1/31/2002 at 7:09pm thursday sushi tonight! see what the number one hit was on your birthday!. [this site is rather slow]. on this day in: 1957, Decca Records announced that Bill Haley & His Comets, 'Rock Around The Clock', had sold over a million copies in the UK, mostly on 10inch 78's. 1963, Jet Harris and Tony Meehan were at No.1 on the UK single charts with 'Diamonds' 1968, Love Affair were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Everlasting Love'. 1970, Edison Lighthouse started a 5 week run as the UK No.1 with the single 'Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes). 1970, The Jackson Five went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'I Want You Back'. The song was originally written for Gladys Knight & The Pips and was the first of 4 No.1's for the group. It made No.2 in the UK. 1975, Abba's 'Mamma Mia' knocked Queen's 'Bohemiam Rhapsody' of the UK No.1 spot after a 9 week run at the top of the charts. 1976, Sounds readers Poll Winners, best album 'A Night At The Opera' Queen, single 'Bohemian Rhapsody' Queen, best band Queen, musician Mike Oldfield, female singer Maddy Prior, Steeleye, Span, new band Rainbow, bore of the year Bay City Rollers. 1976, 'The Best Of Roy Orbison' went to No.1 on the UK album chart. 1978, Talking Heads made their UK TV debut on the 'The Old Grey Whistle Test'. 1981, Blondie went to No.1 on the US singles hart with 'The Tide Is High', the groups 3rd US No.1, also a No.1 in the UK. 1987, Paul Simon went back to No. 1 on the UK album chart with 'Graceland', the album stayed on the chart for 101 weeks. 1988, appearing at The Mean Fiddler London, Red Hot Chili Peppers. 1988, Janet Jackson started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Together Again'. 1990, The Stone Roses were granted conditional bail by Wolverhampton Magistrates court following a 'grudge attack' on their record company's offices. 1998, Usher went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'You Make Me Wanna'. 1999, Armand Van Helden went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'You Don't Know Me', he also had a No.1 with the remix of Tori Amos 'Professional Widow'. 1/30/2002 at 9:21pm wednesday i am really enjoying have this journal. it is a quick way for me to write out some of my thoughts, write out some stories, and post photos from my everyday life. posting them here for all to see [though, viewing my access logs, many is an exaggeration]. i have been doing this journal since july. reading over some of the past entries in some what entertaining and interesting. some of the entries i have know idea what i was trying to explain and others, well, others sucked. i enjoy the photos entries. i can remember things better by viewing photographs. this year seems to be off to a good start. the weather is still crazy, wouldn't mind it to be a bit colder with some rain here and there. but this is california, so i can keep wishing. the end of the first month of the year. things are still flying by... what has been the best moment for you in this first month of 2002? 1/29/2002 at 7:41pm tuesday what crazy weather everyone is having! on the east coast there are unusually high temperatures and over here on the west coast it is snowing in places that have never seen snow! crazy times. it has been getting colder for me lately, ask jen, i am always warmer than i should be. when the heater is on, i need to crack a window. now i can finally wear my new leather gloves. tonight is supposed to be 30 degrees F. do i need to go anywhere? food... sunday night 'til this morning we have had nothing but rain. however, by this afternoon, the day cleared up to blue skies and bright white, puffy clouds. i took a panoramic shot from down the street. 3 separate shots, so not a very big panoramic shot. amazing how clear it was today. things are going good... 1/28/2002 at 7:07pm monday a note was waiting for me in my po box today. i went the counter were there was an unusually long line for that time of day. i waited and the postmaster yelled out if anyone was picking up a package...i raised my hand with the note and made my way over to him. after a few moments he returned with a small manila envelope. i said. it was marked 'tenclub'...cool! it was my annual pearl jam christmas single! how exciting. i completely forgot about this. it you are a member of the pearl jam fan club [which i joined to get first dibs on concert tickets] every year they send out a 45" vinyl recording of two are three live or unreleased songs by the band. this time is is a 2 vinyl set. 4 songs total. 