Rocks, Rocks, Whoops, and More Rocks

Got off my arse and headed out into the mountains with the hall yesterday for a hiking trip... Just finished watching the video with everyone in the lounge. Headed up the Seven Falls trail north of Santa Barbara mission, had a blast. I'd forgotten how fun hiking is, it had been a while. Think I'm gonna go for many more excursions during upcoming weekends to see what there is to see around here. Passing by the mission was actually more interesting than most would think due to the fact that the last time I'd seen it I was in 4th grade... Obviously seemed WAY smaller than previous, going to have to stop by and take another look around there sometime too. Kind of sad how little of this area I've seen given I've lived here for three years.

So anyway, about twenty of us ended up gettin up to Inspiration Point, with a view of all of Santa Barbara, Goleta, and UCSB. Was quite worth the hike in my mind. On the way back we tried hiking up this creek bed on this supposed trail, which ended up causing various bouts with cliff faces and helping people climb them, and some occasional interesting scenarios with ppl slipping into pools or sliding down rocks. I managed the lengthiest fall of the day after climbing up a 60 degree or so pebble water runoff kind of trail thing to see if it would gain us any ground, and on the way down slipping and sliding about sixty feet before coming to a stop near the bottom. Got some decent skin taken off my side but alas, its part of the fun. Did manage to get one incident caught on camera when I was balanced on the side of one of the faces laughing at the antics of someone else, and leaned back a little bit too far and almost managed to end up in the rocky pool ten feet or so below. That got the legs a shakin for a while and I made strong attempts to not do anything else stupid for the remainder of the trip. :) Another classic shot was the ten of us lined up at this dam type thing and on the count of three seeing who could explactorate furthest. Heh.

Overall a fun bonding experience, especially with some of the 3rd floor people I don't see much, enjoyed it thoroughly.

An Attempt At Imitation

I really enjoy a particular blog by a woman living in New York City, called Encounters Witnessed and Conversations Overheard. She takes random but later significant encounters with people from her everyday life, and reproduces the conversation for everyone to see. They say imitation is a form of flattery, so I'm going to attempt to do just that.

It's late Sunday night, past one. The young man walks from his car home towards his dorm, passing betwen buildings. He twirls his keys in his hand. He spots a cute young woman hovering outside the door of another dorm. She seems lost, afraid, perhaps locked out. He decides to see if she's alright, as his path approaches the building. As he nears the door opens, another young man walks out. The sparkle of their immediate smiles can be seen from a distance. They kiss, and embrace, before walking slowly down the hallway, arm in arm, as the door swings shut behind them. Out in the cold night, the man sighs, and shivers. He puts his keys back into his pocket, and continues home.

I decided to italicize it and future attempts of this sort so its clear when I randomly start talking in the third person what's going on. Seeing the way such simple things affect people in such a multitude of different ways is amazing to me. I guess these types of entries will help show another glimpse into the world that only I see.

A War By Any Other Name, Still Kills.

Just arrived home from a theater excursion, where a friend and I witnessed the power that is We Were Soldiers the latest in a string of recent war movies, this one starring Mel Gibson. Going in I'd heard it compared to Black Hawk Down, but frankly I didn't see many similarities at all other than the obvious fighting factor, and the fact they were both true stories. However on the gruesome/violence scale, if you the previous one made you queasy, I highly suggest you avoid this one. The opening scene is an excellent litmus test, within about thirty seconds of the movie start you've seen a good sampling of what will take place for the remainder of the movie. Easily the most graphic film I've ever seen, and that's saying something. The only thing I can compare it to is the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. That said, I felt it was a very well done and extremely powerful movie. I guess advances in technology is what causes this one to go even further than previous gorefests when it comes to graphic realism. Plenty of slow motion deaths in this one, there were many a gasp in the theater from the soft hearted. This one didn't cause me to shed any tears, but I think that was mostly due to me being agape with awe at what was going on, amazed that someone experienced it in real life. As for a rating, I'm going to have to go with 6+ M's out of 7. Pretty hard to make it better than it was, or any more powerful, thought provoking, or mind boggling. It made an attempt to show the major battle involved from both sides, allowing us to get to know characters from the other side of the lines as well, largely the general of the opposing forces. This allowed for pivotal scenes when known characters from both sides would clash, causing the audience to feel the pain of whichever one came out on the short end, regardless of whether they were "good" or "bad." The acting was superior to most, I've always like Gibson in movies such as Braveheart and The Patriot, and this one is no different. Also some amazing supporting performances, that just contributed to the overall horror of the situation. Little tiny men making an effort to change the great big world, and not knowing whether they're treading water in quicksand.

Floatin In The Clouds...

Sometimes saying somethig nice goes a long way. Its one thing to get a compliment from your family or a close friend, that tends to be a common occurrence, or even something they feel they "should" do from time to time. Its a completely different thing to me when I receive a compliment from a total stranger, or someone I know but not very well.

Last night I was just walking down the hall when someone pulled me aside to tell me that I was an excellent writer, something I really don't hear too often. During most of my life and especially high school, I've been surrounding by amazing writers, and was always considered by them as a mediocre one, occasionally entertaining. A certain event in the Academic Decathlon managed to kill my confidence for quite some time that I would ever be able to write something worth a decent grade. Still have to get around to telling that story. Some day when I'm already depressed. Anyway, apparently the person had made it to this page at one time or another and thoroughly enjoyed it. The person was adamant to the point they thought I should drop Business Econ and pursue a writing career. Usually I'd shrug off the random comment from someone as B.S., or them trying to kiss my ass for some reason or another, but something about the way the person said it made it seem sincere. They weren't looking me in the eye, as if they were almost embarrassed to give such a bold and random compliment. Who knows, maybe I got all excited over a joke, but regardless, it made me feel really good inside.

Those types of random acts of kindness always tend to keep me up in the clouds for days at a time. People don't realize how much it means to me, especially when I'm down in the dumps for some reason or another.

There have been many arguments about the purpose of an online journal, and I've seen many a personal attack towards someone suggesting they're just doing it for "the attention." I suppose that has to be a little part of it for everyone who keeps one, otherwise there's no real rational reason to make it public. Some people are more concerned than others when it comes to counting their hits and regular readers, but I don't think I'm one of those people.

I write for me, myself and I. If I didn't think I had anything to gain from expressing my feelings through words, I wouldn't. I really enjoy reading back into random entries and seeing how I felt at that time in my life. I tend to bust through each entry in five minutes or so depending on the length, so within a couple days I've forgotten most of what I wrote. When reading through it again, its like reading a book I've never read, by an author I've never met. I don't think I posses the creativeness to actually write a novel out of my head at this point in my life. Maybe its proof of self-centeredness that I'm only able to write hundreds of pages about myself on a daily basis. Then again maybe that's the subject I'm the most intelligent expert on. Yeah, I enjoy hearing that people were entertained by this journal. I am even more excited to hear that they thought something I said was profound, or something that happened to me has changed the way they go about doing something in their own lives. It's the personal closure though that sits me down at the computer every day or two to "blab at the world." Basically speaking out, without knowing whether or not its being heard, or even if it is, by whom.

My initial reason for writing was the concept that if the "perfect person" ever ran into me in real life and wanted to know more, they could read through these pages and basically get my life story, the whole thing, and decide from the get go whether or not I was quite so perfect for them. I figure it would save a lot of time. Maybe that sounds weird, but if I was interested in someone I would totally read all about them regardless of length, to see what there is to see. So, for those who read this regularly, I can only guarantee more of the same. Mostly boring, occasionally intelligent. Mostly random, occasionally exciting. Mostly unimportant, but most importantly, honest.

Strawberry Passion Awareness...

Yeah, its sugar water, but can't say anything tastes better after a hard bit of exercise than sugar water, be it Fruitopia, Powerade, or any other manner of juice. Finally got down to the weight room for the first time in a week or two due to the flu I picked up last week and random headaches and irritation this week, and it felt good. Going to try to make it out to the pool tomorrow depending on the weather, see if I can get a good string of workouts going again. Got a big hike with the hall planned for Saturday, should be fun, I've never been up in the area of the mountains we're heading to.

Finished up my last paper for the quarter, so there's some down time up until Finals in a couple weeks. Then comes Spring Break and most likely a trip to the Bay Area since I haven't been up yet this year and I know of several people headed that way who wouldn't mind company. After that comes Vegas at some point in the vicinity of my birthday in May, and then Texas come August. Things to look forward to, but I have a whole lot of studying to get done before now and then.

Also want to say hi to some of the kind souls blessing me with guestbook entries, and to the rest of you, what are you waitin for? Click away! :)

Rain Rain Go Away...

There won't be any other comments on the events of Sunday night, its now in the past, and nothing of the sort will occur again in the future. No reason to continue repeating myself when everything I could say has already been said.

Two nights ago a group of us were sitting in Ortega enjoying the usual dinner fare when a woman came to our table to introduce herself, and talk about how we should vote in the election the next day. The rest of the guys at my table assumed she was running locally, for some unimportant position. I'm pretty sure I was the only one who heard the name "Lois Capps" and was aware that she is a US House of Representative Congresswoman from our area. So anyway, Mike, immortalized by name here, proceeds to ask Ms. Capps what her opinion on the legalization of marijuana is, mainly because he's a fan of its recreational use. She gives a little schpeal about it without saying whether she was for or against, but after further questioning she admitted the federal government is "not a fan" and "that's who she works for" however she "can be persuaded." Mike follows up with "Well, want to go smoke a bowl?"

