greetings and salutations. i get a little excited on the log and the number of hits to the site doubles. well, i'll keep giving you guys what you want! =p (say, can the folks reading this site from ucla let me know who you are? i'm very curious....)

ok... before i get started on my slam man story (can you feel the anticipation in the air?), i need to file a public service announcement. does anyone know any cool, genuine guys in their 30's who are single and available? i've got a glut of single female friends in their early thirties who need companions (ahem, notice how i have very few single, available women in _my_ age bracket). =( anyways, if you have cousins, uncles, neighbors who are GOOD guys (no freaks or weirdoes please) drop me a note and let me know.

ok.. enough of that chuck woolery bullshit. back to the scheduled program. do any of you remember the slam man infomercials? it was an exercise product/self defense system that integrated aspects of punching bag with the "hit the mole" carnival game. =) anyways, i had always wanted to get one but never pulled the trigger. (it was $300 and i'm committed to never buying workout equipment-- i've seen enough of those products hauled to the curb that i'm never buying anything on tv)

anyways, i was reading though craig's list and i found a guy who was giving his slam man away! i guess he was moving away and was giving away all of his television-purchased exercise equipment away (ahem, my point, exactly!) he said that i could have the slam man if i picked it up. he warned me in advance that it probably weighed about 200 lbs as he had filled the bottom with sand to keep it from falling when punched.

200 lbs... no problem! i dragged my dad along with me and we were on our way to pick up the slam man. yeah baby... score!

(this blog was interrupted by 10 minutes with the slam man in which i threw 663 punches)

now i've been doing a bit of working out but this freaking slam man was sooooo freaking heavy. because all of the weight was at the bottom of the unit the weight was completely unbalanced. we started dumping sand from the unit into plastic bags in the hopes that we could move the bad boy. after 4 bags of sand (after which we weren't able to dump any more because we could tilt the body any higher) we tried without luck to lift the bottom into our truck.

30 minutes of sweating and straining and the slam man was still smiling at the passing cars and neighbors. in many ways i bet he was smiling at my foolish ass for trying to move him without a full bekins moving crew. my father is starting to complain at this point using the word "garbage" more than was helping the situation.

we finally used a beach towel to give us the leverage and the grip to move the slam man into the truck (which had its shocks tested when we dropped it into the cabin). upon arriving home i had to hear more comments about picking up other people's garbage etc. (I should have charged the guy $500 for removing it from his apartment.)

anyways, now the problem has arisen that the slam man scares the bejesus of anyone who walks into the garage with his imposing stature. my brother, arriving home late one night was rudely welcomed by a solitary, silent guest--the new slam man. =) the two are now best friends though... as my brother is able to release his volatile temper on the receptive slam man.

just a warning... mess with me or my people... and you'll have to face the new jabs and combinations that i've been working on... =)

tomorrow... the slam man cometh...

geez louise... i was going to rant and rave about something that was pissing me off but i just checked my web logs and you won't believe the most current results. it looks like my site has been coming up on google for the following searches, "zhang ziyi wet t-shirt" and "sheer wet t-shirt". gee willikers. i hope the folks who are visiting my site in hopes of getting a glimpse of ms. zhang aren't too frustrated when they find me. =p

[just a fun fact... for those of you who have the crouching tiger, hidden dragon dvd... go to the finale scene when zhang ziyi is in the wet t-shirt... you'll notice that later in the film her shirt is completely dry. big lack of continuity there]

ok.. back to the regularly scheduled rant... i can't stand people who blow other people off. i don't know about you but my philosophy on people is this--- friends and associates don't cost anything. you never know when you'll need a hand and hopefully the people who you've touched in life will be there for you. now i'm not one to make enemies--- there are very few people in the world that i can say i hate--- but i never forget when i'm slighted.

to those who show disrespect-- one day you'll get yours. to those who take credit for other people's work-- everyone can see though the shadows and the bullshit. to those who leave other people hanging-- you've got no one to blame but yourself.

