[NOTE: This was originally posted to my Facebook notes a while back, but I think it's appropriate to reblog here. It's pretty entertaining. Have fun!]

Old Screenshot

It’s 11-11-04, which was my first quarter in college (UC Riverside). The time is 2:34am. It was a Wednesday night/Thursday morning, and I’m up doing math homework.

Sometimes, doing math homework at 2:30am just doesn’t process, especially online, and we’re susceptible to frustration. It appears I was so frustrated, I typed the words fuck, this, fucking and problem into the four answer boxes, and pressed Continue, or Submit, or whatever the hell it was. Browser didn’t like that very much and decided to crash out on me. A sure sign I should probably just give up and go to sleep. I might have. Or I might have finished my homework after sarcastically laughing at the irony. I don’t actually remember.

That, however, is the typical part of this screenshot. What does the rest say about me?

I used Winamp. I never upgraded to Winamp 5 because it sucked. They just released a new one a few weeks ago, and I have yet to get it. I think I will, for the sake of reminiscience. Did you know I made my own Winamp skin way back then? Using MS Paint? I used to be so much more creative. Then real life happened..This disappoints me.

Cool Math in another tab? What the hell is Cool Math? Well.. It’s a website that tries to tell you math is “cool” with its black background and fairly rainbow colored text. I can dig it. Actually, I was too cheap to buy a fancy graphing calculator like everyone else, and no one had smart phones yet, so I used the Java one they had built in there. This was way cooler because it was an all black background and used red and yellow text. Right? It still exists, but my work thinks the website is full of “games” and is blocked. It probably does have games. Because games are cool.http://www.coolmath.com/graphit if you’re interested.

Speaking of tabs, this is 2004 we’re talking. Who the fuck else had tabs? And what is SlimBrowser? Actually, SlimBrowser was a (hugely unofficial) “add-on” for Internet Explorer, introduced to me by a friend, and I fell in love with it. It really cleaned up the thing, and added a few extra features, such as tabs. So I liked being innovatively efficient. That’s definitely nothing new. But I now see that my need for efficiency started earlier than I thought.

Speaking of efficiency… University broadband was a huge hell yes. Boy, was that an upgrade from DSL at home! Actually, I was using dial-up in the hotel room we lived in up until about a month before I left for UCR. Can we say HELLOOOOO, WORLD! But yes, bigger pipes lead to bigger downloads. There was this thing called DC++ and it had a specific server thru that was only accessible if you were on a university IP. P2P 2 t3h M4xx. It was absolutely brilliant! So look what I was downloading. Halo 2 leak.. Yes, for regular xBox. It had come out 2 days prior (November 9th). The download started well before that, and finished well after that. But it was free. My xBox was modded. Okay, it still is. And I still occasionally boot up this leak for kicks. (Don’t worry. I actually purchased the real version, and the rest of the modification used for silly homebrew games). Mainly because the leak turned out to be IN FRENCH. They called you “Chef” and can you just imagine the hilarity of the Covenant yelling French at you?! Assuming you don’t speak any French, that is. I’m sure it makes sense for those who can understand, but for me, high-pitched French accent gibberish coming from the lil grunts before I blew their blue brains out sent me into a giggle fest.

I was also on AIM. Using the same AIM name I’d already had for years, and am currently signed into at this moment. But no one was talking to me. Oh yeah, it was 2:34am.

Yeps… That’s my life for you.

I meant to type about this game some time ago, but I didn’t. That’s also normal. But oh well! This is just storytime with no real life lessons or opinions. Just an entertaining day at the ballpark!

So about two weeks back, I went to the SF Giants game and planned to meet my friend Matt (@iWaffles) there. Since he was running late, I left his ticket at Will Call (best feature ever) and wandered inside to our bleacher seats.

1. In our seats were a pair of girls who, apparently, didn’t understand the difference between 0 and 00. The difference is the presence of another 0 (or not). Playing the matching game, these designate two separate rows. Not that hard, right? They actually had the better seats, apologized and promptly moved down. Cool. Nice girls. We chatted a bit.

2. I picked this game specifically because it was against the Diamondbacks. I’m a fan of a player on that team because of an encounter at a game during the previous season in which we exchanged words and he threw me a ball. It went like this:

Montero warming up in the outfield.
My friend Bobby and I hanging out in the bleachers just watching.
Montero faces our direction to retrieve the ball
Me: Can I have a ball!?!
Montero: (Jokingly) NO!! *Proceeds to warm up, almost pegging a kid walking onto the field with a class to sing the national anthem*
A few more tosses occur
Montero: (In our direction) Hey!! *Throws me the ball from CF*

Bam. Fan made. I was so excited!!

