Happy New Year! It’s been a while since my last post, and I skipped the holidays, unlike last year. It’s now 13 days into the new year and it’s been OK so far.

The guy I was dating, who later became my boyfriend in August 2007… is no longer my boyfriend – but we’re still dating. We still hang out but things would get difficult and somehow I think I know that we don’t have a great chance of ending up together in holy matrimony. It’s a feeling, I guess. Though nothing is absolute until it happens… or doesn’t.

Here is what went down (more or less) today – Sunday, January 13th, 2008.

Woke up at 5:20 AM
Participated in the Great Aloha Run running clinic where we ran 6 miles, and it was my first time moving up to the run / walk group that runs one minute, then walks one minute. It’s been a long time since I ran 6 miles, and I was surprisingly not winded, so I might move up to the running group within the next couple of sessions.

11:45 AM – Kapolei Subway: Had one of the worst-ever customer service experiences in there where a woman was trying to overcharge me, and wouldn’t even look at the huge sign on the wall behind her until I pointed at it and said – it’s on the sign right there… and then she sauntered over to it, and said “must be new” and that was it. No apologies, nothing. And she was the manager. And she’d just messed up the order before us by giving the wrong sandwich to the lady in front of me, and the guy before her… and then she proceeded to start arguing with the next set of customers while we were finishing our meal. She’s gotta be related to someone cause there’s no other way she should be managing anything.

12:30 – Went to see Juno at Kapolei theaters with the guy I’m dating. It was kinda a disappointment since there was all this buzz about it. On NetFlix i’d give it 3 stars… or a little less, actually… but enough to round-up to a 3 since they don’t let you leave portions of a star in your rating. (I think it was a 2.8 or 2.9 actually).

14:30 – Famous Footwear in Waikele. I went to try and find a replacement pair of running shoes but they didn’t have my size. Decided to try sticking with the recent pair I got. This morning when I got home I noticed my right toe – the 2nd toe.. the nail on it was pretty sore when I touched it so my shoes might be too tight. Not sure. My left foot’s fine though. These shoes cost me $100 and I rarely spend that much on anything, so I’m thinking I’ll try it another weekend. (I cut my toenails really short to be sure).

16:45 – in the car, on the phone, on the way to see my friend. My best friend, who is also my ex-boyfriend- and we aren’t dating. We’re both hip hop djs in our spare time, and both get along really well and make best friends… but after 3 years of going out we broke up about 3 years ago and I don’t know that we would ever get back together. But it’s cool and no stress, and we just cruise and do simple stuff for fun like go walking around and taking pictures of stuff, or walking through Don Quijote store. Nope – I didn’t spell that wrong – it’s a japan store which was formerly Daiei, and formerly Holiday Mart, but now calledDon Quijote. The Kaheka street location has the best alcohol selection of any grocery store I’ve been in here on Oahu. But hit me up with a comment if you know a place better! ha ha! Though my drinking days have been over a while

17:00 – Arrive at my best friend’s house and cruise with the bunnies. One belonged to me and he agreed to take her in when I was having a hard time with college and keeping up with her. Living in central Oahu makes commuting super difficult for college students. Not near as difficult as it must be for West-siders, and North Shore people though. The second bunny was purchased since I had originally gave him 2 bunnies to watch, but one passed away and the other seemed very lonely. Rabbits are very social creatures and she’s bonded to the new bunny even stronger than the last one. I’ve loved rabbits since I was a kid. They are the pet of choice for me.

17:30 – Cruise. We drive around Waialae, Kaimuki, Kahala, Diamond Head, and just look at the houses and talk about whatevers. We don’t know where to go and don’t mind cruising. Cause that’s what we do sometimes. We decide to eat at St. Louis Drive-In. We both order the Autumn special (BBQ Cheeseburger deluxe, fries, and large cokes).

19:00 – The Amazing Race is on TV and we arrived with the food in time to watch it. I like TK and Rachel, and Christina and Ron. I think ultimately I want TK and Rachel to win. I was glad Nathan and Jennifer were eliminated tonight. Though they make great antagonists! This is the first time I watched the show all season, and I’m pretty sure I’ll tune in for the finale next week.

20:00 – driving in my car towards home. And I drive a lot listening to the radio. Actually, listening to a recording of a show I subbed last week at the nameless radio station I used to be a dj at. It wasn’t as bad as I was thinking it was, but not as good as I’d have liked.

21:30 – home. On my bed surfing the interweb… then i start writing this blog on my macbook pro, which is part of the older generation that gets extremely hot.

