The Last of the Mongoose Head

For the past month and a half that I've been unemployed, I've been kind of floating around like a jellyfish swimming off the coast of Fiji.
Chilled to the max.
I have to say that I kind of like it.

I just surf the net, read the private pilot test prep, watch TV and go to sleep.
I pretty much only do what I feel like doing.

Yeah...
Money is such a big deal around here I don't know what to do.
But it's not going to be a problem for another couple of months.
I hope I don't get sick or get injured anytime soon, but I'm not too worried about that neither.

I kind of figured out that this glider thing will require a lot of time to be good at it.
Like if I keep up with it for couple of years, I'll be somewhat descent at it.
So I figured that I shouldn't be too anxious about it.
Getting a license is good, but that's like one of the first steps.

I've been listening to John Fogerty a lot recently.
I really like "The Joy of My Life" a lot.
I wish if I could play the slide like this.

Riquelme

I watched the Confederation Cup final today.

It's not that Argentinian players were selfish, but I think they tried to do too much on their own.
It seemed like each players wanted to do extra things on their own, they forgot to play a more simple game.

I think the players were trying to contribute to the team by doing more, but it must be hard not to think that way for very talented players.

Radius of Activity

Drove up to Chicago on Sunday w/ Jun who's going back to Korea.
Met up w/ Raul and drove to the Taste of Chicago.
Had an alligator, jerk chicken with rice, goat curry, and rainbow ice cream.
The alligator was a disappointment.
The portion was so small...
Jerk chicken with rice at the Vee-Vee's was the best one.

Stayed at Ratish's place that night.

Monday, went to the mall.
Ate dinner at the Raza's with Ratish and his bro and Jun.

Tuesday dropped off Jun at the airport.
Came back to the apartment that night.

I was gonna find a place to live near the glider club while I'm up there, but I'll look up more places to live and drive up there again next week.

Received an email from an wind turbine company.
Just a confirmation that they received my resume.

Healthy Nationalism

To me, nationalism is an outdated tool that governments use to manipulate and organize the masses.

Fuck nationalism, fuck independence, fuck identitiy.

I don't need no fucking nation to identify who I am.

A lot of people say that I should be proud of where I'm from.
That's fucking bullshit.

Maybe it's partly because of all the stereotyping that goes along with nationalities.
I hate it when people generalize me because of where I'm from.

Check Yourself!!!

Well, it is 6:35 in the morning.

This beautiful girl is telling me to check myself.

I usually fucking hate it when someone tells me what to do, but I had to comply because she seemed like she was genuinely concerned with people's health.

Taste the World

I'm gonna go to the Taste of Chicago this Sunday.
It's kind of an annual get-together thing among the people I know.
As I am a perfectionist in regard to food items, I went through all the restaurants that's in the Taste and listed the food that I plan to eat there.
I also printed the map w/ all the restaurants and wrote down all the food that I'm going to eat.
This year, I have decided to concentrate on the cuisines represented from the tropical weather regions of the world for it is expected to be hotter than two raccoons fighting in a thermal sock this weekend.
My priorities will be focused on the following menus:

1. cajun alligator at Grizzley's
2. seafood gumbo at Chicago Joe's
3. goat curry at Maxine's Jamaican Cuisine
4. jerk chicken w/ rice at the Vee-Vee's African Cuisine.

No room for a turkey leg this year, I'll make someone else eat.

I read the history of wind turbines at the Danish Wind Industry Association website.
It was interesting to find out that modern wind turbines have only been around since the late 70's.
Efficient propellers are hard to design...

More wind turbine jobs

Looked for more wind turbine companies on the web.
Applied to three more.
Two of them were overseas.
I doubt that I'll get those.

One in the states is a pretty big one.
But one of my friend who interned there said the place was so geeky, he didn't want to go back there ever again.

But I need money sooner or later.

Get

Again, another day was wasted.
Didn't do anything.

Saw Brazil vs. Japan game on TV.
Brazilian players were very lethargic.
And they got what they wanted and are in for the next stage.
Well, Japan came close, but I think they needed to look for a goal a bit earlier.
They didn't go after the ball when the Brazillians were passing the ball around in their backline to waste time.
I know it's risky, but I think they needed to start chasing the ball right after halftime.

Oh well, it seemed like Brazil could score whenever they turned the switch on.
They didn't need to take any risks.
I think that Japan never saw the real Brazilian team in this game.
It would've been an a lot better experience if Japan were ever up on the scores.

I noticed that Japanese players were very good at one-touching the ball.
Not like Valderama, but it seemed like the players were very calm and made very good decisions underpressure.
I didn't see the players panic when they were being chased.
It was a mostly boring game, but I think at least the Japanese players showed that they are capable of playing at a very high level.
Maybe not winning at that level though... not yet...

Watching the players in the game, I noticed that I was the one using my race as an excuse for some of my shortcomings while I should've been trying to do things on my own.
I used to think that I was good at not judging people based on their race.
It's kind of ironic that I had been judging myself based on my race.
This is bad...

