Three For the Price of Free...

...is always a good deal. Managed just that thanks to a friend of mine down near Irvine today, who had connections at the local theater. We ended up seeing a couple scary flicks, then when she left for another commitment I decided to stay for a third, largely because I didn't want to drive home by myself in the dark after the first two. :)

First up was The Ring which is definitely the freakiest movie I've seen in quite a while. I'm the type that never closes my eyes, but quite often plugs my ears. I can handle the gory or scary visuals, it's just the WHAM in your face sounds after drawn out spooky music that gets me. I think the reason it bothered me so much was the fact that there wasn't really any downtime, it was just constant spookyness. The infamous video itself has some pretty creepy visuals, and without giving away too much of the movie, there's some pretty scary lookin faces involved as well. The little boy actor was quite good, not quite the level of Osment, but very impressive. Creeped me out plenty. We'll go with 5 M's out of 7 because it does have a few twists that I didn't expect, and it succeeded in freaking me out and will probably give me a nightmare or two over the next few days.

Second on the plate was Wes Craven's They. After seeing the first movie this one was pretty much a letdown. Some scary moments, but overall just not the same level of plot or spookiness. Besides which the lead actress had a really bad haircut, and was much too thin! Not to be picky. Real women have curves okay. Eh, 3 M's I guess, if you're bored and need a ninety minute quickie freakshow.

So after coming out of those and not having any plans afterward since my friend was moving on to bigger and better things (no bitterness there really) I decided to pick up the latest Disney movie, Treasure Planet. Main beef I had with this one was there was only 1 song! I guess not all animated Disney movies are musicals. The main plus this one gets though is it contains the cutest Disney character of all time, Morphie. If there's a reason to go see this movie, Morphie is it. So cute I could just squeeeesh him. Outside that character there's nothing particularly special about this movie, all the predictable plot elements you expect from Disney. We'll go with 4 M's here.

Yeah I know I give out a ton of 4 M's, but here's my theory there. If I actually went to a theater and spent time and effort seeing it, it's probably going to at least get to the "entertaining" rating. When I can tell movies are going to suck, I avoid wasting time and/or money. Occasionally movies dip into the 3 M's range, generally because I theater hopped to them due to lacking better choices. More often movies bump up into the 5 M range, with the occasional 6, and the VERY rare 7. So when you see 4 M's, assume entertaining, generally worth a bargain matinee. Higher ratings mean worth full price, and in some cases, even more.

Wee early morning hours, the brother seems to have arrived home with various females to watch a movie, who knows I might sit here and be entertained by their antics. Case in point, one of them just announced she needed a blanket because her nipples were sticking out of her nightshirt. Apparently they're spending the night. Always nonstop entertainment around here. Heading back up to school tomorrow, er later on today, who knows when, I'll probably try to avoid traffic in one way or another. No point in going to sleep just yet, when mad giggling would keep me up anyway.

Gobble Gobble.

Made my way down to the Irvine area night for turkey day, representing the young-uns of the family since my brother had to work and my sister was up spending time with her in-laws to be in Santa Rosa. Much food was had by all, which probably ruins the fact that I was down to 189 this morning. :) Went to check out Die Another Day last night with the father, the 20th in the infamous series about James Bond. Wasn't too high on the "realistic" scale, but still had some pretty cool stunts. I can't say I liked it as much as some of the others though, a few too many one liners, sexual references, and entirely impossible sequences for my taste. Still 4 M's out of 7, I guess because it's part of the legacy.

I heard from my recruiter and found out my interview was rediscovered, and I won't have to redo it. That leaves the Flight Physical on Tuesday as the last big hurdle I have to get over before my package goes to the Board again in January. I should find out while I'm taking it if anything major goes wrong, and if not a month later when the official word comes back from the Surgeon General.

I've discovered that one of my buddies is a Jeopardy afficionado; always fun finding trivia buffs with which to compete on a regular basis, occasionally saluting them for their greatness, usually stomping, crying, whining and claiming cheating took place whenever a loss occurs. :/ We spent some time playing online when equally bored over the last couple days, we seem to know about a lot of the same stuff. She's a CS major, which automatically gets her big bonus points in my book. She's one of the ppl who's been in a relationship for 23489734 years though, so there won't be any worrying about how many points she's at overall. For some reason it has always been easy for me to categorize people who are unavailable, and never give it a second thought. Most people call me a liar when I say I've never even considered the idea, and I'm not going to act like I'm totally immune, but it's just not something I think about. It's funny, there were like five females in my room the other day and an R/A walked by on rounds and made a comment about how I "had it goin on" and I didn't really know what he was talking about until I realized the guy/girl ratio. For me it was irrelevant, since everyone in the room had either long term boyfriends or current flames. That's just sort of the way things tend to be these days, everyone's either paired off, or too busy sleeping with everyone to settle down. Alas.

One of these days/weeks/months/years/lifetimes I'll find someone compatible who likes a lot of the same stuff, who isn't currently occupied. What's the rush, anyway.

MEPS, Part 1.

Okay okay enough already, I'm blogging. Ever since I found out the news got delayed three months I've been pretty apathetic about everything, but I guess that has to come to an end at some point.

The ride home was quite uneventful, just a lot of thinking about the whole concept of joining the Air Force in general. I really need to start hooking up with other people to make the drive, having someone else in the car just makes the time fly by. After a quick stop at home to pick up my Social Security card, I made the 15 minute or so trip back up to LAX, to check in at the Westin hotel. This was a lot more than I expected when it came to accomodations, I had no complaints whatsoever. I got directed up to the 3rd floor where they'd set up a sort of makeshift lobby for all the applicants to check in at. Turned out that you ended up rooming with whoever signed the check in sheet immediately before or after you. I happened to share the elevator with a man named Johnny, who was being shipped out the next day to South Carolina. He was a pretty cool cat, headed into the Army as a combat historian, which basically means he's a photographer that records history as it happens. Definitely a job I could see myself doing, if my whole plan doesn't work out. You should see me when I'm setting up a shot with a frikkin disposable camera, everything has to be perfect.

Anyway, so they have us sign this sheet with like 293487234 provisos on it about basically what we will and won't do while staying at the hotel, which basically covered everything we could possibly think of doing that was bad. Everyone seemed pretty laid back though, I don't think anyone was in a real hurry to get in trouble with the military before they even got anywhere. They had a few phones in there, and a few comps set up with internet, so you could busy yourself while they worked through your paperwork, and later once you're wandering around bored. There was also a TV, and a pool table outside in the patio area, which drew the interest of a dozen people at any given time. Quite the interesting makeup of characters, everything between your typical 17 year old enlistee right out of high school to 20 something priors heading back in to a different branch or different career. A whole lot of "what branch are you?" and "what are you gonna do?" It's always an interesting atmosphere when you're hanging out with people you've just met and quite possibly will never see again after the next few hours. There were a whole lot of rules about fraternization probably for that very reason. Can't say I've ever had a one night stand.

Dinner consisted of a buffet style meal down in one of the smaller ballrooms, which actually wasn't too bad. Your typical meat and potatoes fare, with some pasta and salad thrown in. Was plannin on hittin the pool afterwards, but ended up just playin a few games of pool until I managed to finally sink my pairing's winning streak by burying the 8ball in the wrong pocket after a difficult bank attempt. It happens. Decided to hit the sack around 8:30pm, knowing the wakeup call was schedule for "oh three hundred" I was quite impressed by the number of pillow they offered, there were like six per bed and then another lengthy one, along with like four sets of comforters, but I ended up kicking most of them off during the warm night.

We set the alarm a bit earlier and thus were relatively awake when the cheery recorded voice informed us of the time. After the usual shower and shave we made our way down to breakfast which wasn't quite as impressive as dinner, but still offered all the usual fixins. I'd decided to drive to MEPS to avoid the wait for the shuttle back to the hotel when I finished up, so I was on my way around 4. Quick stop for gas and I arrived at the L.A. MEPS around 4:25, and strangely enough saw people from the hotel already in there in the initial briefing, even though I was sure I'd left several minutes ahead. A shuttle must have left earlier, or something. I was disappointed since I was hoping to get in front of the initial line and thus expediate the process, but I wasn't too worried. Eventually the second shuttle showed up, and they filed us in to the initial "welcoming" room. A marine led the briefing, and after an initial joke of leading us in what was supposedly going to be a thousand jumping jacks to wake us up, he basically briefed us on everything we weren't going to do, unless we were in a hurry for our "procedure to be terminated." After giving up the pocketknife I forgot to leave in the car, I headed back to the Air Force service counselor to get my paperwork. I had been a bit worried since I wasn't on the check in list at the hotel, but I didn't run into any problems once I reached MEPS. After receiving my paperwork I was directed back out to the control desk to pick up another folder, and then headed deep into the medical area to the medical briefing room.

