Yes Sir Captain Sir.

Whole lot of firsts for me on Thursday. First time meeting a Captain in the AF, first time on an actual AFB, first time on the LA AFB, even though it's only like 10 minutes north of me. The day started with me travelling up to SaMo to finish filling out a lot of the holes in my paperwork, and finish squaring away my package for the Board. Got to answer all sorts of interesting questions like I had on many forms, more along the lines of "have you ever done anything bad, ever?" but also some new one's such as "are you opposed to being responsible for discharging a nuclear weapon on an enemy?" Much of it was psychological, questions about whether you're anti-war being the most important I'm sure. They had the big word for pacifist on there, treating it as a religion, asking if I was a member of that group. I have friends who are, but I have always felt the price of the lifestyle that we live and the peace that we live in, is war. Not all the time, not continuously, but at times it is necessary. Squared away all the physical paperwork, just have to call back on Monday since I never actually found out where to go for it next Thursday.

We then caravaned down to the Base since I wasn't entirely sure where I was going, which ended up being more interesting that usual because I had to cut someone off to stay behind the recruiter who had just dived down a random exit ramp, and then he proceeded to get cut off pretty horribly at least 3 times during the remaining journey. Ahhh L.A. drivers, they keep you on your toes. I was thinking it was going to be with an O-5 or 6 (Lieutenant Colonel or Colonel) but it ended up being with an O-3 (Captain). The ranks in the Air Force when it comes to officers go from O-1 (2nd Lieutenant) which you start out as immediately out of training, all the way up to O-10, with O-7 through O-10 reserved for the four levels of generals. I'm sure I would have been intimidated regardless of his rank. It kind of sucks to be a civilian, while your enlisted recruiter is going through his reporting statements and salutes and so forth, and you're standing there with your thumb up your nose wondering what you should be doing. He really made his best effort to make me feel comfortable though, and as a result I ended up not using the word Sir as much as I'd been planning to. Alas its not like I have any experience with the concept growing up, but I'm sure I'll learn it in a hurry when it becomes necessary. It really felt like an AcaDec interview all over again, except for the fact that it was about an hour instead of a timed seven minutes. Covered just about everything about me that could be said in that amount of time, focusing on my past performance in life, basically. I really feel it couldn't have gone any better, although I stumbled over trying to find the right word at times, my typical ability to blab up a storm about everything in a very articulate way with a multitude of sweeping hand gestures reigned supreme. He seemed genuinely interested in everything I said, and had clearly done many of these types of interviews before, it was clear his questions followed a predetermined path. Made me all giddy inside when he said out of the dozens of interviews that he'd personally handled and officers that he knew on a personal basis, my AFOQT scores were by far the best he'd ever seen or heard of.

So, I might as well explain how the selection process works. As previously mentioned mid October the Board meets (it's made up of O-6's) and rates all the applicants on three categorys. Multiple officers rate each person, and the scores are averaged. In each of the three categories, ratings are given that range from 2 to 3.3 in .1 increments (weird I know). Thus, the worst possible score is 6, and the best score being 9.9. The three categories are:

Education/Aptitude: This consists of Academic discipline, AFOQT scores, GPA, and Transcripts
Experience: This consists of Military Experience/Performance if prior, Letters of Recommendation, Demonstrated Leadership, Community/Base involvement, Athletics, and Skills/Hobbies.
Potential/Adaptability: Finally this consists of Evalutation of Interviewing Officer, Letters of Recommendation again, Work Experience, Communication Skills, and Law Violations.

One thing you have to remember though, is you're only competing against people in your category. So although the Non-Tech selection percentage in the last few boards had been between 15 and 30%, the Navigator selection percentage has remained steady at about 80 to 90%. With those numbers in mind, I find it hard to believe that I'll be in the lower 10 to 20% in any of the categories, and thus feel pretty good about my chances. You can now begin talking about counting my chickens before they hatch any time now.

November 7th is the day my life will now revolve around, although there might be delays. More later, this post is getting lengthy.

Progression

So, I can now move both arms individually without any kind of major pain. Haven't blogged for a few days because well, there was nothing to blog about. Just a lot of sitting around, taking a cool bath once or twice a day, unable to really do anything.

Last night I rewatched the first two episodes of Band of Brothers, the only two I'd seen previously. My plan is over the next few days to finish watching the series. Kind of sad I haven't gotten around to it sooner than this, given all the good things I've heard. Given my new career choice however, I'm going to make a point of watching these kinds of things, and although it will never tell me what it's really going to be like, I can at least see what it was like for the people who helped give me the way of life I currently lead.

Speaking of which, I received a phone call from my officer recruiter today, letting me know that someone had been forced to cancel their interview appointment for tomorrow at 1pm, and thus there was an available slot. I of course jumped at the chance, knowing this could really speed things up. So it appears I'm to be up at his office in Santa Monica tomorrow morning at 11am, in order to fill out a bunch more paperwork and finalize my package, then we'll drive over to LA AFB for the interview. I'm sure I'll be nervous, but no more nervous that I was during AcaDec interviews, when I knew I was being graded from the moment I stepped into the room until the moment I stepped out. With the amount of training I've had, it shouldn't be a problem. I'm sure I'll be practicing answers at some point today though. :) I also found out to my surprise that my physical has also been scheduled, for next Thursday Sept 5th. This is both good and bad news, good because it's sooner than I thought, bad because there's the possibility that the sunburn might still be around. Other than having to explain what happened, I don't see how that can affect me negatively though. It's just all the what ifs, that get you. I'm four pounds under the max weight, even with clothes on I'm a few under, and with a week to go I'm sure I can drop even further into the safe zone. Who knows, having not had a physical for about 5 years, there's always a chance they'll find something wrong I didn't even know about. The good news is that just about everything is waiverable, if you have the time and patience.

So it turns out that I will in fact have everything done before the deadline for the October Board. According to the schedule, that Board actually meets from October 15th-18th, and the estimated release date for the results is November 8th. Bit earlier than expected, but welcome just the same. It's the first Board of the Fiscal Year 2003 for the military, so that could work to my advantage, as there will be plenty of slots to fill. The last few boards have been somewhat selective in many of the fields, that should be less true with the new FY. Of course, the release dates for the least few boards have been delayed quite a bit, with the July release coming out around 2 or 3 weeks late and the August release so far 1 or 2 weeks late itself. "Hurry up and wait."

All in all though, I'll still know by mid November at the latest what the deal is. Worst comes to worst, I'll be rejected the first time and automatically go to the second Board which meets in November, and releases the results in December. If you get rejected twice you have to wait at least six months I think it is, so that'll be it at that point until I graduate at least. Although I haven't been completely ignoring the fact I might have to consider other options, this has been my main focus for a while. Will just be nice to finish up these last few steps and be done with it, so I can get back to doing other things.

I do believe it's time for that 3rd BoB ep. Haha BoB. That looks funny.

Blisters Hurt

Never had an experience with sunburn blistering until today. I'm in more pain than I have been in oh, about five years.

Didn't help that I was having to meet and greet people which involved hugging and shoulder slapping extensively at the party. That probably screwed it over actually. I'm proud though, I didn't complain once to anyone outside my family who were smart enough to not do those kinds of things.

It's my own fault, I guess. More later on how cool the party was, when I'm able to do things like type blogs without flinching from the searing pain through my shoulder.

Sunburned to Bits

You want funny lookin sunburn, I got one for ya. Picture this. You're going on a hike, and the last time you got a bit sunburned, so this time you grow a brain and take some lotion. Beforehand when you get out of the car you lather up your neck and face to be sure that it isn't a problem this time. Your t-shirt and shorts getup covers everything else possibly lighter in color, as your arms and legs are tan enough for it not to be a problem. You decide about a half hour in to roll up your sleeves and create a tank top effect. You leave your upper arms and shoulders exposed to 90 degree heat for approximately 8 hours. Voila! When you get home and remove the T-shirt, it now appears that you are wearing something with red sleeves. Plenty of white in between, but amazingly bright red long sleeves from the shoulder down. Ah, intelligence.

The good news is my back isn't burned, because trying to sleep with that is the worst. My arms still hurt like the dickens, but I suppose I deserve it. Unfortunately have the big party tomorrow, so I'll have to dress of spiff and make attempts to cover the evidence.

More good news is we made it to the top, again, and even got back before dark this time. I'm gettin pretty good at this, I should be a tour guide or something. Even more good news I'll probably be really light tomorrow morning. :) Well a new low anyway. Man, even my sockline shows a clear difference in shade, when there wasn't one before. At least I was smart enough to switch wrists on my watch like halfway through, something I hadn't done for like 5 years which felt really whack, but did the trick and avoided serious lines there. The strange thing is, it was much hotter the last time I went, and I didn't get much darker at all, and no really painful burns to speak of. I guess it was a different UV rating today, or something.

Ah... blowing air on my arms sure feels good. All I need is like a fan doing that at all times, but some sort of sleeveless thing to keep me warm meanwhile. Actually blowing on them just makes them burn more a few seconds later, nm. Well, if I can't sleep I'll be back. :/

Spring Cleaning, in August

The big 30th anniversary thingy bobber for the parents is on Sunday, and some cleaning ppl are coming tomorrow morning to give the house a whoopin, so everything in my room has to be decent looking by 10am. I tend to live out of boxes during the summer, so the place is pretty trashed. Really annoying to have to box stuff up and put it in the garage, when you're just going to have to take it all out in a few weeks and get everything together making sure you didn't forget anything to take it to college. Least I get to move in on a Friday this year instead of during the weekend, that should give me a few extra days to get into the swing of things. Something tells me they got rid of the week before classes start though, and they probably start early the following week, which would be lame.

I conned another friend into climbing Mt. Baldy tomorrow it looks like, so we'll see how that goes. Now that I've conquered it again, I won't be as disappointed if we have to turn around halfway. That and I'll actually know where I'm going this time. :)

The new job basically sucks ass, your classic data entry, which is good for oh about four hours, then your eyes start going blurry and you start getting really bored and it seems like motivating yourself to do each new record takes like five minutes at a time. If you actually get going time sort of passes, but gets old after a while.