Beautiful Morning

It is now 6:51 in the morning.
I am awake because I stayed up the whole night.

The next door neighbor has a mohawk.
But is only seen in the odd hours of the night.
And he's always wearing a sports jacket...
It makes me wonder what the fuck he's up to, but that's none of my business.
I hope his business is going well.

DAaaaa!!!!
I'm going to find a place to live near the glider field and get my license this year!
I'm fucking scared of not doing anything.

Brazil vs. Japan is today...
I pray for a miracle.
I wouldn't bet any money on it.
I want to see Japan pull off an upset because I think some of the Brazilian players are just greedy bastards.
Well... I guess it wouldn't make me any better person even if Japan wins, but damn... it'll be cool to see the arrogant bastards fall to the ground in disbelief.

Transplants, Haunted Cities

No job offers.
I'm driving up to Chicago this weekend.
Go to the Taste and drop off my friend at the airport.

Played soccer today.
Played fucking horrible.
This one mother fucker was telling me what to do all the time and pissed me the fuck off.
My fucking back is not healing.
I'm going to stop playing for the summer.
It's been like this for two years now.
I think it's time to stop.


Bought the Transplants new album.
It's not like the last one, but I really like it.
One thing I noticed about the songs were that they were very comforting...
Something familiar, like it's something new, but it kind of reminded me of something in the past...
Well, it's hard to define what they do anyways without going through each of the songs.
Not that crazy new stuff like the "Tall Cans in the Air" or "Diamonds and Guns" though.

Nationality

Watched Mexico vs Japan the other day at the Mexican restaurant.
I haven't seen Japan play for about two years now.
They played very well, I think.
But there were obvious lack of one-on-one skills compared to the Mexican players.

And this "theme" that many football nations have.
The "style" that they play.
Like the Dutch soccer, the passing game of Mexico, the hardworking Irish game...
Like the "style" of game that you grew up playing.
The "style" everyone knows how to play if you're from that country.
I've never seen that in the Japanese team.

Maybe it's that we're still a young soccer nation.
It just takes time for it to find its root and start growing.

I see patterns though.
We have ok midfielders.
We pass well.
But we tend to rush things too much.
Like none of us don't want to be responsible for losing the ball.
We don't have that confidence.

Like our forwards in the game against Greece...
Just panic so easily.
And yes, I too, panic easily.
I guess it's just part of being a Japanese.

Anyways, I kind of had this feeling like the Mexican way of playing fitted my image of play very easily.
It's probably because I learned to play soccer by playing with the Mexican people.
But I think Japan and Mexico has some parallels.
But I don't want to generalize things too much.

A Perfect Day

Yesterday, I woke up at around I don't know when.
Went ate and watched the Batman movie.
Watched TV at a friend's place till 4 am.

Woke up at around 2 pm today.
Surfed the net till 4 pm and went to sleep again.
Woke up at 8 pm.

I feel like I should be doing something.

Report on the Effectiveness of Anti-ants Landmines

My room has been under attack by ants recently.

No job offers/interviews.
Updated my resume on job search engines.
The resume now says that I've designed airfoils for payload fairing.

I feel like I'm wasting life.
It's probably true.

Not that I'm obligated to live my life for anyone else though...

Random Day

The drivers side door lock got locked again.
I messed around with it for about an hour but couldn't fix it.
I called the mechanic at the glass shop, and he told me what to do.
I got it to unlock again.
I felt like I accomplished something very important.
Once again, I shall thank the mechanic dude for helping me out.
I thought of bringing in a case of beer to the shop to thank him, but that just sounded a bit creepy.
I don't know, if it was in Japan, it'd be perfectly OK, but somehow it didn't sound like the thing to do here.

Anyways, I was filled with a sense of accomplishment when I fixed the door, but ten minutes later I found out that Alicia Silverstone got married.
So my positive mental attitude was somewhat neutralized for the rest of the day.

I'm very not sure on what to do for the next couple of months.
Hang gliding, glider, job...
I'm pretty sure on holding off on the job situation, but I don't know what to do about the first two.
I've been reading the hang glider manual for the last couple of days.
So I was pretty set on going to the place in Tennessee to go hang gliding.
But I injured my hip yesterday playing soccer.
My left leg is somewhat numb right now which I assume is not a good thing.
And this made me reconsider the hang gliding option.

Also the job situation in Peoria...
It seemed like a good place to work at.
But no glider or hang glider clubs nearby.

Money is disappearing a bit faster than I expected.
So I'm a bit nervous about holding off on getting a job for too long.

Fuck.
I am an undecisive creature.

I have a lot of free time==>Time is money==> I'm rich

Played soccer.
Only seven people showed up.
I think my hip joint is messed up.

I might go down to Tennessee Tuesday.

I have time.
I have money.
I don't know what I'm doing wasting time here.

two days has past since the last contact...