Another line of children walked by for the national anthem this time, too, and I think he was careful to not endanger any ;)

Miguel Montero, Diamondbacks #26

This time, I yelled and jumped up and down. But alas, he did not even look over. It was still worth a try!

3. A couple comes up to their seats and finds the girls from (1) in them. Usher Man steps in and discovered that they’re, once again, in the wrong seats. Correct row, correct seat numbers…Wrong section. Sigh.

4. The previous day, I put some concert tickets up for sale on Craigslist because I couldn’t make the show. It was between missing a second week of softball or Bon Jovi. To be a team player, I picked softball. One of the offers was from someone who lived in Millbrae. Coincidentally, I was headed that direction for the game. Even more coincidentally, that person was also going to the game. So I meet Craigslist -dude-number-1 at the top of the section to close the deal. Of course, that’s when my friend arrives at the seats. Brb Craigslist? He probably didn’t even believe me..

5. Rowdy Dude to my upper left was trying to get his friend’s attention while on the phone. To do so, he just stuck his middle finger way up, and told friend to look for it. Smoooooth. Usher Man had a talk with him about rude gestures, language and how this is a family establishment. Way to go, Usher Man! It was hilariously quiet while he was getting reprimanded. Then he went off to mock Usher Man by repeating the things he wasn’t allowed to do. STFU.

6. Two girls sat in the row in front of us, and one clearly had had too much to drink. She kept yelling at random players, leaned so far over the wall that you could probably tap her and she’d fall over, Usher Man had to ask her to sit down repeatedly, and she tried to make friends with a 5 year old boy sitting next to them.

7. Rowdy Dude’s (5) friends managed to find and visit him later in the game. As they hugged, I took lady friend’s ass to the head. Just what I’ve always wanted. Later, she picked up and started eating my hours-old garlic fries leftovers I had placed on the bench next to me. I let her chomp and share em for a bit as I thought about how entertaining this entire game experience was. She mentioned something about the fries, and I turned to her and said, “don’t worry, I’m not sick or anything” and smiled. She had such a horrified look on her face, I wish I had been able to snap a photo of that moment. She hardly said much the rest of the game.

8. When we tied it up in the 9th, Drunk Girl (6) claimed to be the Giants’ lucky charm because they’d never lost at a game she was at. We lost the game in the 11th. I laughed to myself. A lot.

9. Throughout the game, I had been in contact with another person who was looking to purchase my second pair of Bon Jovi tickets. Essentially, our living and current locations were swapped. He was near where I live, watching the Sharks game on TV, and I was near where he lived, watching the Giants game. The second Craigslist deal took place after midnight in the parking lot of a Jack in the Box. Probably not the safest of circumstances, but just added to the entertaining awkwardness of the evening.

This concludes the story of the random things that happened outside of the baseball game itself. It was probably the most entertaining baseball experience I’ve had!

On LivingSocial, my sister found a deal for Foxhound’s Urban Spy Adventure where you’re split into two teams to complete/destruct missions taking place over San Francisco.

This is easily one of the most entertaining things I’ve done! I mean, how often do you get to be a spy and shoot at each other and go on missions and coordinate over walkie-talkies?! Unless you do it professionally or are a total creep, you probably don’t do it very often.

Bag-gun

Scope view of Claudia aiming her bag gun. Yes, that’s a red dot sight on her.

There are three missions total, and each have a time limit of one hour.

When you’re ready to begin each mission, the defensive team is briefed, strategizes and gets a 10min head start while the offensive team is briefed. You’re on offense when you must do/get something from the pickup point, and successfully bring it to the drop off. The defensive team tries to prevent this from happening.

The whole adventure was very well organized, and our group leader, Shannon, had all of the answers we need. Even gave us snacks and water!

How to Prepare

• Bring water! You’ll be moving pretty quickly, and depending on the weather, you may need more water more often.
• Sunscreen is also a good idea.
  Wear shoes you’re comfortable in for hours at a time.
• Bring some cash! You ARE allowed to make use of public transit and taxi cabs. Who knows? You might also want to buy a snack while you’re out there.
• Don’t wear conspicuous clothing. People will be looking for you ;)
• Be ready to walk A LOT (unless you plan to use public transit often). It’s SF. There are hills everywhere. Phew!
• As always, plan to have fun!! Whether you win or lose a mission, it’s all about the adventure!