Highly doubt it's going to last much longer, I'm doing everything relatively as slow as possible without drawing attention, but still getting through the huge amount of entries pretty quick. They didn't even want me back on Monday, but they do Tuesday, which is strange. Oh well as long as I get a day next week out of it that's at least one more paycheck. Then I'm supposed to call the other job at Kaplan back on the 6th and see if they need me some more there, so I should be able to eek out some more money before I head back to school.

Remnants of my shins started being annoying today, which is not such a good sign, since I even took a day off yesterday. I guess I'm going to not run for a few days, the Baldy trip tomorrow will do plenty. Gah, when is move in day when you need it.

Nine To Five

Think that was a song in the 80's. Alas it's time to go see what the new job is like. Hopefully won't be anything terrible. Probably going to last at least a few weeks, so hopefully it's the brainless type of stuff that makes time just flow on by. Maybe after the first day I'll be able to take a discman or something, if it's just hardcore data entry in some cubicle by myself.

Didn't go running today, felt some soreness yesterday while running the Entradero Park course, and figure I should just take a day off whenever my legs feel like they need it if I'm going to be running every day other than that. So I figure a random day off every 3 days or something instead of a set 2 days per weekend off will be better for my legs.

Went to a Mongolian BBQ place for the first time last night for a friend's bday, which was fun. Bout fifteen people or so, not all of which I knew, so it was neat meeting new people. For the first time in a while, I met a friend's boyfriend and didn't immediately have a negative opinion of him. Of course, I only talked to him for like 5 seconds, so I suppose there's still a chance once I discover all the skeletons. :) Was nice seeing all those ppl again, we had the usual grand ol time hootin and hollerin at various jokes. I wasn't a big fan of the fare at the restaurant, I guess I just don't like the whole wok concept. Too convoluted. Too much stuff mixed in maybe. I like things more simple. Always good to be branching out and trying out new things though.

Gah, guess I should get in the shower already, delaying will just make me late.

Peanut Butter Lathered Apples

Mmmm. Was treated to some of those while up at a friend's place, she and her best friend and I had a grand ol time cookin dinner and chowin down on some yummynummy food. We worked up an apetite while wandering all over West L.A. looking for a Home Depot and ended up at the one closest to my house, go figure. One minute I'm having fun with tape measures, the next time I turn around I see the two girls playfighting with hammers, until one of them gets a big thumb. Luckily they were using those big rubber ones rather than the metal kind. Could have been worse.

Dropped off all the material for my package, after stopping by a few places to pick up various items. Took a data entry form based test at my temporary agency when I stopped by to pick up the Letter of Recommendation from them, apparently they hadn't tested me since '99 and wanted to update my records. I found out that on average I type 11,000 keystrokes per hour. I'd always known sort of a range of words per minute, but never keystrokes per hour, which is what a lot of companies use when looking for potential data entry personnel and whatnot. I always though I was around 8k which is the minimum for most jobs, with 10k for some of the more high paying ones. Cool to know I can hang with the big boys (as if it's something to brag about). The plus is I have a new job starting Thursday that should run at least through the 13th which still pays $11 like the last one, but is much closer. No freeway driving involved. It's 9 to 5, which means again probably not a 40 hour week, but who knows there might be overtime possibilities or whatnot. Saving the five bucks a day for parking and taking my own lunch should save me tons of money there anyway. I'm quite satisfied with working right up until the day before I leave for school, $ is $.

Oh and I almost forgot the biggest news of the day. Did a mile and a half time trial over at the track, and not only smashed my best mile time in a few years, but also ran UNDER the required time for the PFT at OTS for the first time in about as long. Don't laugh when I say 11:49, with a 7:47 mile. Hey I've only been training a week, gimme a month or two and we'll see how those numbers change. :) The reason this news is so good is that a 12:00 is all that's required during the "hell" that is OTS, so not having to worry about the physical aspect of things and spending more time on the mental should be an advantage. Of course in Alabama with major humidity and ninety degree heat even at 5am, things might be a little different. That's assuming I get accepted, of course. No need to put all my eggs in one basket, so to speak. Hell, it'll be nice to be in shape regardless of what I end up doing.

One Eighty Nine Point Five

That's right, the barrier has been broken! :) Another nine and a half pounds in the next five weeks and I'll be one happy camper. Got all the way around the pier again this morning, without even a running partner this time. Very promising. Going to do another time trial tomorrow, and probably stick with distance on MWF and some sort of timed workout on TR. Then when school comes around, planning to add on a swimming or sport workout in the evening on top of running in the morning. Haven't really started in depth training for arms and abs yet, that'll probably come easier once I've gotten into shape a bit more. The lighter you are, the less you have to lift. :)

Hopefully this is the last day working at this place. My transcripts got here on Saturday amazingly, just 24 hours after I ordered them online. So hopefully I'll be able to trek up to SaMo on Tuesday to drop everything off.

Bummer, I typed this up this morning and forgot to post it. Luckly it's still sitting here. ;)

Yeah, it was my last day. I am quite pleased.

You're the One!

I'd like to say hi to the one person that visited this page yesterday. Come to think of it, it was probably me. :) Was there some sort of party I didn't know about? Some sort of gathering? Did internet connections all over the country get cut off simultaneously? Just weird I guess. Blah, I've always said ppl who count hits are lame, I guess I should take some of my own medicine. :)

I feel like I should put up something rewarding for the next person to see this. Something like a pic maybe, or some sort of representation. Maybe I'll do that.

Today's movie review is Blue Crush, which I'd have to give uhhhh hmmmm 4 M's. It was actually more entertaining than I thought it would be, and there was some very neat camera work throughout. Definitely the most advanced surfing photography I've seen. Some were clearly computer generated, and some you could tell the faces of the actresses had been added in, but some of the waves they were actually riding. Was actually pretty funny occasionally, could have been worse. Maybe 3.5 M's is more accurate. They did replay the flashback where she hits her head on the rock like 8 times. That was like 7 too many. No, 8 too many. Cringed every time I saw it. Blah, way past my bedtime. Gnite all. Er, I guess I mean gnite, you. :)

I Swear The Pier Moved Further Away...

Thanks to friendly companionship, I managed to make it all the way down to the Redondo pier this morning, out around it and up to Vet's park, then all the way back home. That's 3 to 4 miles or something. Making progress anyway. The legs feel a little weaker today, but on the way to work I really felt like I had a lot of energy. Strangely the 190 barrier is still somewhat inpenetrable, I've hit it multiple times without managing to get below. Something tells me now that I'm running again that will soon change. Just knocking on wood that the concept of shin splints is not going to reappear.

I felt pretty tired while I was running, but that's probably because I was launching into stories from time to time, and it's hard to handle a narrative when breathing heavily at the same time. Was good conversation though, and that's all you can ask for while pushing your body around. She's headed off to Knott's Berry Farm tomorrow, might run again in the morning beforehand though, going to check with me later online. I've only been to Knott's once, and not since they put in their newest roller coaster the Xcellerator, so at some point I'll probably have to make a return trip. Six Flags is free though thanks to the season pass, so it's hard to make the switch.

Finished "Ender's Shadow" a few days ago, and got started on "Shadow of the Hegemon." Technically it's the 6th book in the Ender's game series, although any of them could be read as standalones. Basically the only sci-fi series I've ever read, and I've enjoyed them all immensely. After this I'll have to start knocking out "The Two Towers" in preperation for the movie release in December.

More news on the AF front, going to be heading up to SaMo early next week to deliver a lot of paperwork including copies of my SSN and DL cards as well as transcripts from college and various other forms. I didn't know you could just order transcripts online and have them mailed to you, which sucks because I could have done that weeks ago. Probably only takes one or two business days though so should get here in time for this visit. I was thinking I was going to have to make an extra trip to SB and back in order to deal with those, quite pleased that it won't be necessary. Also found out that the physical and BAT test (hand-eye coordination test basically) will take place at LA AFB and not Edwards, so I won't have to drive long distances with my pupils dilated. Even better, I could get someone who loves me to drop me off and pick me up! (wink wink)

Well given I'm at work I probably shouldn't be blogging. Pretty sure this is my last day here though. I certainly hope so.

When You Need A Smile...

They always tend to make an appearance in one way or another. Was out running this morning for the 2nd day in a row (MY GOODNESS) which in itself was a feat, because due to my injury I haven't been able to accomplish that goal in about a month. So far, so good. No pain whatsoever in the last two days, as I gradually am increasing the distance I run.

I had my usual hat and headset getup goin as I plowed down Henrietta on the way back from the little two mile loop deal over yonder, listenin to Rick Dees in the morning, which tends to help a lot when compared with just listening to yourself breath and get tired. Anyway, I ran smack into a buddy from high school, or rather, the same high school as I went to We were never actually there at the same time, we've always been the same grade level so when she was a freshman in high school I was a freshman in college, and ditto now that we're both seniors. She went through the AcaDec program as well, so we share some common feelings and attributes. It was quite random we'd be running at the same time, I guess the X-Country team is up in Big Bear for the week but she had to work, so she's just running on her own this week. Ended up turning around and basically running with me back to my house, which was fun. It's amazing how running with someone else can help you forget about the fact that you're tired. Well, other than having to pause every six words to take two full breaths. :) The nice thing about her is she's somewhat close to my pace, or was at least making me think that. That's the real bummer with trying to find running buddies, one person is always more in shape, or has a much faster pace. She suggested we run tomorrow too though, so I guess I'm not that hideously slow. She just has to go run another three miles or something after dropping me off. :)

It's weird, when you least expect something to cheer you up, alakazam, there they are.

Twice.

That's the number of times I visited the hospital yesterday.