I heard that people who get hired usually hear the good news within a couple of days after their interviews whereas the people who don't get the job hear about it after a week or two.
It has been two days since mine.

I finally got the window fixed.
The mechanic was a nice guy.
He even tried to fix the door lock.
Nice people rule!!

Went played soccer.
I was playing behind two forwards.
It was really easy to make plays because other players were running a lot.
Got really really tired after like half an hour.
Missed two good chances.
Both of them were crosses from the right side.
I have to remind myself to be more calm and make the right moves.
This might take some time, but I guess I have the skills to make the plays now.
I started out playing good, but after I got tired, I forgot to have the bird eye picture of the field.

I came out and played with the horses in the field across the street.
Some animals are so genuine and free from a lot of the social constraints that humans have to deal with.
I think it's nice to have pets.
Kind of remind me that these social stuffs are sometimes not necessary.

interview

hmmm...
I wrote on yesterday's post that I didn't want this job.
I just wanted to go through this interview process.

I don't know, they seemed like they're ready to hire anyone.

Nice people though.
Met one dude who I knew from some classes last year.

A bit confused.
Well, I'll think about it more if they offer me a job.

I should get a job that I want.
I still have some money...
I want to look for other options too.

I'm interested in working for the wind turbine company.

I think I'll wait on getting a job a little more.
I don't know how long though.

Interview Preparation

Buy an iron and an ironing board.
Read stuffs on monster.com about interview prep.
Read company website.

I don't know, even if they give me the job, I'm not gonna take it, so why am I wasting so much time and effort on this.
Well, the answer is that this job interview is just a practice for the one that I really want.

I have to study the glider manual.
I started looking for a place to live near the glider field.

So much for interview prep.
I'm just not too interested.

Nervous

I'm about to take a step into somewhere I haven't been to.
Well, sort of.
I'm unemployed, and I have somethings that I want to do now.

Sent e-mails to couple other wind turbine companies.

This wind turbine thing is attractive to me because
1. I don't have to deal with military stuff and feel guilty about making money off of wars
2. It's somewhat good for the environment (except for the seabirds who get smashed by the blades.
3. It might help the people in the developing world. This is important for me because I don't like rich people getting richer. I have come to this realization that my lifestyle is based on the sufferings of the people in the developing nations. I'm not going to give up what I have now, but I think I can be not as much of an ass about it.
4. It has stuffs to do with aerodynamics.

mm... I'm suddenly not so into airplanes anymore.
Not as much as I used to.
I don't know why, but I'll think about it more in the next few days.
Cuz it's kind of a big deal for me since that's what I've been thinking about for the last 4, 5 years.

Damage

I heard someone say that a person is 'damaged.'
I think it's a good expression about people who are traumatized.

I think the important thing is not the act of sharing the secret.
It's about telling yourself that it's ok to tell others about it.
That you have suffered enough that you don't need to keep it a secret anymore.

On a completely unrelated subject,
'Plastic Fang' by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is fucking outstanding.

The Door Is Open

Finally, one year after I purchased my van, the drivers side door was opened for the first time.
I had to bring it to a body shop to get it open to fix the window which will be a day or two.
The shop people were very helpful which is rare for a body shop.
It was the Collision Revision on 1110 Bloomington Rd, Champaign, IL.

Anyways, finally, I don't have to crawl in through the passenger side door to get in the car.

Need cash to get a money order for my citizenship application.

Went to a barber to get a haircut.
The person cut it asymmetrically and my head somewhat resembles a pineapple.
I'm pretty ugly so I doubt that anybody will notice.

I calculated my projected budget up to September.
It's cutting close.

Lifeless

I was going to find a place to fix my van, but I just slept all day.
It's been like that for since I came back from Chicago.
Very sleepy all the time.
I just need to get back into the regular time schedule.
Need to finish up the glider test prep also.

I filled out the application for naturalization form.
It's about time to plan my financial stuff assuming that I won't have any income for at least couple of months.
This is the first time I had to do something like this in three years.
I hate wasting time for counting money and stuff, but it helps sometimes...

Some Progress

I drove back to Chicago on Sunday, stayed at a friend's place overnight.
Took the train to the city.
Went to the aquarium and saw the dolphins.
I kind of wished that I majored in marine biology instead.

Went to the immigration office at 130, waited for an hour and half.
I think I'll just apply for my citizenship again.
Another 400 bucks.
Went to Pilot Pete's w/ Kevin for dinner.
Met Mario there.

I guess everyone's doing well, but it seemed like money was the issue for everyone that I met.
I'm not worried about it now, but I hope to not let those issues rule my life.

I got an appointment for an interview with some company in Peoria.
They make 3D models for bigger companies.
I don't know, it didn't sound too good.
I'm thinking I shouldn't take this job.
At least it would be a good interview practice.
I think I'd rather work at a construction site than this place.
At least till I get my glider rating.