I was at the mall a couple days ago, and there was a new “little booth in the middle of the aisle” thing. It looked like a prop from Blade Runner. I glanced up at the logo, and lo and behold, I was walking beside an Oxygen Bar. I always wondered how these kinda things worked. There was a group of stools (”the bar”) facing a contraption of gases in 4 different futuristic colors. Back in my day, Oxygen was clear and we liked it that way, and not only that, we had to walk 10 miles through the snow, uphill both ways, just to breathe a little! But enough about that. You’re supposed to suck on little PVC tubes connected to the various aromatic Oxygens. I don’t get it.SAT II’s came in the mail today. 710 World History, 690 Math IIc. I don’t get the Writing back till later, but I think I did best on Writing. I need to study for the Math, though, heh. It’s tough taking a test with Calculus before I take Calculus. I’m pretty happy with the scores, though.

I Have a Story #1: A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I don’t have any good stories (Side note: I just went back and put a comma after ago. Why do some people insist on not using commas the way they’re meant to be used? I had to correct some newspaper articles, and half the corrections involved putting commas in where they should have been. And I know that grammar was wickety-wac, but it’s summer and I don’t care). Today, I got up with Justin at 7. This is the first time I’ve seen 7AM since Summer started. It was wierd. We went down to this warehouse-like thing to do some contract work at 9 bucks an hour, which isn’t pocket change by any stretch of the imagination.

Our job: Build a Staircase. How cool is that? We build some bookshelves, too. I feel worthwhile, heh.

Since we’re talking about grammar, I always capitalize nouns that shouldn’t be capitalized, like Summer above. I dunno why. Maybe I’m secretly channeling German.

I caught Tomb Raider the other day. It was pretty good, as long as you don’t notice that there’s absolutely no sensical plot. The action scenes weren’t bad, though. It was much better than The Mummy.

AI will own it, though. Same with Final Fantasy Movie.

Here’s a theory I was thinking about the other day concerning how people think called Emotion Clouds. My hypothesis (since I believe in tabula rasa, as I said below) is that people make choices based on a “fuzzy” combination of hormones messages and experiences. I think the hormone messages are the most important. People who don’t believe in tabula rasa note that all humans will do certain things, such as have a sense of fear, which must mean there’s some hard-wiring in the brain. I don’t think it’s that way. Fear is a hormonal reaction. When senses notice something which experience has shown to be “scary”, neurons will fire the fear hormone (adrenaline? I dunno what it’s called, heh). Babies aren’t afraid of anything because they don’t have this buildup.

What’s sorta scary, if you follow this, is that it means that what we believe changed on a minute by minute basis. I’m sure any guy will tell you that he’s, erm, “loaded”, (only analogy I could think of, heh) he will think differently than if he’s not, because the amount of testosterone and other hormones are different. It’s pretty easy to tell this one, though. But now think about all of your other hormones (aka your emotions). You can’t really tell as easily when you’re thinking illogically because of your emotions.

I’m using “logic” to mean “what you would think is right, based on your past experiences and inferences, if you’re were emotionally balanced when considering the possibilities”. Personally, I think that controlling your hormones (emotions) is the most important thing that someone can do to become a better person. That paper I linked to above noted that people will be happier if they believe that they are in control of their environment. Being in control of yourself is just as important. There’s an Epicetus quote on my wall that says “No man is free who is not master of himself”. Good philosophy, in my opinion.

I saw a bum on 7th Street with a sign that said “Vision of a Cheeseburger”. That was pretty cool. I woulda given him money if I had any.

I Have a Story #2: I went camping on Tuesday Night. With Erin. And 8 other girls. We all went skinny dipping. If anyone has a better story than this, you are the man, cuz this is a pretty wicked story, heh. They make movies with plots like this (heh, some of my friends probably *own* movies with “plots” like that, specifically tall big-haired almost-Jewish guys *ahem*). The food was a lot better and the campsite left a lot cleaner than with the guys, too, heh.

Dunno why I’m providing insight onto what I had written, but here’s another one. I had “With my girlfriend” instead of “With Erin”. But I think that sounds sorta pretentious. Maybe it’s just me. I’m not a big fan of those guys who make a point of letting everyone know about “their catch”, so to speak. Gyah.

They got Bemani at the arcade! Yay!

And I still need a job. Z might have found me one at Washington Mutual, but I’m not sure if it’s a paid internship or just a Joe Q. Internship.

MP3 Prime Cut: What a Feelin’ by DJ Bobo w/ Irene Cara
What a feeeeeeeeeeeeeelin’. Cool early 90’s Dance.

MP3 Prime Cut Extra: The Game by Jurassic 5
There are some wicked rhymes in this song. “Pass the ball / final casting call / Verbal basketball / Off the glass Smash your jaw / Too fast for y’all / You might take a nasty fall / Trying to stick with the prehistoric passenga’”