And so, UCSB is again represented to the world as having the intelligence of a marijuana plant. Classic.

The Day After.

So, last night's post has generated some response. Some being an understatement.

Apparently it was forwarded around the building somehow, because people who were never before interested in this page have become interested based on last nights events. I'd like to clarify some of that with the addtion of results from today.

First of all I'd like to make the point that I don't use names for a reason, and that its REALLY irksome for people to come to me in order to lambast me for saying something that they felt was directed at them, when it was totally unrelated. If you want the facts, talk to me personally, don't become all irritated over something you have completely wrong anwyay.

So I got to make an appointment with the RD for Wednesday, and fill out an IR on the incident. Later today my R/A came into my room to talk to me about the issues of the hall as a whole, and how he can better improve the way he is dealing with things. I ran down a list of basically everything that had been irritating me about the hall, with the main issue being a complete lack of respect shown by some people on the hall. The maturity level of the hall as a whole has just dropped in the last few weeks, as people get used to be on their own and get away with greater and greater incidents.

What most surprised me about tonight was that shortly thereafter the two guys a couple doors down who have tended in the past to be a source for a lot of the complaints came to me personally to discuss how they can better improve the situation on the hall. I'm pretty sure the R/A had a talk with them about it prior, but they did seem to be genuinely interested in improving the living situation and respect level for everyone here. I mentioned a few of the things that had bothered me personally about them, such as one of them lighting up cigarettes in our hallway sending me into coughing spasms and making the whole hall smell like ass, and the humor of the other one which is just sometimes misplaced, such as the concept of flashing other people on the hall, something not enjoyed by everyone participating. They seemed to seriously take to heart the fact that they've been at an unacceptable maturity level lately and now that someone is finally having to take some of the heat for it they're going to "mend their ways" so that it doesn't happen to them. They assured me it wasn't all talk, and I sincerely hope that it isn't. We came to an understanding that I personally have no problem with the ways they choose to have their fun as freshmen, but when it begins to affect me or others personally negatively, and they receive a complaint, they should make the correct judgement.

The remaining issue is the seemingly twelve year old boy who was on the tail end of the punch last night, who appears to have no intention of changing his ways at all. Last night is far from being the only issue, previously there have been situations where up to six people would be studying in the lounge (adjacent) and helping each other out to study for a midterm and he's shown a total disrespect for all of them buy yelling and carrying on right outside the door, or playing his music at an obscene volume, even after REPEATED attempts by both everyone in the room and the R/A to lower the noise. He is the only one on the hall who feels the need to pump his speakers up to a volume where everyone can hear it clearly, and isn't concerned with it when people ask him to shut it off, regardless of how politely. He's been written up on multiple occasions due to his stupidity, such as smoking weed by himself in his room with the door open, and getting caught after the smell has wafted over the entire hall. Even today, he continued to talk trash, referring to how "girly" my punch was, and telling friends how many "gangsters" he knew up in King City where he dug ditches all summer (yeah, I know, that explains a lot) who are willing to drive hundreds of miles to "do his dirty work." I find it humorous. The one time he could have actually fought back and used his "mad guns" to "beat the shit out of me" and claimed self defense, his solution was to cry. The phrase "all talk" is most appropriately used here. He just recently started smoking cigarettes again, so if nothing else, that will do him in eventually. He goes out of his way to cause problems in other people's lives, I guess I should just say what goes around comes around. (edit: That's not a threat, don't read it as such, I wouldn't waste my time. I'm done with the situation with him, he'll get what's coming to him regardless of whether I'm involved.)

Luckily it would appear that the situation with everyone else has resolved itself to the point that they're more concerned with him than with anyone else, and a general understanding has been reached among those of us intelligent enough to hold a coherent conversation. So basically, everyone on the hall is now going to thoroughly enjoy the next time he gets caught, and gets to deal with the same situation I'm going through, except to a fuller extent, because it will be his 3rd writeup, grounds for removal from the dorms. The amount of slack he's been cut will be eliminated completely, and he'll have to be very careful if he does want to finish out the year here. I won't be sorry to see him go, and I'm not the only one.

So, resolution, major strides have been taken today to improve the situation on the hall by its various members, our R/A has pledged to deal with future occurances appropriately before it reaches this extent, and one little boy cowers in his room waiting for the walls to close in on him.

In other news, the nickname "Muhammad" has been coined in reference to me, I found that to be quite clever.

Not Your Typical Run Of The Mill Sunday Night.

Everything was normal until oh say, 1am last night. That was when I decided to use the restroom, heading halfway down the hall to where they're located on this floor. While I'm in there, I hear the door open and soon after I see a camera appear above the top of my stall and the flash goes off. Immediately I hear two people crack up and go running out of there. At first I was relatively cool about the situation, acknowledging that freshmen will be freshmen, and this is the kind of crap that they'll pull.

Unfortunately I was not in the best of moods last night, and that's not how it went over. Especially lately, there have been a string of issues regarding disrespect involving some of the people on my hall. I've had to remove everything off my door, because anything I put up such as a sign to show people where I am when I'm out, or various posters, are either lit aflame, or just defaced/damaged or ripped off. I figured with nothing on my door there was no way I'd run into an issue with the people again, until this happened. My R/A this year is only a sophomore, and when it comes to responding to complaints he basically doesn't do much of anything. So tonight I go into his room immediately following the incident and explain what happened, and he proceeds to tell me that he's heard of it happening to other people, and there have been no complaints, and there's not much he can do about it. Frustrated and pissed off, I then run into one of the ringleaders generally leading the charge in causing problems, recently he's been seen both with a keg in his room doling it out to anyone wanting to get trashed, or smoking in the actual hallway, making the whole place smell like shit. He proceeds to claim he had nothing to do with it, but names two people who he thinks did. Further down the hall the door of one of the two's room opens, and out leans one of the aforementioned people. Quite pissed off, I asked him if he had anything to do with it, and he immediately starts laughing and giggling before I even mention what the incident was and saying that "he heard."

So I clocked him. Those of you who know me are aware that its been a VERY long time since I've dealt with things in a physical manner. Generally I go by the "ignore and it'll pass" or "what goes around comes around" rule, but that just didn't happen this time. Its the same time every year that the freshmen decide to come up with new ways to generally disrespect people, and find new ways to show their immaturity at the expense of others. The R/A generally is powerless to stop them, and gives me the usual "freshmen will be freshmen" defense. Unfortunately each year at about this time I've had to make a point that I'm not amused by any of it, and that if they feel like fucking with someone, it had better be with someone else. So this year I made the mistake of resorting to physical retaliation.

Don't get me wrong, its not like I hammered on some innocent schoolgirl, this guy was a high school wrestler, wears nothing but wife beaters to show off his "mad guns" and is supposedly one of the "toughest" guys on the hall. I've had to deal with him having many a "friendly" wrestling match in the middle of the hall, as he and his buddies slam each other around "all in good fun." Apparently though, one hand can cause half his face to swell up. I'm not even a lefty, and I was holding my bathkit with my right at the time. Personally, I think he went in and hit himself again eight times harder afterward to cause a greater effect before he immediately went to the R/A to complain. So of course, the one time I'm on the other side of the issue, all of a sudden the powers at be know exactly how to deal with the situation.

Unbelievably, within a half hour I'm downstairs with the ARD and two police officers, explaining my side of the story as the stupid boy decides whether or not he wants to press charges or not. Apparently two people beating each other up in the hall is fine, body slamming is fine, smoking in the hall, kegs in the room, these are all examples of upstanding young citizens, but someone getting what was coming to them is grounds for immediate reprimand.

So anyway, law enforcement resources were wasted for about an hour as I calmly described the recent events, and basically eventually made it quite clear to the officers that not only had their time been wasted, but the little boy who can't form a coherent sentence whether intoxicated or not is someone they should keep an eye on. I made no attempt to deny that I gave him what he deserved though, so apparently I get to have a meeting with the RD and possibly go before the student judiciary committee or something or other to decide if "further action" needs to be taken.

I'm not worried, this isn't something I can't handle. Three years in the dorms with a perfect record will stand up a lot better than someone who's been written up twice for marijuana and various other delinquent activities. Just not something I needed to deal with, and gladly, it appears I won't ever have to deal with it again for the remainder of the year. Everyone's been giving me a wide berth this morning, it appears the word is out.

Comments? Other than hitting people is bad, I don't feel there's much for other people to say. The world is not a perfect place, pretending like you're going to be able to get through life without ever defending yourself is a pathetic fantasy.

Come Sail Away, Come Sail Away...

Wow, absolutely beautiful day. You could see the islands more clearly than any day in recent memory, and the mountains seemed much more prominent than usual. Managed to get out to enjoy the scenery today and had no regrets.

There's something in the wind, a whole lot of my friends are telling me stories about recent breakups and how they're dealing with them, its really weird hearing various stages of the same overall scenario from different people, as the process goes through initial bitterness/denial, anger/revenge, jealousy, and eventually acceptance and acknowledgement of the actuality of the present situation (that being the fact that he/she is not coming back). I don't get too excited though, just when the singles pool seems to be getting larger they all seem to pair off again. :/

Hm, LCDs are getting cheaper, but still not cheap enough. The VP230MB is down to a whoppingly cheap $3400. Heh. Spare change anyone?

A Light In The Dark

The internet came back up a few minutes ago, for the moment. Was down all evening. Apparenlty the resnet guy has most of comm services working on the problem now, and they've narrowed it down to something between the switch and the port in my room, if not one of the two. Lovely. This being Friday I'll get to deal with it for a few more days until Monday when people go to work again.