SPOILER ALERT!!!! My entire debrief is below, including the start/pickup/drop off locations that we had, plus some cool hiding spots. You get all the location info at the beginning of each mission, so it may not be *too* bad a spoiler. Read at your own risk!

——————-

Upon arrival to Union Square, our first mini-mission had already begun. It was described in our registration confirmation email. Once we found our director man, we were briefed and got to choose our teams. There were 7 of us, and two other separate pairs of people. We split ourselves among the two pairs who wanted to stay with their partners, and then received our equipment:

• Walkie-talkies
• Rear-view sunglasses
• Monocular scope
• Messenger bag with built in laser gun (coolest thing ever)

It was a battle against the Cuban vs Chinese intelligence. My team was contracted by the Chinese to find the Cuban mole.

Mission #1:

Start: Union Square
Pickup: Geary and Kearny
Drop-off: The corner of the park on Clay and Kearny

We were on the offensive, so the Cubans had a 10min head start while we planned out attack. We sent some further south to come up on the pickup site without being seen. My partner, Nikki, and I stationed ourselves between the pickup and drop off to hopefully pick off some of the other team.

We found the radio frequency of the other team..they didn’t exactly cover it when setting up ;) Nikki was running the comm recon, and I relayed it to the rest of our team. We also managed to snipe from the 2nd level of a corner Chipotle and take down two of the Cuban agents.

Retrieving the pickup was the more difficult task since it was rather in the open. With support, Aimee managed to take the surveillance without issue.
The roundabout way that our courier and partner took was unguarded as they made their way with ease to the drop off.

Chinese: 1
Cubans: 0

Mission #2

Start: Clay and Walter U Lum (at the park)
Pickup: City Lights Bookstore
Dropoff: Coit Tower

The Cubans took the offensive position and it was up to us to disrupt their objectives. We left an agent in the safe zone to spy on them to check their routes. After our 10min head start, three of us were stationed at the pickup while two were on their way to the drop off to lie in wait in case the courier made it past our defenses.

The basic direction of the other team was determined by our tailing agent and we waited quietly at our posts until they approached. They were not together.

We managed to hit a few of them as they tried to make the pickup and courier handoffs. There was a full-on firefight across the street outside the bookstore. My location was still secret when fellow agent Aimee was under heavy fire. I had her run across the street, holding shield, to draw fire while I took out the unsuspecting opposition. Another of the Cuban team managed to gun down Aimee not long after as they got kicked out of a hiding spot in a store.

The Cubans still managed to make a handoff as their health dwindled. Brad (Chinese) and April (Cuban) had an unfortunate run-in at the nearby Wells Fargo and Brad didn’t make it out alive.
Another handoff had taken place, but we didn’t see who or where. Luckily, Nikki and Kara (stationed at the drop off) were monitoring and relaying comm.

I managed to scope out April from across the street. We had quite a shoot out that resulted in us running across intersections and down the streets of Chinatown, and a standoff with a truck between us. I knew I’d hit her hard. She took off running and I had tried to follow. My pockets decided to empty themselves onto the sidewalk so I had to stop and pick up the contents. I had lost her.

Using the intel over comm, I tried to pick up her trail, but to no avail. I then retreated to the drop off point at Coit Tower, taking the steepest route by accident.

As it turned out, my adversary had only one health point left. She had ran about 4 blocks, caught a cab to the tower, but was only minutes late as time had expired. Another victory for us!

Chinese: 2
Cubans: 1

Mission #3

Start: Coit Tower
Pickup: Leavenworth and Lombard
Drop off: Fountain at Ghirardelli Square

The roles had swapped again, and we were on offense while the Cubans were on defense. This time, we split into two different cabs, then Brad and I on foot to go around and flank the pickup. The plan was to have him run the last leg and distract the other team with the rest of us.

This would have been great, had we not got lost. We managed to wander off the grid and pick up the trail later.

Meanwhile, Kara grabbed the item, handed it off to Aimee in the moving cab, who made it safely to Ghirardelli Square. After being shot at while in the cab, health was low upon arrival.

