consider me alerted
I saw something for the first time yesterday that was at the same time, greatly disturbing and greatly relieving. As I was driving down the freeway, I noticed the electrical traffic warning billboard actually had a message on it. Reminiscent of "L.A. Story" I read the message in the faint hope that my fortune and fate would be revealed in a cryptic, yet entertaining, way. What I read, however, was far from that. Typed across the board was "Child Abduction, Red Jeep SUV, Lic. Plate 4CUX...". My stomach knotted immediately. What a terrible realization that things like this happen all the time. Simultaneously, what an ingenious way to get the message to so many people so fluidly. I, of course, started checking all around me looking for a red Jeep SUV, cell phone poised, ready to catch the bad guy. At the same time, I said a little prayer for the abducted child. I hope he/she is home safely.

spring is here
my freckles are in full bloom.

aaooooooo
if i were a werewolf,
a massage would be my full moon.

nightly praxis
i wash toe to head.
i dry head to toe.
i sometimes read in the shower.
i always brush in the shower.
i go to sleep on my left.
i wake up on my stomach.
i often lay on the floor with the vague notion of doing sit-ups.
consequently, i usually remind myself that i need to vacuum.

call me, i'm bored.
since monday, i've been slowing down; no energy, no focus. I skipped practice mon. night, powered thru tuesday's nihongo no kurasu, and managed to get through karate on wed... thursday i at least showed up to class, but left minutes before the sensei walked in (and then picked up a hitchhiker. yeah. i don't know, but i got invited to a keg'r from it. whee.) Friday turned out to muster more enthusiasm, though, as our usual no-work policy seeped in my department, and i spent the evening and wee hours o'the morn' with natalie up in san clemente area. We were at a Japanese teppan-ya (hibachi) place, with a mexican muttering chef trying to not be upstaged by nat speaking (screaming?) italian to the couple across the table. Quite cultural. The best part was when the couple was asking if we were all single:
italian lady, to natalie: Libera?
nat: si, si, ((points to herself)) Libera. ((points to me)) Libera (thanks, nat).
italian lady, to bryce: Libero?
bryce: no, i'm a virgo.
My stomach still hurts from laughing. Sat and sun i just putzed around, didn't participate in the kumite seminar (would rather not devote a 3rd weekend in a row to getting punched) and mostly just put a lot of miles on my car with no particular place to go. Not even parking way out in the kokomo.

a faint foggy haze
I have this friend. We'll call him "Doc." Doc is a med student, and a pretty focused one at that. I would hope that all med students would be focused (it's a serious subject, y'know), so maybe it's just more visible to me because of my relationship with Doc. Now, if you'd like to talk to Doc, which I rather like to do, you can call him after 8pm only. Before 8 is devoted to hospital time and studying time. I've come to find out that this evening rule now also applies to weekends, though I swear this wasn't the case 2 weeks ago, and he swears that I'm "wrong." That I "misunderstood." To that I say "Whatever." Point is, he has enough discipline to turn off life for the sake of medicine (well, for the sake of his own success), whereas I lose my concentration on doing anything like that in about 20 minutes.

I have this other friend. We'll call him "Poncho". Poncho also works very hard at his art, though in reality the boy's got more talent than Nature should allow because it makes the rest of us feel bad. But he's got a certain reputation to keep, and we all know what they say about not surviving on talent alone. The man is smart; he exhibits tremendous focus as well by backing up his talent with this concept called "practice."

I know this girl. Her name's "Britt." She's "apparently" having a "love affair" with "quotation marks." But that's beside the point. She's got a little bit of talent and even less focus. And that kind of worries me, if only for the fact that if this girl wants to ever do anything more than just cruise along like she has for her entire life, she obviously lacks the engrossment of mind to go to a higher level. So far this hasn't been a problem... but the question is, will this lack of focus serve to rule out opportunities that could crop up in the future that may require at least some sort of attentitiveness (like oh, I dunno, grad school? a new hobby? children?)?

obviously not the forum for humor
there's really no point in getting upset when someone punches you in the eye. In fact, i was was quite happy that this girl happened to miss my cheek or temple or nose or any surrounding area. She got right smack dab squish in the eyeball.
head judge: "are you okay?"
me: "yeah... well, now I can be like a pirate!"
head judge: "a medic?"
me: "no, a pirate... YARR! y'know, with an eye patch? ... pirate?"
head judge: "i think you need the medic."
me: "no, I don't... i... oh, nevermind."

as if u didn't know
Brittan as a first name gives you a very independent nature, yet you are friendly, approachable, and generous. You can be a spontaneous, expressive, and talkative person. Generally you are good-natured, though at times you can be rather blunt and sarcastic. This name incorporates creative, artistic, and musical abilities, and there would be an element of originality in all that you do. You like to do things on the spur of the moment without planning or prior arrangements. Your spirits are buoyed up greatly by encouragement and appreciation.
((say the kabalarians))

extemporaneous
*greatest compliment: "funny, she doesn't look like a fighter." from a random woman commenting to 2 other people in the hotel elevator. I was on my way to meet up with the team for dinner, out of my gi, and into something a little more fun for a night in Vegas. She happened to be at the tournament earlier that day. Okay, really, how many fighters do you see around in fun little skirts and heels?
*strangest stunt: a Starbucks barista running from behind the counter and out the door to do a cartwheel in the drive-thru. Huh?
*soon to be habit: my alarm hasn't gone off for 2 days in a row. hmm.
*in the money: one of my previous, totally unwarranted parking tickets finally paid off. I got my refund back from contesting the fact that I was, in fact, right all along. If only more people would pay me for that.
*i knew i got 4 doors for a reason: makes it easier to take naps in your car when you're falling asleep at work. At least i can still type with my eyes closed.