I'm becoming qutie confused by the concept of an internet search. One of the services I use to track traffic through this page spits out a list of all the things people have searched for and ended up being linked to it. Some make sense: "searching something" "ucsb blog" or some movie or book titles. Others however, like "Pictures of 5th grade girls tied up and gagged"? Um, I BEG your pardon? There's obviously some sort of issue there. I'm pretty sure I've been coherent enough while typing that those words have never appeared anywhere near that order in here. Sheesh. How pathetic are people today that they're looking for something like that. I guess there's no real way for search engines to block that kind of search that obviously isn't productive. Then again I suppose that's most of the business a search engine gets. Pathetic.

The cat died.

Was over 10 years old, didn't seem that long. Poor cat. Those looking for a eulogy should head for the sisters page, she's always more vocal about these types of things. I tend to be more of an introvert.

I would link her, but I think the corporate demigods would immediately have her tarred, feathered, chained, whipped, beaten, fired, and publicly farted on if they managed to put a name to the "horrible" things she says on her page. Strange how I can go from a tragedy to a joke in two sentences. Guess its just my way of doing things. Always makes things easier, unfortunately not always appropriate.

March? Is it really?

The Clock Is Ticking.

Added something to chase the cursor around the page and entertain the masses. Quite cool I think. I'm a dork, though.

The Week That Wasn't

So the Grammy's sucked. They just weren't very entertaining. All stuff I'd heard before, no one really did anything significantly different. The people who were supposed to win basically did, and the host wasn't very funny. Luckily, I taped them, and instead spent the time going to another a cappella concert in IV theater where the UCSB group Naked Voices performed with the Michigan group Dicks and Janes. Had a much more enjoyable time there, even though I had to sit way in the back to avoid infecting everyone with the flu. Nothing like going from 102 degrees to 60 degrees (seemingly) every 30 seconds. Been atrocious all this week, luckily haven't missed anything important, I'm in the lull before important stuff is due and then finals.

Decided to rearrange my room the other day, to allow myself more space. The bed is now bunked to within about a foot and a half of the ceiling, making not faceplanting when waking up a challenge. However, this allows for a lot to be moved underneath it (like my chair/desk/monitor) and leaves the rest of the room pretty open. I'd say my room is maybe fourteen feet by eight feet, not exactly the hugest room I've ever been in. This new arrangement allows plenty of space for everything though, so I don't really complain.

The new survivor was even more entertaining than the Grammys. Sad.

A Family Affair

So the sister has finally got her act together and gotten her blog working. Alas, the third member of the family to join the revolution. I always knew I was a trendsetter. People have amazing dreams of following in my footsteps. Alas, I have big feet.

The brother for once managed to crack a smile on this hunk of a face, as he referred to the sister's blog as execessively paranoid and representative of someone working for "big tobacco." Not everyone in my family is as blindingly trusting of the internet as I, it would seem. I guess I'm not worried about large angry men lusting for me in prison. Hm. Maybe if I put up pics...

Sigh, Cough, Sneeze.

Another night without internet last night, the resnet guy said he was coming over either between 3 and 5 or after 10 so I sat around, but no dice. Hasn't called yet today either. Gr. Argharghargh. Getting over the flu that I've had for the last few days, had the highest fever of my life I'm pretty sure a couple nights ago, finally decided to take something, that helped me at least get a couple hours of sleep a night, but for the most part its been pretty miserable. Being stuck in my room is bad enough but compounding that with no internet is just REALLY irritating.

Only because I was insanely bored I decide to do various stupid things you shouldn't do with the flu yesterday. Went to play my last intramural racquetball match which I narrowly won after blowing several leads and being down 11-14 in the first and 13-14 in the second and saving game points before winning them both. Literally felt like collapsing after that one, but combined with the hard swimming workout I did Monday and being sick for most of this week I've managed to gain some muscle while losing around 5 pounds. Most noticable is my stomach, which feels like I've been doing hardcore ab workouts for weeks because of all the coughing, any time I try to lean forward or cough I can feel the twinge of pain. A good thing in the long run I guess.

Rolled out of bed this morning to go get a midterm back and get more details for the financial analysis project due Tuesday, turns out I did significantly better than the first midterm, so that's always a good sign. Going to have to work pretty hard for that final, probably the most amount of material to study for of any of my classes.

Heh, let out a big sigh just now and randomly this little furball of a stuffed animal fell off its place of prominence on top of my monitor and let out a loud "I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU!" Got it for Valentine's day, its one of those things that says something when you squeeze it, quite cute. Quite random the way that happened. Maybe its a sign. Hm.

!@#^&%!@#& INTERNET!!

Okay so I'm in someone else's room slammin away on their kb, thanks to my puter bein on the fritz again. >( Havin the guy come to test the port sometime tomorrow or the next day, but I'll probably jack someone else's cable to make doubly sure that isn't the problem before then. So posts will be sparse for a bit.

Took my final midterm today, think I managed to do better than I thought I would. I have a paper and a financial project due next week, but other than that I'm made in the shade until finals. I also got one back, 13 out of 15, gotta love multiple choice when you at least partly know what you're doing, gotta hate multiple choice when there's a very small number of questions. Things are still on track for a better than ever GPA this quarter, but I always seem to say that and there always tends to be hiccups. The Grammys are on Wednesday, but I'll probably end up taping them so I can head to the acapela, er, acapella, er, a capela, er au capealksdfja, er, yeah anyway, that THING over in IV Theater. Other than that not much gonig on this week, besides me fixing my *&@#$^*&^@#$ connection. Gr.

ALKDJALFKJ

Sorry for the large gap, I've been getting intermittant errors with my network connection, consisting of XP telling me that my network cable isn't plugged in randomly, and cutting off my connect for hours at a time. Pretty sure its a problem with the resnet connect to my room and not the cable or my ethernet card, since both are working now and have been for the last six months. Quite strange, and incredibly annoying.

Aaaaaaack

Where'd the weekend go? Midterm tomorrow, must study study. Finally got around to watching The Godfather, the first part anyway. Excellent movie, although I was a bit disappointed I think based on the fact that a lot of people feel its the greatest movie of all time, that was a lot to live up to. 6M's out of 7, managed to generate an interesting dream based on one of the stronger murder scenes. No need for details there... More later, gotta tune in to the Closing Ceremonies. :)

Picatures. Lots of Picatures.

Finally went through the ol shoebox and busted out some picatures (pronounced pick-a-choors) from times long past, and started makin a little collage up on my wall, I figure it'll get bigger as time goes by. My thumbs are owie from all the pushpinning though.

Alas its time to also bust out some other lyrics I particularly enjoy, here's a couple phrases from Linkin Park. The first is from one of their older songs "One Step Closer".

"I can not take this anymore
Sayin everything I've said before
All these words they make no sense
I found bliss in ignorance
The less I hear the less you say
You'll find that out anyway..."

Ooh, disss. Also enjoy their more recent song "In the End..".

It starts with one
One thing I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind
I designed this rhyme to explain in due time
All I know
Time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away
Its so unreal
Didn't look out below
Watch the time go right out the window
Tryin to hold on but didn't even know
I wasted it all just to watch you go
I kept everything inside
And even though I tried
It all fell apart
What it meant to me
Will eventually
Be a memory
Of a time I tried so hard

I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end it doesn't even matter"

Again the disclaimer, I choose lyrics to post based on how good, creative, or powerful I think they are, and unless otherwise stated, they don't reflect upon my mood of the moment, or anything else going in with me personally. I particularly like the alliteration towards the end of In The End leading into the chorus, and the line in One Step Closer "the less I hear the less you say." I sooo feel like saying that to people sometimes. ;)

Night's Are Days...

Managed to stay up most of last night studying hard for an Econ 3A midterm this morning, think I did pretty well. Course I always think that, the results are generally different. Maybe I'll be right for once.

More exciting Olympic action tonight, watched the US narrowly lose the Gold in Women's hockey, and Michelle take home the Bronze in figure skating, as well as young-un Sarah Hughes walking away with the Gold. Looks like the Closing Ceremony on Sunday is going to be a pretty amazing night as well, looking forward to it. That tape they tracked down of Hughes at age like 5 saying "I want to grow up and be in the Olympics and win a gold medal" was pretty amazing. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Also had some uplifting conversations today, when I wasn't asleep. Always nice to chat with old friends.

Burnin The Midnight Oil...

Lots of good tube watchin tonight, had the usual Olympics section of the evening with some pretty cool events on... Managed to watch a world record in speed skating, some pretty incredible aerial manuevers, and witness another great performance by hometown hero Michelle to take the lead in women's figure skating. Guys on the hall walking by who see that I'm watching figure skating always make sure to announce it to anyone in earshot and try to give me a hard time, but hey, gotta support the ppl representin my hometown. :)

Midterm Thursday, going to have to do some serious studying for that one, its the second in a set of three tests for that class for which the scores are all weighted equally (the final being the third) so going to need to perform well. Managed to win my racquetball match tonight even after losing the first game and landing pretty hard on my ankle during the second, causing me to hobble around a bit. My right knee for some reason can never seem to keep the skin on it, every time it heals I tend to screw it up doing something else, or the next week when I play. Go figure.