Once there, we were briefed on various aspects of our paperwork, and filled out various forms. In the meantime they sent around someone who took everyone's bp, and gave on the spot breathalyzer tests. No one got busted that I saw, seems like a pretty simple concept to me, don't be stupid, and you don't get caught. My bp was 140 over somethin, which is higher than I'd like. Since I stopped running due to splints though I haven't been doing a whole lot other than maintaining my weight, so it's not all that surprising. I've never been higher than that, so it's not cause for worry. Tends to be a good gauge of how in shape I am. Getting into swimming and cardio again, gonna have to stay off running as long as possible, which is frustrating.

Next up was hearing, although they were sending people to various stations all at the same time, and you basically rotated through to stuff you hadn't done as you finished the previous station. This test was actually much more difficult than I expected, the booth wasn't all that soundproof, you could hear people talking outside, besides which the other five people in it seemed like they were constantly shifting position and causing me difficulty. I've never had any trouble with hearing, in fact I always thought I was above average, but I still didn't score as high as some people, although I was still well within allowable levels. Could have been the fact I was sick during the week prior, and could have still been a bit under even if I wasn't feeling it.

After hearing I headed to give blood, which was the slowest part of the process, as some people had some problems. The line was about fifteen people long when I got there, and even the fastest person took at least a few minutes. Once it was my turn it wasn't a big deal, I got over needles at some point, although as a child they really bothered me, much like anything else involving pain. I've actually found that watching the needle go in makes it easier, since you know when to expect the pain. It's not the most pleasant thing, but it's not as bad as smackin your funny bone REALLY good, or getting your toe slammed in a door or something. They only took a small vial, but it was still pretty sore during and afterwards, which should make giving whatever number of pints they take next week more interesting than I'd like. Maybe they just didn't do as good a job, or something.

Last in my rotation was vision, which basically consisted of looking into a binocular style machine at your typical "read the smallest line you can see" test. There was also a book of those color blind number tests, where you find the numbers in the circles. Up after that was the depth perception test, which was actually quite difficult. You had to decide which circle in a row of five was closest, and the slide was dirty or something, with weird spots all over the place, so some of the rows appeared to be all at the same level. I ended up passing, but I'm prety sure I missed a few here and there.

I then went around the corner to urinalysis, which is more interesting at MEPS than normal due to the fact someone has to be present to make sure that it's actually your urine going into the cup, I guess. Pretty sure they use it for the drug test aspect, along with all the tests they do on it as well as the blood to make sure everything is as it should be. Somewhat interesting to be standing in a line holding your own urine before passing it off to the nurse who seals it and has you sign some more paperwork, but you do what you gotta do.

I next waited in line to see one of a few doctors in private rooms, where they went over your record and did the typical aspects of the physical, inspecting your eyes ears and what not, and the infamous "turn your head and cough" and "turn around and spread your cheeks" aspects of the process. Not a big deal for me, the guy was like 85 and could barely say three words in a sentence without taking a breath, and I'd rather know that something was wrong with me before it got too serious.

Then I was ushered into a large room where once a few dozen of us has assembled we were told to put all our clothes save our underwear in a basket, and form a line over by the scale. I'd hopped on before the guy came in and found I was 195 fully clothed, and given the max for 5'10'' was 194, I wasn't too worried. As it turned out, my official height ended up 5'11'', which bumps the max up to 199, and I ended up being only 191. Plenty of breathing room, even without being as fully active as I'd like. We then did a whole lot of exercises under the watchful eye of the practioner, basically to display that we didn't have any types of injuries, that our spines were all normal, we all had ten toes and fingers, and we didn't experience any pain when performing muscular activity.

After returning to the warmth of my t-shirt and shorts I headed back out to the medical control desk, where eventually I was given a copy of all the paperwork that had been completed, and was sent back to the service counselor. He checked everything over and then dismissed me, at appromiately 9:30am, five hours after I arrived. He'd told me as an officer's candidate I'd finish around noon, so I was quite surprised. It was still pretty strange to feel like you're midway through your day, check your watch, and find it's 7am. The process as a whole was much simpler than I expected, and after picking up my knife, I made my way across the way to the Rite Aid where I'd left my car, and headed on home.

Next up is the Flight Physical up at Vandenberg AFB, which I've heard very interesting stories about. Rumor has it I'm going to lose some of my chest hair during the EKG, and that the process will be a whole lot longer, with various aspects of the schedule taking place between 7:30am and 3:00pm. The other bummer is due to all the blood they take and the fact that my eyes get dilated towards the end, I'm not supposed to drive home. This basically means I can't drive there, since someone else would have to drive my car home anyway, unless they spent the day hanging out at the base or in nearby Lompoc, or maybe up the coast at Pismo or San Luis Obispo or something. Once I get confirmation on the exact schedule I'll go begging to my friends.

Can't say I minded lapping up the luxury for a couple days, even though it did mean I drove the oh so repetitive drive between here and L.A. a few more times in quick succession.

Something Worth Blogging...

"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music."
- Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989

Hee haw. Hee haw. Still getting around to a long blog. Been working on my 40+ page Business Plan with my group all weekend, and it's finally just about completed.

Neglect...

I'm back, everything went fine, I just haven't felt like writing. Full story soon.

I'll Be Bawk.

Heading South for a couple days, should be back late Thursday, more possibly more likely sometime early Friday. Page away if you feel the need.

You Better Lose Yourself in the Music...

Got a couple movie reviews to post tonight, as I've managed to make my way out to the theaters a few times in the last week or so. Two very different types of movies, I must say.

Up first is Jackass which is pretty self explanatory. If you enjoy the show, you'll enjoy the movie. There was actually a lot more funny, and a lot less gross out than the show usually averages. Just a whole lot of "OOOOOOOOH THAT ONE HURT EM" and pretty much constant hilarity. We'll go 4 M's out of 7, just because paying 8 bucks to see an extended version of a TV show is pretty lame. :)

Tonight's film earns 5 M's, which I must say is more than I expected. 8 Mile is Eminem's first performance as an actor as wel as a musician, and I was more impressed than not. The rhythms throughout are quite addictive, and there's a very interesting version of "Lose Yourself" in the middle, during a scene where he's shown coming up with the lyrics to it. This song is definitely in my top 3 or so rap songs of all time. Although it's not my preferred genre, I still recognize a good beat when I hear one. The group I was with gave the sex scene two big thumbs down, and I must admit the forty five seconds it took up did seem pretty ridiculously quick. The actresses in the movie weren't at all attractive, but I think that was sort of the point. Didn't look at my watch outside of a few occasions, so that's always a good sign for a movie.

My new pager finally came, so I'll be available for all your paging needs again. Strangely when I try to page myself it only seems to work about half the time. :/ Not very useful if ever there's an emergency. I always return pages within the hour, so if I take longer or you think I'm taking too long feel free to page me again.

Got stuff to do tonight so I can take time off to head down South tomorrow evening, guess I better get to it.

The Skys, They're Falling Again.

Off to go hang out at Carrows for a while and then head up into the mountains for the annual Leonid meteor shower, which absolutely floored me last year. They say it won't be this brilliant again until 2098. Get off your keesters all, and get out there and watch the fire fall.

Hurry Up And Wait.

I knew that was the military motto going in, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. After e-mailing my recruiter last Friday, and then again on Tuesday, and calling on Wednesday night, and then again Friday morning leaving messages both times, I decided to call one more time last night around 5 on the off chance he would actually pick up. Turns out for some reason he did, so I finally got the results I'd been waiting for. Well actually turns out there were no actual results. When he said "I have some bad news" I thought I knew what he was going to say, but it turned out that I hadn't been rejected by the October OTS Board, my package had never gone before the Board at all. Apparently on the way there somehow my interview was lost in the shuffle. I remember being surprised that I was able to get everything together for the October Board deadline, and the interview was the last thing I did, so I assume the rest of the package got accidentally sent without it, or something. Apparently my recruiter tried contacting the Captain who interviewed me to try to get another copy, but it got sent to him in a format he couldn't open, or something. He then tried to get in touch with him again and found out he'd moved to another base. Luckily from my interview I remembered him saying he was heading for Seattle, so my recruiter seemed like he was going to be able to track him down and get another copy of the interview. If that doesn't actually happen, I'll have to redo the interview with someone else, which would be qutie bothersome. I've always been talkative, it's not the stress or anything that's the problem, but I really felt that the previous interview was one of the best I'd ever had, and he genuinely seemed to believe in me.

So, since all this screwing around has managed to take us past the deadline for the November Board which meets next week, and there is no Board in December, it turns out I'll actually be meeting the Board that meets in mid January. The results for that Board will theoretically arrive February 7th barring the usual delays.

