My Halloween

It has been a long time since I wore a costume.  To be honest, the last time I wore a costume was in seventh grade.  As you know from my other posts, I do not go out that much.  I wasn’t interested in attending Halloween parties during high school and college because it was too hectic and beer is the name of the game.   This was truly my first grown up Halloween party and appropriately, it’s at an office.  In my Halloween costume, I wanted to embarrass myself.  My dream costume was wearing a bear costume with a diaper (If you want to know, I stole that idea when I saw one of the poker players wore it to the table because he lost a bet.).  However, the bear costume is expensive, so here were the looks I went for:

Morning:

Afternoon (The Party):

Evening (For the little munchkins):

I will tell you my costumes during my random thoughts for November.  Just to follow up on black days;  I think your safe if you’re wearing black during the “darkest” day of the year.  I didn’t have any trouble today wearing black (Ok, minor glitches, but that’s fine).  Happy Halloween everyone, and I’m going to sleep so I need to go to church tomorrow morning.

Fell on Black Days

It is not one of worst days I had, but it is not one of the best.  Today, it rained all day.  No issue there; mother nature has emotions as well.  At work, I had nothing much to do except the last hour.  I would prefer to have work all day, but don’t hold off until the last hour.  If it was two hours before closing, I would of been fine.  Finally to top it all off, at the Metro station on Farragut West, not one, but TWO trains broke down, consecutively.  Yep, it took me six attempts and 90 minutes later to catch the Metro.

Everyone have their bad days, but I was wearing all black today.  I intentionally wore all black because one of the co-worker’s sister passed away.   I don’t know the co-workers’ sister, but I don’t want to overshadow the moment, so I wore in respect for the co-worker that I care.  Everything didn’t go completely wrong, but the execution didn’t seem right and I was punished for today.   This serves as a reminder to me, wearing all black signals bad things that day.  Hey, karma is a bitch, but it is right!

And yes, I intentionally put that title on this post.

Tracy’s Random Thoughts October 2006 edition

Ah, its cold, leaves are changing, and I think I’m in heaven.  Well I hope I was in Buffalo, where they had two feet of snow…IN OCTOBER!!!  Let’s get to my thoughts.

1. School shootings

There has been ton of shootings going on from Nevada, Lancaster, PA, Colorado, Georgia, even in Montreal.  It has been everywhere in the news.  Some has been grown-ups, some were teenagers, some had reasons in the past, some were copycats.   To me, I think it involves parenting.  For the adult killers, the past has haunt them and have never escape in their mind.  So, they take it themselves to shoot innocent people, and then take their lives to end their pain.  For the kids, probably the same thing, but in some occasions, they see the news and copycat the crime.   My problem is, where are the adults and parents helping out?  I think this is a society now that everyone is an individual, including our family members.  What I mean is the person wants to distinguish themselves and have their own identity.  It’s fine to be different, but you have to realize a parent gave you a part of who you are.   But sometimes supervision is not there and these “gunmen” feel abandon and felt like an outsider.   This leads to another topic.

2.  Parenting

There was a study that kids need to be more creative by looking at more puzzles and being with their parents, not television or some other contraption.   With our “busy schedules,” there should be no time to pick up the kids.  Well, I understand the parents be afraid because some time off could lead to termination and trying to find something to pay the bills.  That fear has the feeling that parents have to stay long probably plays a factor, but that’s why we have technology.  No wonder there are low ratings on Fridays and Saturdays.

3. Mark Warner

It’s announce that he will be not running for President in 2008.  This is terrible news for Democrats because I believe he was the perfect candidate for the Democrats.  The only real weakness for Warner coming in is that he doesn’t have military experience, which the Republicans would jump like seeing a new toy.  Gladly, he was the first person I voted when I had my first vote in 2001.   He really was Bill Clinton, but without the drama and the charisma.  He lived in Virginia, virtually home of the divided state and it was him who kept everyone in Virginia happy.   He was the only candidate and now the its down to one person in the Democratic side: Hillary Clinton.  I’m not strong with Hillary since she too ambitious on many issues.  What I hope for is the Democrats take over the Senate and the House this year, then in 2008, have a strong president in place.  The two strongest candidates are on the Republican side.  John McCain is a natural born leader, but is getting up there in age. Another is Rudy Giuliani, who is a leader as well, but did it in the largest city in the U.S.  His problems are health and his scandals with another wife.  Now I left out Mitt Romney, who has everything you need in a President, but his one problem is that he’s Mormon.   That will not bode well to the people.   The race will get interesting in 2008, but if McCain or Giuliani are not in the ballot, I have to put Bill Bradley as a write-in vote again.