Also have been getting to know someone I'd known "of" previously but never really gotten the chance to sit down and chat with, she thus far seems like quite the kind and gentle person. She's from my area so we had a good time talking about old times as if we'd known each other in high school. At the very least its nice to know someone else to carpool with when headed southward. Appears I'm finally going to get around to watching the Godfather series after all, she hasn't seen any of them either. Go figure.

Go figure. Go figure. I don't think I say that much in real life. Just a good place filler online I suppose.

Oh, and still no luck in finding the perfect name. Keep those ideas comin! (scroll down for info)

Yaaaaaaaaaawn

Curling. Exciting sport to watch, strangely enough. Showed both men's and women's on CNBC tonight, quite entertaining.

Too tired. Long day. Very exciting. IM me for details, although I'm pretty sure I've already bragged to everyone I know.

Toooooooo Much Chooooooocolate

Ended up basically making myself sick last night from late Valentine's day candy, quite pathetic. Did manage to get a movie watched today, The Score with Robert Deniro and Ed Norton, two of my favorite actors. Norton does an absolutely superb job, and Deniro is his usual self. Very fun robbery plot where you end up cheering for the bad guys, reminded me a lot of Ocean's 11. I'll have to go with 6M's on this one, very entertaining all around, cool gadgets, good action, some clever plot twists, and great acting. Also picked up part of Quigley Down Under on TNT tonight, one of my alltime favorites.

Basically mopin around this weekend, got plans to head out tomorrow, and signed up for a hike into the local mountains that'll take place in a couple weeks, bout time to get out and enjoy the scenery around here.

The Title That Wasn't

Try as I might I could not come up with anything clever for the heading tonight. Alas.

I ended up going to the movie in Campbell after all. I'd give it about an 11 on a sappy scale of 5. :) Quite appropriate for the occasion anyway, from my estimate about 99.9% of the audience were with their significant others. Alas. It was called The Road Home, a Chinese movie that was subtitled. It starred Zhang Ziyi (shot in the dark at the spelling) more popularly known as "that chick in Crouching Tiger." Basically your classic girl meets boy and there's this instant "the one" connection. I wouldn't recommend seeing this one by your lonesome, unless you're in the mood for kind of a tear jerker and don't want anyone else to see. :) All sorts of scenes that generated "awwwwwwww"'s from the audience followed by mass smooches. Apparently it won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival or something, I personally would give it 5M's, although part of that is probably due a combination of jealousy and bitterness. So check it out if you have someone to cuddle up with, one of the better foreign films I've seen.

Three day weekend comin up, not really sure what I'm gonna do with it. Probably catch up on my movie watching. The Godfather series, or the Lethal Weapon series, both of which I've been getting around to. Maybe even some Band of Brothers episodes, still have about nine more of those to see as well.

And for all those of you single people out there:
Young caucasian male seeks young anything to share romantic conversations with.
Heh. It'll pass, just a case of "national single awareness" day.

Merry Cupid Day, All.

I've received a few clever ideas regarding the below contest, involving how to save myself from saying "I made it up" when asked what the random jumble of letters in my new nickname means... One was to take a translation of a word I like from another language. Although this wouldn't actually be a made up word it is much more likely to never be used by anyone else, if its a random enough language. Another was to take the letters and come up with a clever acronym for them, that hopefully won't cause me to appear too self-centered (I create enough of that already). Both good ideas, but so far still hasn't generated the perfect ideas. By the way, I didn't win the lotto. :( However the offer still stands if I EVER win it. Heehee.

Also finished up the housing application online, I went to the site describing the new Manzanita Village area that's going to be completed at the beginning of next year, and it looks quite impressive. Right on the ocean/lagoon, right next to the brand new dining commons, and with plenty of singles for those of us who are picky about our living space. :) Been in this hall for three years, I figure its time for a change of scenery. I'm sure it will be quite impacted with everyone wanting to get a piece of the new pie, but my class level is pretty high, and even if I get shafted i'll just end up over here again, not a horrible thing in itself.

Going to see what looks like a sappy drama chick flick in Campbell Hall tonight, looks like the perfect V Day movie, anyone wanting to join me in wallowing in self-pity feel free to come along. :)

When is a Name Not Just a Name?

So for a while now (what is with me and starting entries with "so." makes me sound like a valley girl. let me try this again.)

Something has caused me to try to be creative for a while now, I've been trying to come up with a cool sounding made up word. In the online world, and just about everything that requires a nickname, I've been known as THUNDER, the nickname that originally stemmed from the soccer field in about 6th grade, when the coach's wife referred to me as "thunderfoot" after a powerful shot. (not that 6th graders can kick that hard, but hey)

The problem with this nickname is it is altogether too common, just about anywhere you go if you do a search for the word you'll come up with a few hundred matches or variations of the word. It also causes problems when it comes to registering for things that require a unique name that has never been picked before by one of the millions of users. So my goal is to come up with something completely made up and unique, that will be instantly recognizable as me, and not me or 800 other imitations.

So, I lay this challenge to all of you, come up with the perfect nickname for me.

Rules:
1. Completely and Totally Unique. (no names from books, movies, or anything, no dictionary words, must be completely non-existant in the real world)
2. The nick must be easily pronouncable by anyone. (THYKER is better than ALSDKJSALJDF. The first is one I've been using for a few things, but I think a better one is out there)
3. Length is limited to 6, 7, or 8 letters. (this is so that I can use it for literally everything, a lot of programs or sites require a minimum of 6, or a maximum of 8)
4. No numbers or strange symbols. (again, different symbols are allowed at different places, this must be universal)

Some other information you should know, I'll be attempting to stick with this one nick for as long as I need a nick, so make sure its a good one that will still be good in 10 years. :) Also given the thumbs up are names that include strange letters like Y and Z or X. (again, must still be pronouncable) To respond to the people who think nicknames are retarded, imagine trying to use my real name for everything. As if there aren't any other "Matt"'s out there.

Now the most important part of the challenge, the PRIZE FOR THE WINNER:

Eternal love and affection, and constant praise of your greatness. (okay, and a grand if I win the lotto tomorrow)
Disclaimer: Family members although encouraged to participate are not eligible for the grand prize.

To submit an entry feel free to post in my guestbook, or just IM me at thndrMATT.

Let the games begin.

Changes in the Wind?

So like, I'm out last night on my way someplace plowing past Campbell Hall doing like 30 and this black cat comes darting out of the bushes giving its best effort to try to get under my tires. Amazingly enough I manage to brake to avoid it and it goes flying into the bushes on the other side of the street. Not that I believe any retarded superstitions. Nope. Not me.

So like, I'm on my way back to my place last night passing through an area somewhat near the first and I see something lying in the road. A black cat. Dead. Pretty sure it was the same one. Must have tried to change someone else's luck too, and failed. :/ How interesting.

A Lucky Day.

So, today is a nice warm sunny day, so I decide to head out to Lake Cachuma to see what its like, and hang out in the sun in nature for a while with some reading material, and eventually cash in the change jar I've been collecting for quite some time and see where it might take me at Chumash. Little did I know the day would be a lot more interesting than that.

I barely got off of 217 before the most scary thing that's happened to me in a while took place. I was parked at the red light in the left arrow lane to turn left onto Patterson from the 217 offramp that merges with the one from the 101. I randomly glance in my rear view and immediately notice a large car barrelling towards me at I'd estimate 50 mph. He was about 30 yards away at that point, and my mind went a million miles a minute, trying to find a rational way to escape the situation. I realize there was nowhere to go, and I just braced myself as best I could. The last thing I thought before he was upon me was "well, this sucks." By some miracle, he decides to swerve just before he hits me, and skids around me to the right, missing my car by less than 6 inches. I was still waiting for the impact after he was past. The next thing I saw and realized was that he was going through the red light without losing any speed. Right as he hit the intersection he started braking, I think realizing his error, or perhaps seeing the small SUV coming in from the left at about the same speed. They both floored the brake but it was too late, and he broadsided her doing at least 40 mph. Debris was sprayed all over the intersection, and both cars were basically totalled. Luckily for her he hit her on the passenger side and there was no one else in the car. After I'd pulled over and hopped out I ran over to see what I could do, and I noticed her passenger side window was right next to her head. She was basically in shock, but appeared to be uninjured short of some bruises. Her car was another story, the whole right side was just crushed in to the point that anything that was in the middle was sprayed all over the ground and intersection. He ended up a bit more shook up, I'm pretty sure he ended up with some sort of internal injury based on the way he was moving minimally after he was taken out of the car. Luckily they both had airbags, including those side impact ones, so that probably helped a great deal. After flagging down one of the witnesses who had a cell phone and pointing out this of all times was a good time to use it, I ended up helping direct traffic for about a half hour while paramedics and police were arriving at the scene. The whole intersection was just a mess of twisted metal and pieces of engine, amazingly enough my car was basically untouched.

So, a lot of it was based on luck, but apparently it was on my side.

I eventually made it onto 154, and am heading up into the mountains, when I get passed on the left in opposing traffic by a car moving at least 40 mph faster than me (theme of the day apparently). Luckily this one appeared to know what he was doing, and I soon noticed it was a jet black Lamborghini, only about 2 feet tall off the road it seemed. This was pretty cool, and made doubly cool when I noticed another car was passing me, this time a ruby red identical car. So I'm confused by now, and that's only doubled when two more pass by, silver and yellow. It was a convention or something. Eventually on the other side of the mountain I saw them all circled up in a turnaround, and then after I passed watched them pull out and go back from whence we came. Just cool to drive those cars through the mountains, or something.