There is sort of some good news about this whole thing. I did manage to get both my physicals scheduled, with the MEPS portion in L.A. being on November 21st, and the Flight 1A portion at Vandenberg AFB being on December 3rd. So next Wednesday night I'll be heading down to the hotel they're putting me up in, then arising bright and early the next morning in order to be over at MEPS to start the process at 5am. I hear it's quite long. A whole lot of standing around, and waiting in line. It's probably a good idea I'm doing all this though given I haven't had a physical since high school and there might actually be something wrong with me (other than all the mental deformities, I mean really). So after I finish up with that I drive on back up here with all the paperwork from it, and then end up going back down to L.A. for Thanksgiving the following Wednesday or Thursday. I actually can take someone for free to Magic Mountain on Wednesday due to a special deal, so might do that who knows. Then after coming back up here on Sunday or Monday I end up heading out to Vandenberg AFB again for the Flight 1A portion of the physical, which is a bit more complicated. To give you an idea, he sent me a sort of basic schedule for the day, with the first Technical testing being done at 7:30am, the Doctor related testing at 10:20am, a full Dental exam at 11:00am, and a full Optometry exam at 2:30pm. So that looks like it'll be another nice long day. The real bummer with that one is they dilate your pupils during the optometry exam, so you're suposed to have someone else there to drive you home. Haven't yet decided how that's going to work.

So the one positive aspect of the whole ordeal is it takes about a month for the Surgeon General to approve each Flight physical, so I'll hear about that sometime in early January. That means if I pass both physicals, I'll have nothing else to wait for other than getting into OTS. Even if I had gotten into OTS this week, I would still have had to wait until January to find out if there were any snags medically. So by doing it this way, if I do finally get that phone call telling me the good news, it will be a sure thing, and I can be a lot more excited.

Guess that's all there is to update on that whole situation. I'm going to sleep for three months, someone wake me up in February.

To Quote My Away Message...

The good news is, the news isn't bad. The bad news is, there is no news. Long story short, my package didn't meet this board, and won't meet the next, so I'll actually get my first shot at getting in during the January board, and won't find out until February 7th. Three months later. Will fill in the details later, quite agitated due to thinking about it too much at the moment. Anyway, could be better, could be worse, I guess.

Feellikecrapmobiles R Us.

Sorry, been a bit under the weather these last few days. Combine that with sitting by the phone basically around the clock waiting to hear from my officer recruiter who will let me know whether my life is heading in a new direction, and you have quite a lame way of living. Going to call for a second time tomorrow, and if that doesn't work spam some more e-mails. I'm certainly not planning to wait through the weekend.

When I hear the news, you'll hear it here, first.

A Lot of Rocks, But They're Cool.

I think forgetting to take my Centrum with me this weekend is going to cost me, I feel the beginnings of a sore throat coming on tonight. How irritating. Anyway back to the recap.

We took the back way into Death Valley, which involved getting lost along the way on a bunch of dinky little highways in between dinky little towns, as we made our way through Mojave, and eventually up to Trona and beyond. We weren't smart enough to bring a California map, but we did have a portable GPS receiver with us, so we at least knew when we were going in the right direction. I ended up suggesting a shortcut based on the small mapquest map we did have that ended up being a little more than we bargained for, but who would want to just drive in straight lines across valleys when you can skid around switchbacks in the mountains? We got to the hotel around noonish, and the first thing we did was drive up to the campground where we used to camp on a yearly basis. I instantly recognized a lot of the rocks and "mountains" (i.e. hills from todays perspective) surrounding the camp, and was able to climb up and take a picture on top of a few of them, reliving my youth of 15 years ago. Quite strange thinking I'm old enough I can remember things from 15 years ago now. Seems like just yesterday 10 years prior was the earliest I could remember. I'm gettin old.

We then headed up with the rest of the relatives who had made it out there to a place called Dante's View. This view is officially somewhere in my top 10 greatest views of all time. It's the peak of a 5,000 foot mountain, looking down on the lowest point in the United States, that being Badwater at 282 feet below sea level. So essentially you're looking across a 5k foot dropoff, and across the way is a mountain range that rises quite swiftly to 11,000 feet. The world's deepest valley they call it. Quite breathtaking. This is where we had the ceremony to scatter my aunt's ashes, quite a fitting place. After reminiscing about some of the 27 years straight she and my uncle came to Death Valley together, we headed back down the mountain to a place called something like Gold Canyon. This ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip, as the sun began to go down as we started on the 3 mile hike from one end of the canyon down to the other. Along the way there were beautiful rock formations, and the colors of the canyon and the hills as they changed through the years created something of a striped rainbow effect. We had a bunch of flashlights with us, although once it became pitch black the moon was still shining brightly down upon us. There were also some really neat caves where they'd drilled for gold that went back a good twenty or thirty yards, quite spooky. We eventually made it down to the bottom where my grandpa had brought around the truck to take back the drivers, but we decided we'd all ride back instead. This meant that about seven of us would be crammed into the bed of the truck, with four of us sitting on the little shelf storage thingy behind the cab. I was luckily enough to be on the edge, and given there was no type of safety restraint, this meant I was basically clinging onto the sides of the truck and the handle for the storage compartment for dear life as we swung around curves on a deserted desert highway in the dark of night. That was my first experience riding open-air in the back of a truck, and I must say it was quite neat. When you look up in the sky in the desert, you see about 100 billion times the number of stars you see when you're on the coast, or in the city. I could have sat there staring up at the sky for days.

Alas I'm bored of talking again. More later. Apparently I have plenty of time, nothing at all of interest been going on since I got back. Just a lot of things to do this week that I don't want to do. Yippee.

Back from the Valley of Death

Exciting repetitive title I know, what can I say I'm dead tired. You wouldn't believe how annoying it was to try to blog on that pay per minute web access thing they had at the hotel, I eventually figured out that I had left numlock on, and since there was no keypad that the numbers were over most of the letters on the right side of the keyboard, so trying to type www.hotmail.com turned out to be www.h6t0a85.c60 or something like that. I eventually figured it out, but it was certainly a pain.

Going to bust through most of the story as fast as I can then hit the hay.

Left around 1pm Friday, showed up in L.A. around 4:30 after various amounts of traffic, rain, and road construction. I must say I do love driving in the rain though, contrary to most people. It's a totally different feel. Highway 1 was pretty much deserted, I guess the beach isn't a very popular hangout during a storm other than for the diehard surfers. Eventually made it into L.A. and hung out with a friend, we ended up heading over to the 3rd St. Promenade in Santa Monica to enjoy dinner and a poetry reading... Yes you read right, a poetry reading... Two weeks straight now I've gone to some sort of "broaden my horizon" type cultural event, with the previous one being that very very left wing political propaganda of a film I saw. The two poets that read weren't too bad, although I must say I would never use the word cunnilingus in one of my poems. I think she was going for the shock factor, to me it just wasn't appropriate in the context. Wandering around the bookstore beforehand I did find tons of neat stuff though, as I generally do when in those places. One was this great book called "If" which consisted of very entertaining "what would you do if" type questions. Some were stimulating, some were puzzling, and some were darn right difficult decisions. It was great conversation none the less, and seems like a very good coffee table type book. Not that I'll ever have a coffee table.

Eventually we headed back to her place and she was kind enough to let me crash there, after a few more hours of jabbering up a storm. It ended up being a pretty pointless effort given a mere couple of hours later my watch alarm went off and it was time to head home so I could leave for Death Valley (planning to sleep most of the way in the car, of course). It was very nice as usual seeing her again, kind of sad to consider the fact that these types of meetings with people will soon become few and far between, if things proceed according to plan. Speakin of which, word on the street is the possibility of me finding out the big news tomorrow, but it remains to be seen if it will actually happen. Anyway back to the story. I arrived home two minutes early at 5:28am, but of course the father was not yet ready to go. We eventually struggled out of the house and after a quick jaunt over to McDonalds for breakfast to go we headed for the freeway around 7.

Alas all this talk about sleep has me wanting to get some, so I'll finish up the rest of the trip either later today or tomorrow.

Hello from the Valley of Death

Checked my e-mail already and I have a few more minutes to waste so hear I am! I'm alive so far, more later tomorrow night when I return to civilization. This is quite momentous, it's the first time I've ever paid to blog! Well not exactly and it's become more trouble than it's worth, more on that later.

Wet. Very.

It appears the first storm of the year is making its way across Southern California over the next few days... Today it came down pretty good at times, causing havoc on the roadways and giving excited students a new reason to messy up their clothes. Of course it also became a universal ditch day as it always does when it rains, which unfortunately I couldn't partake in since I had to turn in a rough draft at the one class I did have. I leave later on this coming afternoon for L.A., then I'm off the following morning to Death Valley, so the site will be blogless for a few days until I'm back from the weekend sometime on Monday most likely.

