Life tips #1 & #2

I've decided that I'm going to be putting a bunch of "mini-blogs" with my blog, a series of series, if you will. Each of them will share two-three tags (subject, and "series") , so that you can find them easily.

Here is the first: Life Tips

This may include anything that I've found is uncommon but very useful to know.

• #1 : Always know your place. - This has come up a bunch, and it's something that may play a large factor in how people view you. If you're the new guy at work and you complain about everything or you act like you've done your share of work when you haven't, people aren't going to like you. At all. (Unless they're really nice. But still...)
• #2 : Always know your limits - This kind of thing is more common, but it does deserve its share of reiteration. Sure, you can probably stay up till 1 AM, but does it seem like a good thing to do? Or maybe, you could keep procrastinating all day, but do you know when to stop?

These tips come from general life experiences, or things I've told my friends. They seem to work well for them, and they work well for me (when I actually practice them), so they should work well for you.

Today will be Tuesday, July 2., 2009.

[This morning]

Over the past year, a week after getting my phone, I've had a problem with people from "Progressive Management Systems" looking for someone named "Kyle Liloquist/Liljequis/Lilsquist" so they can "attempt to collect a debt.". Anytime I got a call I blocked the number. But they had like, seven different numbers. So around the end of May I put my cellphone number on the Do-Not-Call Registry, so it'd be off limits for telemarketers. And it seems to have worked. But then, today, I got a nice set of texts from 18582310727 = "Alyssa. Nick's girlfriend.":

• A: Happy Birthday!!
• J: Um, who is this?
• A: Alyssa. Nick's Girlfriend. :)
• J: Which Nick? And which Alyssa?
• A:Your brother Nick.
• J: If he's my brother then what's my last name? You should know if your his girlfriend.
• A: Liljequist. :)
• J: Sure. Nice Try. I don't have a brother named Nick.
• A: Is today your birthday? Is your name kyle?
• J: My birthday's in another month, and I'm not Kyle. Do you happen to be affiliated with Progressive Management Services?
• A: No sorry wrong number.
• J: Yes it is.

So, if this person is reliable, I now know that Nick, who has a girlfriend named Alyssa, is the brother of Kyle. And all of them are somehow related to Progressive Management Services. That's all fine and dandy, BUT I STILL YOU YOU GUYS TO STOP! So yeah, feel free to prank call that number.

[/This morning]

[Yesterday afternoon]

I got my old robot (not rover, robot) out and I charged it up and was driving it around. It's surprisingly fun to drive around fast vehicles. So I calculated the speed using a different method. Apparently, it goes 3.6 miles per hour. Woo.

It looks pretty funny bouncing around on my grass.

[/Yesterday Afternoon]

Today was Sunday, July 26, 2009.

I just got back from a trip visiting my relatives. Here's a recap of what happened in reverse chronological order (since that's how I remember things.) .

READ FROM BOTTOM TO TOP (otherwise you'll travel backwards through time to Saturday.):

• (after the trip) I figured out how to prank text people using anonymous email accounts. Win. But I suck at pranks. Fail.
• (after the trip) My robot traveled my entire hallway in 5 seconds. My rover did the same thing in 10. Now, to calculate the speed. Where's that tape measure?
• (ride home) It's pretty difficult to sleep in a car when you don't have a pillow. But I did it anyways.
• (second house) I watched Twilight. Once again, movies of books = weird reactions.
• (second house) I took apart then re-assembled a broken DVD player.
• (second house) I set up a Blu-Ray player. Then we played a movie on it.
• (first house) Everything in the car was really toasty. Including the ice.
• (first house) I guess that email was true.
• (first house) I had a really magnificent dream last night. Which will be documented in a first of a series I'll start.
• (first house) I had to sleep on an air bed in the middle of a living room. While people (my dad and cousin) conversated about the military's boot camp. Loudly.
• (first house) Filipino food is so odd.
• (first house) There was this one guy who seemed out of place sitting on a recliner and singing (not really; beginning then quitting songs when it got boring I guess) all these songs on a cheapo-karaoke device connected to the TV.
• (first house) I went on a trip with my cousin. First we attended "Philippine Weekend", which just happened to coincide with our visit, then we visited the outside of a movie theatre, then we went home. All in 90+ degrees. Woo.
• (first house) We arrived, then ate something, then we sat and did nothing for about ten minutes. During which I discovered that my deck of cards was missing its 3-of-diamonds and its 9-of-hearts. Darn. No solitaire for me.
• (my house) I was awaken at 8, yelled up for waking up late, packed, then we left for our destination. I ended up with a bag of game boy accessories but no game boy. And a notebook, two manga books, a Rubik's Cube, and my cellphone with it's ultimately-fail headset*.