So yeah, eventually I have a really peaceful time at the lake pondering life's questions, and then eventually head home a hundred bucks richer than I started. Luck carried over I suppose. Rereading that last paragraph again from down below. Guess it goes along with my whole theme for this journal. Searching for something, who knows who's in charge of deciding whether or not I'll find it, or whether anyone is really in charge at all.

Is there a time limit on life? Is the clock running? Anyone know where the pause button is? :) I'm in no hurry.

We Are We Are...

Disclaimer: This doesn't reflect anything about my current mood or anything of the sort, I just felt these were powerful lyrics worth reflecting upon here. I've been reading various other journals where people reproduce song lyrics and some of them I find quite interesting. Especially for songs such as this one where the vocalist is whizzing right through everything or is dominated by the rhythm and I might not have even noticed what he was saying.

"The Youth of a Nation"

"Last day of the rest of my life
I wish I woulda known cuz I'da kissed mah momma goodbye
I didn't tell her that I loved her, how much I cared
and thank mah pops for all the talks and all the wisdom he shared
Unware I just did what I always do
Every day the same routine before I skate off to school
But who knew that this day wasn't like the rest
Instead of takin the tests I took two to the chest
Call me blind but I didn't see it comin
Everybody was runnin but I couldn't hear nothin except
Gun blast it happened so fast
I didn't really know this kid though I sit by him in class
Maybe this kid was reachin out for love
Or maybe for a moment he forgot who he was
Or maybe this kid just wanted to be hugged
Whatever it was, I know its because

We are we are, the Youth of a Nation.
We are we are, the Youth of a Nation.
We are we are, the Youth of a Nation.
We are we are, the Youth of a Nation.

Little Susie she was only twelve
She was given the world with every chance to excel
Hang with the boys and hear the stories they tell
She might act kinda proper with no respect for herself
She finds love in all the wrong places
The same situations, just different faces
Changed off her face since her daddy left her
Too bad he never told her she deserved much better
Johnny boy always played the fool
He broke all the rules so you would think he was cool
He was never really one of the guys
No mater how hard he tried or the thought of suicide
Its kinda hard when you aint got no friends
He put his life to an end they might remember him then
You cross the line and there's no turning back
Told the world how he felt with the sound of a crack

We are we are, the Youth of a Nation.
We are we are, the Youth of a Nation.
We are we are, the Youth of a Nation.
We are we are, the Youth of a Nation.

[instrumental]

Whose to blame for the life the tragedies claim
No matter what you say it don't take away the pain
That I feel inside I'm tired of all the lies
Don't nobody know why its the blind leadin the blind
Guess that's the way that the story goes
Will it ever make sense, somebody's gotta know
There's gotta be more to life than this
There's gotta be more to everything I thought exists..."

That last paragraph is the one that made me think the most. Had quite the interesting day today, its quite a story, will give the full details later on tonight. Who knows, at this rate before then something else strange or amazing might have happened.

Animals In Cages...

There's really nothing quite as entertaining as hanging out in the floor lounge on any given Friday or Saturday night past midnight, and watching the spectacle that is freshman upon their return from IV generally as drunk as humanly possible. The exchanges make no sense, the motor skills and coordination are at an all time low, and generally something hilarious happens every five minutes, if not even more frequent.

Last night was no exception, managed to stay up until the wee hours of the morning laughing hysterically at the various impersonations by one guy who is a hilarious comedian, the antics of another guy who couldn't seem to keep any kind of liquid in any kind of container without accidentally dumping it on himself at some point, the list goes on. Why go out and pay to see live entertainment when you can just clump a few freshman together and see it for free, eh?

"Do You Believe in Miracles?!?...... YESSSS!"

Although I wasn't around in 1980 to hear the above annoucement live, I've seen many a tape of it, and must admit it was a pretty incredible moment for sports in the US. Last night's opening ceremonies was quite entertaining, culminating with the usual awesome moment of lighting the Olympic cauldron. This has always been my favorite part of the event, watching a ski jumper fly down the hill with it at one Olympics (Lilehammer '94), an archer fire it into the air at another (Barcelona '92), and various other impressive ways of getting it to its final resting point. I've managed to see all the torch runs I've been alive for, starting with Los Angeles in 1984, followed by Atlanta in 1996, and now Salt Lake City in 2002, as they passed through my local neighborhood. Talk about an amzing honor, being able to carry it seems like just an amazing experience. Looking forward to some great TV watchin over the next few weeks as our athletes make a run for the Gold. Thanks to a couple of my friends for invitin me over to watch the ceremonies on their big screen, and servin me some yummy yummy chicken broccolli rice something or other. :)

WHA-BAM!

You heard it here first, congratulations to my alma mater West High for trouncing all other schools and becoming CHAMPIONS winning the gold in the LA County Academic Decathlon. Some amazing individual performances all around, including the highest two scores in the county. I'm just astounded at their achievements, glad to see another year will be added to the banner next to 1998, the year the team I was on brought home the Gold. Hooray for West! The State Finals are going to be in Modesto the weekend of the 25th, anyone want to room me up in that area and form their personal cheering section? ;)

Sidebar Fiddling...

Think I got it right...

Another Pointless Post...

Going to be a string of posts here as I work to improve the look of the page in general, ignore them, I have to make a new post each time to see the changes. :/ Will probably take several tries, I politely apologize for the spam. :)

Finally Fixed...

Decided to go through and back up this whole thing into Word now that I finally installed Office XP, and while doing so realized that the apparent archive problem that had deleted post fixed itself, and thus edited a few posts that ended up repetitive. So those who were planning to read the whole thing from the beginning (banish the thought) it should be a lot easier now. :)

Guestbook Glory...

Finally decided to put something up to allow people to respond to what I say if they feel the need, or if nothing else, just say hi. Be aware though I'm quite malicious when it comes to deleting posts from complete morons. :) So yeah, close to a thousand people have been here at one time or another, might as well see what they have to say. Feel free to post under alias if the need be, if that makes you more comfortable.

A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed

Wow. I really don't know what to say. Just got off the phone after about a two hour conversation with someone. They were crying at first, they had reached a point where they were sad about a lot of things, and didn't really know what to think anymore. For some reason or another, they turned to me as an unlikely source of help. Somehow, I helped things change. That gives me a good feeling.

You know, now that I think about it, I don't think the purpose of this journal is to talk about things like this. Not everyone is comfortable with their lives being out there. But basically, a rift was formed some time ago, and I feel like over time a bridge has been built, and tonight there was first contact. Here's hoping that road gets paved, reinforced, and opens a carpool lane. :)

Its past 4, really need to hit the sack, but in other news, I was the only perfect score of 100% in my section on the Statistics midterm. Booyah.

A Penny For My Thoughts...

So last night I'm in the mood for talking, and luckily there's someone willing to be talked at, so we go and chow on some Carl's. Western Bacon nummyyummy. Although they got rid of my Crispy Chicken meal which was quite irksome. Then they forgot her ranch so we had to sit there for a while til they opened the window again and tried to hand us the food for the person behind us. So anyway, eventually we get to talking. Amazing the amount of stuff that we covered in a few short hours. I came out of it for some reason feeling much better about things, as if the world had become more clear for some reason.

Strangely, that's the first time in a long time that I've felt that I was talking with someone, instead of talking to someone. I mentioned a lot of things that had been bugging me, and as she said, we "covered it, fixed it, and moved on." She mentioned some things that had caused her to be "snippy" in the past, and what I could start trying to do to alleviate those concerns. Very strange to have such a rational and helpful discussion with someone. These types of things in the past always exploded into arguments that never got me anywhere with various other people. The whole who can be more stubborn type of conversation. The unique thing about this situation is we strongly disagree on an issue very important to me, which generally causes me to immediately think negatively about a person. However, I wasn't made aware of her position on it until much later, which caused me to rethink the idea of making a drastic assumption based on this one issue. My friend is helping me to try to "bridge the gap" so to speak, although so far its been really slow going. Still now, whenever it comes up I manage to turn what I'm saying into a negative connotation, and cause problems. I think its going to be a while before I can look at those kinds of people in a "whatever makes them feel good" instead of a "why are they trying to hurt themselves and especially others" kind of light. I think the whole "forgive, but don't forget" saying applies here, I'll never be able to forget the things that have happened to me or people around me in my life due to abuse of alcohol, but I'm not going to be able to stop the whole world from having fun. Maintaining my distance has always been the plan, but at times that isn't possible, and I need to learn how to handle that when it comes.

Its strange, with my best guy friend moving off campus this year, and us only talking once a week or so if that for various excursions, I've had to look elsewhere for your daily guess what happened to me this is why I'm happy this is why I'm sad type stuff. This friend has really made me think there are other people out there who care, and are interested in my life, and want me to be interested in theirs. These are the best kind of friends.

In other news all the thinking yesterday managed to spawn a dream of the best kind last night, where I managed to meet this just perfect girl. Had an absolute blast getting to know her and going places with her, til I woke up. Strangely I only remember snippets of what she looked like, although I remember everything about what we did, and what it felt like. Maybe there's hope yet, if my brain is capable of conjuring up exactly what I'm looking for, I must not be as confused as I thought.

Isn't it natural that one would desire to be desired?

I See Orion, I Win!