Tonight we ended up doing one of my favorite activities ever, that being playing in the rain. It was really pouring when I had the original idea, but by the time we got out there it had become more of a drizzle, so we decided to head on down to the ocean to make sure we got our money's worth. After the usual splashing of puddles making every effort to get the other members of the group soaked, I eventually decided I wasn't gonna take no for an answer and was gonna go thrash up the waves, even though the Pacific ocean in November isn't exactly balmy. Temperature outside was a decent 57, although it was a bit windy. Had a blast running around showing the waves who's boss, and making our best efforts to get pneumonia. One of my friends got pretty hammered by one of the breakers, but she popped up giggly as ever so we knew no harm was done. Nothing like getting out there and forgetting about life and its worries for a while.

When was the last time you jumped into a puddle with both feet instead of looking for the safest way around it?

Something New Happens Every Day...

And in yesterday's case, the new experience was a campus wide power outage. I have vague recollections of something like this happening a few years ago, but it seemed like this one was much more broad. I happened to be upstairs watching someone play Halo on their XBox, when everything in the room shut off. First thing I did was turn around and look out the window, and was greeted with total darkness from all directions and vague silhouette where the other two quads used to be. This at first caused mass panic and screaming and yelling, with exclamations such as "WHO FORGOT TO PAY THE ELECTRIC BILL" and "WTF IM IN THE SHOWER!" Luckily my indiglo served me well enough to get down to my room, open the door, and track down the high powered flashlight I had there. It's funny, I had it by my bed within arm's reach for the whole year til like two days ago, when it occurred to me that with the architectural lighting keeping my room somewhat bright 24/7 along with the sun, I'd probably never actually need it, so I moved it over onto a shelf. The outage ended up lasting only a few hours, as people had fun shining their lights into each other's rooms across the quad, and using various other methods to blind the passers by. Many a firecracker was set off, and there was talk of looting, but as far as I know most of the people either trooped off to friend's houses in IV or spent the whole time talking on their cell phones.

Luckily I wasn't working on the Market Analysis section of our Business Plan that I have to turn in today, or I woulda been peeved. Yeah Word autosaves every five minutes, but if you're a quick enough typer than can still be quite the pain in the butt. Took care of a bunch of stuff yesterday, including heading over to the bank to deposit a check and withdraw money inside thanks to my check card disappearing and a new one having not arrived yet... Then headed downtown to buy a pager where I was told I had to do it by phone, but at least they had the right number so that ended up pretty painless. It would be nice if both the card and new pager was there when I arrive home on Saturday morning, but I'm guessing they'll both have to be mailed. Guess I'll go get a haircut today at some point, probably after my group meeting with the professor at 4 to turn in our drafts. Then I'm off tomorrow to head towards the general direction of L.A., making various stops and visiting various people along the way before arriving home sometime early Saturday morning, ready to depart for Death Valley with various family members at apparently 5:30am. I'll definitely be sleepin on the way up. :)

Another World...

For those who have seriously thought about getting a SCUBA certification, I highly recommend taking the plunge. Ohmigawd I'm so funny I forgot to laugh. Ended up waking up at 4:30 yesterday morning after getting my solid eight hours of sleep, and just hanging around taking care of stuff until 8 when we left... I picked up a guy in the UCSB class at the dorm on the other side of campus then headed down to my friend's place downtown... I took the class originally with him two years ago so we've been diving buddies on multiple occasions... The group in the car ended up 5, myself, my friend, his girlfriend, her friend, and the other guy I picked up along the way. All those people along with five tanks, regulators, B.C.s, weight belts, let's just say the car was quite loaded down. Basically any bump of any size caused the car to scrape over something. We eventually made it down to Ventura in one piece, and onto the boat. It was a much smaller boat than we took two years ago, but it had a jacuzzi, so that was a huge plus. We ended up going out to Anacapa Island instead of the much larger Santa Cruz Island we went to on the prior trip. The conditions were pretty close to perfect, current was very minimal, visibility was great. My friend brought along one of those underwater camera things, so we took some great fish. At times you'd turn around and suddenly be in a huge school of fish, unable to see anything but swarms of them, as they all turned back and forth in unison. We also saw some of those cool animalish plants that dart into their holes when you get close to them, whole rocks full of them that would end up leaving tons of little craters before slowly inching their way back out. There were some bright bright totally orange fish that I chased around for a while trying to get a decent pic of, and there were various claims of seal spottings, although I some how managed to miss every single one. Overall it was just a blast, I'm really going to have to do that more often. Maybe not in the Pacific, where you have to wear 34 pounds of solid weight to go along with your double wetsuit and heavy as all heck tank and gear, maybe a jaunt to the Caribbean or Hawaii is in order. My friend and his girlfriend drove down and flew out of LAX to Hawaii for a week this morning, real rough life they're leading. :)

My favorite part was the sunset later on, as we were on the South side of the island so the mainland wasn't even visible, and it was just really beautiful colored clouds and the sun dipping into the sea. I snapped away some pictures, gettin on towards halfway through the roll I started in like June. What can I say, I'm stingy with film. After that I just relaxed for like an hour in the jacuzzi, as those who were certified for night diving (none of us) donned their very cool looking LEDs and flashlights and went for another dip. Looking down into the water and seeing all their beams of light darting around, bluish glows in the sea of blackness, was a very neat effect. That and you're sitting in the middle of the ocean in very comfortable 100 degree water with cliffs and waves all around you, looking up at an endless expanse of stars. I was really livin the good life.

Slept most of the way back, and then we made a quick sugar run to McDonalds for some ice cream cones before making the half hour drive back to SB. Then came the endless process of rinsing all the gear at my friends place, then loading it back into the car for me to take back the next day. I got that taken care of today with the help of a few friends, after attempting unsuccessfully to sleep most of the day, due to the incessant knocking of one friend in particular who disagreed with the idea of letting me recuperate. I'm quite sore especially my wrists and lower back, but it's lessening as the day goes on. More annoying are the ends of my fingers, I ended up cutting a few of the nails a little too close the day before, that combined with them being in gloves most of the day has them a bit puffy at the edges of the nail and quite sensitive. Making it hard to type, so I'm gonna lay off.

No class tomorrow since the one class I do hvae is cancelled since we turn in our Business Plan section drafts on Thursday. Hence, I won't be waking up any time soon.

A Show Of Power

I'm not sure that I've ever seen a military plane in action before today. Spent part of the day up at Vandenberg AFB at the Centennial of Flight airshow, and it ended up being well worth the trip. I was under the impression it was irght off the 101 north of the tunnel, but it turns out once you get off at that Vandenberg AFB and Highway 1 exit, you have another 25 or 30 miles to go before you actually reach the base. That puts the travel time up to around 45 minutes to an hour, but still not all that gigantic a trip. They had just a ton of stuff on display, and there was always something going on in the sky overhead. My personal favorite was the demonstration of the F-16 Fighting Falcon, a jet very similar to the F-15 Eagle that I'll be shooting for. They had it do all sorts of stunts, but I was most impressed by it just buzzing the flightline at what apparently was only half its top speed of Mach 2, and making enough noise to vibrate the concrete under your feet. Earplugs were a common sight, and believe me, they were generally necessary. You see these things on TV and you don't really come to understand how loud they really are. When a jet flies over your head at 700 mph, you take notice in a hurry. I wasn't intelligent enough to bring a camera, but it was very cool to see the planes up close, they're suprisingly not much bigger or smaller than I expected. That is, unless you're talking about the B-52. That thing is just monstrous. My neck is a tad sore from staring at the sky for so long, but it was worth it, I have very few memories of airshows as a kid, and there definitely weren't any F-16s involved.

Theoretically next week is the last of the waiting game, but we'll see whether delays are involved. I'm gonna hit the sack early, I've gotta be up at 7:30 to pick some people and gear up and drive down to Ventura and move everything onto the boat for the SCUBA trip. Apparently it's staying out later than usual for a night dive, but since none of my group are night dive certified, we're gonna spend the time relaxing in the jacuzzi on board. Doesn't sound like all that bad a deal. :) Looking forward to dressing up like a black and blue penguin and taking a whole lot of pictures. ;)

Happy Spooky Day.

