Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Halloween Fun!

I haven't done anything for Halloween in like 10 years....

.. until this year!

We went all out - from pumpkin carving and black vodka to dressing up in costumes.

Good times. I've been told that I need to work on my pimp slap though ;)



I'm not sure how obvious it is, but our group tried to do a 70s theme.

As for tonight, the original plan was to visit a haunted house, but no one wanted to go, so we'll see what we end up doing.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Recovered!

I got my stuff back!

The detective called this morning (at the ungodly time of 7:45am) and told me that they recovered the laptop and I needed to come to claim it. So I went down to the station expecting to only get my computer (the one that this entry is being typed on) back.

But no! They recovered everything - the laptop, the Wii, the 12 games, and my camera. I originally told them that it was only 8-10 games and the detective at the station was a bit skeptical that all the games were mine.

I also didn't report my camera missing because I never checked to see if it was in my apartment. I was a little surprised to see it at the station and was even more nervous as to whether they'd let me take it since I didn't report it and didn't have any proof that it was mine. Luckily, there were still some pictures on the camera - with me in them - and my story checked out.
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I'm not entirely clear on how they apprehended the theives (that word reminds me of pirates), but the officer said that several apartments had been hit on Monday. They found everything in a motel room and arrested the men who had stolen the stuff.

The amount of stuff that was stolen was ridiculous - 6-7 laptops, jewelry, cash, Wii, portable DVD player, Nintendo DS, ipod chargers, etc.

I'm just glad that I have my stuff back, and that the guys are behind bars.

Oh, and thanks to everyone for their advice and concern!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Robbed!

I came home after work yesterday and noticed that my door was unlocked. Well, that's weird. I KNOW I locked my door.

After I got in, I saw that my laptop - a month-old MacBook - was missing along with the AC adapter. I turned towards the TV and saw that my less-than-3-weeks-old Wii was also gone. Inside my entertainment center, all my PS2 games were also gone (but, curiously my Arrested Development DVDs were still there). Nothing else in the apartment was touched. I don't think the culprit(s) even left the living room.

So, I was robbed. I honestly things like this happened to people like me. I've been thinking about it and there's really nothing I could have done to prevent it. Someone had a key, entered the apartment, took exactly what they wanted (they also stole my only Wii game, the Wiimote, and the TV sensor), and left.

American Express said they'd refund up to $1K with their consumer protection plan, so I'll probably get another laptop - maybe even upgrade to MacBookPro. I'm not sure about the Wii just yet. It was pretty hard to find in the first place, but it was pretty fun once I got into it.

The lady above me - a cute, single black girl about my age - also got robbed yesterday. She dropped by earlier and she has the same opinion as me - that someone from the complex is involved. In her case, they also took her laptop but had to go into her bedroom to get it. We've both been here for less than 3 months, don't have renter's insurance and are upset about the parking situation. She talked to the apartment people and they weren't very helpful.

Their official line is that someone used a 'bump key,' but the cops ruled out that possibility. I'm not sure if we'll get compensated for our losses, but I do know that neither of us plans to renew our leases and we'll never feel safe living here.
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My favorite part of this whole episode has been people's reactions. I use the Gmail status pretty obsessively during the day - mostly because I get bored at work, but also just to see who reads/responds to it. Usually, they're song lyrics or links to random celeb stories.

Today, I had the message "I was robbed!" and was surprised that no one responded! Finally, when people did message me, instead of immediately showing/faking sympathy/concern, they asked "Were you actually robbed?", "Really?", "Did you really get robbed?"

I suppose it's a crying wolf situation. When something serious finally happens to me, everyone just assumes it's another one of my crazy superficial messages. Fair enough.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Surface-level?

I went on a non-double date with a couple of girls and another guy. What's a non-double date, you ask. Well, what else would you call a group of 2 guys and 2 girls? I guess you could call it a group of friends, but I prefer my term.

Anyway, I thought it was going to be a chill night, but it ended up being a little crazy. We started out with a couple drinks at happy hour, then went to a comedy show (where we had a couple more), and then ended the night at one of my favorite places, Pete's Dueling Piano Bar.

The comedy show was an incredible deal - $5 for four comedians. Ironically, the headliner (Pablo Francisco) was the worst of the 4. One of the other openers also seemed to bomb on every one of his jokes. Apparently, the audience didn't watch the news or follow politics and that was his entire shtick.

All in all, a pretty fun night but I drank (and spent) too much and was feeling sick/drunk this morning and even into the afternoon. I wish we had gone on a non-weeknight.
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My friend said that my blog was "surface-level Sumeet" and that I don't reveal that much on here. That's probably true, but as more and more people read the blog, it gets harder to be honest - especially when you want to write about certain people that you know read it.

I almost want to start another blog that no one knows about. Then again, what would be the point if no one would read it? It's a bit of a dilemma.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Weekend

Following the suggestion of pretty much every Wii owner, I decided to buy Zelda. I haven't played a structured "adventure" game like that in ages (I normally play games like GTA or sports games). It's actually pretty fun though and the graphics are pretty amazing for the Wii. The interactive tools like the fishing rod and sword are really fun to use with the Wii-mote (is that what it's called?). It's funny that whenever someone talks to Link in the game, he never responds! Is he mute or something?

I find it amusing that people reserve large blocks of time to beat games. I don't think I could play a game for that many hours straight. I don't have the attention span.

I went to a housewarming party last night at a former co-worker's place. It's kinda odd that I'm still good friends with a lot of former co-workers (considering I left 6+ months ago) but have yet to hang out with any of my current co-workers outside of work. It's even odder that there was only one person at the party who works there still, but everyone worked there at the beginning of the year. I guess this is when real networking starts ;).

I found out that about half of my friends are looking for another job right now. Yikes.

Friday, October 05, 2007

free happy hour?

I just realized I didn't spend any money at last night's happy hour.  I drank water and enjoyed two free cheese quesadillas but didn't get anything alcoholic or order food off the menu.
 
We also had 3 new people: a month-old baby, a roommate of the mother of the baby, and a cousin of a former co-worker.
 
'Twas an interesting happy hour to say the least.