4. Entertainment as a whole

Is it me or has televisions shows surpass movies as must-see?  The fall season, the entertainment industry brings out their big guns.  You got your TV shows, music, movies, and video games for the holidays.  But isn’t it weird that the hype is going to the TV shows than movies?  Usually, you hear great upcoming movies.  The only movie I’m interested this fall are The Departed and Borat.  On television, there are tons of choices I want to watch and the quality is equal, if not, better than the movies.  I think a couple of things why they are going: 1) Actors salaries and the price of tickets are $10; 2) A lot of Hollywood actors are going into television; 3) The Internet.  You see how technology is changing the face of entertainment.

Update: Of the new TV shows, I like the crop of shows, but there’s not one that stands out.  I thought it was going to be Studio 60, but I lost interest in the second episode because although I don’t mind backstage shows,  I found every character to be too serious in their role.  Some of the cast members are comedians and I feel this show wants to be the true story of SNL, but they’re not successful of capturing the loose nature.   I like Aaron Sorkin because he created one of my favorite shows of all-time, Sports Night, which capture perfectly the mood and dialogue of a sports channel, and a very good show in the West Wing.  The show to watch is on Showtime and its called Dexter.  Its about a forensic crime solver who kills killers.  Its a unique premise, but the show is very intriguing.  Sadly, I watch only three episodes, but its very addictive.  I’ll probably going to get it on DVD, but from those three episodes, it is a hoot, watch it if you can.   On the music side, I just got Robert Randolph & the Family Band”s new album, Colorblind.  The album is very upbeat, positive, and beckons back to the funk bands back in the 60s and 70s.  It’s a great buy, but I never seen them in concert, but from what I heard, it’s an experience and I’m trying to see if they are playing in DC anytime soon.

5.  The Googlism of Everything

Google just bought YouTube for $1.65 billion dollars.  Next, could Facebook be up next or some Internet shop?  We have been Googleizied.  people and its not going to stop.

That is all for me, you all have a wonderful day.  And remember, vote in the midterm elections, malenga.

Hockey game

I finally circle the wagons and attended a Washington Capitals preseason hockey game.  At first, I wanted to go and thought the seats are going to be middle row or the bleachers for decent value.  However, the seats were in the front row, VIP section, right up against the boards.  I knew I need to sell it, but three things: 1) no one in my inner circle likes hockey, 2) it was in short notice, and 3) its PRESEASON hockey.  I bought the tickets for $100 for charity, yet I didn’t have a second person coming, so I left the ticket outside if anyone would go in for free.  No takers.

The game itself is an experience although its the preseason.  Watching hockey on TV doesn’t do justice if you go see the game live.  The shots to the plexi-glass sound like a gun shot and the players crashing to board becomes more 3-D that they’re crashing to your side and the black eyes, bloody noses, and bruises you see.  If I were to rank the four sporting events:

1. Hockey
2. Football
3. Basketball
4. Baseball

Next up, NASCAR baby.  Oh, the Caps beat the Flyers 1-0 and the Caps could be the surprise team this season in the NHL.

Cosmos Club

I went to the Cosmos Club in DuPont Circle for the customer appreciation event with my HR crew.  The Cosmos Club is elegant with their setting, as well as their members.  It felt you’re in a castle feeling not worthy to be in the building.  The event was great with presentations and dinner to die for (Steak and Salmon if you want to know).  But the shocking thing about the event was that I was the youngest in the building.  The next youngest was at least 28.  I don’t have a problem socializing (except being a topic starter), but it just feels weird to be young not only in the event, but to attend an exclusive building.  Same thing at work; I’m the second youngest employed throughout the company.  It just to show being young can be cool, nut sometimes you are stuck in an awkward, yet unique place.

Finally catching up

I just install my cable modem and high speed internet.  Be afraid people, I’ll be 20x faster than I was before and 20x more viruses.  But the most important thing, I can finally go to an online college.