Camping is way teh suxxors. Ami and I drove down to Lime Kiln at Big Sur, planning on spending the weekend there, not realizing that fate had other plans for us.

The first day was nice. "Ranger Dick", as Ami dubbed him, because he was a dick, was our campground host and said that we could only set up on the beach. So we picked out a spot as far away from other campers as possible, since the sites were all adjacent to one another. It did have a great view of the beach and was just below an historic Highway 1 overpass, so it was like being homeless and living under a bridge.

We hiked up into the hills and saw a gorgeous waterfall, which was being examined by this photographer, so we had to scrap our plans of putting on leopard-print loincloths, draipsing boa contstrictors around our necks and rocking out in a waterfall. We also saw the lime klins for which the park is named. They were totally wrecked and awesome. They were these great big cylinders of rusted iron sheets, with a big grid of rivets running over them. Trees were grogin out of the tops of them and everything. So that was rad. Then we had a Corona moment on the beach with lawn chairs watching the sun go down.

Rachel and Mike showed up later that night. I created fire, used it to create chili in a bread bowl and felt very proud of myself. Maybe I can survive after the apocalypse after all. After chillin' by the fireside. We went off to bed.

Then the wind started. Fortunately, we were using the Sir Edmund Hilary tent, which was apparently designed by the famous Everest summiter, so it only sounded like our tent was getting gang-banged by a roving gang of grizzly bears. instead of us getting blown down the canyon. Then, when I left the tent in the morning after a sleepless night, it finally collapsed just after I walked out the flap, so I guess Everest ain't got nothin' on Lime Kiln. Needless to say, it was time cut off the camping trip early.

After some very aciton-packed packing in wind and rain, we took off for Santa Cruz and enjoyed the great indoors. Ami shared the marvel of cinema that is Bloodsport with me. After seeing that, I have to admit that Jean Claude Van Damme, without a doubt, can do the splits.

Went up to Berkeley and tried my best to fight my frugal instincts and go music shopping. I was trying to find the new Mint Royale, the new Talvin Singh or any of the 2manyDJS compilation CDs or Bombshelter DJs CDs. Amoeba did not have a single one of the CDs that I was looking for or even have anything by the bands I was looking for, and I can't justify spending $18 on a CD of music I'm not absolutely positive I will enjoy. Rasputin's didn't have what I wanted either, so I just took a chance on Mr. Scruff's "Trouser Jazz" and the Ninjatune Xen Cuts compilation discs. I figure 4 CDs for 30 dollars is a pretty good deal.

The Super Mario Sunshine I bought in Irvine gives a disc read error at the same damn cutscene near the beginning of the game every time! And of course, I can't skip it, because Nintendo has to leave one huge design flaw in each of their products. The Gameboy Advance SP has no headphone jack, the WaveBird has no auto-power-off feature, and Super Mario Sunshine doesn't let you skip cutscenes. Rrrr. I also found two typographical errors in Zelda so far. Nintendo better not kick back our game for any subtitle stuff or else I'm goign to send tham a kickback list for their own freaking game.

Ugh, I'm used to disc read errors at work being something easily solved by pressing the Disc Read Error button on a debug kit, but this time, it's because it seriously can't read the disc for reals! I went over to GameStop to try and exchange it, but they were like all, "No receipt no echange.", and I was all, "But..." and they were all "No.", and I was all like "Dammit!" and they went "Sorry", but I was like, "Whatever."

Well, I'm on my last day of vacation. I've got some chili and a Smirnoff ice. I'm so glad that hard liquor companies have decided to create malt liquor drinks that are actually good. Sometimes you want to drink alcohol and eat at the same time, but wine and beer are gross, and I can't very well keep making mixed drinks, so these thigns are the happy medium: Actually yummy, and in a bottle.

Maybe if I work hard and stick to it, I can finish Zelda: The Wind Waker before I have to return to work. Man, but that game has a lot of sailing. Jeez.