Managed to spank the excellent racquetball player I faced off against tonight, but apparently he'd already had a previous loss against this supposed "incredible" player that I haven't faced yet... [pops his his head with a pin as is often needed]

Rewarded myself last night by heading out after basically outright acing (or so I think) a Statistics midterm earlier that day, gotta love multiple choice exams. In my friends SUV she was busting out all these 80's cds reminding me of the good ol days, stuff I hadn't heard in a while, and am in the process of downloading. :)

Tonight marks the first new episode of 24, a series I'm qutie addicted to, and apparently the next 12 weeks will all be new episodes. Lookin forward to them.

So like, I feel like I'm basically beginning to level off on the whole meeting people plane. I have the usual several people I talk to regularly, and plenty of people outside of that I know pretty well, but I'm not exactly getting out there and meeting new people left and right. I guess first quarter its easier because no one knows anyone and everyone's out to make friends. After Christmas though the circles are set, and the only people looking to meet people are the people looking for the wrong things. I guess people always say you find the one you're looking for when you stop looking altogether. Well...

[pretends to stare at the wall]

Everybody Cut Everybody Cut Everyone CUT FOOTLOOSE

Was rockin out to the Footloose soundtrack driving back up here to UCSB, one of the handful of tapes I grabbed from my room on the way out due to my car not being blessed with a CD player... Lots of bouncy songs on there, gonna have to dl a bunch.

The Big Game was today, and was strangely more exciting than usual, given the usual two touchdown point spread. Turned out the underdogs were the victors, always a good thing to see. The Rams won one recently anyway, someone else's turn. :)

Exciting part of the transit to and from LA this weekend was noticing they FINALLY completed the road work in the Sepulveda pass and there is now a carpool lane southbound all the way through. Quite the welcome sight for the traffic hater.

Alas, this has become the mini paragraph post, mainly because I have a Stat midterm tomorrow that I need to get studyin for. :/

I'll Always Be A Warrior...

Man, tiring day. Nothing like talking and talking and talking and talking until you're actually BORED of talking. For me, that obviously takes qutie a bit of effort. Phew. Got back from another yearly day of Academic Decathlon a little while ago, and had a blast as always. Had a couple awesome interviewees, some mediocre, and some pretty terrible, always fun to see the broad spectrum of upcoming talent. I'm an alumni of the West High Warriors, and they performed well as is the tradition, looking strong going into Friday's banquet when all the results and final overall rankings will be announced. I'm cheerin especially hard for em, if they go on to the State competition (this was County) they'll travel to Modesto, and I'll have an excuse to take a weekend and head North to visit all the friendlies up there while I'm taking in the competition. :)

Actually made me feel pretty old today, those high schoolers are gettin littler and littler. :/ Scarier still is the fact it was my 5th straight year going to Carrows for the after-party given I competed for two years and it was my third year judging... What a phogie I'm becoming. Looks like I'll be hanging around here tomorrow for the Super Bowl festivities, and drive up afterwards tomorrow night at some point. Midterm the next afternoon, so will definitely be back by then. :)

Once again a big congrats to everyone on AD from West, especially the amazingly intelligent sole returner and current keeper of the perfect 10 flame. :) (don't ask)

One Down, Umpteen To Go.

Umpteen is a lot. Really. Anyway, managed to nail my first midterm today after nearly sleeping through the start of it, then having to run to the UCen to buy the blue book I forgot to bring... All's well that ends well I guess. Only about five or six more midterms to go this quarter, I think.

Pretty routine day, will be heading home tomorrow (er today I guess now) at some point and be busy all day Saturday judging the Academic Decathlon competition, and then either hang around at home to watch the Super Bowl or head back up here to watch it, who really knows for sure. Planning things before the day of all the time just gets too old. :)

*(!&@#^!*@#&^ AAAANNNTTTSSSSS!!!!!!!!

Pardon my friends, but nothing like waking up this morning, rolling out of bed onto my chair to check my e-mail, and noticing several ants crawling over my hands, and as my view focuses, literally THOUSANDS crawling all over my desk. Apparently someone had left a half eaten box of licorice on the far end of it yesterday, and overnight it became just a feeding frenzy for most of UCSB's population of ants. After completely clearing everything out, having the whole trail and various gathering places sprayed along with all their access points in the hallway, vacuuming the whole room, and rearranging everything again, I've reduced the invasion to a random explorer here and there that is readily squashed.

Ants are quite annoying.

Don't get me wrong, I like many types of animals, but I'm also a firm believer in survival of the fittest, so I have no problem eating meat or eliminating insects that create negative consequences. Like disease. Ew.

Tools of the Trade...

Was tipped off by a friend the other night about how to easily work around that annoying limit of 150 buddies on your AOL Instant Messenger list, and I invite anyone curious as to how its done to IM me personally for details. Set mine to 999, that should be fine for now. :)

My screenname is thndrMATT as always, the THUNDER is for everyone who knows me online (scary how many that is) and the MATT is well, you should know by now.

Those of you who don't know me, feel free to say hi, I'm always up for meeting new random people from around the world. Crazy thing, this internet business.

I Wish I May I Wish I Might...

So I've been browsing around the internet as I tend to do looking for el cheapo auctions for the products on my "wish list" so to speak... So for all those of you millionaires with money to blow in the vicinity of my birthday in May, I recommend the following items: Viewsonic VP230mb flat panel monitor, and Klipsch Promedia 5.1 speakers. The speakers are only 400 bucks retail, and still new enough that they're not falling anywhere below that even at auction. The behemoth of a monitor (its 23.1 inch VIEWABLE) is valued at about 4 grand at the moment, and its prices hasn't exactly been dropping through the floor either. Would be quite the awesome purchase however, my current monitor is 18.1 viewable, but it isn't PF (perfect flat) and takes up about 2 feet of depth as well, whereas the one that's 5 inches bigger would take up a foot LESS of desk space, which is at a premium these days. My current monitor was purchased soon after I came to college, so I've gotten a good 3 years or so of 24/7 usage, pretty good shelf life for a monitor. It suits my needs I suppose, but there's always something bigger and better out there. :)

While we're on the geek topic, the other reason a flat panel would much improve my lifestyle is that it would be easier to pack for the journey to Mesquite, Texas, this summer for the annual Quakecon event. 99% of the people who read this won't know what the hell Quakecon is, but its basically the largest multiplayer pc gaming event in the world, drawing thousands of participants from all over the world every year. Call it a geek convention if you like, but its a strong interest of mine, and it will be quite awesome to spend a long weekend having a blast for four straight days with no sleep with people who are like minded. The reservations have been made at the hotel connected to the convention center where it will be held, luckily because I happened across a site that leaked the dates and managed to snag one of the last rooms available even before it was officially announced yet. So if you're looking for me between Aug 14-19, I'll probably be either there, or on the road, making the twenty four hour or so non-stop journey between my home near Los Angeles and the grand state of Texas. Luckily planning to go with a few companions so as to share the rental car/gas/hotel costs, and driving shifts.

Still in the initial planning stages, but between that and my Vegas trip sometime this spring/early summer, its shaping up to be a pretty incredible year.

"How's It Goin"

The above greeting was what aroused me from my early afternoon slumber, hadn't the foggiest day who it was until she spoke again, and I figured out it was my most recent ex-girlfriend. Phone calls from her are always a random surprise, there tend to be six month or so gaps between communications, for reasons I'm not entirely sure I understand. Anyway, was good to exchange barbs and giggles with her for the first time in a while. As usual she tossed around rumors of making the trek down to Santa Barbara at some point in the future, but those tend to evaporate soon after they're mentioned.

Went to the California Pizza Kitchen tonight, or CPK as aficionados call it, and ate way too much Jambalaya, and shared a yummy Apple Crisp on top of that. Definitely gonna be hittin the workout room before this night is over. :)

Midterms start Tuesday for me, I've got about one a week for the next six weeks or something, pretty lame, but I'm sure I'll find time to schedule in fun along the way.

A Brunette That's Not Really...

Managed to wake up early enough today to head to the theater with an old friend, and discovered the only movie playing at that time was A Walk to Remember the new movie starring Mandy Moore. Seeing her as a non-blonde was an improvement at least. I actually thought it was going to be much lamer than it actually was, I'd go with about 4 M's. Quite a sweet movie for the vicinity of Valentine's Day though, I'm sure its much cuter as a date movie though than as a "wow wouldn't that be cool if" movie.

Spent some time going through old pics later, including some from waaaaay back in the day when I met her freshman year in high school, back when I was 130 lbs and could run a 5 minute mile... Man, what a stick. I had like no shoulders to speak of, just this long neck and huge looking ears, not sure what happened between them and now. I think the focal point just moved to my double chin, or something. :/

Weekends just keep getting shorter, not sure where the time goes. Sometimes its nice to just sit around and vegetate.

I'd also like to go on record saying ergonomics keyboards are quite annoying when you're not used to them. The B is on the wrong side for me, and that totally screws up my rhythm. Urg.

If I Could Fall, Into The Sky...

Gonna have to bust out a plug for Vanessa Carlton and her single A Thousand Miles, it absolutely rocks my world. Watched her play it live on MTV yesterday, and I'm always totally impressed by people who can play an instrument so incredibly well. They showed like 500 closeups of her fingers flying across the keyboard, basically blurred. Also has quite the infectious melody, and pretty cool lyrics to boot, including the one in the heading. That would be sweet, suddenly everyone on Earth launching up into space as if gravity suddenly reversed itself. Well it would be sweet until we all came crashing down anyway. :)

Spent some time up in Solvang for several hours today wandering around, its a Danish style town about a half hour north of here, with tons of shops and bakeries and little cozy nooks, basically looks like Fantasyland from Disneyland. Wandering around I discovered that its the most perfect place to go gift shopping for people at, I literally found stuff in like half the stores that would work out well. Going to have to head that direction next time I feel the need to give away random presents.