That's also the number of times I'd been in the hospital in the twenty years prior to that. I've been lucky. Never broken a bone, never had a stitch, never been involved in many of the not so wonderful things that require a hospital visit. It was interesting though, seeing the brand new wing at Little Company of Mary, visiting my Mom, trying out the food, (which actually wasn't so bad) and just being aware of all the types of people around me, who were there because they needed help, in one form or another. I really don't mind hospitals that much. I guess I don't have any negative memories associated with one, so they don't carry the same stigma that the do for some people.

Finally decided to start knocking out some of the 159 movies I have that I haven't seen. As of today that's now 158, as I finally witnessed The Shawshank Redemption 7 M's out of 7. People are very right when they say this movie is good. It's a view into a prison, and the life that long-term inmates lead. The acting is just phenomenal, with everyone playing their characters perfectly. I was especially impressed with some of the secondary characters. From the stuttering friend, to the heartless captain of the guard. The scene that affected me most though involved Brooks, the inmate who'd spent 50 years in the prison. I won't spoil it for anyone (although if you haven't seen it, put this one as close to the top of your list as possible) but the music played around that scene, and the voice the elderly actor uses while describing life on the outside, really makes you feel. The music all around was perfect, not too dominant, yet always there, eerie notes when required, slow melodic tones as well. The acting though, is what sets this one apart. Attempting to portray someone who has spent the majority of their life in prison cannot be easy. Yet every actor does a marvelous job. That's another building I've never visited, I suppose I've been lucky there too, although I'd like to think that was much more a conscious effort on my part.

Working today again, although the person I've been doing the most stuff for left last night for a month long trip, so I'm assuming they'll run out of stuff and send me home early for good. 9th day working at this place, I don't mind the 550 or so after taxes I'll end up with, but I'll be extremely glad to be doing something else.

More Info...

Apparently the cause of the blast was a gas leak in a house that was being fumigated, with a spark eventually setting off the catastrophic event. Luckily, this means no one was inside at the time, and from what I've heard there are only minor injuries to surrounding neighbors.

The house is just simply leveled, with many surrounding houses sustaining heavy damage.

Once again though, I'm fine, and unfortunately it appears I'll still have to go to work today, after stopping by to visit the mother in the hospital as she recovers from her surgery.

I'm Safe...

All those lucky enough to be watching CNN this morning, no need to worry, I'm fine.

The houses that were obliterated by a massive explosion at about 5:45am are located about six blocks from me. There are reports of damage in a wide radius, with glass breaking at houses more than a few blocks away, but we haven't found any damage to ours.

So if you heard the name Torrance and panicked, I appreciate the concern, but go back to bed. :)

More later as I receive more information. I won't be sleeping anymore given the number of sirens and choppers circling outside my window. The major news channels all just switched over, feel free to check it out.

When It Rains...

So, my mother is currently recovering having undergone a hysterectomy this morning, apparently the procedure went as planned. She's expected to be in the hospital until Wednesday. Another really poor day at work. I was going to say shitty, but after a bad experience this weekend with someone lighting me up for swearing, and realizing that it's outlawed at OTS, I might as well cut it out of my vocabulary now. It's not like it's necessary, and it certainly doesn't help my image. I swear far below the average person, but I see no reason to do it at all Forgot to get lunch money, so I just went without. During the lunch hour my usual reading spot in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency next door was disrupted by jackhammers on the floor below. Traffic was worse than usual.

Then to top it off, I get a random e-mail then an IM from someone I'd planned on avoiding since coming to the realization in May that we were just different people. I'm stupid enough to reply, and later respond, and my reward is a conversation in which she proceeds to knock everything about my career choice, and myself in general. There were a few highlights, one of which was her informing me that she will happily be the person sending me off to war in some foreign country to die in order to protect her way of life while she spends her millions on material things. The one that really topped everything off though, was her informing me that in the "grand scheme of things," I'm just as much of a slut as she is. Now, I tend to censor this blog, in a way. I refrain from personal attacks, I never mention names, and I leave out much of the less flattering information I run into about people. In this case though, I'm not at all concerned with any reactions. As has probably been figured out, tonight's encounter was once again with the most recent ex. I've finally blocked her permanently, through all forms of communication that I have access to. I am no longer of the opinion that any sort of interaction would bring anything but negative results. In the years since our relationship ended (yes, years) she has taken up smoking, getting drunk on a regular basis, and sleeping with various people just to satisfy her physical need, including a neighbor, just because he was there. Those who know me, know why I unfortunately regret having ever been in a relationship with her. The three habits stated above are basically the least desirable traits a friend, or even a person, could possibly have. Granted, her side of the story will be different, if you ever have the displeasure of running into her and hearing about it. In my own defense, I can only say it has been over two years since I've received anything more than a hug from the opposite sex. Sad in a way, but true. I'm sure this helps you realize what a ridiculous statement the above quote really is, if you compare the two lifestyles. Why I even let it affect me, I have no idea. That's the last time. Alas, all I can say is my life will be much better off in the future, with her forgotten.

I can't thank my friends enough for being there over the last few years as I've moved through various stages of transition. I can only hope to follow your example and repay what you've given me, any way I can. The subject for that blog in May was "One Door Closes, Another Door Opens." Interestingly enough, it was still cracked enough for even more negativity to shine through. If there's a way to slam it harder than I just did, I'm not sure how.

Let it be known, this is the last blog in which she will be mentioned, permanently. Along those lines, if I give you the cold-shoulder in person when asked about the subject, back off.

Not Much To Say...

Drove out to Timbuktu also known as Hemet, California on Saturday for a memorial service, that basically took up the whole day as I spent a few hours each way in the car. There's not a whole lot to say about that, it's not the most cheerful thing in the world, and I don't suppose dwelling on it helps.

Today was basically sit around day, as I despair over having to go to work again tomorrow. More hours on the road, more hours doing nothing, trying to strech 10 minute jobs into hour long ones, so that I can at least get a 7 hour day before they say "well, guess that's all for today" and tell me to come back two days later. Least my first paycheck in a while should be here in the next day or two, and then I'll have at least two more coming after that. Still have a long way to go before I've made any progress towards a decent amount on the summer, though. I could tell them to take me off this basically part-time job that I dislike greatly and is totally inconvenient, but there might not be anything else available. Then again having this go on all the way through summer would be like sticking a 5 inch splinter under my fingernail.

Props to two of my friends for being the highlights of an otherwise dreary weekend, one for a lengthy conversation along the beach during a nice sunset, and the other for letting me blab cell to cell nonstop while bored as all heck driving alllllllll the way back across LA on the way home yesterday.

The Magic at Six Flags...

Man, slept in longer today than I have in quite some time. I have a good excuse though, got few hours of sleep the night before having to get up early and head out to Six Flags. Ended up not getting home until after midnight, and I was pretty drained by that time.

Two bummers put dampers on the day, one of which was X being closed for the whole day which was disappointing, the other being I strained my neck pretty good on the first ride we went on, and was having problem rotating my head to the right the remainder of the day. That said, I pretty simply had a ton of fun for the entire day. The person I was with is someone I've always gotten along with, and regardless of the length of the line, I was never bored. I barely even noticed the heat, which stretched into the mid 90s for most of the day. We got on most all of the big rides, and although they were out of my California rolls at the sushi bar, the Tsunami ones weren't too bad. My voice was pretty much gone this morning, but now seems to just be a bit hoarse. I tend to do my share of hootin and hollerin on the big dips. :)

Managed to take a wrong turn coming home as I missed the turnoff to the 405 from the 5 a bit south of the amusement park, ended up not being that big a deal as we just took the route right past downtown on the 110, had been a while since I'd seen the L.A. skyline at night. That also allowed us to use the carpool lanes on the 110, which are neat because they're about a hundred feet above the freeway itself, your own little highway in the sky. So then I managed to miss the turnoff to the 405, and we ended up having to get off the 110 further south and double back. Apparently I was engrossed in the conversation. I've driven the 110 to the 405 route every day I've worked for the past few weeks, yet still managed to blow right by it. Go figure. Two retarded moves in one trip, can't even remember the last time I managed that. Yet I'm going to be a navigator for a living, HAHA. Er um.

Hopefully going to be seeing more of that friend than I have in the last few years, she's quite the neat person.

Managed to run across a song I hadn't heard in forever, James Taylor's "Fire and Rain." It's a nice friendly cheerful head bobber type. Turns out I don't have a social calendar for tonight, but I will be leaving early tomorrow morning to gallumph out to Hemet.

Monday Dunday.

Well technically it's Tuesday, but since I didn't work today and I'm working tomorrow, it feels like it will be Monday. Who knows how long this job will last, it's becoming more of an every other day thing, and that's not really going to work this week. I apparently actually have a social calendar, as one of my friends is taking advantage of the fact that I can take someone to Magic Mountain for free both this week and next, and wants to go on Thursday, and then I'm possibly filling in as a friend of mine's "guest" at another function, someone's wedding anniversary I believe.

Then comes Saturday, when it appears I'm going to attend the first memorial service/funeral of my life. Going to be making the trek a couple hours out to Hemet, California, the hometown of my father's brother and sister in law. She's had cancer for a number of years, and passed away a few days ago. On the bright side, she's the first of my parent's generation of the family to pass away, but still at an unfortunately early age. I'd been hoping to escape off into the military before having to attend the multitude of weddings that will start happening as my fifteen or so cousins all start getting married off at once, and I'd certainly not planned on attending any funerals before finishing college. I guess though, I should be very thankful I've never had to attend one before now. Things could be much worse.

Don't get me wrong about weddings, it's not that I don't like them, it's just that I don't like the questions associated with the event. When you end up being the oldest person unmarried at the place, all sorts of fingers get pointed and questions get asked about your "progress" with the opposite sex. It's just not a priority for me right now. Answering the same question eighty times to eighty different relatives isn't much fun. No, I'm not seeing anyone. No, I didn't come out of the closet. Yes, they are smart to have stayed away from me, and you're quite clever to have said that, given the six people before you had the same quip.

