America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve got to want it bad, because it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil; who is standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the ‘land of the free’? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the ‘land of the free.’”

– Aaron Sorkin, “The American President”

LJ Archive | 8 Comments »

So, looks like I’m no longer the NOC floater. I’m now a swing shift person that has a 40 hour work week, working from 1pm until 9pm everyday Monday through Friday. I’m a little annoyed because I know this is a step closer to removing me from an unfire-able position to one where I can be easily replaced, but to be honest, I could care less about that. What I do care about is that I’m now working on Thanksgiving from 1pm to 9pm, which elminates dinner altogether. The good news is that I get Christmas and New Year’s off, but I only care about Thanksgiving.

And HP hasn’t called me back about a face-to-face interview. I hate my job.

LJ Archive | 4 Comments »

Yeah, so I went ahead and joined Google Talk, which is a new Google/Gmail-based IM client. It’s compatible with JABBER, so if you use that, you can now talk to me… my gmail account is zcochrane@gmail.com, which is rarely ever used for actual mail, so don’t bother sending me mail there

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Layer.one:

Name: Michael Daniel Garcia
Birthdate: June 19, 1976
Birthplace: Santa Clara, California
Current location: San Jose, California
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Jet Black
Height: 5′9″
Righty or Lefty: Lefty
Zodiac Sign: Gemini

Layer.two:

Your heritage: Mexican/Spanish/French
Your weakness: chocolate and a sexy ass.
Your shoes you wore today: Black dress shoes.
Your fears: Spiders and the other shoe dropping.
Your perfect pizza: Ham, extra cheese, extra sauce from Round Table.
Goals you’d like to achieve: Finish writing my novel.

Layer.three:

Your thoughts first waking up: *smile*
Your best physical feature: Five of six girlfriends agree: My ass.
Your bedtime: Midnight-ish.
Your most missed memory: If it was missed, wouldn’t it technically be forgotten?

Layer.four:

Pepsi or Coke: Pepsi.
McDonald’s or Burger King: Jack in the Box.
Single or group dates: Single.
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Either.
Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate
Cappuccino or coffee: Tea

Layer.five:

Smoke: No.
Cuss: Yes.
Sing: Yes.
Take showers daily: Yes.
Have a crush: Yes.
Think you’ve been in love: Yes.
Want to go to college: Yes.
Believe in yourself: Yes.
Get motion sickness: No.
Think you’re attractive: No.
Think you’re a health freak: No.
Get along with your parents: Yes.
Like thunderstorms: Sort of.
Play an instrument: Yes (Sax)

Layer.six: - in the past 6 months

Gone to the mall: Yes
Eaten an entire box of Oreos: No.
Eaten sushi: NO.
Been on stage: No.
Gone skating: No
Made homemade cookies: Yes.
Gone skinny dipping: No.
Dyed your hair: No.
Stolen anything: No.

Layer.seven: - ever..

Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: No.
Been called a tease: Yes.
Got beaten up: No.

Layer.eight:

Age you hoped to be married: Yes.
Number and name of children: -5.
How do you want to die: Remembered.
Where do you want to attend college: San Francisco State.
Dream job: Either Novelist or Randy’s agent of doom.
Country you want to visit: England, Japan, Austrailia.

Layer.nine: - In a guy/girl…

Best eye color: Brown.
Best hair color: Any color but Blonde.
Short or long hair: Either.
Height: Any.
Best weight: Any.
Best clothing: Any.
Best first date location: Vista Point, North Shore of the Golden Gate.
Best first kiss location: Lips.

Layer.ten:

Number of drugs taken illegally: Zero.
Number of people I could trust with my life: Five.
Number of CDs: Too many.
Number of piercings: Zero.
Number of tattoos: Zero.
Number of times my name’s been in the news: Zero.
Number of scars on my body: Two.
Number of things in my past that I regret: One.

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So… we got the rings last night. Avoid post if you don’t want to deal with my wedding crap.


Julia’s wearing the engagement ring (that’s the one with the mounted diamond) right now. It looks good on her, and the stock size was perfect for her finger. The wedding band (mine) is being sized, because I have huge fingers. Not like I need them right now or anything…

More news later.

ETA: I realize that the subject was confused there, and I meant I don’t need my ring right now, not that I don’t need my fingers.

LJ Archive | 11 Comments »

to !

I hope you have an awesome day.

LJ Archive | 1 Comment »

Please make this day be over.

Thank you.

LJ Archive | 4 Comments »

I may the only person in the history of the American judicial system to say this, but I really was looking forward to serving on a jury and yet again, I don’t get the opportunity. Man…

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http://www.baseballbias.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=60&mode=&order=0&thold=0

I prefer that comments be made at the site, but I won’t disable them here. Rather than repost the whole thing here, head over there and participate. Thanks.

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It’s not often you get to converse in Japanese in the course of NOC work. Kind of cool.

ETA: Also cool: to be told I have a near-native accent. Awesome.

LJ Archive | 6 Comments »