ok... before you guys think that i'm off my rocker--- i'm just trying to make a point. if someone applies for a job-- is it too much to let them know that you've found someone else? is it too much to let them know where they stand? it seems like simple courtesy to me. maybe i'm from a different generation where your word is your bond and where simple manners are the foundation of society. if someone calls you or emails you and you aren't interested in talking with them, shouldn't you communicate that? hey, a simple email with, "i'm not really interested in talking with you" takes about 30 seconds. i don't think that people owe others anything but common courtesy. i try to practice it and unfortunately i'm disappointed that more folks don't.

so... for all those ladies who are trying to impress me... you best be reading up on your emily post etiquette books. =) if you need one let me know. i got one as a gift about 9 years ago. =) its still pretty much unread. *wink*

props out to jennhew for starting work tomorrow. happy birthday wishes to jarvis and viv. until next time peoples....

wow... ten hits to my web site today. i'm not sure if that is good news or bad news. i have a pretty good hunch that most of the people who read this site _know_ me and i have no problem with sharing the daily trials of my life with most of you-- but i've never been one who could fully advertise my website. i guess my site was just too personal to share with people--- and the last thing that i would ever do is leave the gkelly.net address on my email signature. that my friends, would be asking for attention-- and i don't do that _too_ often.

i spend a part of yesterday designing t-shirts... yeah, for this website. pretty silly, huh? ok-- don't go off buying gear without telling me first (i'm still working on revising some of the products) but you can browse them. let me know what you think won't you? cafepress.com is the site that i used to design the products... when you open your storefront you can even add a profit margin on your products. i haven't tested the quality of the stuff though-- so buyer beware!

(hey, if i'm going to run around a basketball court or the mall-- why not advertise my sites, right?) alright.. check out the site and let me know what you think of the gear. don't be bashful either-- i'm not tommy hilfiger yet-- but i'm working on it! *wink*

my cousins are finally gone. my house is quiet now that my entire family isn't over to spend time at my place every night. although their departure has allowed me to return to my normal routine, the loss of a distraction has me focused on the things that i long to forget--- my uncertain future. please, don't go overboard with sympathy for me right away, i guess i've just never been very good at this job hunting thing.

i think that there are lots of reasons why i'm having trouble finding work. to start with i think that my lack of focus is a serious problem. not only do i not have a clear focus on where i want to be in 5 years... but i don't know what town i should have my forwarded to-- if at all. if my own personal issues weren't enough, it looks like the u.s. economy is going to be in the crapper for a while. i've all but stopped looking for positions in consulting and project management because of the glut of talent out there.

i guess i should have expected this difficulty in finding a job after i had trouble coming out of school. i remember that i had all of my rejection letters attached to my refrigerator when i was in college. i guess it was supposed to serve as an inspiration but i'm not sure that the reinforcement of the failure helped much. after struggling to find a job for months, i got three offers within a week. i guess i'll just have to wait until my offers pour in this time.

until then i'll keep looking for jobs in nyc... or hong kong... or singapore... or shanghai
or maybe i'll take a graduate assistantship and work for free...
or maybe i'll enlist and become a firefighter...

confused? me too. =( ok... no more talking about careers... that stuff is depressing. promise that tomorrow's (yes, i'm going to try to get back to daily updates) entry will be more upbeat... and about something other than work.

great caesar's ghosts... has it been 11 days since I updated this thing? sorry, guess i've been busy with different stuff over the past couple of days. my family from phoenix, arizona is in town and i've been utilizing all of my babysitting skills. my whole family is still enthused after the wedding of my uncle leland to the former elaine law. Congrats to them!

on other fronts, the job hunt is going ok. i've scheduled a couple of informational interviews and there are some interesting positions that i'm pursuing. I don't want to jinx it though... so you'll have to wait for the updates!

thanks to all my friends who sent me their birthday wishes. special thanks to all the folks who joined me at the house of prime rib (dchoe, ian, kai & friends, ang & arv, ali & ev and jeff) and at the albatross (yingster, oi-way, larry, jenn, jt, monica, beryl & yulius). i'm not sure there is anything better than friends and family... and i've been especially lucky over the past two weeks.

ok. this is a short update which will hopefully hold you over until the main course. thanks for visiting, loyal readers!

