Tag Archives: dave

Thanksgiving 2000

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Yesterday was kick-ass! We decided to have a local thanksgiving dinner with friends, and the whole thing just kept getting bigger. I guess everyone thought it was a good idea, because everyone came! We had two turkeys, like three bowls of stuffing, and a ton of other food.

Annie and I were there, of course, and Annie’s parents came, with her two bothers. Then Eric and Jill (and Gavin) came over, and then Urn and Kat showed up with Urn’s mom, and then Jesse and a friend showed up.

It was great. I was a little nervous as we frantically cleaned the house, but it went really well. Everyone was laid back and seemed to have fun. We watched Thumb Wars (a star wars parody), The Grinch, and goofed around on Am I Hot Or Not. At least, that’s what we geeks did. I’m not sure what all the women and adults were doing, except that Kat and Annie did their usual trick of disappearing into a bathroom together, emerging ten minutes later wearing each other’s clothing and giggling.

On Wednesday night, we’re hitching a ride to Tacoma with Urn and Kat to visit Annie’s family. Dave and Zach (Annie’s bothers) are already plotting to see how many computers they can get together so they can do a lot of network gaming. Should be fun!

Oh, and Urn and I will probably find out today whether or not we get the specialty show.

David's Breakfast Burritos

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  • 1 package tortillas
  • half to full pound ground sausage
  • 6-12 eggs
  • milk
  • about 8 smallish potatoes
  • salsa
  • tomatoes (optional, for non-salsa people)
  • cheese
  1. peel and dice potatoes into small chunks.
  2. begin frying potatoes. This will take the longest, so start early.
  3. begin frying the sausage in a separate pan.
  4. prepare scrambled egg mix (eggs and milk, mixed well) and add to sausage pan.
  5. Keep frying until eggs reach appropriate consistency.
  6. While all this is going on, heat the tortillas, so they will be flexible, and grate the cheese.
  7. combine egg/sausage mix with potatoes in tortilla.
  8. add cheese, salsa and/or tomatoes according to taste.
  9. Enjoy! Best served with Cheap Fruit Smoothies. Makes between 6-8 burritos.

Mars Expedition Dream

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My alarm went off, and I actually found myself lying tense in my bed, my eyes wide open, my mouth dry and my heart pounding… I was terrified. The details are already fading, but here’s what I remember.

I was part of a three-man Mars expedition. Myself, someone who’s name I don’t remember, and Dave. The guy I don’t remember felt the same way I did. He was creeped out. He was driving the bus we were riding in, which was basically a school bus with those huge round tires they put on things so they can drive on sand at the beach. Dave had an orange spacesuit (ours were white, and I have no idea what that means… I got the impression that Dave was our technician/engineer, and we were the actual astronauts/explorers)., and was totally calm, which was irritating us to no end.

I could see the bus driving along Mars’ surface. It was going fairly fast, and when it went up a small hill, it would actually get air on the other side… a combination of the low gravity and the speed we were traveling at.

We drove up a ramp to a plateau, and came skidding to a halt. In the distance, we could see another pyramid/plateau with another school bus parked in front of it. I knew that this was the first expedition, who had dropped out of contact, and we had been sent to find, which is why we were all scared. The ramps on the plateaus were clearly man-made (alien-made? …unnatural is what I mean).

The area we were parked on had four doors set in walls that were a ways back from the bus. These looked like the doors that lead into a kitchen, no handle, just a push-panel, with a small window. There were what looked like anthills with lots of small holes venting some sort of gas. They were set a regular intervals, and I remember thinking that they were probably gas-vents that were part of this structure, which felt abandoned, and then the (ants?) had made them a home. There was also a triangular pillar close to one wall.

The creepy thing, though, was the birds. There were huge crows everywhere. These were mean-looking birds, perched around everywhere. They’re scavengers, and they breath air, and there’s no way they should be there on the surface of mars. I suddenly wondered if the gas the vents were leaking was oxygen and mars had an atmosphere now… I didn’t test it though. The birds avoided us, just like real crows, but they kinda watched us from where they perched.

