PlatKat.com

No need to be alarmed, suicide is a spades game. I thought I’d take a break from poker, since I’ve had my ass handed to me the last few times I’ve played. I played a free tournament and placed 80 out of 1577, but that still means no money.

Last night, I went to San Francisco with Damon and Aaron. Ever since I got here a little over a month ago, I’ve been going to San Francisco a lot. I absolutely love that city and will make it my mission to move there… someday. The restaurants are fabulous and the club scene is awesome.

We ate dinner with a bunch of people from Paypal on the pier and then went to 1015 to see a slew of people perform. Like 219 in Austin, the owners of 1015 asked the post office, “What should we name our club?” and they said, “I see you’re located at 1015 Folsom. Let’s go with that.” Aaaaand I stole that joke from Gus. He wasn’t using it anyway.

The club was huge and had six rooms with different stuff going on in each. What I loved about this club and all the clubs I’ve been to in San Fran is that there’s always some kind of theme to the decor or something extra to do besides stand around and listen to music. Some of the rooms from last night’s club included the go-go dancer/swinging girls room, the beach ball room, the maypole room (corny, but interesting), and the neon lights room.

Who played: Andrew Weatherall, Radioactive Man, Diplo Dov, Tung, Kraddy, Ooah, Toph One, Goldilox, Donna Matrix, Ernie Trevino, Alxndr, Qzen, Aye’n w/ MC Colonel, Method One, Kozee, MC Duh, MC Linzee, “Art Institute 2005 Alternative Context Scholar Show”. I don’t remember who was who or when anyone went on, I just enjoyed every performance that I was able to catch. I was more concerned with dancing and people-watching than finding my next favorite dj act.

It’s probably better that way because I had to disable my D drive to use my CD drive to download the drivers for my TV tuner card which is still not working. It’s definitely a software issue, and knowing very little about drivers, I have no idea why it’s not working. Le sigh…

Today I’m wearing all black with white sneakers. Maybe I should start my own religious cult. Fitting day for it…

Ever since I moved to my new apartment, I’ve been walking to work. It’s only a couple of miles away and I need the exercise. It’s not the perfect substitute for the exercise I used to get running six miles a day in the gym, but it will do for now.

The only problem is that walking to work mainly involves traveling down a busy street. And on that busy street is the biggest group of asshats to ever wander this earth.

I can’t even count the number of times I get honked or whistled at in one day. Indeed, my agitators are predominantly filthy little Mexicans in even filthier barely-functioning vehicles. A friend noted that such antics are not insulting and just a part of their culture. Well, being in California, which is still part of the US, they’re in my culture now.

What are these morons trying to accomplish with their obnoxiousness?

Like when I walk down the street, I’m just waiting for some ugly fucktard in a beat-up pickup truck to honk at me so I can run after him screaming, “Yes! Yes! Take me with you! Take me back to Mexico City where we can live in a two-room adobe brick shithole and fuck on a straw mat every night so I can have 14 of your nasty, disobedient little babies and stay at home barefoot and pregnant taking care of them while you toil in the hot sun for two dollars an hour all day. Oh please, knight in shining jalopy! Stop and pick me up so you can show me the life I’ve always wanted!”

So if I ended here, I’d sound pretty racist, eh? I don’t care. But I’m not going to end here.

When I was walking home yesterday, I was directly confronted by a white man. As I approached the crossing of a gas station exit, he leaned out of his 90s model Honda Civic and said, “Need a ride?”

First of all, if I didn’t want to be walking, I’d drive myself. Second, if I didn’t have a car, I’d ride the bus. Third, even if I did want a ride, I would never jump into some strange dude’s car just because he’s offering. Stupid!

At this point in time, I have more annoyances than pleasantries to report regarding my walks home. Although I have walked by other bipedal and cycling commuters who have simply said, “Hello.” It’s nothing big, but it’s a breath of fresh air.

I recently visited Hawaii, where I did, saw, and acquired a slew of cool things. Among those, I shot guns for the first time at the Waikiki Gun Club. These kinds of clubs are pretty popular in Hawaii, which attracts a lot of Japanese tourists who are not allowed to shoot guns in their own country.

Gus and I started out shooting light rifles comparable to BB guns. Then we ended up shooting a glock and magnum. Gus was on target most of the time. I, however, had trouble lining up my sights, so I ended up shooting around the bullseye. The long rectangular paper target had a picture of a scenic Hawaiian beach around it, and that’s where most of my bullets ended up.

We also did some typical tourist stuff. We climbed Diamond Head and went to Hanauma Bay. Diamond Head was worth the hike and yielded some beautiful pictures of the coast. (The link is to the directory with pictures from the whole trip. If anyone out there would like to share a good picture display program with us, I would appreciate it!)

Hanauma Bay was actually quite disappointing. When I was there in 1989, there were fish all over the place that would swim right up to you. You didn’t need to go out very far or even use a snorkeling mask. Sadly, the reef has since been damaged and most of the sea life is gone. I feel bad for the folks who shelled out $30 to rent snorkeling equipment for a day. I also feel bad for Gus and myself because we got hellish sunburns that day.

We spent the rest of the time shopping and eating delicious fish around Waikiki and briefly in Chinatown. Chinatown was cool, but kind of dead since we went on Sunday. I got a fortune cat that looks a lot like this one.

For a four-day vacation, I feel like we did a good amount of stuff. If we had more time, I would have liked to do some island-hopping, as is the style of the time.

Sidenote: Before I left, I asked Fongfong if she would mind walking Zoey while I was gone. She pretty much said, “Of course. It’s a given.” My roommates rawk!