3 i have never heard before. no chance to listen to the vinyls yet, but after i finish this entry i will plop it on the turntable. this is my 4th xmas single. it really is cool of the band to send these out...keeps the thrill of vinyl alive and it is just shows how they appreciate their fans. speaking of vinyl, it has been awhile since i went to the local record store to purchase some vinyl music. i must make a point to do that this coming week. 1/27/2002 at 1:28pm sunday not a bad little day yesterday. the baby shower was not the experience that i dreaded. it was like a birthday party. they served brunch, opened gifts. the game that was played was 'guess what's in the diaper', so now that you have cringed and held back the impulse of vomiting i will explain the guidelines of the game. several scoops of baby food were placed inside each diaper. each diaper had a number printed on the front. one is supposed to guess what baby food product is contained in each diaper. this was quite disgusting and funny at the same moment. about the only time one can snap pictures of people’s faces smelling the contents of a diaper. it is raining today. a pleasant day. i spent most of the morning reading the tale of the body thief. i am on page 196 240 [i am a slow reader]. i am at a very interesting point of the book, pretty much what the title describes. i am surprised i stopped reading. but, i must do other things with the rest of the day. something new, i added a search engine to my journal. it allows one to search the current journal as well as the archives. it is not the greatest search engine, but it will do. it's more for me in case i want to find something i wrote about. anyway... i need to make some phone calls to some friends. i have been so busy working that i have neglected to return phone messages. 1/26/2002 at 9:50am saturday i will be leaving here soon to attend my first baby shower. that's right, baby shower. i was not aware that men were invited, let alone would attend. but i am going. it is colin's sister, jessica [so he will be there, too]. but, i guess baby showers aren't just for women anymore. the father to be, paul, assured me there would be countless martinis on hand. this is good, because i am really not sure what guys do at these things. i mean yeah, we watch the parents-to-be open gifts but then what? i thought the women discuss the baby stuff, what happens, how big they got, [i'll stop there] all that stuff you know. interesting... i will come back and give a full report. 1/24/2002 at 6:59pm thursday very tired. that being said, i am going to make a run down to the local farmer's market in a few minutes. buy some produce, some pizza slices, and maybe a beer? taking the camera so i may post some photos. i should probably fire up some espresso right now. i can't believe how exhausted i am. on a side note, i had a weird thought today. i know where all the fire stations are in this town. that is strange to me because i can only remember where one fire station is in my home town. just a thought. 1/23/2002 at 11:53pm wednesday here i sit, close to midnight. pontificating about my day tomorrow. not looking forward to it. many grueling hours involving computer hardware upgrades, new software installations, and worst of all, arduous troubleshooting. enough bitching. i have also be thinking of ways to expand my business. obtaining new, high-profile clients. that would be excellent. short... 1/22/2002 at 9:33pm tuesday even though i am very tech savvy i have never paid my credit card bills online. well, today i have begun this endeavor. is it easy? yes. is it secure? technically, not really... i have many credit cards [kids don't try this at home] and have run late on a few payments. now i can pay them all online. this will save me the trouble of buying stamps not to mention the hassle of fumbling through all the paper on my desk to find statements. i feel good...i like this. 1/21/2002 at 6:01pm monday i decided to add the name of the day to each post i write. as you can see above this text. not sure on the placement of it yet. might place it just before the numbered date, or toward the end of an entry. we will see. sunny day here in slo, but the sun is dropping and the air is carrying a slight chill. a work day for me, but not too many calls today, so i guess everyone else had the day off. colin and i witnessed a bizarre phenomenon last night. he, jen, and i made some dinner. he invited his girlfriend over, who brought over her roommate and another friend. well, my flatmate [i still like that term] had a friend over as well. so 9 people, a nice little gathering. just to note that colin and i were the only ones of the male gender, which is actually nice and is also what allowed us to witness the bizzare occurrence. my flatmate brought out a hug box of nail polish, a conglomerate of all types of colors, hues, and shades. i believe there to be more colors in that box than i have ever witnessed at an exact moment in time. this caused the same effect as a cat running to the sound of the can opener. the rest of the girls rushed in and shoes and socks went flying. colin and i were astonished at this gathering bare feet and all. suddenly the smell of nail polish remover filled the air, along with a slight hint of glitter gun metal gray or was it iridescent pearly mint? at first the talking was subtle. then came the discussion of cutting, plucking, waxing, shining. colin and i retired to the kitchen. he poured a soda, i poured vodka and cranberry over ice. we began discussing things like computers, sports, carburators, hammering...things to bring us back to the male intellect. we have recovered. 