Friday, May 31, 2013

'Hey Jim, do you want to walk with me out in the parking lot? I'm wondering if I should go to Las Vegas this weekend.'

So What Would Jim Halpert Do? Ever since I returned from my trip to Tennessee almost a month ago, things have been a bit emo for me in regards to this girl that I really like at work. (Yes I know— "How old are you? 15?") I've been resisting the urge to write about her on this page... Not because it's unlikely that she'll find this entry (unless she Googles 'Jim Halpert,' 'Pam Beasley' or The Office or something), but because these articles ended up being (catharsis aside) all for naught. Every other girl that I blogged about over the last um, 10 years inevitably ended up getting with someone else (and becoming married; yay for 'oneitis')...so I'd be highly delusional to think that this rant would improve my chances with Ni—err, Nancy in any type of way. (I almost mentioned her real name here. Phew.)

Ever since Nancy and I first met last December (although I saw her at work as early as January of 2012), things have been cool between us. We always sat and hung out together at work. There was even this one time she asked me to take a walk with her—just the two of us—in an empty parking lot near the place where we were at (more on this later). However, from the outset of all this she told me that she was already engaged. Initially, I didn't care...as my feelings for Nancy didn't grow until we started to work together more often earlier this year.

What makes Nancy so great to be around is that she's easy to talk to, she jokes a lot, she's unpretentious (despite the fact she posts really gorgeous photos on Facebook... Keep reading further despite the fact I'm veering into so-called 'creeper' territory here) and...she likes 1980s action flicks and recent movies that feature 1980s action stars in 'em. (There was one time where she wanted to leave work ASAP so she could buy The Expendables 2 on DVD. No, it wasn't a gift for someone else.) Oh, and she reciprocates— Once Nancy added me on Facebook, I clicked 'Like' on the very first image (a self-portrait that Nancy took with her iPhone, if you need to ask) she uploaded right after we became friends. Not too long after, Nancy clicked 'Like' on a photo that I uploaded to my Facebook page. Of course, it probably helped that the picture I posted happened to be one that I took with a certain gorgeous MasterChef winner in Costa Mesa a few months back.

So where did things start to become all emo for me, you ask? In Ontario (California), more than a month ago. As I mentioned earlier, we always sat and hung out together at work. But what really endeared herself to me was when Nancy asked me to walk with her in that parking lot stated two paragraphs above. Granted, this took place during our lunch break...and she obviously wanted to burn off calories from the food that she ate a few minutes earlier, and wanted someone to keep her company during her stroll. But the fact that Nancy asked me to be alone with her (not to imply that I'm a wacko or anything... I'm only crazy enough to jump out of an aircraft 5.5 miles above the ground, hah) showed just how much she trusted and felt comfortable around me. We'll gloss over the truth that Nancy views me only as a good friend and that's why she did that. (Oh look, isn't that how Pam Beasley felt about Jim before he made a move on her in The Office's Season 2 finale? Anyways.)

Combine the fact that we bonded during the walk with us hugging before going our separate ways at the end of that day, and you have me start to develop feelings for that co-worker. (Just like in The Offi— okay, you get the point.) This memorable day was actually the last time I worked before I left for Memphis on April 27 (a Saturday)...and it didn't help that Nancy ended up going to Las Vegas that same weekend. Initially, she was reluctant to go; one of the main topics during our parking lot conversation was that she was invited on this Sin City trip by another female co-worker...who's divorced and has a daughter. (You can see where I'm going with this. Or maybe you don't.) Nancy, being unpretentious as mentioned two paragraphs above, didn't know just how crazy this lady could get when boozin' up...so our talk in Ontario involved me asking Nancy if she was ready to accept just how wild this co-worker (and other people who went with them on this trip) could potentially get while strolling out on the Vegas Strip. I myself didn't want Nancy to go... Despite the fact she's engaged to someone else, the thought of a divorced chick trying to bring Nancy down to her level (if you met Nancy in person, then you'd know what I'm talking about) irked me.

What made matters worse about this Las Vegas trip was that it didn't take place on the weekend that Nancy said she was originally going (which was two days after our gig in Ontario). The Vegas trip took place exactly a week later (yes, I was off from work for more than 7 days before I left for Tennessee)...which made it coincide with the time that I was in Whiteville to conduct the H.A.L.O jump. Of course, in the two days leading up to my 30,000-foot skydive, this jump was the only thing that I could think about. However, once this endeavor was successfully completed on April 29, it was pretty much out of my system (almost 7 years after it got into my system in the first place). So overlooking the fact that I was totally stoked over what I had just accomplished in Whiteville that day, my thoughts started shifting to what Nancy was doing almost two thousand miles to the west of me.