22:17 – finishing the blog, and debating going to bed early since i have to wake up at 5 in order to get to work by 7 since traffic sucks that much here. Also about to write in my little running journal how far I ran today, how long it took, etc. I think I’m also signing up for the marathon this year. Pretty sure… more than 50% sure anyhow… And feeling lucky because I have a decent life and good friends. It’s been a good year so far.

Though I am not a total brand-name person when it comes to clothing (though I did go through a Banana Republic phase not too long ago) I am super picky about purchasing a laptop bag, and love some of the STM line of laptop bags. STM is a company that’s based in Australia and specializes in bags to lug around digital gadgets. I came across them by chance online through a mac forum when I was first looking for a cool laptop bag.

I recently ordered the STM Medium alley bag in the carbon color. It fits my newly purchased macbook pro 15-inch great. I got my macbook pro because I dropped my 12-inch powerbook and the display died completely. I took out the hard drive, and bought this macbook pro on clearance, so it has the core duo chip, and not the core 2 duo. But it was only $1299 so it was a great deal!

The bag has a nice vertical zipper pocket along the front flap which comes in surprisingly handy, and a horizontal one along the back of the bag which rests against my hip.

The main pocket also has room for my folders, and there are sub-pockets that fit my power adapter, and other accessories. In all this bag is awesome.

When I get depressed, or don’t feel like dealing with certain things going on in life, I sleep. In school, I would get tired, and sleep all the time. Now that things at work have gotten as bad as I’ve ever seen them, I’m tired all the time. Last night I went to bed at 9PM, and woke up this morning at 9AM. I could feel the dreaded Monday nibbling away at the back of my relaxing Sunday. Recently, I dropped my beloved motorola razr v3 (black) on the floor in my bedroom, and killed the display entirely. The screen remained black, though the phone itself could still make calls when I tested it out.

This morning after I forced myself out of bed, I went running and invited Justin to go with me. It’s good running with him because we’re both kinda bad runners. His excuse being that he smokes and hasn’t gone running since last August. Mine’s being that I don’t push myself very hard. I am not marathon material, and often start walking when I should be pushing myself to go on. It was a nice morning though, and the sunshine and the scenic views were enough to make me feel good about things.

After running, Justin came with me as I replaced my broken Motorola Razr v3 (1st gen) with an updated Motorola Razr v3xx, which I got from a cool-enough sales guy from the Sears Ala Moana Cingular outlet. His name was Curtis, and his customer service was the best I ever got from a Cingular store, ever. I was sad to lose my saved images, ring tones, and text messages that were on the old phone, but I dropped it, and the display totally died. I renewed my contract so I could get the phone for $49 after the $50 mail-in rebate. The v3xx is larger (its longer) than the v3. It has more functions, including the ability to play music and the ability to connect as a drive to your PC, so you can upload and download files. I can’t remember if the V3 had bluetooth (thinking it did) but I use it on my phone to transfer photos to my computer. Overall I’ve been satisfied with the upgrade.

the updated razr: motorola razr v3xx

my o.g. motorola razr v3

I’ve been feeling both good and bad about the relationship with the guy I’m dating. I was a little scared to invite him to my sister’s wedding party, but am glad I did since he accepted to being my guest with no hesitation. It’s going to be on a Sunday morning at the Oceanarium in Waikiki.

Tomorrow I get to start work late, but am worried about the rest of the week. I can only pray the interview I went to pans out well for me. It’s only been a little over a week since my interview for the position of Systems Support Technician. I really am hurting at Help Desk in the Lead position, because we normally have 6 people, but are now down to 3.

Yesterday I saw The Pursuit of Happyness with the guy I’m dating. We used the coupons we got for Christmas to go to the movies, get popcorn, and a medium drink. We went to the Pearlridge West theaters, and watched the 5:05 showing. We both enjoyed it a lot. It was very different from Letters From Iwo Jima– that’s for sure! In all honesty, I enjoyed myself more watching the Pursuit of Happyness. It left me feeling good for the main characters, and wistful, I suppose. I really admired how he took such risks. He took gambles that I probably would not have had the guts to take myself in all honesty. And I’m sure a lot of people fail when they take chances like these, but I still admire people for trying. It was kind of funny seeing the Rubick’s cube. I kind of remember when those first came out as a kid, and I believe we had 1. I never could do it though.

We also studied a bit after the movie. I have my OS portion of the A+ certification I have to take, and he is studying for a couple of certs himself. I enjoy his company a lot. It’s very relaxing.

Today, it was back to work. We managed to grab lunch together at the restaurant inside the YWCA downtown. It was a nice atmosphere. It felt good to be away from the office.

I met up with him after work, and we went to Coffee Talk for a little bit, walked over and found this new store that sells urban vinyl figures and I bought 2 nano spores, and then we picked up his car and drove separately to my house. He was so tired, he ended up falling asleep on the couch during Battlestar Galactica (which he loves) and I let him sleep for about 1.5 hours til about 10:30PM.