Oif. So the high from the weekend has waned, and it sounds like it'll peak on Thursday/Friday, and then slash its way back down for the weekend.

Here's to long life, may all of us be lucky enough to live one.

Me Tho Pwoud.

Okay okay I skipped a few days. Believe it or not, I was actually getting some WORK done around here! Ended up leaving an hour early Friday too, and they don't need me Monday, but want me Tuesday. It's turning into more of a part time thing, but I still get like 250 a week out of it, so I guess I can't complain, since it's not like there's a multitude of alternatives.

The last couple days I've impressed even myself by deciding to move full ahead with my package for OTS, first by doing the HUGE application Thursday night and Friday morning, answering a berzillion questions that basically all boiled down to "have you ever done anything bad in your life, ever" to which I of course said NO! :) Then yesterday I managed to not only finish up my Personal Statement and Resume, but also get the ball rolling for Letters of Recommendation! Usually getting paperwork done with me is like pulling teeth, ESPECIALLY when I end up having to contact other people, set things up, ask them for favors, etc etc. Go figure though, I typed up the whole format for the Letters of Rec, and copied it into a Word doc along with my Resume and Personal Statement so I could send all the info to my endorsers, then wrote out lengthy personal e-mails to all of them making the requests, then even got a few e-mails back so I could send them off the info! This may not sound all that interesting but it feels really good to be taking care of stuff that was going to be hanging over me. Already two of the four people have answered in the affirmative, with the other two not being able to receive the initial e-mail until most likely Monday. Only need 3-5 Letters, but 4 would be a good number. I have a few other possibilities in mind in case these don't work out.

So we stand about two months away from my Officer Recruiter's deadline of October 2nd, for packages that will be going to the November 2nd Board. This appears to be the ideal one to apply for since I'd then find out the results in December, and if I get rejected it automatically goes to the December Board and I'd find out in January. After that if I don't get in it's basically over, and that will leave me like 6 months and two full quarters of school to secure an alternative option for my future if necessary. I'm not too worried though. My Personal Statement is something I'm really proud of, one of my better pieces of writing that had to be restricted to one page. That's thanks to the help of various friends and family members who all chimed in with their two cents, of course. The recruiter is requesting my physical next week, which I assume then will be within a month or something maybe. That's the only other real possible hangup, as the flight physical for rated applicants (people doing jobs in the air) is quite extensive, and something might be found that I didn't even know about. Most everything is waiverable, you just have be patient enough to sit through that process, and that would delay things a bit. You actually don't need to have passed the physical to send your package to the board, you just have to have an appointment made. So I might get accepted, and yet still get delayed due to the physical or a possible waiver for who knows what. Hopefully with the 6 month leeway I've added in I should be able to make the July 1 class of 2003. That would leave me a couple weeks to enjoy life after graduation before I actually ship out. Still don't know whether I'd drive or fly, or maybe take the train or something. They pay for expenses either way, and it's easier to take all your stuff if you drive, but then again travelling light might be smart for training. After training if I move on to technical training in Flordia almost immediately depending on the class date it would be a pain to have my stuff shipped though.

I guess there's plenty of time to ponder such issues. :) I'm just happy that my package is shaping up in a hurry, I should be able to give him my Personal Statement, Resume/Applicant Profile, and Letters of Rec by the end of this week maybe, or possibly next. Then I hear there's many many many more forms to fill out, but that's all easy stuff. Last step is an interview with an actual high level officer, which I hear is pretty pivotal. If you gain their vote and they write you a good recommendation, you're pretty much set. Thanks to all my interview training through AcaDec, I should do fine. So, the nice thing although I'll have to get transcripts from school, I go back like the 20th and will be able to get those as well as make an appointment with a counselor to discuss my schedule this year, and make sure I've got everything set for graduation, and thus get the form that shows my expected graduation date and how I'm going to achieve it with what classes, etc etc. I'll probably have to make one more trip down to the Santa Monica office after I've gone up to school, but I think we generally have a week before classes start anyway, so I'll just pop down and finish any last forms or paperwork, and be done maybe evern EARLY (go figure) before the October 2 deadline.

Only bummer then is I'll be done, but I'll have to wait almost a full quarter at school before I find out the results, assuming there are no delays. Alas, the infamous "hurry up and wait" slogan of the military.

Other than that, I went running for the first time in two weeks (shin splints knocked me out of it as you recall) with my new shoes. It literally felt like I was running on foam padding, it was great. I even did the stretch where you put your feet behind you and sit down on your heels, stretching that shin muscle and the muscles on top of your foot, which used to be too painful to even attempt a few weeks ago. No pain whatsoever. The bad news is my time for just the 1.5 miles that I started with like 6 weeks ago as a starting point is basically back to square one. I think it's just due to the 2.5 week gap though, I'm sure things will get up to speed much faster than they did the first time, and this time I'll have a solid 7 weeks before school starts to lower my times. The right shoes, no pain, and things should definitely improve at a faster rate than before. Just have to worry about properly stretching that muscle, so we don't have any repeats of the beginning of the summer. In related news, I'm only 1 pound off my all time low as of today, with that low coming having done that marathon hike up Mt. Baldy. So within the next week or so I should be down into the 180s for the first time since maybe high school?

To recap, proud of my Air Force package progress, proud of my promising progress in getting back in shape, proud of my current weight decline, very happy with the way things are going at the moment. :)

I have tomorrow off, anyone up for Magic Mountain? Walking all those hills and tensing up all your muscles on roller coasters is always a good workout. :) Good sushi there too!

A Beam Of Light In the Dark...

Glad everyone got a good giggle out of yesterday's story. Hilarious really. [scowls] :/ I'm not supposed to be old yet. I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toyz R Us Kid. Anyway.

Yesterday's flick was Reign of Fire which I went to see basically because I'd seen everything else decent at the theater, and my friend wanted to meet up and watch a movie, so watch we did. I actually expected it to be largely lame other than some pretty cool dragons, and it was somewhat better than expectations. Some very cool dragons, and although the whole concept of dragons ruling the world is somewhat weak, there was some pretty good action whenever they attacked. Had to go check my rating scheme and example movies to decide where this one should fall, and I think I'm gonna have to go with 4 M's. Seems like just about everything I see these days is 4 or 5 M's with the occasional 6, but I guess that's because I try to avoid the really terrible stuff, and certainly don't pay to see anything that I think will fall into the 1-3 M's area. Maybe when I start catching up on all the old stuff I haven't seen we'll see more excitement in the ratings. Only disappointing thing here was not only did I actually pay the full student price of 7 bucks because it was a night show, but I forgot to use my AMC Moviewatcher card when I would have gotten a free movie popcorn and soda for reaching 100 points on it. BUMMER. Guess next time I hit up the movies I'll have to see something good, and bring a date even, can't eat all that popcorn by myself...

Managed to get the people I work for to run out of dirty work for me to do today a little early, so left around 5 instead of 6. Better yet, I pointed out they probably won't have anything for me tomorrow early, and I might as well just skip a day and come on Friday. Yeah, it's less money that way, but I figure I'm wasting my time if I'm not even getting a full eight hour shift and am spending all that money on parking gas and food. Sushi place downstairs sure is good though. Actually I think I'd like just about any place that made sushi, I'm not too picky. It's good stuff. Going to have to get a lot of exercise tomorrow, working commuting and sleeping doesn't leave much time for it when I have to go all the way to LA. :/

It Starts.

The young man wanders across the mall, killing time before he's to meet a friend. He's early as usual, so he spends some time browsing. He ventures into the Disney store, his favorite as a child. Confused at first, he sees nothing but costumes: princesses, Buzz Lightyears, Peter Pans... He ponders to himself for a moment, and figures out that Halloween is a mere three months from the following day. Never too early to start promoting, he supposes. As he shuffles past the counter, an elderly woman with a nametag calls out to him. "May I help you with something today, Sir?" "No thanks, just looking around." replies the man with a smile. After a pause during which the woman gives him a once over as he watches the music video playing on the big screen, she grins helpfully and exclaims "We have some very nice costumes for little girls..." with a genuine smile. He gives a polite chuckle, thinking she was referring to possible changes in his wardrobe. It is only a few seconds later he realizes the true intent behind her words when she adds "And if you have a boy, some very cute ones for little boys as well." He stops dead in his tracks as he realizes his mistake. "No thanks," he stammers, as he makes his way towards the exit in as expedient a manner as possible without being impolite.

I'd managed to go 21 years of my life without someone thinking I was old enough to have children. Alas, someone from the general public has now made that mistake. My how the years have gone by. Wasn't too long ago I thought I was cool because I got into rated R movies by myself. Now some people obviously think I'm old enough to have a child. I suppose retorting back "CHECK WITH ME IN TEN YEARS" would be a bit much. I suppose I'm just around the corner from lines like "You don't look a day over 50." Well maybe over the river and through the woods even.

Today went only slightly better than yesterday at work, but since I caught a movie afterwards and am spending two and a half hours on the road commuting each day, not a whole lot of free time involved. I'll talk about it tomorrow, maybe.

Corporate America, and Why I'd Rather Chew Glass.

Well, it's taken me one day to start hating work again. One day in some random office in downtown Los Angeles where everyone is in their own little world inside their cubicle, somewhere between "I'm a total loser I have the one closest to the door" and "wow I'm so neat I have a corner office with a view." Everyone hoping they're on a path to somewhere, a bigger cubicle maybe, maybe even one on the END. The whole concept of an office basically causes the gag reflex. I can't even tell you how many times I've had to take care of the most retarded work because someone was bored of getting stepped on so they hired someone else to do the dirty work for them. The WORST kind of jobs however, is when they don't really need you. You end up sitting around, looking over their shoulder from time to time, waiting for work to be given to you. Once you're given it you finish it in a short amount of time, and therefore need something else. They become irritated that you're always in their face, and decide they're better off being irritated about having too much work to do, and you're forced to move on to the next job.