congrats to my uncle leland and his new bride elaine on their nuptials! may they have all the love and happiness in the world. =) my uncle leland and my cousin dee were the older brothers that i never had. (and the ones my brother wished he had instead of me!) =p

i'm terribly please to see both of them happily married now and starting the second phase of their lives. i can only hope that this form of happiness is my destiny. =)

i spend a big part of sunday and saturday helping out with events related to the marriage and it was good. seeing friends and family never gets old with me. i have to make sure i appreciate every event-- especially if i decide to move away from the bay area.

after some lunch i went to play some bball. unfortunately, i think i left my game with the fried chicken and chow mein that i had for lunch. i had about 8 good looks at the basket that i would normally convert but each shot fell short. suffering succatash. our team which was relatively strong lost every single game. i hate that feeling.

i got banged up pretty hard too... got an evance elbow in the head... took a hal arm in the gut... turned my ankle. urgh. this was not a good day to be on the court for me.

the only saving grace was that my old college roomie, kevin, joined us for hoops. it has been too long since we've seen each other and it was good to catch up. he gave me the update on all of the lowellites who are on the med school track. pretty astounding stuff. made me feel like i better do some catching up-- or that i shouldn't show up for my 10 year anniversary!

alright... is that enough blogging for tonight? didn't fill you in on my monday yet-- that honor will come tomorrow. (maybe) goodnight folks.....

hey... happy birthday to me... =) i'm feeling old now.

i can't believe i dragged my ass out of bed so early on saturday..... and it wasn't even for free donuts! i went to audition for the television, the weakest link at the metreon! yes, i know television is a subversive means of brainwashing and holding down people but what the hey... i could use the money, right? (ask me if i've watched any network television program consistantly over the past three years and the answer would be a HUGE no. i've never even watched "quality" programs like CSI or the West Wing--- EVER).

anyways, i arrived at the metreon at 8:45, more than an hour and fifteen minutes before the "official" start-- when they finally distributed numbers to everyone in line I was #176... and I got there at 8:45! Goodness gracious... as I walked around later I saw folks with numbers in the 700s.... i think that they are going to be waiting around for a while.

among the folks i saw at the audition: kevin jeu... joel's ex-roomie and the infamous ernie h. of littleyellowdifferent. i didn't have much luck during my audition. i thought that my crack about have spare resumes went over moderately with my room of contestants and the "talent judges" but the homicidal postal workers were probably more interesting.

i don't think i scored particulary well on the exam either. i think i only got 15 or 16 out of the 20 questions which included some of the following:

in the 1980's, f.w. declerk was president of what country?
what feature film did prince make his debut?
what is the baseball stadium known as the "house that ruth built?"
what broadway musical is set in vietnam and based on m. butterfly?
what instrument did jazz great miles davis play?
which black power leader had the muslim name, "shabazz"?
what college football award is given at the downtown athletics club in nyc?
what composer was the film "amadeus" based on?

did you get all of those? yeah. we all did, smarty pants. some of the more difficult ones were the following.

what flower does the vanilla bean come from?
in the english dish, "baggers and mush".. what is baggers?
what is below the equator, the tropic of cancer or the tropic of capicorn?
what astrological sign follows cancer?

plus there were a couple of questions that had to do with latin and french. guess i'm not as smart as i thought. =p

anyways, ernie is in the candidates pool and i wish him a bunch of luck... you go boy... represent the wesssssside..... alpha phi omega in the hizzzzousse!

went to another giants game on friday. it was fireworks night (which i've noticed is a very, very big draw) and the cardinals were in town. what do you get when you add fireworks night with a bonds vs. big mac showdown? a huuuuuuge crowd. they announced that the crowd friday was the largest crowd in pac bell park history. very impressive.

the game and the fireworks were both excellent... the giants pulled out another win in the late innings and the fireworks show was pretty long. the giants had a corny fireworks display with a bonds figure made of fireworks (which subsequently fired off fireworks to emulate a home run ball).

props to schpeen ewald for hooking me up with the solid view box seats.

has it been a whole week since i've entered an entry into this blog? goodness gracious! what kind of inhumane torture am i inflicting on the 3 visitors that i get? hopefully you've all been able to survive without me for a couple of days... for your patience and loyality i'll reward you with multiple blogs today. how's that for customer service?