As mentioned earlier, the thought of someone trying to bring Nancy down to their level in Las Vegas annoyed me...but I knew that nothing bad was going to happen. Nancy was engaged...so what preoccupied my thoughts instead wasn't what she was doing in Vegas but how she was dressed hanging out over there with this group. In the last two days of my trip in Tennessee, all I could think about was heading back home to Los Angeles, logging onto Facebook, and seeing what provocative photos—if any—she uploaded or was tagged in. (Hey, if Radiohead can be a 'creep,' then so can I.) And it didn't help that my flight from Memphis had a brief stopover in Las Vegas before the final leg of my journey back to SoCal on May 1... Needless to say, my thoughts were fixated on Nancy (and a couple of slot machines that were amusingly placed near the Delta Air Lines gate where I boarded my L.A.-bound flight) as I sat and waited in the McCarran terminal.

When I arrived home from Los Angeles International Airport that evening, the first thing I did (even before I removed from my luggage the large envelope containing my H.A.L.O. jump certificate, the DVD with my skydive video on it and the USB drive containing raw footage and photos from the jump) was turn my computer on and then log onto Facebook. (Yes, I needed to get a new phone so I could visit Facebook while I was out in Tennessee. Not necessarily an iPhone). And lo and behold, Nancy posted a picture (Begin playing 'Creep' by Radiohead) where she's wearing a sexy black dress that reveals most of her (well-toned) back—and was tagged by the divorced chick in an image where Nancy's wearing a bikini. Can you say... Hot and bothered? (And creepy? I kid. I KID.) These photos were posted three days before I returned to L.A., so all I could do was check these pictures out since I wasn't in position to click 'Like' on them. [I didn't have a valid reason (presumably) to like these images till last weekend.]

So to make a long-ass story not as long as it should be (Michael Scott: "That's what she said!"), these Vegas photos intensified my attraction towards Nancy. I'll resist the urge to mention how she wasn't one of the people who clicked 'Like' or commented (yes, I'm contradicting my earlier claim that she reciprocates) on my H.A.L.O. pictures and video after I posted them on Facebook...and that Nancy actually gave off an irritated vibe (maybe she was hoping that I would've spent the money I paid for the skydive on taking her to a nice dinner and/or a cruise to Catalina Island instead? Yea, I wish) when my trip was brought up during a job we worked together in Northridge (California) about a week later (this was the first gig I got since returning from Tennessee). Speaking of Northridge and overlooking her indifference to my H.A.L.O. trip— Things were going awesome between us like they usually did in the previous assignments we worked together...until 30 minutes before we were to go home. Won't go into specific details (since I should've mentioned what it is I actually do for a living at the beginning of this Blog entry. Keep on guessin'), but Nancy ended up sitting with someone else right before we were about to wrap for that day. More on this in the next paragraph...

To continue on from the previous paragraph, I WAS PISSED. I didn't know what I did wrong to make Nancy diss me like that at the very last moment. Actually, I might have an idea... But it involves me going into a rant about other dudes at work who walk up to Nancy to start a conversation with her while I'm sitting nearby. C*ckblockin' douchebags. Unlike all the other times I was with Nancy, I went home without saying 'bye' or any other word to her. The thing is, the hurt that I felt from this debacle in Northridge only intensified my feelings toward Nancy. So basically, just like every other girl I blogged about before her, Nancy made me like her even more because she rejected me that night. And I can write another interminably-long article about how I have a futile attraction towards girls who play hard to get. ('Cause you know, they're already in relationships?)

So to end this entry, the high that I experienced after I conducted the H.A.L.O. jump is matched by the low that I've felt thinking about Nancy over the last four weeks. I don't have much of an appetite when I eat breakfast (kinda like how Jim Halpert told Dwight Shrute that he couldn't eat because of his feelings for Pam in a Season 4 episode of The Office), since I immediately wanted to log onto Facebook and see if Nancy posted something after I got out of bed in the morning. I actually dread the next time that I see her...which may be on a job assignment that I got booked on for next Tuesday. So basically, I'm at a loss for what to do. If this were a TV show, then I'd walk up to Nancy this Tuesday (if she shows up) and tell here how she makes me feel—and then she'll dump her fiancĂ© of God-knows-how-long-they've-been-together and we happily watch The Expendables 2 over and over, forever. But this isn't a TV show, and Nancy will most definitely be mortified if she ever stumbles upon this entry. And I'll become emo over the next girl I meet while Nancy eventually starts posting photos from her wedding ceremony (whenever that will be) on Facebook. Yay for oneitis! That is all.