Today was no different, other than for some strange reason they wanted me from 10-6 this week. What that means is when I'm forced to take lunch just because they are and there's no more work, I end up with a less than 40 hour workweek. Of course the paycheck is already hacked into from the $30 I'm paying for parking on the week. Oh and then there's the gas. The fun part was trying to FIND the parking structure, which although it has an address of 818 W. 7th St, actually has no entrances or address numbers of any kind on 7th, and actually has its entrance on S. Flower St, on the complete other side of the block. Luckily I always leave an extra half hour on the first day of temp jobs, knowing I'll probably get lost somewhere along the way. It's interesting walking around downtown, even though I'm from Los Angeles, I've probably actually walked around the downtown area with the largest buildings maybe a dozen times in my life. There's just nothing really there, other than a major hub of Corporate America.

The really irritating part of today was the fact she didn't get back from lunch until 4:30, having left at 1. I was back from my quick break by 3, having not left until after 2, since she said she'd be back "for sure no later than 3." Well, I sat around reading Ender's Shadow for an hour or two, and then finally one of the other cubicleites from across the way noticed I wasn't actually doing anything, and decided to try to give me work to do. "Yeah, do me a favor and um, research this company on the internet they're one of our competitors, just you know, facts and figures and basically come up with a proposal on how we can better compete with them than we are already." Riiiight. As if I even know what she's talking about, have any experience in the field, or even care. Eventually she comes back and decides I'm incapable of that task and gives me a list of colleges to call and find out who their Director of Admissions is. Seems simple, until you realize I got the list at 4pm, long after all the eastern and central timezones have closed for the day. Eventually the person I'm supposedly working for comes back, and says at 5:45 she's going to show me what I'm going to be doing tomorrow while she's in a meeting. She then spends (not exaggerating) thirty full minutes trying to figure out her password into one of the systems they use. She tries four different combinations of logins and passwords, over, and over, and over, as if the 9th time through they'll work. Finally she sighs and says "I guess we'll do this first thing in the morning" before going back and engulfing herself into her laptop and her cubicle, not saying another word to me. I take my book and leave, quite irritated that this is what I'm having to do in order to earn money this summer.

What's sad, is I actually look FORWARD to the traffic. The commute is actually interesting to me. I'm actually DOING something, and can see progress being made. The radio is on, and generally something entertaining is being said, or good music is blasting. You can stare at all the other drivers, trying to figure out who they are, and what their life is like. It's just a world constantly changing, as you plod along from car to car. UNLIKE a cubicle, and a clock, which only changes once a minute, every minute, for the whole day.

This is the most irritated/bitter I've been in a while. I just wish I could find some work available that I actually enjoyed. Unfortunately the economy is not ripe these types of jobs, and so I have to take what I can get, as irritating as it might be.

Check back after the end of this week, I should be better. Who knows, maybe there will actually be stuff for me to do tomorrow. I'd much rather spend time copying and collating a six foot high stack of paper than just sitting there, pretending to be busy when people walk by really you have nothing to do. I was even playing chess against MYSELF today. Like on a piece of paper, erasing and writing where the pieces are, treating each move as if I was playing it to the best of my ability. Black was winning I think before I decided to read instead. Maybe I'll finish the game tomorrow, who knows. Good book by the way, the 5th in a series by Orson Scott Card. Basically a parallel novel to Ender's Game, possibly the best Sci-Fi novel I've read. Quite fun for little boys anyway.

You'll have to excuse me, I've been home for four hours but it's time to go to sleep so I can immediately wake up and leave again so I can hurry up and do nothing.

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho...

And you know the rest. Supposedly for at least this full week and possibly next I'll be employed. We'll see how that goes. At least it's 10-6, no need to wake up too early in the morning, the bummer being it's right in the heart of Downtown L.A., everyone's favorite place to sit in traffic.

Relatively uneventful weekend, as I sat around awaiting the impending doom that is work. Stopped by my old middle school during my bike workout, and was pretty amazed at the differences ten years will make. The place is basically a sea of portable classrooms, with half the playground/blacktop area now covered with them. Guess that's one way to increase the number of classrooms without actually breaking ground on a new building and spending more $. Very few places are still recognizable, other than the Resource Center (otherwise known as the library) where I spent many a morning waiting for the librarian to show up around 7am before school and unlock it so I could go in and read or play games on the computer. Can't even remember the games they had, must have been something really old.

Trying to decide how long to give the shin splint thing to heal, I think one more week and then I'm going to go for some easy runs on padded areas like grass and sand to see how they feel. Hoping to get moving with that again, this week marks the beginning of more regular arm and ab routines, and being able to work the running in would be quite helpful. Still got eight weeks before I head back, can make a lot of progress by then.

Shagadelic Baby, Yeah...

So I got a phone call today from a friend of mine saying a group of high school peeps were getting together for dinner and a movie, all I really needed to hear was that the dinner was to be at The Olive Garden and I was mooooovin. I tried the pizza this time, usually I'm a fan of many of their pastas, almost any entree there is something I'd scrape off the plate to the last noodle. Was pleasantly surprised it was quite good, the crust tastes exactly like those yummy bread roll thingy bobbers they bring before the meal, mmmmmmm good.

Following the meal and a slight fiasco of getting to the theater on time (everyone was late, I got there at 7 to make sure our name was down in time, by the time enough people were there to be seated it was 8:15 or so, with us eventually getting seated around 8:45 after we'd had to get skipped twice, grrr) we settled in for the 10:00 showing of Austin Powers 3 : Goldmember. Now I must warn you due to one less seat being saved than we had people, and we were the last three to come in, we had to fit three people into two seats, so I was basically sitting with an armrest digging into my back throughout, and now have it permanently imprinted there. That said, I found the opening five minutes absolutely hilarious. At times during the rest, I actually laughed out loud, which doesn't happen too often. I suppose I'll have to go with 4 M's on this one, solely in reference to entertainment value. Clearly you don't go see this for the plot, and you'll have to sit through some pretty gross bathroom humor at times, which sometimes goes above and beyond what's necessary. Not even close to as horrific a display as Not Another Teen Movie or Scary Movie 2 however. Those as I recall were down much further in the rankings. One thing I will give Britney Spears and Beyonce Knowles, they clearly have been working harder than most on their abs, or there was some sort of graphic enhanced simulation going on. Believe me I'm not one to ever care about what the classic "Bond girls" look like, nor drool over the latest pair of melons, but if you see this movie you'll know what I mean. It's like half of it is an hourlong AbTronic commercial. If they look like that unaided, more power to em.

It was good seeing some of the high schol buddies I hadn't seen in a while, it's funny how the questions change from "where are you going to college" to "what are you majoring in" to "so are you graduating next year" to "what are you going to do to make a living" as the years go by and we keep growing on up. One of the people there who I hadn't seen in a long time was the friend of mine who I've basically known longest, given we were in the same 1st grade class, Mrs. Moffet as I recall. She was the one who competed with me to see who could learn the Alphabet backwards in the shortest amount of time. Silly her for challenging me I suppose. ;)

BOOYAH!

This just in. They finally got around to releasing my AFOQT scores.

Verbal: 87
Quantitative: 99
Academic Aptitude (V & Q Combined): 96
Pilot: 98
Navigator: 99

Absolutely awesome. Better than I expected. The Quantitative I was pretty sure of, but the Pilot and Navigator composites are just beautiful. This will do wonders to help my chances. Couldn't have asked for much better. Yeah, go ahead, be like the rest of my family and point out that the 87 isn't as high as a 99. Hey, being better than 87% of the competition isn't bad either OKAY? :)

Someone quick, pop my head please. Pop it now, it's becoming astronomically large. Next time you see me pretend to care, even if you don't know what the AFOQT is. ;)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled senior year in college.

Well, I've Seen 2/3 Of Them...

New official count, I have 159 movies I haven't seen. Some of them I've heard great things about too, really going to have to knock some of them out this summer. Tonight I headed out to the theater again though, to check out a couple dramas.

First up was Road to Perdition, Tom Hanks' latest flick. Liked this one a lot, I love it when movies go all out in bringing back the era of the early 19th century with the whack cars and complicated fashions. Nothing like three piece suits and suspenders every day to work. There's a reason it's rated R though, it is a mob type movie, and people do get axed. I've yet to see a Hanks movie I didn't enjoy though. 5 M's.

Next I hopped on over to K-19 the movie about the greatest Russian submarine ever built, and the incident that almost sent the world to nuclear war. It's interesting, I would have thought that a movie with basically no action because it was based around an actual event in which the unthinkable was avoided would have trouble holding my attention. I enjoyed this one as well though, I thought it was better than U-571, even without all the cool explosions and special effects. I had heard mixed reviews about it, but I also enjoy Harrison Ford's work, so I might be partial. 5 M's here too.

There are a few select actors such as Anthony Hopkins who generally turn any movie into something I'm impressed by. From the rarely heard of Remains of the Day to Silence of the Lambs, he is one actor who always has my complete attention. I think the gap between 5 and 6 M's depends on whether or not I even once have to pop on the indiglo on my watch to check how far through the movie I am.

Was pondering hopping to a 3rd such as Reign of Fire, but figured that one is probably a better renter/downloader. So, about 100 of the 159 are movies I'd like to get around to seeing, guess I might as well start tomorrow. :)

One Plus One Plus One Is Three.

Theoretically, that's how many marriages will take place among the Wilson children. However in a moment of jest, my father pointed out that since the elder two aren't making any progress, "the younger one might be responsible for all three." I suppose you had to be there, but I found it to be quite clever.