*Mike at the C*r**l **ll*y Costco Cellphone station ultimately fails too. I (my dad and I) go to an AT&T store in to attempt to get a pair of replacement headphones for my stereo headphones that break. We end up getting redirected to Costco. Then at Costco, we receive a "7 to 10 business days" notification and we give him the broken headphones. "7 to 10 days" later, my dad receives a package containing...not a pair of stereo headphones. Just a crappy "Made in China"-type "Hands-free headset" that looks horrible. And what else, I already have a crappy "Made in China"-type "Hands-free headset" that looks horrible. So he went and took my nice OEM Stereo headphones from AT&T/LG and gave me something from Technocel (which provided the "Accessory Pack" that comes with the phone when you buy it (which contained crappy "Made in China"-type stuff)).

HORRIBLE!

Yesterday was Tuesday, July 21, 2009.

So, well, yeah, I'm in band. And I play the saxophone. So, I did a bunch of band stuff with the rest of the saxophonists. Yay.

First, I got my uniform fitted. By uniform I mean the thing I wear during parades and field shows, if you know what those are. If it were not for the fact that I saw a bunch of people I know, it would've been boring.

Then I went to my sectional, which is basically where all the people in a section (same instrument) get together and practice. That was fun.

Then we had a "pow-wow", I think. Don't ask what that is, or how to spell it.

Then I went to an informal/casual dinner party at Caitlin's place. It consisted of us arriving, us talking, us playing cards*, us talking, us walking, us running then throwing water-balloons (and me and Chris not getting hit), then us walking, then us (everyone except Chris and I) drying off, then us eating fail brownies, then us playing cards again*, then us eating real brownies and drinking soda, then us eating cheeseburgers (or hamburger, in Jack's case). Then us talking some more, and some other stuff. Then we went upstairs to watch a movie (Zoolander, don't ask), then we began another movie, paused it halfway, went downstairs to eat the cheesecake we forgot about (made by Jesse's mom), then us playing confusing games**, then us finishing up Airplane.

* the games we played included Speed, Solitaire (Sean and I), and (Pi-Soy) Dos.

**But listen, I did not die, 4 is cosmic, that arrangement of pencils is zero, and that thing that is a rose cannot be brought to the picnic.

Today was Sunday, July 19, 2009.

Nothing interesting today. Really. It really is boring around here.

Yesterday, though, I went to a birthday party. Which was at a bowling place. First, we started with a normal set, which was fairly suckish since I sucked. Oh well. I still beat my friend. Then, we started doing tricks. Like kicking the bowling ball. Which actually knocked down 9 pins. Win. Then we tried bowling one after the other (as in, I had a bowling ball and my (new) friend had one, and we went at the same time.). But my ball ended up following hers, and didn't hit anything.

Then, around one minute before our time ended, someone kicked threw a ball that went really slow. In an effort to try and hurry it up, we tried hitting it. But we missed. So, the faster ball ended up hitting the pins, and beginning the pin-setting thing. You know how, the pin thing pushes any knocked-over pins over then it comes back then goes up? Well, the other ball just happened to arrive when it was moving back, and ended up getting knocked (at a fairly high speed) back up the lane. After laughing for a minute, we picked up the ball, put it back on the rack, then went on with the rest of the party.

Apparently my robot goes 2.5 feet-per-second. Oh well.

And now, a boring ending.

Today will be Frieday, July 17, 2009.

Woo! Two weeks since my last post! Ugh my summer is so un-interesting.

