. At first, it didn't sink in, but while driving on I-5 in Oregon on a snowy December day it all clicked. "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here" is one of my favorite songs of all time.

8. Kansas - Point of Know Return - One of the most underrated bands of all time. Period.

9. Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast - Simply the best metal album ever recorded. Don't mess with Bruce Fucking Dickinson.

10. Rush - Moving Pictures - This band certainly would place much higher on a "favorite band" list, this is their best overall album. 2112 and Hemispheres boast two of their best songs, but this is a much more complete album.

Pedro Feliz. For those of you who don't know, he's the Giants starting third baseman who has BARELY hung on to a starting job over the last few years.

Tonight the Giants, in desperate need of a win in San Diego (Mr. Burgundy's hometown), were depending on Pedro to hit in the tying run with two outs in the ninth. Down 1-0, Feliz swung at a 1-2 pitch which went IN THE DIRT to end the game.

I feel really bad for Matt Cain. He pitched a great game, and even had a no hitter going into the late innings. Now he gets a loss attached to his record because Feliz can't lay off a bad pitch. How the hell can you give up 1 run and get a loss?

Feliz is now above even Pat Robertson on my list.

I hate how college has ruined my health. I have no time to exercise, I get little sleep, which drives me to eat more (as a fuel issue), which causes my pants to get tight. I swear, I haven't gained a pound in a few months but even my jeans are starting to get snug. I've tried several times to get motivated to work out, but the time just slips away like a Giants lead with Benitez on the hill.

I brought my bike home today, so I'll start riding that at least, most evenings when there isn't a big deadline.

It's alot more fun for me to be on a bike than running, and it makes me feel in touch with my inner hippie. If I could ride my bike everywhere and not own a car I would. Screw the people who profit from oil sales.

50 more days till graduation. And then a boot camp style kick in the ass. I'm also thinking of doing weight lifting, and maybe even some yoga. You never see a fat person on a yoga mat unless they're first starting out.

It's 73 degrees outside and my neighbod has his air conditioning on.

This shit exemplifies how selfish we are as a society. Anything to make yourself feel a little better, or totally comfortable. Who cares if we're consuming far too much energy than we really need to.

My senior project involves the theoretical design of a bicycle bridge over the American River near Cal Expo. We are supposed to come up with three alternatives to cross. We had in mind bridges at two locations, and for a third alternative an additional cantilever section off the nearby freeway bridge, or the existing railway bridge.

That bridge is no more.

Click Here for Fiery Bridge Super Cool News Story!

You could see the smoke all the way down in Elk Grove. I wonder if we can just propose building a bicycle bridge combined with the new rail bridge when they build it.

Oh, and for a reference to why the post is titled as such, please visit this link.

First off, my sister got married this past weekend. Check Sharon's journal for details. Everything went without a hitch, and I couldn't be happier for Crystal and Mike.

Second, I realized (after a conversation with another co-worker/student) that I should pimp myself out. Not in a literal sense, but rather than be content with whatever Mark Thomas and Co. offers me, I should test the job market. My school is having a big engineering only career fair next friday, so I need to get my resume in shape. Does anyone have any tips? Wether I want to stay where I'm at depends on their salary offer and if something else sounds better. I must admit I'm kind of tempted to take a job with Sacramento City or County's DOT. While there might be some boring spots, the hours aren't nearly as demanding there as they would be at a private firm. I could work 6-2:30 every day, so that would mean more time at home with the kids (private firms expect you to work from 7-5 at least). I might even find another private firm that could offer more than just transportation work. Some firms are diverse and allow their engineers to work in different ares.

Third, as Sharon mentioned in her post we wen't ticket apeshit this weekend. Giants tickets were SOLD OUT 3 minutes after they went on sale for opening day and versus the Yankees in June. Luckily, the tickets on stubhub weren't too marked up, so we got those. Then we got tickets for Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) who will be playing old school Floyd songs as well as The Dark Side Of The Moon in it's entirety. This is pretty much one of the best 5 albums ever recorded, and that is not open for debate. I'll never see Floyd in person in my lifetime, so this will be as close as I can get.

I've also got to get some Porcupine Tree tickets for their upcoming show. Maybe I can convince some others to come with Sharon and me to indoctrinate them to a truly original and great band. If you get a chance to listen to any of their stuff, you will be amazed (let me suggest "Arriving Somewhere Not Here" as a good starter song)

Ok, back to work...81 days, 11 hours, and 30 minutes left.