Whole lot of nothing going on around here the last couple days, other than recuperating from the hike, getting into a bike riding theme as opposed to running while my shins heal, and catchin up on some movie watchin. Yesterday I finally caught Amelie which was nice because I've only seen 2 cd rips of it out so I was able to make a good 1 cd one. Even better was the fact that in a rip the subs appear in the lower part of the picture instead of in the black area below, which you'd think would be annoying because it blocks small portions of the frame, but to me requires much less concentration to watch because your eyes don't have to travel as far to watch the scene and read the dialogue if you don't speak the language of the foreign film. So anyway, yeah it's in French, but came highly recommended from a few of my female friends. Unfortunately going to have to place it in the chick flick category, but I do that with basically all romantic comedies, so don't let that deter you. I'll give it 4 M's out of 7, it was entertaining for the most part, and somewhat outside the box, but at 130 minutes it had me checking my watch at times, and the real bummer with foreign films is you can't really look away, or you miss dialogue, since your sense of hearing does you no help with the translation. Stops in the kitchen to make a sandwich and so forth require pausing, such an inconvenience! ;)

Today I got around to watching The Majestic the infamous Jim Carrey in a dramatic role movie. I actually liked this one a lot, even though it took a while for me to get used to the idea of him not cracking a joke every 2.3 seconds. I just thought it was really cute at times, and I guess was in the mood for some of the general hokeyness that accompanies a small town atmosphere where everyone knows everyone and everyone is in everyone else's business. So 5 M's for that one. REALLY need to start burning movies. My recent rips have left me with basically jack squat by way of space.

Maybe I'll hike someplace else this weekend. That was fun.

A Decade.

Long time, said the young man to the slightly older man. And so it goes. Managed to finagle one of my friends into heading out to the mountains yesterday for a trek to the top of the tallest mountain in L.A. County at 10,064 feet, Mt. San Antonio, known to locals as Mt. Baldy. On a clear day it's visible from my house, it used to be the one aspect of nature other than the ocean that would remind me there was more to the world than the big city. A little less than a decade ago I ventured out to the area, as part of a series of prepatory hikes leading up to the assault on Mt. Whitney that was planned for sometime in the future. Whitney has become somewhat of a symbol of strength in my family, and it was my goal at the time to eventually conquer the continental U.S's highest peak. If you really want to hear that story, ask someone to recite my AcaDec speech on the subject, many of the people around me know it by heart after hearing me give it COUNTLESS times over the two years I was competing with the team.

Anyway, that one's 14,494 feet, this one is just peanuts at 10k. :) Unfortunately as I would find out, the thing that makes the Ski Hut trail to the summit from Manker Flats somewhat difficult, is that the elevation gain is 4,000 feet over a period of 4 miles, and even experienced hikers know that 1k feet a mile means you're in for some serious steepness. The other error in judgement was based on the fact that the first time around so long ago it was the trail we used to get down, but since we never came up it, I had no recollection of how difficult a trail it was.

So yeah, not for the faint of heart. As we eventually discovered. Interestingly enough the altitude is what killed me the first time, with the last 500 feet or so to the summit taking like an hour, due to me keeling over and feeling like I was about to vomit every other step. This time it felt like I was gaining energy as we went rather than losing, at least once we got up towards the top. It's probably due to the pace, which was very relaxed compared with the kind I used in the past. It was a new thing for me to be stopping often enough to admire the view. So many times I get locked onto the final goal, I forget about the journey. My climbing partner wasn't too impressed with the trail as compared to other things we've done in Santa Barbara, given the lack of vegetation for the most part, other than your typical pine trees, brush, and oh so much sun. Basically shady spot to shady spot was the hiking strategy, as we tackled switchback after switchback. I got burned pretty good, your classic redneck circle and around the face a bit. Eventually we made it to the Ski Hut, which serves as about the halfway point. The view from there was quite nice, you're deep in a valley in an area they call the Mt. Baldy Bowl, with high ridges on three sides and just a sweeping expanse below you. We pondered the situation for a while, as it had taken us three hours to get to that point and after a late start, darkness was becoming somewhat of an issue. She eventually volunteered to give the next switchback section a shot and see how it went, and take it from there.

At that point, I really wasn't expecting to get to the top. I was having a good time as always, with the usual hiking games like the ever popular alphabet of insults, followed by the alphabet of compliments to make up for the previous abuse. She seemed pretty drained quite early on, and I'd mentioned that the Ski Hut would be a good turnaround point if necessary. I'm unsure of whether it was her own drive or whether it was guilt that made her continue, I hope it wasn't because of my typical male testosterone driven goal based way of looking at things. Regardless, I know she enjoys hiking because of nature, and the relaxing aspect of it, and definitely didn't expect to be pushed to the limit her first time out this summer, before she'd gotten into any kind of shape. A few switchbacks up I had worked out the wording of my "the mountain isn't going anywhere I can come back anytime and climb it" speech, and started into it, but that's when out popped the "oh no, we're GETTING to the TOP" attitude that would be prevalent for the remainder of the ascent. I was glad she'd decided to conquer it, but I felt guilty knowing that if she knew what it entailed beforehand she probably would have avoided it like the plague.

Eventually, on top we stood. The last bit took quite a while, as it was one of the steepest sections, and that's when you start finding it harder to breath, and the wind becomes loud in your ears, and the temperature drops in a hurry. The most hilarious aspect of the trip came as I was standing a couple switchbacks from the summit as she was four or five below me, and I stood up on a rock to do a cheer. There I was screaming out the letters of her name and "what's that spell?!~?!?" with a few wahoos involved, and as I turn around to get down off the rock, I see a pair of people walk past me, having just come over the ridge from the summit to walk down the trail. So yeah, I thought my audience was 1/3 the size of what it apparently was, as they went chuckling by. That gave my friend a good giggle anyway.

So the infamous picture eventually got taken, which was one of the things I'd been wanting to do. I have a picture in the collection that I put on the wall wherever I am that shows me as a young boy of 11 or 12, leaning against a trail marker sign on top of Mt. Baldy, with the wide expansive view all around me. I'm probably about four and a half feet tall in the picture and somewhat of a silhouette, so I figured it would be cool to get a picture in the same spot now, a whole lot older. This led to a lengthy discussion of where the picture taker should be placed to get the identical shot, with wide sweeping gestures pointing at mountains and landmarks in the background and elevated voices discussing the finer points of photography. Eventually we compromised and took a picture from both recommended locations, so we could "see whose turned out better." Isn't life always a competition with me. :/

I didn't expect it to be the undertaking it ended up as, not exactly pop up in a couple hours and hoof it back down in time for a late lunch. Darkness approached as we made it back to the car, luckily the fullness of the moon illuminated things quite well, and actually made the last half mile or so one of the prettiest I've hiked. Nothing spectacular about the area in the daytime, but the moonlight lit up the trees in a way that you just dont' see in the land of neon lighting.

Recommend the trail to others as definitely the best view you'll get in L.A. County, but allow for about six hours up and three hours down, and believe me when I say "steep." To my friend, thank you for sharing the journey even if it wasn't a very popular concept at the time. I hope you thought it was worth it afterward. Even when the level of my jokes degraded to the level of "absolutely retarded."

Something tells me I'm not going to see her for a while. Too much Matt in too little time tends to be a bit of overkill. Ask my family, they'll tell ya. ;)

We'll see where I am at 31, who knows how I might have changed by then.

Tired.

Climbed it. Came back. Tired. Long story. Tell you tomorrow?

Early to Bed, Early to Rise, Makes me Wise, or Something...

Going to bed (insert sort of here) early since my intent is to head off into the mountains tomorrow with a friend and conquer Mt. Baldy, the highest mountain around here at just over 10,000 feet. Hopin to take a pic very similar to one I took the last time I was on top, which was about ohhhh 9 years ago give or take. Will be interesting trying to find the right spot. And the trail, even. (Last time my father and I went, we missed the trail on the way up and took an alternate route, and then halfway down the "right" trail on the way down got lost, ended up on the wrong side of a ridge, and had to scramble through brush for a while before we got back to the trail)

I know EXACTLY what I'm doing this time. Really. Hee.

Shin Splints, My New Mortal Enemy...

Man, for all of high school I was oblivious to the concept of shin splints, dozens of my fellow athletes would complain about them on a daily basis and I'd just insist I didn't even know what they felt like. Well, I finally know.

These last few weeks I've been sticking to a running routine and all the sprinting at the end and downhill running on the local Cross Country course at Entradero has started taking its toll on my legs. It's quite painful, immediately after I stop running they begin to throb, and I end up having to wait a couple days before it isn't painful to run again. Theoretically you're supposed to just take six months off or something to let them heal, but that would sort of go backwards with regards to what I'm trying to do with the whole getting into better shape concept. I've been looking into other non-contact forms of exercise like biking and whatnot, might have to start doing more of that instead of running, even though that's really what I need to be working on. Gr.

So it's Thursday night and I don't have much of anything planned for the weekend... Anyone out there in boredom land feel free to look me up, I tend to be available...

I did manage to finish reworking my movielist, so now it's much more useful and will require less effort on a daily basis. Wonder why I wrote movielist as one word. That's not even what the filename is or anything. Weird.

I was bored enough tonight I went Google searching again, with "ucsb blog" popping up some interesting people whose guestbooks I immediately spammed with gibberish. Still refreshing the AFOQT scores at least 3 times a day, tomorrow is day 5 or so of 10, dun, dun dun dun.

A Roof With A View...

The tiny spider inches its way along the metal railing next to the young man. He watches as inch by inch, progress is made. The tone of his friend's voice is still echoing inside his head as he lifts his gaze to take in the view around him. From the lawn chair on the roof of the apartment building several stories up, he can see much of the surrounding area, the lights from many tall buildings interrupting the darkness that is the night. It is cold, the breeze has picked up since the beginning of the conversation. He realizes the time has been passing unnoticed. He glances back to his friend as she stares off into space, seemingly oblivious of the temperature as she stands there, leaning against the railing in a tank top and jeans with her arms crossed, defiant. The deep down sadness is shown in her expression. A tear is still visible on her cheek before she wipes it away, seemingly angry her emotions have become visible. The young man is torn, wanting to help, not knowing what he can do. He's never seen her like this, but they've never really had this kind of conversation before. Usually it's he who's jabbering away, telling a story, making side comments whenever possible. Tonight it is she, opening up a side of her he's never seen. For the most part he just listens, trying to understand what she's going through, but knowing he can't share the weight of the pain to make her side lighter, no matter how hard he tries. He wishes he didn't have to see the people he cares about like this. There's a silence for a minute, as the crescent of the moon climbs higher into the sky. His gaze wanders back to the spider. It's decided against that earlier course towards her, and is now making its way back towards him. It disappears behind a potted plant, as he shivers."