Technically it's over now, but the party never stops around here. The booming music from the quad next door shut down, so that's a sign it's past midnight. I got several visits from people throughout the night, most of whom were displaying their amazing concoctions of costumes. Blue ribbon goes to a friend of mine who had on the coolest black hat ever, which I'm definitely going to steal at some point when she isn't looking. I've never been too into the whole costume concept in college, although I think if I had someplace to go I could probably come up with something pretty spiff. Unfortunately around here the occasion is synonomous with something other than fun. I was originally going to be filingl the familiar double D role of designated driver for a few of my friends, but they later called and said one of them decided to lay off for the night and I needn't make the extra trip. So I spent the evening mostly entertaining guests, and listening to louder music than usual. That's the one nice thing about these types of nights, you can be boomin away whatever you want in your room and it can't be heard three feet outside your window because someone else's is always louder.

Not surprisingly some of the fireworks last night carried over into today... The night of sleep was definitely useful in helping me gather my thoughts, and I think I was somewhat more coherent this time around when it came to speaking my mind. Unfortunately when people are pretty much set in their ways when it comes to their morals or lack thereof, it's difficult to ever gain any ground. At times it's almost like they space out while you're talking to them, and everything just goes right out the other side. Sigh. I just hope to eventually understand their reasoning, and figure out what they want from me, if anything.

Welcome to November everyone, for me it's shaping up to be the most interesting month in quite some time.

Arrogant. Conceited. Cocky.

Interestingly enough, the preceding terms have all been used to describe me in the last few weeks, by three different friends of mine, and even a couple total strangers. They all have different ways of saying it, different ways of approaching the topic, different ways of phrasing their words, but they all essentially end up making the same point. I don't deny the fact that at times I possess all of these traits. I'm a very competitive individual when it comes to just about everything. I don't know what it is lately though that's causing a strange influx of negative comments. Tonight the focus was the fact that it's been said that I always think I know what's right, and that I'm constantly condescending towards other people when I think I'm more knowledgable about a subject than they. Condescending is another term brought up by multiple people recently. It's strange, it's like suddenly a huge magnifying glass has been placed over my personality, and everyone is taking turns discovering what they think is a glaring problem with it. Got into a pretty decent fight with a friend of mine I'd never had more than an argument with before about a subject I've been told countless times I'm "oversensitive about" a few weeks ago. A few days ago I managed to start a war of words with someone I've never actually met after finding out something I didn't like about them regarding another such "sensitive issue". Earlier today I ended up deciding to take some time off from the online gaming group I was a part of, because I've been having continuous disagreements with one of the members of the leadership that don't look like they'll be resolved any time soon. Again, a clash of personalities and egos. Then tonight, after lambasting me about everything wrong with myself as a person, one of my newer friends whom I just met this year lets me know that the fact that we disagree on an important ethical issue is going to prevent her from being able to talk to me in general. I'd thought we'd become pretty good friends, and was genuinely interested in learning more about her as a person, and instead she walks out of the room while I'm in the middle of trying to explain where I'm coming from, with your classic "have a good weekend, since I probably won't see you before then" statement letting me know that she'll do her best to avoid me. It REALLY annoys me when people do that. The fact that people decide to avoid issues, or hide from them, just delays the inevitable. Eventually you have to deal with this stuff. The sad part is that's essentially what the ethics issue is about, eventually coming to terms with a mistake, admitting wrongdoing, and working to get past it. I know I'm a hypocrite, I as well as everyone in my family has great trouble with admitting the fact that they were wrong, or that they made a mistake. It's something I'm working on, along with apologizing more often, and I like to think I'm making progress. To just hide from the mistake though, or worse yet continue making it, or making it worse, does nothing to help solve the problem, and only pushes the solution further away. Unfortunately I can't go into detail as to what the actual disagreement was about, due to the fact that I don't like to break people's trust, even if I feel they deserve it, or even if they've broken others' trust in the past, or present. I just don't understand her plan for a solution, other than the fact that I'm aware her goal seems to be just to avoid facing the problem.

Frankly I don't expect any of this to make sense. I just pondered deleting that whole paragraph and talking about something boring. I'm just bored of censoring myself. I write to release, not to withold. If anyone has a problem with something I write, they tend to let me know, but it really sets off a chord when someone brings up a topic that has nothing to do with them that I never even brought up that they happened to read about, and then proceeds to try to give me their two cents, as if they were commenting on the latest episode of a TV series. If I want your opinion, I'll ask for it. Until then, do me a favor, and keep your thoughts to yourself. Feel free to read this journal whenever you want, find out my side of what goes on, but don't bring it up as if I told you myself. There's probably a reason it doesn't involve you. Guess that's a good example of condescending if I've ever read one.

I'm actually angry tonight, for the first time in quite a while. Maybe it's pent up energy. Maybe the fact that I find out about my future sometime soon after next Friday might be gnawing away at me. Then again, maybe I was just treated like shit, and am having more trouble than usual bouncing back. It's interesting, there are still some close friends of mine who have never referred to me as one of the above negative terms, but you have to wonder, is that because they disagree, or because they just haven't come clean yet?

One Shot...

Those who have turned on the radio lately will probably recognize the above reference to the initial single off the 8 Mile soundtrack called "Lose Yourself." This is right up there when it comes to my favorite song from Eminem. Quite different from any of his other works, this one is almost totally lacking when it comes to controversial material and foul language. The rhythm is infectious, it's impossible to keep from bobbing your head to the beat. The rhyming is amazing too, words that aren't even very close together end up sounding the same as the constant beat mixes them into a continuous sound. The verses tell a story, which for me at least is very difficult to do while trying to maintain a rhythm and rhyme. Poetry has never come easy for me, mainly because I prefer the kind with meter and rhyme, and finding the right word to describe an emotion or setting while still rhyming with a totally unrelated word tends to be impossible. Even if you despise Eminem, I recommend at least giving this song a listen if you haven't already. It's "outside his box" so to speak, and has been getting heavy time on my playlist.

Found out there's going to be a big airshow up at Vandenberg AFB this weekend, which sounds very cool. Tons of exhibits, demonstrations, and flybys, along with simulators you can actually partake in and tons of setups from various Space and Missle and Aviation companies from all around Southern California. I'll probably head up on Saturday, since that night and Sunday I'll be on the SCUBA trip. I haven't been to an airshow in forever, and the list of planes they'll have on site and in demonstrations includes the F-15E, the plane I'm hoping to get into a track towards, which to my recollection I've never seen in person. Should be a very neat experience, maybe I'll drag a friend or someone. :)

Owned By A Wall.

So yeah I headed down to the local YMCA to play racquetball with a couple friends of mine... Unfortunately unlike the Reccen which has glass/plastic type material on the rear walls that is quite forgiving, the YMCA merely has some sort of impenetrable and unforgiving material instead. Was running full speed chasing down a tough shot and managed to make it, but instead of slamming into the wall with a resounding thud and bouncing back into play like usual, there was just sort of a crunch and I collapsed in a heap. My right elbow seems to have one more bump protuding than normal, and my right shoulder isn't feeling so hot either, but I don't think anything's broken. No pain, no gain, as they say. Between the good three or so games of racquetball and the morning weight routine, got my fair share of exercise today. Tried to open up a can of whoopass on the wall though, and failed miserably. It sure showed me who's boss.

Took a midterm today, after having a very well structured cram session between noon and three... Went over all the notes from the five chapters it was going to cover and worked through most of the application problems from the back and read through all of the detailed answers... The actual test ended up being sixty true/false and sixty multiple choice, along with some short answer. I came out of it feeling pretty good, probably got something like a B. Got my 2nd quiz grade back from the class in which the grade is 75% quizzes, and I got an identical score to the first one, which with the different curve was a B+. So far everything looking good grades wise, we'll see what my first paper (which was crap) turns out like in my third econ class, and how today's midterm actually went in reality.

Might actually be somewhat busy the next couple weekends, turns out one of my friends is finishing up the SCUBA class here, so her and her friend as well as her boyfriend and I who took the class together originally a year or two ago are gonna do the whole Channel Islands trip again. It was really sweet the first time, and looking forward to getting out there and underwater again. For all those looking for just an awesome class to take, getting certified for SCUBA and learning how to just hang out underwater with the fishies is an incredible experience. Besides which the Channel Islands are quite beautiful, and right there for exploring. Looks like we're gonna go down to the dock Saturday night and spend the night on the boat, then leave early the next morning and spend the day out there before heading back that night. My friends are then leaving Monday morning out of LAX for Hawaii, rough life they're leading. :)

The following weekend the rumor is the family is going to be headed out to Death Valley, although I'm not entirely sure if the plans for that have been finalized. So my plan of not going home til Thanksgiving might fall through, but I seem to have made plans for that Friday in LA as well, so spending the rest of the three day weekend travelling with the family wouldn't be too inconvenient. Might as well get off my butt and out of the dorm room every once in a while. :)

Mickey Wins the Series!

Who woulda thunk it, I turned Game 6 off after Barry cranked his homer to make it 4-0, but apparently even without my support they came back to win in the late innings 6-5 and capped the series off with a win tonight. Booyah for the Anaheim Angels, 2002 World Series Champs.