Before he’d crashed, we ate Hickory Farms sausage, sweet hot mustard, and gouda cheese on crackers. As a kid I always loved those Hickory Farms sets. I mentioned it to him once in December, and he bought me one for Xmas. We ate some of it today. It was pretty fun, and reminded me a little of being a kid again. We had one of those sets just once when I was little.

There is something about watching him sleep that is almost heartbreakingly sweet. He truly is a nice person, and I hope he has a good life. I know there’s a great chance we’ll drift apart in time, and go out with other people, but I really enjoy his company for now. And whatever happens, he deserves a lot of great things out of life. I really believe he is one of the nicest people I know. Heh. This post is more for my memory than anything.

Bought the Living Legeds “Legendary Music Vol. 1″ album from Best Buy for $7.99 a couple of days ago. It’s pretty much a sampler of other albums released by the crew. Also bought Lupe Fiasco’s new album, “Food and Liquor” because the :Kick Push: song kills! So far tracks 4 – 11 are all good. The production is so nice on this album, and his lyrics are intelligent and not the usual stuff the mainstream feeds ya. I hear people say things like: I just don’t like hip hop cause they’re always talking about their bling. My answer to that is that’s all mainstream radio seems to play. At least, in Hawaii anyways. There are lots of hip hop tracks / artists that have nothing to do with gang banging or dolla dolla bills. Most people probably just never heard them. These are my first music purchases of 2007. So far, so good.

It’s rare that I buy shoes, but yesterday I bought not 1, but 3 pairs of shoes.

Brooks Adrenaline GTS 6’s:

These shoes cost me $90. Which makes them the most expensive pair of shoes I have ever bought in my LIFE. Ever. I went to The Running Room
and bought them since I strained my achilles tendon earler in the week. Among the possible causes was running in shoes with worn-out soles. My old running shoes were almost 10 years old so the guy I’m dating (who runs the Honolulu Marathon each year– awesome) scolded me a bit about having 10-year old running shoes.
The lady in the store determined I needed a stability shoe. So I have a pair of metallic running shoes. Yes. They’re metallic. That was the first time in my life where I decided not to even look at the shoes myself and allow someone else to select them for me. I wanted the professional choice instead of my own because I would have surely tried to pick something that looked cool, but was cheaper, and probably wouldn’t have been as good for my feet.
If you’re looking for a running shoe, I would recommend the Running Room. They are very attentive, and even told me to try the shoe out on the concrete outside of the store. I’m gonna break them in by running a few miles in the morning. It was a great sales experience, and I haven’t had such great customer service in a long time.
Later, I bought 2 pairs of shoes at the Skechers outlet in Waikele. The first model is called “the Scholar” and it is the work-shoe of choice for me. I keep trying to buy the same exact shoe when they wear out. This is my third pair in about 2.5 years. Not only do I wear them to work, but much of the time when I’m just cruising. If they ever stop making this shoe, I will be sad.

And, because I am unable to resist bargains 2 days after getting my paycheck, I bought the shoe below, but in black. Why? Cause they’re fresh! And because they had a buy-two-pairs-of-shoes-and-get-the-2nd-pair-1/2-off sale going on.

Hopefully my achilles tendon won’t flare up again when I go on my run. I’m also taking my clip-on ipod shuffle that I got for Christmas– damn it’s cool! I had to name it when I registered it, and ended up naming it “gift06.”

I still have Rich and his father’s gift sitting in my living room, waiting to be delivered. I bought them food for Christmas. It’s what I bought most people this year, and with age determine is often a winner since it’s hard to determine what kind of “stuff” people really want in their lives, but most are happy with food from my experience.

I got an iPod shuffle from the guy I’ve been dating, along with a Hickory Farms set — which I am also fully stoked about. I’d been debating buying a shuffle even though I have a nano, just cause I could use it when running, and clip it to my shirt. I debated buying one this year, and luckily I didn’t since he got me one. The Hickory Farms sausage set is just cool. Even as a little kid I thought they were “winnahs!”

I bought him the gentle giant r2d2 princess leia animated maquette i wrote about in an earlier post, a volcom polo shirt, and a gift pack of food from wholesale unlimited. We hung out on Christmas Eve until 12:01am, and opened or gifts together. I wasn’t sure if he’d like the star wars gift since Rich said it was both “geeky” and “cool” and I knew this guy used to like Star Wars a lot, but that recently he’d become more into Star Trek… so I was a little worried. I like the way they rendered Princess Leia in this one. I still have an extra one in the box, and I’m scared to open it. There are 8.500 that were produced, which isn’t a terrible rare number, I imagine. The Padme Animated Maquette is going for $300 to $1000 that I’ve seen online. That version came out a few years back, and I thinkthere were less Padme’s produced.