Made the trek up into L.A. to visit a friend last night, she's staying there for the summer to attend summer school, originally from the Bay Area. Seemingly random conversation eventually turned to much less pleasant topics, as I learned about a problem she's been facing for a while. Made me realize that I must have been making progress somewhere a long the line, because the number of nights when I feel the way she does have dropped dramatically over the years. I guess it's because I have friends like her to talk to whenever I feel the need, there's always an open ear whenever my voice needs to be heard. Then again I guess it could be because I've been lacking a girlfriend or female companion for almost two years now, and so there's been less drama...

Not much pains me more than seeing an inherently good person affected negatively by someone else, when it's out of my control. You just want to give them a big long hug and show them that you're there, and always will be. Our conversation last night made me realize she's one of only a few really close friends I have at UCSB, whom I can always call whether it be to whine about the latest rejection I've faced, or ask for a ride because my car broke down in the middle of the night. I just haven't really connected with the amount of people I did in high school, even though I've been there three full years. I think the overall mentality is just different in college, and the amount of people on my wavelength is minimal. Makes me thankful to have the close friendships that I do, I wouldn't ever want to give those away.

To those who make my friends feel like shit, open your eyes, and realize what an idiot you are.

Feels Like Noon, But Isn't.

Guess that's what happens when you wake up at 2:30pm. I'm allowed though, after the 4am wakeup yesterday I ended up intelligently staying up until 2am, not quite making it to the full twenty four hour day. I had good reason though, so it's all good.

The test, ah the test. Imagine taking a full blown SAT for about two and a half hours, getting a ten minute break, and then proceeding to go through TEN more sections all more stressful than the previous, and eventually finishing the test five hours later than when you started. Definitely the longest test I've ever taken, and even though I love tests as opposed to homework and such, and used to take practice SATs for fun, this was not very fun.

Some of the later sections were VERY difficult, not because the questions were hard, but because the time limit was ridiculously short. One section had a table with forty numbered row and columns with random numbers in every slot, with the rows and columns numbered as if they were the X and Y values of a graph, from -20 to 20 on both axes. Without using a straight edge or marking on the sheet in any way, we had to take two numbers given in the problem and find the corresponding number on the sheet. It's an easy task, unless you're rushed. That and the fact that the test problems themselves were just in a list on the page in two columns next to the problem number so your thought process went like this:

"Okay I'm on #316, where is that on the page, okay here it is, numbers across from it are -16 and 18, okay look at the table, find -16 on the X horizontal, take my finger and slide it down carefully without screwing it up towards about where 18 should be, oh wait that's -18, slide it back up, okay there's 18, double check yes I'm in the right place, okay the number is 319, okay back to the test sheet, 319, 319, wait what number was I on, check answer sheet, okay it was 316, scroll over from #316, look at the choices, wait what did I say the answer was 316? No wait it was 319 okay that's choice D okay quick bubble bubble it in okay next problem #317."

If you read that and understood it all then maybe my brain isn't as confusing as I thought. Again, it doesn't look all that difficult, but when you put a 7 minute timelimit on 40 of those giving you about 10 seconds a question including bubbling, it can get tight. Thanks to being prepared and having taken a full on practice test before going, I knew how fast I had to work on each of the sections, and ended up doing them pretty efficiently. On more than one section I could tell I was the only one who finished, with the average person around me finishing about half. It was quite satisfying to be done when the proctor came back into the room and hearing nothing but mad random bubbling all around me. One guy said during the break he was using the "BABE" technique of randomness for the ones he didn't get to. I'd never heard of that before, go figure.

The test room itself was quite bizarre, at first we were all seated in this somewhat long room with desks and I was getting all set up assuming the test would be there, but then they opened this small door which led into this literally four feet by six feet room or so with ten desks crammed into every conceivable space. There were windows on all sides but they were somewhat soundproof, so other than the door it's just us in a claustrophobic's nightmare. Luckily that's not me.

The best part was when the proctor would leave the room at the beginning of one of the faster sections (some were as short as 3 minutes) and you could hear him say to the other people working in ajoining rooms (COME WATCH THIS ONE THERE'S NO WAY ANYONE WILL FINISH THEY'RE SCREWED) thinking the windows were soundproof. Nothing like having six guys line up against a window about six inches from your face looking over your shoulder as you take one of the more stressful tests of your life. Sheesh.

Ten days maximum is how long it's supposed to take to get the scores, they break it down into 5 subcategories by percentile, with 99 99 99 99 99 being the highest. The categories are three academic just based on the first six sections that are very SAT like, Verbal, Quantitative, and Academic Aptitude, which is just the first two scores combined. The last two categories are Pilot and Navigator, which are composites based on the test sections they feel will be most representative of what those jobs will require. I've been thinking quite positively, so I'm hoping for 90 Pilot, 90 Navigator, 90 Verbal, 95 Quantitative, and 90 Academic Aptitude. This is where my parents both go "RIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT." Basically if you think about it those scores just require beating 9 out of every 10 people who took the test, which is I'm guessing a no more than a couple thousand nationwide, maybe even as few as five hundred. Generally when I make predictions I end up overestimating, and I always hope that isn't the case the next time, but I like being optimistic. Of course, in order to be eligible you only have to get like 50 combined between all five scores, but I'm trying to counteract a lower than average GPA, so exceptional scores would be ideal.

La Cienaga was very kind going both directions, only took me a half hour or so, the 405 can be up to an hour during rush hour traversing the same distance.

More later, as the day was only half over by the time I got home.

Gah, Nerves, I Guess.

What's really annoying about having a big day that I need to be up early for is the night before the night of I always let myself get like ten hours of sleep, then take another couple hour nap later in the day, to the point I'm as rested as I can possibly be. Then I try to go to bed the night before the big day for just an eight hour normal set, and not only can I not get to sleep, but when I finally do I end up waking up too early, fully awake. So here I am at 4:15 when my alarm was set for 5, not having to be in LA until 6:30. Even if traffic was horrendous I could get there in an hour. Guess I'll read the paper, and listen to some motivational music or something. :) I suppose I shouldn't complain, it's a lot better deal to be yawning a bit because you woke up an hour early, instead of falling asleep even though you didn't get there until an hour late.

Wish me luck, that's always useful. More later when I return from the test, it doesn't get over until like noon, sadly enough.

Doh, Was That A Tree?

Broke down and actually PURCHASED a computer game yesterday. [waits for everyone's mouths to return to their normal size] Yeah, I know, not exactly in my usual scheme of doing things. Alas I could not find a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 ANYWHERE through my usual avenues of acquiring entertainment, and I finally made the decision that since it was going to be more a learning tool than anything else, and was actually applicable to my future career, that I could justify paying full price for it. At least it came with the strategy guide included, that must count for something.

Basically for those who have been under a rock, the Microsoft Flight Sim series is one of the oldest gaming institutions there is, with the initial product coming out in 1988, I believe. There have always been people wanting to fly a plane without leaving their room, taking lessons, getting certified, and paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for x number of hours of flight time. Interestingly enough, the program has become so advanced, that instructors actually use it as a training tool for their students to teach various concepts. It makes sense really, you can practice the same manuever over and over again without costing anyone money, and all those initial banking curves through trees and spirals deep into the dirt are much less horrific than the real thing.

I got through all of the initial student training and ground school, learning an absolute ton of information in the process. Interestingly enough I found the answers to about ten questions that I've seen on practice AFOQTs in the aviation information section, so I'm probably doing myself a real big favor by reading through all this before the test Monday, at least for that section. Spent the day yesterday over at Borders, Super Crown, and Barnes and Noble, going over more sections and practice problems, and otherwise busying myself wandering around reading random material. I always get weird looks in bookstores these days, apparently I fit in better with the glasses and braces look of middle school, people tend to look at me as if I got lost on the way to Sports Illustrated.

The big test is Monday, have to be in LA at 6:30am, weeeeeeee. Oh, and you can only take the test twice in a lifetime. No pressure. :) Actually I'm not worried, I think I'm much better prepared than your average Joe. And modest besides.

Google Does Me Good Again...

Randomly plugging stuff in as usual, when a song comes blaring in from my mother's study that I remembered from my childhood, decided to snag it, turned out to be "Hands to Heaven" by Breathe from way back in 1988. Fourteen years ago even, scary thought.

The way I came across the title was just plugging in some of the lyrics, and I stumbled upon someone's page, who had written out all the lyrics to a few dozen songs and turned them into beautiful webpages with pictures and designs and so forth, and the song in compressed wav format playing in the background. Some were songs I'd heard, some were songs I hadn't, all were quite touching. Thought I'd pass along some lyrics from one by Billy Gilman, who some of you might have heard of, the young boy phenom who's been lighting places up all over the country

"There's a flower in the smallest garden
Reaching for the light
There's a candle in the darkest corner
Conquering the night
There is amazing strength in a willing hand
There are victories
That you've never planned
There's a hero
In everybody's heart

There's a fire inside of everybody
Burning clear and bright
There's a power in the faintest heartbeat
That cannot be denied
Go on and trust yourself
You can ride the wind
You're gonna take your dreams
Where's they've never been
There's a hero
In everybody's heart"

How'd That Tennis Ball Get In My Arm...