1/20/2002 at 2:07pm sunday decided to go out on the town last night. i haven't been out in quite sometime. i used to be a frequent patron to the local bars when night fell. crowds are always different, many kinds of people in all shapes and sizes, laughing, yelling, talking, gesturing. it was a good feeling. i felt like i never left the local night scene. we only stayed at one pub in town that only serves beer, no liquor. the doorman remembered me, the bartenders called me by name. remarkable...i was smiling all night, the simple things...ah yes. you know things are going well when you only wanted to stay for one beer, and then you forgot that is all you wanted after you just finished your 5th. money changed hands, free drinks came our way. fun times. good people. stayed 'til closing....last call. arrived back home at 2:30am, then got back up at 8:00am for no reason...i could feel some of the effects from last night. like i have said before, the body just ain’t what it used to be. dialups - sorry for the amount of photos on this page... 1/18/2002 at 8:03pm took a small walk around the community i live in. i say that and it sounds to me like i live in a retirement center or some kind of facility. but it is not like that. the houses have similar designs and it has a private entrance. the only thing i dislike about this community is the homeowner dues, very expensive homeowner dues. 'the board' as we call them, say it is for the landscaping [which consists of a landscape architect(wtf?), gardener, and water for front yard and perimeter area] along with up-keep and use of the common area, which btw is a patio with two bbq grills,...lame. the landscaping is the worst i have ever seen. my father and i cleaned up my front yard, not to brag, but it really does look 100% better then the rest of the neighborhood. anyway, back to what i was saying. i saw these red berry bushes and snapped some shots. more photos 1/16/2002 at 4:44pm busy day today and tomorrow. i am building a new computer for a local elderly care facility, i think the term these days is assisted living center. it is not for the elderly residents there, but for the staff. this will be the president's new computer. i will copy over his current hard drive contents to this new machine, then his old machine will be setup in another office. i am hoping that this office will be close to the network hub so i will not have to crawl up into the ceiling. i hate that part. right now the drive in formatting so i can take some time out to write a little. this place always makes me sad. all the residents are sick and dieing. sometimes they are wandering the halls or on gernies screaming, moaning. there seems to be a lot of pain and emptiness within these elderly people. sad... on a lighter note...work is still slow, although, i am working a lot...does that make sense? i do a lot of tech support calls and maintenance for existing clients. but no one wants the big web sites anymore. i quoted a price over the phone yesterday and the person stated they were not aware it would be that much. are you serious? why do people think web sites are free? that always befuddles me. i have a special price going on right now for an ecommerce web site, too! format is complete...back to it. 1/13/2002 at 11:01pm i am back from the 77th annual east west shrine game. the game was great. but what will stay in my mind is the bus ride to pac bell park. i was on a bus filled with clowns. that is right. the official shrine clowns. jen warned me that these folks were quite the drinkers. being a drinker myself, i could appreciate that. it was amazing. jen and i were the last ones to arrive on the bus. once we boarded, my eyes captured images for my brain to interpret, which were visions of happy clowns, sad clowns, old clowns, and clowns that were a bit scary. a few name tags read, ‘mr. green jeans, sir friendly, fumbles, patches, aloha, and yoo hoo!’. a well rounded bunch. since the bus was almost full, jen and i made our way toward the back where the only open seats were. to my wonder the seat beside me contained: 2 bottles of vodka, 3 bottles of grapefruit juice, 4 bottles of orange juice, 3 bottles of bloody mary mix with 3 bags of celery stalks, and 1 bottle of cranberry juice, followed by a tub of ice. a tear was brought to my eye. now is it pure chance that i was chosen to sit next to all this booze? at any rate, i immediately took my post and become the bartender for this bus. these clowns, and i am typing that with a straight face, were drinking at a mere 9:30am. i was mixing up screwdrivers, greyhounds, cape cods, and the preverbal breakfast drink - the bloody mary. this shouldn't seem like a heavy task, but mind you, this was a moving vehicle. this makes pouring drinks a tad difficult, or if you are a boozer, the best drinks you will ever have. clowns were satisfied. as i said the game was good. it was bloody cold and foggy. bus load of clowns the booze lounge fogged in advance to the correct level more fog ensues, will it pass? a few of the many posters scattered throughout the inside of the ball park. connecting bridge send in the clowns! where is the tiny car? of course... and the sun decides to attend. 