my relatives are in town. specifically, my uncle and aunt from hong kong via canada are visiting with their three kids. i have to admit that i enjoy hanging out with kids in small portions. they are all very well behaved so i can't complain. yesterday, we all drove up to the outlet stores in vacaville. the nike outlet store was pretty neat.. i enjoyed looking at the variety of merchandise but i have to admit my self-control chip was in full force. i put down the reversable shorts and came away with _only_ one pair of tear-away pants.

my uncle and his family, weren't as lucky. =) its all good. they bought a new piece of luggage for all of their outlet purchases! otherwise things have been pretty mellow... not much other news or complaining to do...

need to find a place to vacation. got a suggestion? got a time share you want to lend to me? let me know. =)

i'm driving down memory lane.... again. =) it must have been my senior year of high school and i was driving through golden gate park on the way home from my afterschool job. i was zooming along in my 81 Volvo-- (zooming is a relative concept) and all i can remember is singing my heart out to shai's "baby i'm yours". now i'm the kind of guy who signs his heart out in the car... well, that is when i'm alone-- and when its a killer song!

"baby i'm yours... if you want me... and if you want my sweet love, youuuuurs...."

at this point i'm probably driving about 20 miles over the speed limit and screaming/singing at the top of my lungs....albeit i'm still a safe driver during this performance....

i'm only a couple of blocks away from my house and i look over to the car next to me.... looking back at me are my parents with their mouths hanging open as if they've never seen anything as horrible in their lives. upon arriving home they proceed to inquire about what i was doing and if i truly thought that singing that strenuously was safe. one question they didn't ask was "what song was it?"

guess what is in my cd player, right now? the boys from shai.

remember how i mentioned that i will sometimes give in to the occasional guilty pleasure? i'm partaking in one right now-- i'm listening to something that no "right" minded fella should be listening to while job hunting.... i'm listening to cross roads, the greatest hits cd of bon jovi. you can send your hate mail now to gil@gkelly.net. heh heh heh.. what can i say-- i loved the slippery when wet album.

had a telephone interview today... the position is far from being perfect but it does have some attractive features. we'll have to see what other prospects pop their heads up. today is a glorious day in the bay area... went to have lunch with a college friend downtown. it was very cool to sit in the sun and enjoy the cool sf breeze. i think i will miss the breeze more than anything else if i move away.

ahh... life is about simple pleasures... reading the sunday paper... visiting the children's section of the library... walking in the park with a sweet breeze blowing. am i appreciating all of this during my hiatus? you bet.

short original post today... just wanted to wish a happy father's day to all of the 'pops' out there... and a quick birthday wish to my little brother, bobo.

'til tomorrow

hey kids... sorry for not updating this recently... i've been a little under the weather lately but i think that i've gotten over the small cold that i picked up. of course, part of the reason that i've been busy is that i've been searching for work-- but you'll hear more about that later. =)

as the ultimate sports fan i'm sort of sad that the 2000-2001 NBA campaign is finally over. the lakers have lived up to their billing and have repeated as champions. i wasn't all that excited about this series and i think that i find championship series to be sort of anticlimactic. i guess i enjoy the journey through the playoffs with the different teams, players, and storylines. i have to say that my admiration for the sixers and for allen iverson has grown a great deal with their performance this year. they played with grit and toughness which is totally admirable. props go to the fellas from philly.

i guess now i have to go to the gym and practice my jump shot for hours every day so that i can shoot like derek fisher--- that way i can extend the defense with my perimeter game. =p the way he shot the ball during the playoffs was seriously phenomenal.

barry bonds hit another two homers yesterday… he’s well on his way to breaking baseball’s record for home runs in a season. big deal….i’ll believe it when he breaks the record. even the homers that he hit yesterday were both solo shots—which are practically worthless to his team. I have never been and never plan to be a huge barry bonds fan. so everyone else can give him the spotlight—i’ll pass, thanks.

damn.. trying to recreate this blog was sheer torture. i guess I’ll have to compose something original now to make up for this.