who hurts more, me or vegas?
hold on a moment, let me catch my breath. This weekend was wicked by every meaning. Friday morning packed 10 of us into 3 cars to caravan to Vegas, lucky me being chosen 'fearless leader'. Despite what Heather tries to say, I was NOT going 95mph. 6 hours later we rolled into Sin City and met up with sensei to check in to the hotel and register for our tournament (there had to be a point to going to Vegas, right?)... which explains why a couple hours later found us training on the carpeted floors of The Flamingo. Right around that time, chili fries caught up with Ji, and we left her in the hotel room while Heather, Yuki and I went off to find Kinko's. 2 hours later, we were done there (ugh.), only to find everyone else had hit the buffets in town. We were about to opt for In-N-Out, but hit a casino called "Terrible's" instead, off of Yuki's friend's opinion. I've never seen 2 girls so serious about buffet-ing, especially when they gave us a time limit when we walked in. Heather must have eaten a pound and a half of shrimp, which made her go a little loony in the cabeza, if you know what I mean. The 3 of us wandered about the Strip, catching the Bellagio water show (set to "Proud to be an American"??? We got gypped) and I won $5 twice on 2 tries, and another $2 for Heather.

Saturday started off way too early (hello, NO SLEEP!) and only lulled from there. We cheered on our black belts in the morning (no fair they get to go first) and then sat around for another 8 hours until it was our turn to go. Tami was one of the judges in our ring; i usually prefer to see a friendly, trusty face. Good thing, too, because the judge in the corner was SLEEPING and gave 4 girls in a row the exact same score. Unfortunately I was victim to that judge, and am still perturbed that she gave me the same score as a girl who fell. That's messed up. Kumite wasn't much better, though I did manage to strategize and get a girl knocked out of the brackets by playing up an injury. She already had a warning for punching me in the nose, I figured her attempt to kick me in the face, resulting in her toes going into my MOUTH and NOSE was at least worth a half point to me. Tami was trying not to laugh. Unfortunately, the brackets were set up in such a way that Amber and I were on the same one; the way it should have stacked up was 1st and 2nd going to Amber and I, 3rd going to the girl who got 4th place, and 4th going to Ms. 2nd place. It was all jenky, and unfortunately Ryuei Ryu now has in its possesion video of me going "What?! this is bullsh*t!" to Tami during the match (thanks, Hazael!). I don't deny it.

After team dinner on Sat. night (where, surprise surprise, everyone seemed to have a britt story, with Tami leading the way) I hung out with the boys, and the usual trouble ensued. Actually, more than the usual, but everyone made it out alive and walking (barely), so that's all I'll say about that. What's the phrase? "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas... unless hotel security got it on video and you end up on the Internet." Ehem, right.

Sunday I lost my voice and my head running around taking care of everybody (I'm about to put "Assistant" down on my resume) and screaming my head off for our people at the Finals. We kicked ass, took names, and pretty much stamped our reputation across the place. After that, we just wanted to get home, and Flora, Pauline and I zipped back to CaliCali, having a great talk, and making great time.

And now I want to sleep. And maybe go back and get my voice.
PS - love the new car. Love the gas mileage. Love it.

eyybattabatta
today is a non-workday over here at petco hq. it's opening day for PETCO Park, and technically we have to be here at work, but our day keeps getting interrupted by tailgate parties and announcements and other fun non-work related stuff. And i ain't complainin'. Even better is that today is my friday: tomorrow we're off to Vegas for some fun karate times. I'm excited because a) it's Vegas, and b) there are a bunch of rookie karate fools going who don't know to get into that serious competitive mood and thus will be way more fun than those somber, focused types. And we get to break in the "S" on her maiden voyage... i'm contemplating whether or not to get into true road-trip spirit and paint "karate girls do it with a kick" on the windows...

genius: vindicated
Women With Big Boobs Are Smarter
Thursday November 27, 2003

BIG-BOOBED gals have a new reason to stick out their chests with pride. A surprising study proves they're more intelligent than their small-breasted sisters!
"Although I hate to admit it, we found that women with big busts average 10 IQ points higher than less well-endowed women," reveals lead researcher Dr. Yvonne Rossdale, herself a meager 32A.

Dr. Rossdale measured the busts of 1,200 women and then divided them into five categories: Extra-small, Small, Medium, Large and Extra-large. These categories roughly corresponded to commercially available bra sizes, A, B,C, D and DD or above.

She then gave subjects in each category a standard IQ test and found that women in the Large and Extra-large category scored an average of 10 points higher than women in the Small and Extra-small categories. Medium-sized ladies had a three- to four-point edge over the flat-chested group.

The false notion that bosomy babes are dumber than those who sport teensy "mosquito bites" is probably the fault of men, the sociologists theorize. "It may simply be that men pay less attention when a large-breasted woman speaks," suggests Dr. Rossdale. "She could accurately explain Einstein's Theory of Relativity to him, but if he's transfixed by her cleavage, it's doubtful he'll remember a single word she said." ((click here for full story))

cha-ching
check from the insurance company for my car
= $5810.43

down payment on my new car
= $5000

incurred debt on my new car
= $11,000

laughing with the girls at a korean bar
= $110

engagement ring (congrats michael & laura!)
= a few bucks

my weekend
= priceless!

top 5 things about this week...
*5* hanami - san diego has blossom viewing too! (see pic below)
*4* reconnecting with Cyn, though slightly on the crisis-scale. I'm just glad she has resurfaced a little.
*3* test-driving with Sammy, world's best creepy-sales-guy deflector. I might have to bring him with me to buy the actual car...
*2* pizza and beer with jed = finding 7 years passing has done a lot for the former bible student. perspective is so valuable.
*1* wednesday night, from about 8:13 - 9:17. 'nuff said.