Also started playing Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, which thus far although I've only been through a few missions seems pretty incredible. Awesome AI and set pieces have caused it to be quite enjoyable, and I haven't even reached the apparent INCREDIBLE D-Day sequence that has brought oohs and ahhs from the masses. Been playin a bunch of FIFA 2002 lately as well, took over the USA in a run for the World Cup, pretty fun stuff. :)

Anyway will have plenty of time for all this during the weekend, also planning on keeping the swimming thing going since I missed today (was actually doing and better yet, TURNING IN my homework!!@!!~@~!) and who knows, maybe getting some work done.

Yeah. Uh huh.

Day to Day to Day...

Just an update for the sake of updating, pretty dullsville around here lately, just going about my regular day to day business. Did finish off Red Faction, a game that has a pretty high level for the sake of blowing stuff up, but isn't on the same level as Wolf or Ghost Recon. Planning to take on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault next, a game that's gotten rave reviews from both gaming critics and my fellow hallmates as they've been glued to their comps for a few days now hammering away at the single player campaign... I tend to wait for the weekend for such an endeavor, too busy studying and all meanwhile. :)

Crap, Valentine's Day again. Three weeks, no pressure. For a long time it was a special time of year for me, since it was a couple days after my last relationship's anniversary. After that its been largely me myself and a good book, computer game, movie, or something of the sort. Any fellow boycotters out there need a buddy? I see no shame in spreading love amongst friends, which is I suppose the overall point anyway.

A Yummy Flavor of Sky...

Hung out with a couple of my third floor buddies today and went to go check out Vanilla Sky... Going to have to give that one four M's, and about an 8 on a weirdness scale of 10. Quite a trippy movie, for a number of reasons. I did enjoy the actor's performances, and Cruz isn't too bad looking and thus makes up for Diaz, but as usual the trippy aspect of the movie caused me problems. Was interesting looking at all the upcoming movie posters though and seeing a war movie with Mel Gibson, another with Nicholas Cage, and another with Bruce Willis all featured. Obviously a genre that is touching a lot of people more than usual these days, looks like we'll be getting our fill of them shortly.

Highlight of the evening was going to KMart for the first time in a while, and witnessing technology taking over... They no longer have checkout people there, its totally self serve. This is mainly because everything is now computer based, you walk up, scan your own items, feed in the cash or card, bag them yourself, and walk away, all while under the survelliance of a camera above each station. Possibly the coolest thing I've ever seen in a convenience store, but it drew looks of horror from both my friends, both of whom hope that technology will never replace people, and were quite annoyed they couldn't have a friendly conversation while waiting in line. Just another example of computers eliminating jobs they said, fearful of what our world will be like in five years. Think I'll always be pro-technology though, can't imagine where I would be today without a pc. (sad, but true)

WooWee, 3 Day Weekend.

More busy busy as a bee stuff around here... Went a perfect 5 for 5 on swimming this week, including today when I spent a good few hours teaching an old friend how to paddle like a doggie... Actually had a great time, one of the more fun filled days in quite a while. Had the usual frustrating first day when it comes to teaching someone how to swim (she's actually my 4th or 5th pupil) where they're not really willing to do anything at all for the first hour, and still run into various problems or fears along the way after that which tend to prevent much progress. Alas these things take time, and for some reason I'm willing to dedicate myself to helping someone learn a skill which will only be useful if they fall off a cruise ship, in most cases. Well, makes me feel better anyway. :)

After that we headed to Sushi Teri on Calle Real, for some good old fashioned food that involves a lot of me going "what the hell is this CHOMP oh hey its not bad, um, its WHAT?~!@??" and fiddling around with chopsticks trying to look less white (impossible). Really yummy though, i've always been a fan of most of that stuff. Maybe because I eat it so rarely, its like a treat. Who knows. Anyway...

Decided to go catch Black Hawk Down after that. Going to give it 6 M's, when it comes to war movies, its superb. For those pondering whether its something you want to see, my friend was outright bawling for literally 2/3 of the movie, including whenever anyone died, was shot, or there was any fighting going on, which is a LARGE portion. I'd rate it below Saving Private Ryan on the gruesome scale (especially SPR's opening scene, still dominant in my mind as the scene that affected me most) but there isn't much downtime, its just a whole lot of fighting. The fact that its based on a true story, and that it was only 5 years ago, not some far off generation we're not a part of, especially strikes home with a lot of viewers. I guess you could say its a SPR with the technology of the 90s. Amazing how much some of the scenes reminded me of Ghost Recon and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, especially the former, two games I've been playing a lot lately. Just a reminder that as real as they can make it on the computer, its nowhere near what its like to be there. Again though, its not a pleasant movie for the weak of heart, I'm sure it'll take a while for some of the scenes to stop echoing through the images my mind's subconscious creates.

On a more cheerful note, I did have a whale of a day, scheduled another lesson for tomorrow, so I better get some sleep. :) Not heading anywhere out of town this weekend, will probably just do a lot of catching up on movie and tv watching, oh, and sleeping of course. :)

Strange happenings...

One thing I forgot to mention from the last several days was that I needed to give a big congratulatory BOOYAH to Michelle Kwan for capturing yet ANOTHER national figure skating title. I've had the pleasure of watching her for several years now, ever since I found out one of the US's most dominant skaters was not only my age, but from my hometown of Torrance. Something about cheering for the home team and watching them succeed that makes me feel like jumping up and yelping with joy myself, even though I have nothing to do with it. :) Looking forward to seeing her performances in the Olympics this year, here's hoping she continues to perform to the same level of greatness that she has always managed to reach. You go, girl. The internet's a strange place these days, who knows, maybe this message will find its way around the world.

In other news, apparently there's someone wandering around who "looks exactly like me, except she's a girl" according to several people on my hall and downstairs... I've yet to see this, and find it hard to believe, but who knows, maybe I have a long lost sister or cousin or something out there someplace. :)

Won big last night in racquetball, but saw a guy playing on the next court in the other game at the same who was wiping the floor with his opponent, so should get more interesting as it goes along.

Whoops Where'd the Days Go...

So for once I've been busy, stuff to do, go figure... Been actually attending class which is always good, doing homework which is even better, and both my econ classes actually interest me, which is something that hasn't been the case in quite some time when it comes to other subjects...

Started swimming in the mornings, on MWF before my 11am class, on TR after my 9:30, that's gone pretty well so far. Did the towel membership thing where for 5 bucks you get a fresh clean towel every day that you just return to them to be washed, saves me a lot of laundry anyway... Pretty handy. Also joined intramural racquetball, first game tonight. I'm playing at the intermediate level which is the lower of two, but some of the guys at the meeting I'd played before and they were quite good, so I don't think it'll be a cakewalk for me. At the end of the season there's even seedings and a playoff system single elimination tournament, looking forward to seeing how well I do. :) If nothing else it will be getting me off my ass at least a few times a week to go get my ass kicked...

Ahhhhhhhhhh, Mmmmmmmmmmm

Back Massages. Coolest things ever. Well for the moment anyway. I'm not really into the hard grind your muscles dig your fingernails into tendons kind that a lot of people seem to enjoy for some reason (both receiving AND giving) but just being able to relax and relief stiffness is just eternal bliss for me. Hint hint to everyone who knows me who feels like doing me an incredibly wonderful favor. :) I like to think I'm decent at giving them too, the jury will have to let me know about that one though.

Was out driving yesterday and went past this big open field where I saw the most gigantic fire I've ever seen in my life... It was this humongous bonfire, the base of which was at least 20 meters across, reaching almost as high... Not sure what it was all about, but it was a pretty incredible sight. Made two U-turns just to get a couple more looks. :)

Saturday night, not much to do, early in the quarter so nothing I should be doing, and didn't have anything planned... This used to be the case just about every weekend for me, but lately I've actually had somewhat of a social calendar, its made me feel better about myself socially. :)

AWWWWWW ITS SO CUUUUUUUUUUTE!

A friend stopped by today with the cutest little dog I've ever seen in my life... This little tiny chihuahua with the big black eyes that just stare at you and seem to be continuously pouting. I'm petrified of dogs for the most part, largely because of an incident when I got the stuffing chomped out of me by this huge golden retriever when I was younger... But when they're so tiny, like literally 9 inches long, its tough to be scared. :) First week of classes is officially over... I FINALLY finished unpacking all my crap, I'd been living out of bags for a while... ;) Gonna go handle some paperwork and sign up for intramurals, more later.

Children at Play...

I'm not quite sure why the entertainment value of chatting with people using someone else's screenname on their computer is so high. People love to come in here and send random erotic messages to people on my list, luckily I have quite the distinctive chatting style and so its quite obvious when its not me at the keyboard. I've also been on the other side of the situation though, like last night when one of my friends send me a peculiar message which I took to be valid after initial skepticism... To make a long story short I lost faith in someone due to their lack of concern for someone else's feelings.

Actually mine weren't all that affected, having someone tell me they want to know if we can be "more than friends" has only happened a very, very, select few times and not in at least a few years so its not something I'm expecting at any point in the near future. I like to think I'm an optimist when it comes to things like waiting in lines and such, but I tend to be a "half-empty" type on other issues such as finding "the one."

Just finished playin some DDR in the UCen, I'm up to the level I can handle the "5 feet" songs the majority of the time... Not sure why I'm bragging.. HEY STOP MAKING FUN OF ME DAMNIT :( AND MICKEY SHIRTS ARE COOL OKAY...