Actually kept somewhat busy this weekend, even though I have a midterm tomorrow which I'm about to start cramming away for. Saturday night I went over to IV Theater with some friends to watch Creature From the Black Lagoon in 3D, which was somewhat more interesting than I expected. The 3D that is. The movie was terrible, but what can you expect from a horror flick made in 1954. We'll go with 3 M's just because of the 3D factor, the coolest aspect of which was the fact that after two hours of wearing the glasses when you took them off, your right eye could see red and your left eye could only see blue, which entertained me for quite a while as I winked around tinting the world into different colors.

Today I headed up to Seven Falls to do some hikin with another friend, it was much drier than the last time I was there, so there were no real waterfalls or pools to speak of, in fact the river was pretty much totally dry. That ended up working out though, it was much easier to get to the rock climbing section than it is normally, so we were able to get further up the gorge than I'd been before. Getting down ended up being a lot more interesting, luckily I'm now capable of bench pressing most of my friends, so I was able to assist when it got tricky. Lemme just pop my head real quick...

Footloose just started on VH1, a real classic movie. At least 6 M's. Tons of songs on it that make it impossible to avoid at least tapping your feet, and that's assuming you aren't up and trashing around the room. Gah, I suppose I should actually get my act together and start studying at some point. Maybe after the movie. ;)

Mc Dees and Sleepovers...

All those looking for a good late night deal, I recommend the 99 cent menu over at McDonalds through the 24 hour drive thru. All sorts of yummy things on there (for those who aren't anti-fast food) including the yummy hot fudge sundaes I used to have when I was a kid. Hadn't had one of those in like 10 years before I went the other day. They also have great soft-serve ice cream for just 79 cents, and they pile it up on the cone. Not that any of this is healthy, but when you need a temporary sugar high I highly recommend it. It's really fun rediscovering sights, sounds, tastes, or feelings from your childhood. It's the closest we can come to being a kid again.

Slept pretty terribly last night, it felt like it was 900 degrees in here. This was probably partly due to the fact there were three of us in here, which is definitely two more than normal. The situation started when my friend from upstairs asked if she could have the futon for a night since she was having trouble sleeping upstairs due to a combination of the heat and the light outside that's supposed to be aesthetically pleasing but manages to shine right into her window. Her boyfriend has been living together with her in her single, he graduated recently and is in the grey area between that and getting a job from what I understand. So anyway, we hit the sack shortly after midnight and I'm pretty much gone when someone else comes knockin on the door... Turns out it's her boyfriend, asking if he could sleep down here too, because he can't fall asleep without her. [waits for the groans and vomiting from the peanut gallery to cease] Yeah I know but who am I to make fun, you'll all just say I'm bitter. So I don't really have a choice other than letting him in or kicking them both out, so after making it clear this was a one time thing I relented. Now I know why their room is always so hot, at least partially. I must have woken up at least twice an hour due to either the heat or someone else shifting in their sleep. I tend to prefer total darkness and silence in order to achieve a good night of sleep, and thanks to the morning sun that already gets broken up pretty early on a regular basis.

I don't mind company on a regular basis, but when it comes to being the 5th wheel in a sleeping situation, there's not a whole lot I gain from that. I mean, I can't blame the guy for not wanting his girlfriend to be sleeping alone in some guy's room. But you'd think taking her aside and telling her that before she comes down here would make more sense than joining her. Not like he has anything to worry about from me the only male species on campus choosing to be immune to the opposite gender in general. They seem happy enough, there's enough lovey dovey talk like many couples that has me wanting to vomit on an occasional basis. I personally probably wouldn't be able to handle living with someone in such close quarters on a 24/7 basis, and have no idea how they're managing, but I guess that's testament to the strength of the relationship.

All I gotta say is ever since the brother got kicked out of my room like 10 years ago, I've yet to have a roommate since then, and am in no hurry whatsoever. I guess during the 10 weeks if I do get in I'll have one, but after that it's single only for the rest of my life. Yeah I know the whole wife/girlfriend thing, but I figure they'll be perfectly fine on the futon too! ;) I knew getting more sleeping room in here would bring flocks, this just wasn't the type of flock I was looking for...

3AM Conversations...

Have a strange way of keeping me entertained. Had no intention whatsoever of staying up late last night, I knew I was going to have to get up and write a paper the next day due at 2pm, yet I got involved in multiple conversations that were more entertaining than usual.

First I was jabberin away with a friend of mine from high school, and grovelling for forgiveness about the fact that something I'd been close minded to and given her crap for like a year ago was now something I could see her side of. We ended up having fun with Netmeeting as she showed off her webcam and new pad up at Stanford, and getting the usual giggles out of doing silly things for the camera and making strange noises in the microphones.

Somewhere in the middle of that conversation I got an IM from my brother's SN, but it was apparently one of his friends. I do tend to get random IMs from strangers somewhat often as they discover my SN through various search methods or this page. Generally the conversations don't last very long, I tend to lose interest in a hurry. I can't really explain what it is that manages to hold my attention for longer than the usual 4.5 seconds. Some people are just more interesting to chat with than others. Sadly I'm generally a busy person, and many people who might get interesting eventually are brushed aside as soon as I get bored with answering open-ended questions. This one though seemed like a halfway-intelligent person, even though she's hanging out with my brother... So I actually play along and converse with this total stranger for well over an hour while I'm multitasking, and become somewhat interested in her as a person.

Then she makes the mistake of telling me she's similar to my brother in the most negative way possible, that being she is also a smoker. Yeah, I've become open minded about many things in the last few years. When it comes to shortening one's lifespan though, I won't ever see the other side of that. Not only are these people hurting themselves, but eventually they will put a financial and emotional burden on everyone around them, hurting everyone who cares about them as well.

There's just nothing else to say about that. I gave her the abridged version, and then went to bed, not expecting to hear from her again.

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine.

For those who have never heard the Savage Garden song with the above title, I highly recommend snagging it. A nice gentle melody, very relaxing. Today started bright and early around 6 as I got up to study for my 9am quiz... Ended up getting a B on the first one after using the same strategy, and judging from how I felt turning it in I figure I got at least the same on this one. This is the class where the quizzes make up 75% of the grade, so I'm in good shape there. Got an exam-paper due Wednesay in another class and a midterm in a third class on Monday, so it'll be a busy week or two.

Hooray to the Angels for holding on last night and guaranteeing there will be another home game in the series. Hm at least I think it's a 2-2-1-1-1 scenario in baseball. Maybe it's 2-3-2 in which case it wouldn't guarantee anything. Ah well all I know is they're gonna be in boooooo PacBell Park for the next couple games... Seeing all the rallies and stuff on T.V. makes me miss Disneyland, can't wait as usual to head back there for New Years Eve. I wonder where I'll be when the clock strikes 2004... Man, 2003 seems like it's right there, but 2004 seems like a good 5 years away.

Found out I'm already at the weight I'm supposed to be at on the leg press, with a medium amount of effort I can do the 320 or so for a few sets of 10 reps. Took it easy still on everything else, just did a couple sets of huge amounts of reps without huge amounts of weight. The pull-ups sure get harder when you lower the amount of weight that's helping you up... I'm not experiencing much soreness but that's probably a good thing, I'll gradually increase the weight over time until I reach a level that I'm getting a good workout at.

This Is The Life.

Every time I get bored or am just sort of blah about life in general, I just go for a walk. Tonight I was greeted with a very close to full moon as I wandered the paths around the outer edges of this housing complex. I eventually made my way down to the cliffs overlooking the beach, and was taken aback. The moon was very high in the sky, so the only strong reflection of the moon was on the curve of the waves as they curled and broke near the shore. It was a really awesome effect, something I'd never seen before. The sound of water has always been soothing to me, and I ended up enjoying it for several minutes before the cold began to set in and I made my way back indoors.

I'm truly lucky that all I have to do is walk outside my living space, take a few steps, and am immediately surrounded by beautiful scenery. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, got various assignments due early next week and a quiz Monday as well as a multitude of meetings over the next few days as usual.

Oh and two big thumbs down to the Angels and the Air Force Academy for losing their respective important games today. Lame! :(

Twenty Point Nine...

The official numbers are in, and they're not too shabby at all. I went to go sit in the egg yesterday, which was quite a strange experience. It's basically this little capsule thingy somewhat like the cars in Minority Report that zipped along on the sides of the buildings, except much smaller. You sit on the seat in there sort of hunched over, and then shut the door which sounds much like an airlock. It then makes all sorts of air hissing and suction sounds, as if you're going to run out of oxygen any second. Definitely not something I recommend to the claustrophobic. Was fun for me though, it'll be somewhat what a cockpit is like I figure. It ended up saying of my 190.5 pounds, 20.9% is body fat. According to their little chart thingy, under 20 is healthy. So basically, even at the beginning of my weight training schedule, without much effort at all, I'm already at the boundary of not only what's healthy but what will be required. Once I get further into training and the fat to muscle conversion is in full swing, I'm sure I'll have no problem bringing that number down further.

