I’ll admit, the WB show Everwood is sort of a guilty pleasure for me. It’s totally over the top. Some characters have no foothold in realism and operate purely out of idealism. But for some reason, as saccharine as it is, it can be satisfying entertainment. As both my girlfriend and I have watched the show for a while, we make a habit out of watching it together on Monday nights.

Let me just say, the most recent episode sucked. In fact so much, I’m willing to say the show has jumped the shark. That’s right, it is downhill from here. Why? First, we have expanding cast (an annoying Scott Wolf) and guest stars (a surprisingly less annoying Anne Heche). The plot is focused totally mainstream now, too. Sex, sex, sex. Call me a prude, but this is definitely not what the show is good at. In fact, this was the core problem with the most recent episode. Missed it? Let me summarize the “lesson” from the story: the measure of how much two people love each other is shown by how much they want to jump each other. Oh please. Can’t we really look for a different message for teenagers? I know, now I’m being idealistic. They could have done better than throwing in the cliched, mousey, “I’m gonna wait till I’m married” wallflower. Amy, the hotter girl, is gonna have sex, and the more average girl is gonna wait. Tired retread.

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, the show has lost any capability at consistency. Ohh…Amy’s gonna wait….oh wait…she changed her mind! Yay! Oh wait. Boo. The brief PSA spot afterwards featuring actors from the show urging parents to talk to their kids about sex was a farce. Didn’t I just watch an episode where the parental advice towards the kids consisted entirely of two words, “Be safe”. Wow, way to go and work things through.

This show is sharkbait, which is sad, because they can and have clearly done better.

* I should note that, some ideas contained here are the result of discussions with my girlfriend, and are not entirely my own. Thanks honey.

According to a recent study my home town of Irvine, CA is the 11th safest city in the US based on crime statistics.

Of course, mother nature can be a different story. As I left my house Sunday after a powerful storm rocked the area the previous night, I noticed a banged up house, and a few smashed up cars. Turned out the wind had knocked over a eucalyptus tree, rendering the house uninhabitable. Talk about bad luck too, there were 20 UCI students sleeping inside. 5 cars were damaged as well.

I’m thankful the trees are far enough from our place. I don’t want to move.

C and I visited Downtown Disney last night and got ultra cute.

According to this story:

International hip-hop star Xzibit urged artists on Wednesday to try harder to communicate through their music, saying they should stop glorifying violence and get back to being the voice of rebellion and protest.

Umm, is this the same Xzibit that performs the song “Choke Me, Spank Me (Pull My Hair)” on his last album? Yes, that song is as “good” as you’d guess from the title. Though who knows, maybe there is some real reform in his future work.

I’m one of those office types that is almost always at my desk. Some of the LAN guys that sit behind me are rarely there. Not in the slighest because they are slacking, but rather because they have to run all over the floor to fix things.

Over the past year, this situation has lead to a case of mistaken identity among many of my co-workers that annoys me intensely. That is what I’ll call the “I must look like a post-it note” problem. Let me assure you, the differences between my appearance and a post-it are remarkable. My skin is not quite as yellow, my eyes are green, sometimes I have facial hair, and I’m about 5′6″ taller. I also weigh approximately 136.9999999 pounds more. I could easily go on.

Here is a list of acceptable ways to leave a message for a co-worker that is away from their desk:

• Send them an email
• Send them an instant message
• Call and leave them voicemail
• Write a post-it to stick on their monitor
• Consider stopping by later

If any of the above methods are repeatedly ignored, perhaps you should:

• Use any of the above methods to contact their manager

Here are some unacceptable methods:

• Ask me if I could leave them your message
• Repeatedly ask me if “I know where s/he went”

See, here’s the thing those of you missing out on the above acceptable methods don’t realize. If you try to use an unacceptable method, I am going to revert to using an acceptable method on your behalf. But keep in mind, I might miscommunicate. Or I might forget. So perhaps it’s better you just do it yourself, don’t you think?

As previously noted, I got really sick. My girlfriend unfortunately got sick too. I don’t know who gave it to who, but that’s really of no consequence. It made for a really rough week.

As you can surmise from my trashcan, my nose was going nuts the past couple days. I probably should have cleared this all out earlier to avoid contamination. It’s surprising I didn’t, because I have a newfound fear of our friend the germ. I’ve been typing on a Virtually Indestructible Keyboard for the past couple days. It’s not that nice to work on, but hey, I can throw it in the wash when I’m done and not worry about leftover germs. I’ve been going nuts with Lysol sanitizing wipes, and, more importantly, Purell. I must be using it like every five minutes. But such things are in order when you suddenly find your eye glued shut from infection. Ya, it was that fun.

Fortunately, my antibiotics have kicked in, my head is draining, and my eye is nearly healed. For as intelligent as I can be about some things (oh, and modest too!) I can be a real idiot about health issues. For instance, the notion of a copay seemed lost on me until I went to the doctor this past Thursday. It cost me $10. A whole $10! Wow, now that’s why I pay health insurance monthly. When I left the office, I actually thought, “wow, I should do that more often”. I don’t think I’ve been to a doctor in 5 years, and probably haven’t taken antibiotics in more than 10 (not that there is a problem with the latter). Which brings me to my final point, I think it’s about time I figure out if I’m really allergic to penicillin. Last time I took it was my Senior year of high school. The same weekend, I developed swelling on 70% of my body and had to take steroids to reduce the reaction. We had assumed it was the medication, but it wasn’t conclusive. I also got really sick last time I took erythromycin. As a result I get stuck with limited choices for antibiotics and they cost about 4 times as much.

Now I’m done rambling and feeling sorry for myself. Actually, I stopped feeling sorry for myself yesterday when I realized it was in excess.