Only on a TV show does a coworker whom you secretly have a crush on has a crush on you as well.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

SoCal-related... I notice that a lot of girls that I like(d) not only live in Orange County (in places such as Stanton or Anaheim), but they also use to reside in cities that are east of where I currently live (in the 626 area code)—in Pomona, Corona or any other town in Riverside County (though Pomona is in L.A. County, but whatever). What weird act of nature is that? And is this moronic Blog entry a preview for a much larger (and more personal) article to come? The answer is yes.

Monday, May 27, 2013

The USS Iowa: Back in the Day... Here's yet another bad-ass photo of the Battleship of Presidents, this time firing her 16-inch guns during a naval exercise in 1987. Notice the three shells that are about to travel 20-plus miles across the Mediterranean Sea to pummel a hapless target...

The USS Iowa fires her 16-inch guns during a naval exercise in 1987.
U.S. Navy / Lawrence J.B. McGehean (AE2)

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Quote of the Day, Part 2...

"I caught myself thinking about falling in love with someone who I hoped was out there right now thinking about the possibility of me, but I quickly banished the notion. It was that kind of thinking that landed me in this situation to begin with. Hope can ruin you."

-― Perry Moore, Hero

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Quote of the Day...

"There are no coincidences in life. What person that wandered in and out of your life was there for some purpose even if they caused you harm. Sometimes it doesn't make sense the short periods of time we get with people or the outcomes from their choices. However, if you turn it over to God he promises that you will see the big picture in the here after. Nothing is too small to be a mistake."

-― Shannon L. Alder

Monday, May 20, 2013

Nature's fury as seen from space... This photo of the storm system that created the F-4 tornado in Moore, Oklahoma was taken by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard an Earth Observing System satellite. The image was captured earlier today, at 12:40 PM, Pacific Daylight Time (2:40 PM, Central Daylight Time) as the tornado began its deadly swath across Oklahoma terrain.

An image of a tornado-generating storm system above Moore, Oklahoma...taken by an Earth Observing Satellite on May 20, 2013.
NASA / Goddard / Jeff Schmaltz / MODIS Land Rapid Response Team

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Crew members watch as the X-47B UCAV soars over the flight deck of the USS George H.W. Bush, on May 14, 2013.
U.S. Navy

The U.S. Navy Does It Again... A few weeks after it was publicized that the U.S. Navy successfully shot down an unmanned drone using a ship-mounted laser weapon, the military branch revealed that it flawlessly launched an unmanned drone, Northrop Grumman's X-47B UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle), via catapult from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. As recently as yesterday, the UCAV achieved additional milestones when it conducted touch-and-go landings and take-offs from the George H.W. Bush as she was deployed in the Atlantic Ocean. This historic feat comes almost 100 years since the Navy catapulted the first manned aircraft from a seagoing vessel...which took place in November of 1915 from the armored warship USS North Carolina. Awesome.

The Sun is about to rise as crew members prepare the X-47B UCAV for its first catapult launch from the flight deck of the USS George H.W. Bush, on May 14, 2013.

An elevator is about to take the X-47B UCAV up to the flight deck of the USS George H.W. Bush for its first catapult launch, on May 14, 2013.
Timothy Walter / AP

An elevator is about to take the X-47B UCAV up to the flight deck of the USS George H.W. Bush for its first catapult launch, on May 14, 2013.
Northrop Grumman / U.S. Navy

An older photo of the X-47B UCAV on the flight deck of the USS Harry S. Truman, on December 9, 2012.
U.S. Navy / MC3 Kristina Young

The X-47B UCAV takes off from the flight deck of the USS George H.W. Bush for the first time, on May 14, 2013.
Northrop Grumman / Alan Radecki

Thursday, May 16, 2013

The employees of Dunder Mifflin do a morning workout session during the series finale of THE OFFICE.