Hit the weight room for the first time today and discovered a very cool machine... Pull-ups were a huge problem for me growing up as I basically had no arms, and even in college after I did gain a pair of shoulders at some point I was never able to do more than a few, and it always felt like my arms were ripping off. They have this machine in there that allows you to stand on a bar that's at a certain resistance and do pull-ups, so if you put it at a comfortable weight not only can you do a set of 10, but you can do them properly. You can maintain the level of exertion at a constant rate both going up and going down, without the constant jerkiness trying to do pull-ups unassisted brings. I really recommend it to those who can't do a smooth pull-up by themselves, it will make it really easy to build up that muscle and slowly reduce the weight assisting the legs over time, rather than trying to lift 190 pounds with my back and triceps on day 1. Took it real easy for the first day, just figuring out the comfort levels of the different exercise I'll be working, deciding what weight level to start at and so forth. Going to stick with one long set for the first few workouts then add a set later.

So, promising numbers to start with, as my weight is officially a good 6 pounds under the max, and my body fat is only slightly above as I begin weight training.

Frustration...

So yesterday I just did a couple miles around the lagoon island, which involved a bunch of hills. The problem is never running up the hills, it's always running down. The most efficient way to do it is just to let yourself go, basically windmilling your legs as gravity throws you downward. Unfortunately, this seems to be the fastest way to aggravate my legs. The pounding on the pavement especially when running downhill is what always brings back the pain. It's quite frustrating, seems that no matter how long I'm into the running routine, the first day I actually run some hills, or run at a somewhat fast pace, I end up having to stop halfway through due to the pain.

I guess my new strategy is just to focus on other types of exercise. The elliptical trainers at the RecCen, and the pool, are going to end up being the main focus. Interestingly enough, I stumbled upon a set of physical requirements in the Air Force track I'm headed into that I wasn't aware of before. In order to be a part of a fighter aircrew, I'll have to perform F.A.C.T.. on a regular basis, which stands for the Fighter Aircrew Conditioning Test. Unlike the tests I'll have to pass at OTS, this one solely involves weight training. It's based on a percentage of your weight, so just to overestimate things and make sure I'm in the green area I'll probably end up training as if I was trying to reach the amounts needed if I was 200 lbs. That wouldn't happen since the max in the Air Force is in the 190s, and I plan to be around 180, but better safe than sorry. That means I'll have to lift the following amounts of weight:

Bench Press: 160 lbs
Arm Curl: 70 lbs.
Lat Pulldowns: 140 lbs.
Leg Curls: 100 lbs
Leg Press: 320 lbs.

Those numbers don't look insanely impossible, but apparently its not just maxing at that weight, you must actually perform TEN reps of each exercise in one set. For example I wouldn't have a problem benching 160 lbs, but given the length of time since I was actually weight training, something tells me ten reps might be a problem.

I think the first thing I'm going to do is go pay the 6 bucks or whatever it is to go into that new machine on campus that tells you like a berzillion things about your body composition, including your body fat percentage. That will be quite helpful in determining what the best course of action is for my training routine. The problem with switching over to weight training and make sure I'm in the zones needed in that area, is I'll probably build up muscle and thus gain weight, which could put me too close to the max weight.

Might as well explain the whole deal so the numbers make sense when I talk aboutit in the future. The way they do it at the yearly physical is they initially weigh you to see if you're over the maximum allowable weight for your height. I'm technically 5' 10 1/2' at my shortest during the day, so the max weight for me is 196.5. The "desirable weight" for that height is 175. I'd be satisfied with a muscular 180. I'm currently just over 190 at last check. If you end up over the maximum weight, they do a body fat percentage check. This is so that the very muscular officers who are possibly quite a bit over the maximum weight due to muscle mass aren't affected. The maximum body fat percentage for those under 29 years of age is 20%. If you fail both of the tests (>196.5 lbs and >20% body fat) then basically bad things happen. If that was the case at my initial physical I'd be disqualified completely, if it happens when you're already in you go through various stages of reprimands and eventually demotions and a possible discharge. Basically bad news. The last time I checked my body fat percentage was like 7th grade, and I've changed a bit on both the muscle weight and chunk weight since then.

So theoretically if I find out my body fat is a decent amount under 20%, then I can just focus on keeping in shape on a muscular and cardiovascular level, and not worry so much if I gain muscle and it puts me over the max weight. It's much easier to see progress when it comes to muscular work, and ab work, so motivation wouldn't be an issue, although if I do eventually get in, knowing I'm going to have to do it or go home will be motivation enough. So now you know everything about what I'm trying to do physically. Oh one more thing. GETTING A HAWT BOD FER DA WOMENS WOULDN'T BE TOO SHABBY.

Heh.

Oomph

For those who couldn't translate, that's the sound of plopping down into an amazingly soft and comfy mattress, in this case, one placed on a futon. Finally snagged one on Sunday, and am quite pleased with the purchase. The wood seems like it's very good quality, and the mechanism to shift from a sofa to a bed seems to work very well. I decided to go with a green cover, sort of a darker forest green type, and that seems to complement the wood very nicely. It ended up being a good inch smaller than the gap under my bed, so it basically fits perfectly, while still having a few inch gap on either side of my head and feet when lying down lengthwise. I don't thrash around too much vertically, so that shouldn't be a problem. Best part about it is that it folds out to a full bed rather than a twin, which will certainly please overnight guests. So yeah, any of you friends of mine from far away pleases who want to come see the beautiful place I live in, feel free to drop on by. :)

Feeling much better tonight than last night, gonna give running a shot tomorrow, although it won't be at 7am since the last few days has screwed up my sleeping schedule as I've tried to sleep off the cold. Finally did get a haircut though, so with a lighter head running should be no problem. ;)

Been having to be a lot more organized this year, got a full on calendar goin in my notebook, having to schedule meetings for Neighborhood Council, meetings with my R/A, meetings with my Econ 109EC group, and various other things. Kind of annoying to have to actually check my calendar when someone asks me to fix their computer or invites me to a movie, but I guess it shows I'm actually getting things accomplished with my time rather than just sitting around.

Had my first smoothie of the year after missing out on dinner thanks to the first NC meeting where they were supposedly gonna have mass food but I actually ended up getting only a slice and a half of pizza... Apparently Jamba isn't open as late as I thought, but Blenders out in IV came through for us. I'm not very particular when it comes to smoothies, anything with strawberry and banana in it I'll probably dig. I'd actually be perfectly satisfied with a smoothie as my breakfast, but then I'd be wasting money left and right and that just doesn't work. Hm there's an idea, blenders for the dining commons... They already have the fruit and ice and whatnot, wouldn't be all that difficult to provide blenders... Although I guess washing them would have to be done every time, so you'd actually have to have someone making the smoothies for the students... Hm, maybe I'll bring that up at some point. Gah more later, way past my bedtime.

I Get To Learn A New Word...

Listen up children, today's word is "Fiance." Now before you all faint, let me be a little less vague and inform you that it is not me but is actually my sister who will be using the word the most. She's become engaged to her boyfriend of more than a few years. I haven't gotten a whole lot of details as I was only the first in a long string of people to inform (at least I was first outside the parents, being the eldest sibling does have its advantages...) so I'm sure I'll have much more on this subject later.

Unfortunately not feeling any better today health wise, possibly even on the worse side tonight, so will have get back to this later and hit the sack.

Coed Sleepovers!

Well, at least the ability will be there, as I'm finally gonna be pickin up a futon tomorrow and essentially tripling the comfortable sleeping space in my room. :) Spent the day running errands, pickin up a new headset mic since I'd stepped on the old one too many times... Then I headed over to KMart and snagged a tape measure because I got bored of asking to borrow a ruler (something happened to mine), and took it around to various futon places browsing and measuring... Finally ended up making somewhat of a decision, I'm gonna head back tomorrow to double check some stuff and actually make the purchase, and then tackle the task of trying to fit it in the van to transport it back here. Hm, even better will be trying to get it from the car into the room... Luckily I'm bringing along a friend, although I might need more than one. :P

Also met up with some buddies to see Red Dragon, the latest film in the series surrounding the character of Hannibal Lecter. Chronologically it's actually the first, but there's the usual innuendos and so forth that hint to things from the second and third that make it useful to have seen the others first. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Anthony Hopkins is an amazing actor. When you combine his talent with that of Edward Norton, who is also phenomenal, the movie could be about paint drying and I'd probably still think it was great. Gonna go with 5 M's out of 7 here, there are a few interesting twists in there that keep you guessing. I do recommend seeing Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal first however, there's a lot more character buildup around Hopkins, and Jodie Foster's performance in the former helped bring that film the Best Picture nod at the Oscars.