Hehe.

Yawn...

More of the same today, random new classes where the teacher spends the first day reading the syllabus back to you in case English isn't your first language or something, and lots of threats about how not coming to class will directly influence your grade, etc etc etc.

I forgot to mention a side trip I made on the way up here to visit one of my old teammates from Academic Decathlon... Hadn't seen her for a while, we tend to meet up randomly from time to time to catch up. She's got her own place in West LA now, and is teaching dance while attending SMCC, was really impressed by the way things are going for her, she seems really happy. Course she did feel the need to mention I'd gained weight since high school (haven't we all) and I unfortunately couldn't fire back because she's just matured and is even better looking than before. What's lame, is the people who literally have the least to worry about, do the most worrying. Its like those people who whine about A-'s to someone who just got a C+ in the same class. Its just not one of the most tactful things to do. Gr. But yeah, went to a neat little italian place and had the biggest slice of apple pie I've ever seen (whoops) and managed to keep her laughing in my face for various reasons for a good portion of the day. Was hoping my headache would go away before I headed the rest of the way to Santa Barbara but alas it was not so. Nice seeing her again though, will probably swing by on my way through to judge the yearly Decathlon competition for the third time in about a month in Covina.

Dead tired tonight, think its just the fact that I'm on the tail end of this sickness and have been doing a lot more walking than I was during break...

Down, Down, Down...

An interesting day... First day of classes for the Winter quarter, had my Classics and Pstat lectures today, both look to be easy enough. Got to deal with more paperwork regarding the whole major switching thing, there was a snag somewhere.

Sigh, I feel like I'm trying to make small talk with myself when I'm not in the mood.

So I received news a couple hours ago that one of my friends who played indoor soccer with me last quarter and lived in the next building over died this morning. "Natural causes" is the official word from the coroner at this point, I'm pretty sure there will be more info on the 11 oclock news tonight. Been a while since there has been a death around me. Not the most cheerful of scenarios. I tend to be introverted about it though, visibly there isn't really any evidence. Not really sure why. A few short weeks ago I was complimenting him on a well struck shot. Just cements my belief that live is meant to be lived in the present. You just never know.

I R Heer.

I'm back at UCSB, and alive.... barely. Feel like absolute trash, nothing like getting high beamed for two hours when you have a headache, are going into coughing spasms every 5 minutes, and sneezing hard enough to worsen your headache every 10. More details later.

Vacation in Review

Going against the general rule, I actually had more fun than I expected to during this winter vacation. Finished it up a couple days ago with a big group of friends as we headed over to The Cheesecake factory for a scrumptious meal (I'd never been there, sad I know) and then spent several hours having a huge poker session at one of my friend's houses, winner take all, can't leave til you're cleaned out, etc etc. Was 3 bucks each to play, and by 3am the host finally decided since it was his house he would be the only one to cash out on the night, leaving him with about 6 bucks worth of chips, and me with the remainder of everyone's money... (upwards of 28 bucks or so, they'd never invited me to a game at that house before, probably never will again...) [pops his head with a pin]

So overall this break I got some awesome presents, tried two things I'd never done before and learned to do them to some extent (skiing and snowboarding), and had the usual incredible New Years. Not too shabby I'd say. Makes me feel good to be able to say I'm a licensed SCUBA diver, and can ski and snowboard, as well as claim I've stood on the peak of the highest mountain in the contigious United States, and visited 39 of the 50 states. I've had it good, I know, but I'm not blind enough to the rest of the world to not be thankful for it.

OKAY OKAY, GEEZ

Enough people decided to make me feel special babbling over IM about how I hadn't told my new years story yet that I'm finally sitting down to do it. Beware, you know how wordy I get, especially when talking about myself!

So, New Years Eve, I wake up at 4:56am, amazingly just before my alarm was set to go off at 5. As always when its a big day I bounce out of bed and into the shower in a single hop, and am good to go about 5:20. Equipment check (keys/wallet/sunglasses/pager/cellphone/camera/ticket) and voom, out the door I go. The father was kind enough to loan his 96 Mustang, so I rode in style. A quick stop at McD's for the usual eat-while-driving #3, and blam, onto the 405 I went. Ended up getting there about 6:15, surprised to see the gates to the lot were open, but there wasn't a line of cars yet... Something about driving down Harbor Boulevard just makes my skin tingle... I see the Hyatt Regency where I planned for like a year 7 or 8 years ago to have this big two day two night adventure package deal wonderful thingy... I used to be obsessed, typing out 10 or 20 page "touring plans" which would detail everything about how the day would go, factoring in the length of rides, distance between them, speed of the lines per 100 people waiting, etc etc... It ended up getting me to an obscene amount of rides in a single day, but it wasn't exactly for the "relaxed" visitor. About five years later I finally abandoned the idea, given I'd done everything there anyway, might as well do what I'm in the mood for, when I'm in the mood for it. They finally got rid of the old Welcome to Disneyland that used to sit out front on the west side of the boulevard as you turned into the lot, I can remember many a family cheer as the ol minivan made its way in.

Exchanged pleasantries with the attendant, followed the cones, and amazingly enough discovered that not only was it deserted out front, but I was actually the very first car in the entire parking lot... Turned out I parked in the first spot on the first aisle, as close as possible to the entrance itself (something only someone who is obsessed would brag about). This of course ended up placing me at the very front of one of the gate lines, and I ended up being the very first person to walk into Disneyland that day (ignoring all those lame early admission hotel guests ;) ) Walking down Main Street USA is literally the happiest time in the world for me, knowing how much fun lies ahead.

By now you're probably thinking you're going to get a whole day long description, but I'll spare you most of the gory details. Strangest moment occurred when I got something stuck in my shoe for the 3rd time in an hour and found it to be suprisingly, a penny, again. I eventually figured out after a nickel appeared in my shoe a few minutes later that I had a hole in my jeans pocket, and that was allowing change to slide down my pant leg and end up in my shoe, confusing many a passers-by when I pulled it out... Yeah, I really am that retarded...

Spent a good hour playing Disney flavored DDR in the new Innoventions attraction, until one too many little kids came up and beat the pants off me at it... Also found it interesting my character was still saved in the Gauntlet Legends arcade game at the huge Starcade they have there, which I had played the previous two years as well (geeks will be impressed). Was depressed to see the Animazement show wasn't running anymore as well as the Hunchback show, both of those had amazingly talented vocalists that were quite enjoyable. Ah, forgot to mention the most depressing thing from the day, Fantasmic the show I rank just about highest all time in terms of greatness for its time, was closed until summer. :( That shot to hell my strategy of sneaking into "perfect viewing point" (tm) just after the second to last show, and getting to stay for the last showing immediately after the new year... Everything turned out okay though, I'm glad to say.

Played cell phone tag with one of my friends who was there as well with her girlfriend and her family, eventually met up with them later in the day and hung out for a while, spent the usual too much on food, but geez some of the restaurants there are gooooooood if you know where to go... (yeah, its nice to hang out with an aficianado (spelling shot in the dark (just wanted to have a third parentheses))) I wonder whether Disneyland will end up being a locale of employment after college, obviously not as your typical minimum wage worker, but geez out of that whole place there must be something I'm capable of that pays. :) Just watching a small child's face light up when they see Mickey Mouse, is enough to bring a smile to my face for hours at a time. Oh, and I DID go back to the Candy Palace to look for that girl from last year, the last girl I gave my number to whom I'd never met before in a random place... No dice there. Oh, and no, she didn't call. :/

So eventually I commandeered my spot at the top of the bridge in New Orlean's Square, next to the lightpost I'd been standing near as the clock struck 2000, and 2001. Of course it was still part of the excess line for Pirates of the Caribbean around 10pm when I got there, but I found sitting in a lump and pretending to be asleep kept most people moving along past without saying anything, other than the few who would feel the need to tap me, or talk trash about how retarded I was for sleeping through new years, thinking I was sound asleep...

Anyway, New Years at Disneyland. Personally, its indescribable. Picture 100,000 people (or more) all in the same area. Picture most of them with those glow in the dark necklaces, or glowticks they're waving, or light wands, or something. Do your best to figure out what thousands of kazoos sounds like, most of which are right in your general vicinity. Imagine the voices of countless people, united as one counting numerically backwards. Look up, and see amazing explosions and lights as the last thirty seconds of a year tick by. Listen to the screams and cries of a million HAPPY NEW YEARs from all around you. Enjoy one of the most amazing fireworks displays ever, and glance around as couples embrace, children laugh and cheer, and grandparents share yet another moment together. Close your eyes, and realize this won't be the last time you'll be in this exact spot, the Happiest Place on Earth, for this special time. I know I'll be back again and again. Want to come along next year? 361 days and counting, give or take.

[Cough, Hack, Squeak]

Strangely enough the whole hoarse thing didn't set in until two days after New Years... Those lucky enough to talk to me today got to hear something that sounded much like a mouse squeaking out words... My brother just got his wisdom teeth out too, and I'm passing my flu case around to everyone, so everyone is a real bundle of joy around here... I knew it was coming on when I woke up to go to Disneyland, and now I'm payin for it... Gonna catch some early Z's now and probably end up waking up too early in the morning, will give all the gory details then.

Oh....... My...... Goodness.........

I have no idea what its like to be hungover, but this must be pretty close. Slept about 18 hours, woke up for a few, bout to go to sleep again, will tell you the whole story once conscious again.