The Office... Just thought I'd post a few memorable quotes from tonight's 2-hour series finale (actually, make that one hour...unless you count that retrospective that allowed me to change channels and watch the season finale of The Big Bang Theory instead) of the long-running NBC show. Expect me to do the same when The Big Bang Theory, one of my other all-time favorite programs on TV, comes to a close a few years from now. (By the way— Raj sure can't catch a break, can he? Then again, his ability to finally talk to ladies without being liquored up should give him the courage to talk to prettier girls...like say, Sheldon Cooper's assistant, Alex.)

"I can't believe you came!" "That's what she said."
- Dwight Shrute's comment and Michael Scott's reply when the former boss of Dunder Mifflin makes a surprise appearance at the new DM manager's wedding.

"It's like all my kids grew up...and they married each other! It's every parent's dream."
- Michael Scott during Dwight and Angela's wedding reception.

"I wish there was a way to know that you're living in the good ol' days, before you actually left them. Someone should write a song about that."
- The 'Nard Dog' (a.k.a. Andy Bernard), during an interview following his embarrassing audition for America's Next A Cappella Sensation.

"There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn't that kind of the point?"
- Pam Halbert's final soundbite as the documentary film crew stops shooting The Office.

Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik) watches as things start to go downhill during Lucy (Kate Micucci) and Raj's (Kunal Nayyar) date on THE BIG BANG THEORY.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

24 logo.

Jack Bauer is coming back... At least for a 12-hour special (titled 24: Live Another Day) on FOX next spring! It's too bad 'The Jack Bauer Power Hour' will apparently air after the second season of The Following would presumably come to an end in early 2014; I wouldn't mind taking work off (again) just to see Jack Bauer and Ryan Hardy pull an um, Jack Bauer on terrorists and cult members alike during the same night on Rupert Murdoch's network. It's all good.

Jack Bauer sought retribution in the 2-hour series finale of '24'...aired on May 24, 2010.

The main cast of THE FOLLOWING, Season 1.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

I'm in love with an Arab girl at work. To be specific, she's Palestinian. Just thought I'd share this considering it's been ages since I posted personal (romance-related) tidbits on my Blog. It's the year 2000 all over again!

Friday, May 10, 2013

The 1 World Trade Center finally stands 1,776 feet above New York City...as of May 10, 2013.
Mark Bonifacio / New York Daily News

The Freedom Tower is finally crowned... Earlier today, the final segment of the 408-foot (124 meters) high antenna spire gracing the rooftop of the 1 World Trade Center (1 WTC) was finally installed...bringing the skyscraper to a symbolic height of 1,776 feet (541 meters) and thus making it (controversy aside) the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. All that really needs to be done now is complete the installation of all the exterior glass panels around the 104-story-tall structure—and then outfitting it with all of the interior equipment and office furniture that will be used by its tenants once the 1 WTC officially opens for business by early next year. Good job, New York!

The final segment of the 1 World Trade Center's antenna spire is about to be installed...on May 10, 2013.

The final segment of the 1 World Trade Center's antenna spire is installed...on May 10, 2013.

The 1 World Trade Center finally stands 1,776 feet above New York City...as of May 10, 2013.
Julio Cortez / AP

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

My Air & Space Wall of Fame...with the SoCal Sports Wall of Fame partially visible.

Photos of the Day... Check out my Air & Space Wall of Fame (which has actually been up since...2005)—which is right next to my SoCal Sports Wall of Fame...


A close-up of my Air & Space Wall of Fame.

Monday, May 06, 2013

Moments after leaping out of the plane for my HALO jump above Whiteville, Tennessee...on April 29, 2013.

"The danger is very real. But fear is a choice." If there's one reason why I'm going to watch that Will Smith movie After Earth (even though it's directed by M. Night Shyamalan) later this month, it's because of that very awesome quote from the film that totally applied to how I felt about doing the HALO jump last month. Anyways— Check out my Youtube clip of the skydive below. Now if only if my computer didn't keep restarting every time I tried to burn this video to a DVD... Looks like it's time to buy a new comp.

Saturday, May 04, 2013

Quote of the Day, Part 2...

"Sometimes it's a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence."

-― David Byrne

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Quote of the Day...

So for personal reasons, I felt like sharing this excerpt since it applies to how I'm feeling about a beautiful lady I recently met at work. This message by Bob Marley is quite cathartic.

For the full quote by the legendary singer, visit the Goodreads site here.

"Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that you've never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you.

When something wonderful happens, you can't wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself. Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful. There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around. You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are."


-― Bob Marley