We all got out, and Dave wandered off somewhere right away. The triangular pillar had hieroglyphics all over it. Looking at it, some of them were obviously pictograms for animal life. There would be a pictogram for one thing, and then it would slowly repeat, changing a little each time until it was a pictogram for something different. One changed from an elephant into a cat. I made a comment to my companion that that would explain the cat we saw (I don’t remember seeing a cat, nor do I understand how this would explain it).

While my companion kept examining the pillar, I decided to check out one of the doors. I was really nervous. I took my flashlight and pushed a little against the door to make sure it would open. It gave a little way. I took a deep breath, and kicked it open, and stepped into the room, sweeping my flashlight around, which was unnecessary, because a light automatically came on, showing me an abandoned nursery. There was a crib on one wall, with stuffed animals in it, and colorful posters on the wall, which I felt were taken from earth. It looked just like any nursery, except there was no baby in it, which creeped me out. I was ready to spot an alien at any moment.

I laughed and told my partner there was nothing in here, and quickly backed out, not wanting to turn my back on the room, for fear something would suddenly appear. As I was backing out, I tripped on something, and as I stood up, both my buddy and I saw a flash of orange in the room. I could feel the panic rising, and then we realized it was Dave, who was exploring, and somehow found a passage into the room.

“Dammit, Dave! Let us know when you’re gonna just appear like that!” I yelled into my microphone, and then I was woken up by my alarm, still terrified…

Y2K Ate My Paycheck

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say hello to the only person who was affected by the “Y2K bug.” That’s right. The bank ate my paycheck. I deposited my small check on December 30, and when I went back on January 1 to withdraw some cash, it showed the same balance as before I made a deposit. Needless to say, I was mad. The bank said they would have to investigate and within ten days they would let me know what the “situation” with my money was. In the meantime, the electric company was threatening to cut us off. Arrgh. Luckily, today the money was back, so I’m okay.

New year’s was interesting. Here in Oregon, we’re nearly the last ones to cross the date line. Hawaii and Alaska come after us. So all day long, we got to watch the new year (NOT the new millennium… that’s next year and it got really old hearing EVERY news station report on “the millennium”) advance over other parts of the world. The massive parties in Russia, the huge fireworks in France, the festivities in Britain. Then we saw the party start in Times Square in New York. HUGE parties everywhere! Well, Portland was having a party, too. In Pioneer Square. The city blocked of fifteen blocks surrounding it, and had limited access points guarded (sort of) by cops.

I was just going to have a small party with some friends and get pretty drunk. But everyone else wanted to go to the Square. So we went, and it was REALLY lame. Everyone was bored, there was cheering (on queue), and most of the people were just trying to see themselves on the massive TV screen across the street. The lame radio presenters sucked, and when they put on a documentary about famous historians on the big TV, we decided to leave.

Once we got home, it was cooler, because people kept showing up, and everyone was having fun. The fireworks were going off behind the clouds, so all we could see was the entire sky lighting up red and green.

Christmas was cool, too. We went back to Annie’s home for about a week and hung out with her family. Dave and some of his friends set up a small computer network in the basement, so we got to spend some time playing good multiplayer games.

We spent Christmas eve with her family. They’re self-described pagans, and Annie brought me along to their yearly ritual, which was cool. It was very low-key. They lit some candles, and Annie’s grandmother read out of a book about the origins of the holidays, and then they went around the room and everyone said something. It was really cool.

The next morning, we did a rushed presents-opening with her family, and then ran to the train station to come back to Portland, where my mom and dad picked us up and drove us to Eugene, where my grandparents are, and we did my big family gathering. It was kinda strange, because normally we go around and everyone opens presents one by one, and then we eat, but this year Pop-Pop was eager to get it over with because his football team was doing well for the first time ever.