My sister and her boyfriend gave me cash, a gift certificate to Black Angus for $50 (We can use it at Cattle Company here in Hawaii) and some candy.

My mom gave me cash, and I got some food from people, as well as a Consolidated movie theater movie pass, popcorn and drink coupon, which I really appreciated a lot. The price of a movie in Hawaii is about $9 now. I imagine it costs as much or more in other states. It just seems a bit pricey, though I do like the experience of going to the theater to see certain movies.

This year both my mom and my sister got sick. It was kinda weird. My mom actually had to go to the Pali Momi emergency room on Friday cause while they were out, she started feeling really sick, so they ended up there. We don’t quite know what happened, but she has to watch herself over the break. My sister’s stomach started acting up on her yesterday, and so she’s a little worried she might be getting the flu. Also a bummer that my sister had to go in to work today. She’s a medical technologist, and there is some maintenance she needs to run on the machine(s) there so other people can use them. She’s there right now, and left shortly after opening her gifts.

I feel healthy enough, except for the feeling of dread about going to work tomorrow.

Right now I’m charging up the iPod shuffle, and plan to go running today. I am kinda feeling that anxiety again about having to go to work tomorrow. I really need to find myself a new job.

I had a good Christmas this year, and am happy overall, just my job causes me real grief. Hopefully things get better though. Maybe I’ll get a new and better job this year? Who knows?

If you’re reading this, whether or not you celebrate Christmas, hope you had a good year in 2006!

Range Murata – Pinky Street set of 3

I bought a set of 3 from otaku.com

I bought this online. The guy I’m dating has one in Navy Blue, and it’s pretty sweet. I felt cheesy buying the same kind of model of bag as someone I know, but it is THAT nice of a design, imho. The sizeof the bag is one thing. It’s not as big and bulky as a standard messenger bag. It’s large enough I can fit one of my o’reily books into it fine. It also has multi-pockets on the front, and inside of the bag, which are always appealing to me.

Check it:

I bought it in the color shown above, advertised as “aloe.”

Click to enlarge this picture. It shows off the front panel and its hidden multi-pockets. nice.

I was surprised when i first heard the news that Tower Records had gone bankrupt, and they were bought by a liquidation firm. Here on Oahu, there are 3 Tower locations: Pearl Kai, Ke’eaumoku, and Kahala Mall. Tonight I went with Rich to the Kahala Mall location, and it was really cleaned out. The CDs were 70% off. Hip hop cds were all gone already. The remaining albums didn’t look interesting at all and were only $1.50 since the section had been so depleted. I wandered around for quite some time before finally deciding I’d searched through enough, and found what I wanted. Lots of stuff was already sold-out. I checked for stuff by Bonobo, the Cinematic Orchestra, Boards of Canada, the Cure, hip hop stuff, etc. but they were gone.

Certain artists catalogs like, Radiohead, the Cure, and Rage Against the Machine had all been sold. I made 3 purchases tonight:

1) Caribou : Start Breaking My Heart (Leaf Label)

2)V/A : Exit Music – Songs with Radio Heads (bbe)

3) D’Angelo : Brown Sugar (EMI)

Hawaii doesn’t have many music stores, and I worked at the Pearl Kai location about a decade ago, so there’s a little nostalgia mixed in there as well. But Tower was something that seemed like it would always be around. So I was surprised, and a bit bummed. Hopefully we’ll get another music store out here with a decent back-catalog! I am glad to have had the chance to work at a Tower Records, and can only hope the employees nation-wide were able to find replacement jobs they enjoy.

Here’s a picture of the Kahala store I found online:
All 3 CDs combined came to under $15. The Caribou CD is a great listen so far. One of the most interesting things I’ve heard in a long time. If you like electronic stuff, as well as jazzy, or math-rock stuff, you might be able to dig Caribou. It is not overly experimental to the point of pretentiousness, but also very unique. It’s kinda melancholy, and beautiful. It is definitely a pleaser for a beat-fiend like myself.

Tower Kahala had a sign counting down the number of days left. One more week before its final day. It seems surreal to think they’ll be gone. I heard the Ke’eaumoku location will become a Wal-Green’s… right across the street from Wal-Mart. That doesn’t seem like a good idea on Wal-Green’s part. It’s always weird to lose something that holds memories from the past. I met some cool people there, and remember just hanging out in Tower when I didn’t know what else to do with myself since I’ve always been somewhat of a music fiend. My tastes vary a lot. I still remember browsing for hours just looking through all the racks. Ahh well… Goodbye to Tower Records. It was good while it lasted.