If any of you need a way to double the size of your right bicep in a week's time, I recommend just bowling a couple times in a span of a week, playing at least 3-4 games each time, and not putting your thumb in the ball. My strange style of just using the middle and ring fingers in the front two holes and having the other three simply palm it creates this really bizarre release followed by an insane left bending curve that takes it all the way from where I release it near the center over to the right gutter and all the way back over to the left side of the head pin, generally. This is sort of the way it's supposed to look, but with a lot less control and grace. :)

By the second throw tonight I felt my arm twinge as if I'd strained my bicep, which is weird because I haven't been doing any real hardcore arm workouts since I went a full week ago. I didn't stretch as properly as I should have, I guess. Deciding to play through the pain I ended up doing pretty well, I just had to rely on leaving my left hand on the ball as long as possible so my right arm was doing as little work as possible, and aiming a little further right, since it was curving more due to not having the power to get down the lane like it normally does.

Man, I probably sound like a bowling junkie by now. Well anyway, now it feels like there's a tennis ball under the skin attached to my bicep, which is I guess a good thing, other than the fact its quite sore, and I'm sure will be hard to move in the morning. Luckily I'm not at school, or I'd have to deal with "questions" about why my right arm is bigger than my left. I'm sure you can figure out what the assumption generally is. "It's all about the single room eh Matt?" Unfortunately it's harder to form tricep that does the majority of the work during push-ups and proper pull-ups with palms facing away from you. Gonna have to lay off the arm work for a couple days looks like, though. And DAMNIT I NEED TO STOP USING ITS AND IT'S...

[flexes a few more times] For the moment, I almost feel like I could arm wrestle someone, and put up a decent fight! ;)

What The...

Tonight's random search engine query that brought a surfer of the internet follows...

"How to force husband to leave & I do not love him anymore"

Yikes, let's hope that it was part of a joke, or something. If people who are actually serious about it are randomly typing that into Google, well, that's just a real sad thing.

Beat SOF2, turned out to only take a couple of days. That's what I like about FPS's, you beat them, and move on. Now off to the living room for some ab work. WHEE.

What A Mess...

For those wanting to try their hand at the most violent FPS out there, I recommend Soldier of Fortune II. Now for all you haters out there, the game has like 20 different ways to turn down the violence, as well as a parental lock with password option, so our children can be protected to whatever level you want them to be. Now back to those who are actually aware of the difference between a "game" and "reality." This is easily the most violent game I've played, mainly due to the realism of the death animations, the dismemberment, the groans, spurts, squishies, and various other details I'll spare my elderly readers from. It's supposedly one of the longer single player games out there, I've put several hours in over the last few days and haven't beaten it yet, but I have no idea how close I am. Will update later on that.

Still no job, which is becoming quite irksome. Not that I mind being able to focus on things like running and arm/ab work, but money is good too. Spent Friday wandering around with the father, checking out various speaker systems, DVD players, and digital cameras, not that he was actually going to buy anything, half the fun is wandering around the store and then leaving, I guess.

Haven't quite decided what my big purchase of the summer is going to be, largely because my income is not yet steady and thus I don't know how much money I'll have to work with. Possibilities include a flat panel monitor (pretty sure I've been talking about that since I started this blog, and yet I'm still staring at this not even flat pos I've had since freshman year), a Klipsch speaker system, or a digital camera. All three of those things are good for the long term, the digital camera would get a lot of use, and the speakers and monitor would make great additions to my dorm room/new place of living in the next year or so. I'm guessing my amount of income will greatly influence which purchase I make, since the speakers run about $400, the digital camera something more like $600, and the monitor well, more than that. :/ Its actually dropped down to about $2.5k from $4k, so hopefully I'll be able to find it somewhere closer to $2k or below if I decide to go that route. That's an awful lot of money still, though. Winning lottery tickets anyone?

Got an honest to goodness handwritten letter today, which by the way is always the coolest thing ever. Knowing someone actually took time to put pen to paper for a few minutes, in order to write to me even, is always enough to lift my spirits. Mailing something back will give me something else to do other than sitting around here, anyway.

Also saw Dralion and Nouvelle Experience, the last two Cirque Du Soleil shows I'd rented off Netflix, and was again impressed by the former, and somewhat entertained by the latter. Maybe it's because I'd been so impressed by Quidam, but I'd have to rank Dralion a bit below it, and Nouvelle Experience as the worst of the four. Still has some good acts, but overall nowhere near the caliber of the other three shows I snagged (the third being Saltimbanco). The DVD was full screen rather than wide screen, and at times very dark and blurry, so it was hard to see at times, not too impressive. Also ripped Searching for Bobby Fischer (5 M's) which is a quite entertaining story about a young chess prodigy. That is, if you're at all interested in chess, or the idea of young prodigys. Otherwise you'd probably think it sucked. :)

Going to have to start another mad burning spree, with all these rips having to stay local until the Fall when I can spread them around in trades for new and exciting things, going to have to burn off a lot of the old stuff. Oh, and two Simpsons eps down, 101 hours worth to go. :/

Up, Up, Up, and BOOM!

Headed down to the pier to take in tonight's fireworks, had the usual fun with the oohs and aahs, from our vantage point atop my father's workplace. Just adjacent to the water and with a great view of the pier and the throngs of people who had turned out to mob it, it turned out to be a pretty good spot for viewing, even though it involved climbing a tall ladder carrying lawn chairs.

We've temporarily moved my speaker system out into the family room so my family can enjoy the effects of Dolby Digital 5.1 sound with the new DVD player, this works out pretty well for me since the father is now hooked on the idea, and will probably end up inheriting the system I got a great deal on about three years ago, and allowing me to upgrade to a newer (and even louder) one. Nothing like watching a movie where when a car goes flying by on the screen you hear it go through the left channel, center, then out the right and literally look out your window to see if it just went over your house and is about to land in the backyard. Very cool stuff.

I figure a new system will be a tad much for my dorm room, but the quality will be amazing, and that's the type of thing I can take around with me to everywhere I move in the future. Gotta start thinkin long term, almost done with this whole college thing.

So basically I'm deaf from the movies and fireworks, guess I'll turn in early. Then again The Rock (6 M's) is still blasting out there, might be a little tough. :)

Ridiculous...

That's my word of choice when describing many of the Cirque Du Soleil acts from Quidam, the latest DVD I rented/watched/ripped. When you realize you haven't closed your mouth for an entire ten minute act it's pretty obvious they're doing something impressive. Ridiculously impressive. Absolutely ridiculously amazing displays of strength. You basically just have to see it for yourself. This has been my favorite so far, other than the live ones I saw in Vegas. Frankly all of them seem like they'd be even better in person. Not that seeing them on any screen isn't good, but actually being there is something else altogether. Couple more on order, Dralion which is supposedly to be many people's favorite, and Nouvelle Experience.

Congrats to Brazil for bringing home the Cup, and more importantly thank GOODNESS its over, these 4am wakeups for the final matches were getting rough. :) Luckily Germany 2006 should only be half as many hours ahead, so it will be more like midmorning to early afternoon games over here.

Minority Report has become the first movie in a long time that I went to see twice in the theaters, mainly since my friend was quite insistant. I didn't put up much of a fight though, she wasn't having any part of Lilo and Stitch, which I've heard is pretty good, so I relented.

Still nothing of interest going on the job searching front, been spending about an hour a day on monster.com and various other sites looking for stuff I can do that pays more than chump change, but come up empty so far. Begun preparing for the AFOQT coming up on the 15th though, so we'll see from there what my future is beginning to look like.

It Starts...

Watched Season 1, Episode 1, of the Simpsons yesterday. We'll see how many I can knock out this summer. The real sad thing is when you think about it in terms of 20 minutes an ep, 291 eps, ummmm, 5820 min, ummmm, 97 hours or so? Actually that's not as long as I thought. Hell you could just lock yourself to a chair for 4 days and be done with it! :)

Also watched Saltimbanco, the first of the Cirque Du Soleil DVDs to come my way. This one also included the two brothers who are now performing in Mystere in Vegas (Saltimbanco toured back in 94) and I was amazed yet again. It's still quite cool to see Cirque on DVD, but it's really much better to see it in person. Then again I guess the price is right. Also watched Stomp Out Loud, the HBO special that was extended into a DVD based on the musical Stomp, involving plenty of rhythm, lots of noise, and toe tappin fun. Was actually better than I thought it would be, you wonder how interesting they can make slamming brooms around, but some of the sequences are pretty impressive.

Holy Jiggawats, its July? Middle of summer already, and all that. Well not really for me, I don't go back until like the 20th of Sept or something, so I still have almost three full months here. Rats.

Was looking at the Fry's ad today, and noticed they're up to 40x CDR burners now. Makes my 10x look pretty weak. Going to be doing a lot of burning as the summer wears on and especially before I go back to school too. Hrm... Not having to upgrade the comp as I normally do since I spent too much money last summer and it's still very high end, so I'm thinkin the extra money from working will go towards maybe a flat panel, maybe some speakers, maybe a digital camera, maybe a faster burner... We'll have to see. Flat panel would be the highest priority, but also the most expensive by FAR, given it would have to be at least the same size as the 18in viewable I have right now, and preferrably bigger. Aren't I just the pickiest.

For those looking for a game to entertain them temporarily, I recommend Theme Hospital, it's this quite temporarily addicting game in which you basically build a hospital from the ground up, hire staff, control the way things work, and try to make it the best hospital possible until it achieves certain ratings and you move on to the next level. Very Sim Theme Parkish if you've played that one. I seem to have run out of FPS's to play, and I'm trying to avoid starting an RPG I'll get sucked into for months, so I'm diggin out some old school stuff to keep me entertained between tv episodes/DVDs.

Man, my life during the summer is pretty lame. I need to get some hikin goin, some theme park trips, something outside the norm. I FINALLY cleaned out the van of all the boxes, organized my room, and packed a couple boxes of old stuff to put up in the attic, and put some of the stuff from school that didn't need to be unpacked into the garage. So now I'm set for the three months I'm here anyway. Oi. Is it move in day yet? :/