I felt really happy about the gifts I gave this year. Most years I don’t have enough money to do cool things, but this year I tried to find something really cool for everyone, and I think I succeeded in finding a really good gift for everyone. The only bad thing is that Annie and I made cool homemade cards for everyone, and then I forgot to give them to anyone, and I didn’t wrap half the presents. So even though I got perfect gifts for most people, I felt kinda bad about it anyway. Oh well.

Hmmm… I’ve already written a ton, so I’m going to stop for now, but I’ll try to write more later about some ideas I’ve had recently. :)

VAST

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Tired. Very Tired. I skipped all my classes yesterday, which is bad, but I got some to sleep in and get some work done around the apartment. At about 3pm, Dave rolled into town. He came by to drop off his bag and say hi before going off to a pub I’d never heard of (the Leaky Roof?) with Darcy. Then he took off, and I started working on a mix tape for Annie, who was coming in at 5 in the morning. Next thing I know, it’s 7pm, Dave has returned, Aaron is back, and we’re all leaving to go see V.A.S.T. at the Roseland.

V.A.S.T. rocked. Their first opening act, Life-Like-Feel, was okay. They would have been pretty cool, except in the middle of their third song, it sounded like they had sampled a fire alarm. This obnoxious, deafening screech wails over their song at intermittent periods, turning off and on and drove me insane. By the end of the song, I hated them. The second opening act, Oleander(sp?) was pretty cool. Their lead singer was having fun and talking to the audience and trying to get this sulking high school girl to smile at him. Their drummer and bassist looked like the Hetfeild brothers from Metallica, and the drummer was pounding away so hard it looked like he might explode from the sheer effort he was putting into it.

Then came V.A.S.T. themselves. V.A.S.T. is the product of this 21 year old guy from California. At age 13, Guitar World Magazine said that he was someone to keep an eye on. He’s now come of age, and has an entire album of songs he wrote. The album is amazing. It sounds (to me) like a cross between Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails, only instead of being suicidal, it’s about keeping hope through rotten situations. I guess you could call it the Upward Spiral.

I first heard them on vacation with Annie. As we were falling asleep, I was watching 120 Minutes on MTV, because I never get to watch MTV anymore. Just as I was drifting off, a V.A.S.T. video came on. It was for “Pretty When You Cry.” I was blown away. Unfortunately, I was also asleep, and the next day I couldn’t remember the name of the group, just that they rocked. A week later, Dave said that he had a CD he wanted to loan me that he thought I would like. It was V.A.S.T..

So when I heard that V.A.S.T. was coming to Portland, I thought it would be the perfect birthday present for Dave (better than anything I could actually buy him, anyway). He agreed, and we went!

The strange thing about it was that they all looked REALLY young. He’s a kinda chubby guy, not real tall, with scraggly hair and sideburns. He wore a turtleneck shirt and sweated a lot. His bassist was a stereotypical guy… long hair, quiet, out of the way. The drummer had glasses and really short hair and also didn’t draw much attention to himself. The other guitarist was cool, but he looked like a gimp. He had one really long dangly earring, and pointy shoes on. But all was forgiven when they just started goofing around. They didn’t have many songs to perform, so when someone in the audience asked them to just jam for a few minutes, they did… pulled out this blues number and just played. And the guitarist guy was freaking impressive. The overall impression they left was that they were young, shy, and tired.

I’d have to agree with Dave that these guys will be fun to see next time they tour, when they’re a little more comfortable with themselves and have developed a better stage presence. But the music rocked, no doubt about it.

So at about midnight, we got home and all climbed in bed. At 4am, my alarm went off, and I staggered down to the bus station to pick up Annie. The bus station was closed (the bus station closes??), and the front door was locked, but looking inside, I could see lots of people, and the back door was open. So I wandered around back, and walked in, and the place was the exact same as when it was open, except with no greyhound employees (there was one security guard). It was kind of odd. I waited for a half hour and then her bus got in and we went home and got in bed. After about an hour of sleeping, I had to get up and come to school, which is why I’m so tired now.

But it was worth it. :)