After attempting to wait for Brad for cover, time was running too low so she took it upon herself to shield and run right for the drop off… And made it!!!! A great decision to bring home the win.

Needless to say, runners Brad and myself were pretty worthless this mission. We later heard that our non-existence had the other team guessing. That works, right??

Chinese: 3
Cubans: 0

Missions accomplished.

I have some sort of obsession with wanting to fly. Like jump up in the air and start soaring like a bird! Hang gliding has always been on my flight-related to-do list, and today I finally got a little taste of it. As expected, this taste left me wanting more.

A few months back, a few friends and I found a sweet Groupon for a hang gliding lesson and planned our date well in advance. The time to fly was finally upon us!

Keep in mind this was a lesson, not a totally dare-devil flying-above-cliffs tandem ride..Maybe I’ll have to do that sometime, too ;)

When we got up to the hill we’d be learning on, and there was a surprising amount of wind in comparison to the pick-up gate a half a mile away. Cool.

Our first task was to, as a team, assemble the glider according to the verbal instructions from our instructor. It was a very strategic project. He explained it very well, and soon enough, my friends and I had put together the glider we’d be flying on. We all did a safety check, too. I think it was great to get that experience so we could really learn what it would be like if we were to take up the sport on our own some day.

After getting harnessed and geared up, it was learning time! We had to learn the proper running form and then practice a few times. Practice running you say? Yep. It’s different, and it makes sense! We ran maybe 50 feet total for practice. Thank goodness it was that little because I’m really bad at running..shhh.

For the rest of the day, we took turns learning how to lift the glider, snap ourselves on, run with it, walking landings, how to “hold” on, steer a little, and wheel it back up the hill (not as hard as you may think!). At first it was a little nerve wracking, but with good instructors like we had, they give you all the information you need to be successful. So listen to the experts!!

Remember! It was only a lesson, and we did it by ourselves. Each of us only got a maximum vertical distance of about 5-7 feet off the ground, but wow, it was an exhilarating 5-7 feet each time! A lot of the thrill was in the accomplishment. The “holy shit, I’m actually flying!” part and knowing that I was in charge of the glider.

I freakin love flying. I need to do this again!!

Tips

• Wear sunscreen! You’ll be out there a while. Even if it’s cool and windy, you’ll want sun protectant.
• Wear clothes you can move in and that you’re okay getting dirty.
• Bring a long sleeve or light jacket. It got cold. I got really cold waiting my turn in the wind!
• Wear comfortable shoes you can run in. They don’t have to be running shoes per se, but they need to stay on your feet when you’re up there.
• Bring water and snacks! Again, you’ll be out there for 4+ hours. You will get hungry and want to stay hydrated.
• Be ready to listen carefully and learn. As much fun as you’ll have, you’ll need to take it seriously
• TRUST THE GLIDER! Physics doesn’t lie! Some things may seem counterintuitive, but trust in your instructors..they’ve been doing this for a long time
• Tip your instructors! Don’t forget to bring a little bit of cash to show your appreciation for the patience they had with you ;)
• And have fun!!!

I love my iPhone. A lot. It does everything that I need it to quickly and very well. I do, however, have one single qualm.

The new lightning port. Manufacturers are having a difficult time replicating it, and it’s imperative that I have more than one cable. I’ve learned that I’m awesome at leaving it at work, home, or friend’s houses when I need it the next day.

I have had two previous iPhones and two versions of the iPod in my Apple history, and they all have had the same sync/charge cable.

Buying a single new cable would cost me $19.

So would this Lightning to Micro USB Adapter. Best $19 ever spent to fix a problem.

Micro USB to Lightning Adapter for iPhone 5

Why? Because micro USB cables are so cheap and easy to come by.

After my adapter purchase, I then paid a visit to Newegg and picked up FOUR micro USB cables for a grand total of $3.20. (Free shipping with ShopRunner..thanks!)

Four cables!

The adapter is tiny though, and at first I had a fear of losing it. I decided to keep it in the change pouch of my wallet because that’s the one thing that goes everywhere with me. When I hastily need to leave, I simply leave it on the phone, and it barely gets in the way. It stays in well, too.

It’s the same size as the charge cable plug so you can easily see if it will fit with your phone case. If the cable fits, the adapter fits.

It’s unfortunate that we have to go through such ordeals to have multiple chargers for our beloved iPhone 5, but hey, it could be worse!