1/11/2002 at 7:50pm what a crazy week. too much work... got my new linux box up and running. it has been awhile since i built my last one, maybe 2.5 years now? this one is just doing file and web serving for now. i need to buy a backup power supply for it, then i will be set. it is running on a old pentium 166 that a slapped together from spare parts. i am leaving in an hour with jen up north to watch the annual east/west shrine football game. it is at pac bell park. my first visit to that park was this time last year for the same event. i still want to see the giants play there. very cool ball park. it will be a long drive tonight. 1/09/2002 at 1:27pm the first ea meeting of the new year and there was only about 14 people that showed up. i had some good leads during the wrap up, a few people wanting updates done to their existing sites. hopefully these leads turn into clients! i cleaned out some of my office and some boxes from my garage. lots of computer junk. i built a win98 box from parts and i just built a pentium 166 box that i am now installing linux on. what a pain this linux install has been. it has never been this bad. first, it was a bad motherboard, then the hard drive, then a cable, then the last thing was the memory. now it is installing just fine. i have a lot of junk computer crap. should i toss it out?? it will never happen! so it is wednesday...i may see waking life tonight it i have everything finished that i need to get done. 1/07/2002 at 10:54am busy working...decided to take a break. although i have a lot to do, the phones aren't ringing very much for a monday. not at all actually, i have only had 3 phone calls all morning. that means two things: 1. i am really good at what i do so people are not having problems which means revenue will be non existent. 2. or i am dead. what a fast weekend. i saw amelie on friday. what a great, brilliant, funny, foreign film. i haven't laughed through a movie in a long time and it was french! i really didn't want to see it, thought it was a chick flick. glad i did! i recommend it to all! cleaned the house completed small projects - productive weekend. i am starting to get clumsy. i grabbed for a plastic bowl containing the leftover tuna salad. it bounced from my grasp and feel toward the floor. the lid cracked off and the contents flowed onto the kitchen floor. i looked around, shrugged my shoulders, and proceed to scoop up the mess, onto two slices of toast [hey, as i stated above i cleaned the house!]. this morning, i filled my cereal bowl to full, raisin bran overflowed onto the tile counter. not sure if this was my doing. after picking up the orphan bran flakes and returning them to the box. I titled the milk jug over the bowl. i hit a flake that had the perfect curve to it. it caught the milk and sent it flowing over the cereal bowl onto the counter. i should have forgone the bowl and ate the cereal on the counter. 1/04/2002 at 5:27pm had a meeting today with one of my clients. he has a new wine cellar next to a ranch. took some photos along the way. more here 1/02/2002 at 9:23pm rain all day today. i think my cold is going away. i have been taking vitamins and ibuprofen pills. it seems to work. today i took some loose pills that had no container from the medicine cabinet. the words tylenol cold were stamped on them. i swallowed them down. about an hour later i started to feel really drained. like i had been sitting in the same spot for hours. i usually don't purchase night time cold medicine that helps you fall asleep, but maybe these were...but i am still up, albeit a tad slow. i just got done posting the photos from the new year's eve party. it was a fun night. look for colin drowning in an ocean of red wine. 1/01/2002 at 9:32pm happy new year tuesday, new years day, back from the dead. as you already know it is 2002. it is here. no more waiting. i had a little new years eve party with some close friends. it was fun. the only new years eve party i have thrown. jennifer and i prepared some snacks and treats for all who showed. many libations were on hand to assure proper new years enthusiasm. i provided gag gifts to be opened after midnight. this went over quite well and most said they were good gifts [they weren't supposed to be]! i have a ton of photos and will post them soon. a few people became amateur photographers during the night taking some interesting shots of non-interesting items. altogether, it was a very exciting and an enjoyable evening.

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