damn... my laptop just froze up... the 6 paragraphs of text that i just wrote for this freaking thing have just gone to waste. shooooooot! time to rewrite everything that i had just written. sufferin' succatash.

ok... i admit it. i used to be a big r&b music fan. now don't get me wrong, i still enjoy my occassional "i love you baaaabeee, don't leave me plllllleeease" ballad but i just can't past all the crap that is on the radio now. i admit that i that i liked sisqo's first solo effort, unleash the dragon. it was probably because his singing style and voice makes me harken back to k-ci hailey's glory days in jodeci. even i wasn't able to deny the catchy hooks of tunes like the ubiquitous "thong song" and unleash the dragon. sisqo's asian-influenced garb and backgrounds... sure it was corny but i gave him the benefit of the doubt-- plus, who really takes this blonde/silver haired dude seriously? i surely didn't. then he started doing movies... and those decisions were bad at best too. again, i give him the benefit of the doubt.

but let me be the first one stand against the masses and speak out against sisqo! have you seen his new video, "can i live"? what a putrid, piece of garbage. now, i enjoy a guilty pleasure as much as the next guy but this was really crap. sisqo with his gigantic ego is running around with his clothes constantly being tugged and pulled by hoochie-mama types. he wears a t-shirt appropriately enough with the words, can i live... umm sisqo, if your horrible tunes create the next son of sam-- only you, dragon-boy will be to blame.

even the dance routines with the dancers (can you say eye patches) were horrible... man, i hope the rest of the album isn't this bad. while i'm at it.. destiny's child-- get off my television screen. overexposure is deadly... and you are flirting with disaster! shaggy, give juice newton her song back. ray j... stop gravytraining off your sister. jagged edge, go find an old shai album and take some notes.

man, it is truly sad when i welcome hearing a usher or eve song on the radio. i guess this is why people listen to national public radio.

my knee is bothering me. played a lot of basketball today and i think that my knee got hit by another knee. for the first time in a long time i didn't lose while playing basketball so i didn't have a chance to rest much. its funny how playing basketball for 3 hrs can totally sap all the energy out of me.

have you seen josie and the pussycats yet? i can't say that i loved the movie-- it was a nice flick with plenty of eye candy but i was a bit dissapointed. i only mention it because i just finished downloading a bunch of songs from the soundtrack. the stars of the film tara reid, rosario dawson and rachel leigh cook sing background on the album but they are not the true artist behind josie and the pussycats. it seems that the former singer of letters to cleo is the voice of josie and she's pretty awesome. i'd encourage you to check it out-- especially "3 small words."

birthday wishes go out to angela chen and to my uncle leland. we had a party for angela's birthday yesterday and it was pretty cool. brian just got a copy of crouching tiger, hidden dragon and after carrie's request we paused the film on a shot of zhang ziyi's wet t-shirt. i think that she is a star in the making but she looks way too young. i wasn't that impressed with the wet t-shirt either. =p i had a couple of drinks at this party but after a couple of hours the slight buzz that i had going wore off. (which is good because i needed to drive!)

after the party most of us cruised over to club bas, which was housing the element party last night. as always, i had to wait in line for a while which sort of sucked. waiting outside a club can be a harrowing experience-- between the cigarette smoke and the cold, i'm not sure why i bear with it at all. the club was pretty crowded last night and i had a decent time. didn't really dance as much as i would have wanted. most of our crowd was hanging in the trance room, which was insanely hot. i would have preferred to hang out in the hip hop area, which was a little more comfortable.

the 4 raging bulls that i had were a nice compliment to the evening. =) i ran into my cousin donny at the party which was a nice change of pace. donny is only a couple of months younger than me and many summer days were spend with dink bowling and playing other sports. unfortunately we don't get to hang out nearly enough anymore.

on friday night we celebrated my cousin dianna's graduation from elementary school. =) i had dinner for the first time at the bubba gump's shrimp company. i had the coconut shrimp... quite tasty! alright... that is enough for now. did that satisfy your interest in me?

sorry that i haven't updated for a while. been pretty busy looking for work and working on draftnik. did you see allen iverson last night? damn.. he's a baaaaaaaad man! ok. check back for more later!