Let's note some things I can remember since last time in no particular chronological order:

• We went to eat dinner at "ChinaFun: Authentic Noodle House". Then, nearing the end of our meal, we watched some people working there eat pizza (with a plastic fork). You could tell they probably were Chinese, but pizza? Isn't that Italian? (On their side of the argument, preparing pizza is still faster than anything else, and fast food is always helpful when you're hungry and in a hurry...)
• I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. No reviews, but do watch out for anybody who says "Hi".
• Apparently, two of my friends (Adam and Evan) both have Nintendo Wiis and robotics kits (a VEX set and a RIS 2.0 set). So, we ended up having a robot day at Evan's house. And yeah.
• Going along with Evan's House, apparently I suck at Guitar Hero: World Tour. Probably because I didn't get it on the right beat (since I wasn't really listening to the music). Even when Adam and I teamed up on the guitar, we failed. I think it took two tries with our team on the guitar and Evan on the drums for us to actually pass it on Easy. FAIL.
• I got my robot to play a tune from Super Mario World: [video later]
• I modified my robot again. Now it has larger rear wheels. Here's a link to a forum in which I document "Project: L-RAPTOR". You may or may not need to register to see it. Please note that that is the previous version (without the larger wheels)
• What else...
• I tried making a Joule Thief. I failed. So, the awesome blue LED I got now resides withing a solar powered garden light circuit that I salvaged from our backyard. It provides a nice night light.
• Stupid YouTube and their addicting anime videos.
• My sleep schedule is really messed up. Sure, I get 8 hours of sleep, but it's the wrong eight (1AM to 9 AM)...
• What's weird is watching fictional movies of fiction books I've read (cough cough HP6, or that New Moon trailer (since I haven't seen the actual movies)) gives me shivers... some memories are meant to stay in my head, not coaxed out by graphical entertainment...
• Whatever else I did in the rest of the 14 days should be here, but I'm too lazy. Oh well.

Breakfast?

EDIT: An hour later, I got the Joule Thief working. Figures. Then, when I actually tried to do something with it, it died. And now I have a fully assembled broken Joule Thief.

Today was Friday, July 3rd, 2009.

I'll just post today since today was awesome.

Who went to the Anime Expo? I went. I saw. I did. I had fun. Then, I came home. Darn.

Firstly, I should say that on this trip, I invited tehn was accompanied by Anne-Marie, my good friend and fellow otaku.

In more detail, this 8-hour [minus travel time] trek comprised of arriving [at AX at LACC], walking, waiting in line, regestering, waiting, receiving, walking,photographing, photographing, walking, waiting, waiting in line, walking, sitting, laying down, resting, getting up, walking, looking, waiting, crossing, walking, waiting, escalator riding, entering, awestriking [being awestruck], venturing, planning, walking, walking, pausing, observing, photographing, walking, photographing, photographing, walking, sitting, snacking, resting, planning, splitting up, walking, walking, photographing, tiring, walking, walking, laying down, resting, [pen] spinning, reuniting, sitting, [pen spinning], walking, following, waiting, waiting, sitting, waiting, waiting, worrying, waiting, waiting, entering, listening, [being] rejected, walking, entering, walking, walking, walking, photographing, walking, waiting, walking, walking, photographing, waiting, walking, walking, exiting, walking, buying [food], eating,

holding a grudge, letting go of said grudge, holding someone else's grudge, throwing it at them, cleaning [up], leaving, walking, walking, entering, walking, walking, walking, purchasing [an item], walking, walking, exiting, walking, laying [down], resting, sitting, [pen] spinning, [coin] tossing, [bottle cap] throwing, cleaning, leaving, walking, walking, walking, purchasing [a differen't item] , walking, walking, meeting [up with dad/driver], walking, photographing, exiting, leaving, walking, walking, opening [the car], sitting, and leaving.

That is a very un-detailed re-cap of my day. There was probably more waiting, walking, and photographing, but it was so much that I just lumped some of it together.

The to and from car trips included games of "Egyptian Rad", which is a card game that I won't explain at this moment.

If you really must know anything that I didn't go into detail on (besides the number of times walking is written), ask for it in the comments.

Otherwise, I haven't posted in like, a few weeks simply because nothing interesting has happened. It's either engineering my rover, watching anime, or living. Not too exciting. To all my friends on trips (3): HURRY UP AND FINISH HAVING FUN OUT OF STATE! Then you can be bored in state. Just make sure to state your state and the state that you state that your in, but excluding the state that you reside in.

Ugh, I'm tired. I'll rant more tomorrow.

Hey look, fireworks.