Feelin a little under the weather today, but still managed to get out and run this morning, apparently gonna be playin some racquetball at some point tomorrow so I'll probably sleep in and save the exercise for later. Also gotta give a big BOOYAH to one of my hometown baseball teams (well technically) the Angels, for kicking some tail in the ALCS. Anyone wanna get me tickets to the World Series if they get that far? :) I haven't been to a baseball game since like 1st grade... That would be so sweet!

Thursdays are Nice.

Well so are Tuesdays, but when it's Thursday the next day is Friday, so that makes it even better. Took my time getting up this morning and eventually got my multi-tasking hat on and dumped in a load of laundry before going for a morning run. Since the beginning of this month I've been on a 2 day on 1 day off running schedule, which I guess is decent enough as a start. I did increase from 2 miles to 3 between the first week and the second, and am now able to cover that distance pretty comfortably. I did feel some soreness today in various areas of my legs, so I'll probably skip tomorrow and do the next two days. I figure as long as I build up slowly and just take days off when I sense any kind of pain, I should be able to avoid getting injured. Running on the wet sand is a really good strategy too, it lessens most of the impact and is a lot better on the legs.

Last week I finally decided to break down and install an RPG, which is something I'd avoided for several years now. I've just never been into the "neverending" types of games where there are always cooler items to find or bigger bad guys to fight, and in which "experience" is the most important aspect. Most games of this sort allow you to "gain a level" very quickly early on, with Levels 1 to 10 coming all within the first day of playing most likely. However the time it takes to gain a level grows exponentially, so to get from level 40 to 41 might take over a week. I managed to never get sucked into that kind of game, those are the kinds you always read about people losing their lives to. Everquest or "Evercrack" as it has become known as, is the best example. The role playing game of choice is Morrowind, which is actually the third in a series of games of which I hadn't played any. The pluses to it, it's single player rather than multiplayer, so the story does have a beginning and an end. The leveling isn't exponential, you'll eventually get to the highest level of everything. The negatives, the world is just gigantic. This is where people waste their lives away, methodically exploring the entire world would be a lot like trying to explore all of the United States on a bike. Although the main quest is apparently only about 80 hours in length (around four months of playing at five hours a week, which is all I tend to play), there are umpteenmillion side quests and things to do, so you could technically waste away an uncountable amount of time trying to beat the game "completely." Luckily I have no interest in that. After playing on and off for a week I've actually already grown pretty bored with it. As RPGs go, I've heard it's one of the best (I don't have a lot of experience with them myself) but you really have to be the kind of person who wants to get lost in a fantasy world for hours on end. The world is so huge that when tasks require you crossing back and forth, it gets pretty repetitive and boring. It's not a very difficult game, it's just very time consuming. I'll probably come back to it every once in a while, but it just didn't hold my attention like most games do. One game I'd like to snag and install is the third installment of the Myst series, Exile. The first Myst is considered the best selling PC game of all time, and I don't know too many people who missed out on it. It's the type of game where the point of the game is to find out the point of the game, and that's what makes it very different from others. You can spend days or weeks "stuck" someplace, trying to figure out what to do. It's sequel "Riven" was unfortunately so difficult, that I'd estimate about 95% of all players required a walkthrough or "hint" book in order to make it through the storyline. Some of the puzzles required linking concepts from multiple islands, deciphering codes, or making connections between seemingly pointless items. I've heard Exile is in between the two, difficult enough to keep you busy with your noggin for a while, but not so difficult that you're running for a strategy guide before you've gone ten feet.

I have been getting back into Q3F as of late, the mod for Quake 3 that I used to play quite religiously. I've joined up at least temporarily with another group of guys who play regularly, including a few I've known online for literally years now. It's great fun to talk about the good ol days, bust out quotes from years ago, and talk about the best (and worst) matches of the past. Also quite spooky for my visitors to come in and hear voices coming from my computer, following which the sound of someone with a heavy midwest accent saying "Hi SoandSo" (having been informed of the person's name through a chat window of course). I then generally pretend that the person can also see my visitor through a webcam, after which they usually run out of the room. Of course my webcam isn't set up, but it's fun to play with people's minds. :)

Okay you can wake up now, I'm done talking about computer games. :) No poker game tonight, apparently one of the guys had a CS assignment due or something. Ah, the life of hammering away at code at 2 in the morning, how I miss it. OH WAIT, NO I DON'T! ;)

Writing On A Desk.

If you happen to sit in the very back row of Girvetz 1006, on the right side, this is what you'll see.

Power Puff Girls kick ass.
Ninjas are sorry.
I hate boredom.
I hate love.
Do some coke.
You are wasting your youth.
Jesus was just in my taco.

Ah, the creative minds of UCSB's youth.

They Still Fit!

Happened to see one of the guys in my house kickin a soccer ball around out in the quad, so I busted out the old cleats and went to join him. He lives up on the third floor, and is apparently quite the player, trying to get in shape to make it onto the club team here. Was quite fun to be thumpin away at the ball again, hadn't done that since intramurals last year. He's trying to get on a Mens B team for Outdoor, which might have some extra slots, so I might end up tagging along. The quad's really nicely set up for soccer though, and since all the buildings look out onto it I'm sure we'll be able to get a game going now and again. Managing to keep from taking out any windows, now that's the challenging aspect. :)

Had your typical interesting conversation with the guy in the single down the hall, I was in there showing how the sharing on the network worked, and he was sharing his triumphant story of sleeping with three different chicks over the last three nights, a feat he's never before accomplished in college. I remember responding with "impressive" in the most sarcastic tone I have (which is really sarcastic) knowing he wouldn't pick up on it. "Yeah I know, cool huh" was all he said. He then launched into a story about how being an Abercrombie model for 5 years got you stuff that "comes with the territory." I eventually made my escape once my room was done being vacuumed.

My first sorority house experience ended up pretty low key, although it was pretty impossible for me to not be stereotypically thinking when everything around me was your classic example of what you'd expect. The new business plan idea is a 24 hour convenience store in Milan, apparently Italy is lacking those in general for the most part according to those group members who had been there. It's really a structured project, so it should be relatively easy. I volunteered for the Market Analysis portion, knowing that's just a bunch of online research and charts and whatnot, and a lot easier than the actual Marketing plan, or the Implemention or Financial sections. Don't seem to have any real deadbeats in the group, which is logical since we're all 3rd or 4th year and most of the deadbeats are pumping gas by then.

Busiest day tomorrow, including an Econ quiz I guess I'll be studying for at some point tonight, finishing up a couple more chapters worth of reading and workbook work. Took the day off from running after a longer than average day yesterday when I made it all the way down the beach past West Campus to the other point way past the end of DP down there near the Snowy Plover reserve, I'd never even been there before. I figure since I have no problem running on weekends I'll just do a 3 days on 1 day off kind of scenario so there aren't any huge gaps. Alas, the dinner bell is ringing in my head, and I'm starving, having not eaten lunch or breakfast because I was naughty and chowed on Freebirds late last night... I know, shame on me but dang those tacos are good. :)

Another Weekend Fades Away...

Seems like it had barely faded in before it was gone, funny how weekdays plod and weekends zoom. Pretty productive day, got off my ass and managed to run all the way down to Goleta Beach (now a slighter more difficult task than last year since I'm way over on this side of campus) and made it back without any major issues. Then I was off to help a friend move all her furniture from one apartment to another. All sorts of exciting heavy lifting of couches and box springs and desks and fun stuff like that. She ended up being kind enough to treat me to Carrows though, so I can't complain. Not really sure where the middle of the day went, did some more researching online into the WSO track, oh and I forgot I then took like a three hour nap... Dinner was more entertaining than usual as I met up with some friends from two years ago who live across the quad, it's funny how even though you live closer to people you see them less often... I guess we all have lives now. Well, not all of us. ;) Hauled them over to get groceries, and managed to get free McConnell's out of that, the Coldstone's look alike over in Storke Plaza, which is always good. I'm a big french vanilla with white chocolate chip mix in fan, mmmm good. This whole providing chauffeur service for free food thing could work out quite nicely, I have a couple people who owe me Freebirds for various pain in the butt trips involving too many calories being burned. ;)

Heard from my officer recruiter again, turns out my package did in fact get sent off to the October Board, which meets on the 15th-18th. Apparently in order to get the Flight Physical you must have been accepted already, and even the MEPS aspect of the physical doesn't have to be completed and is actually a separate thing. So, supposedly on November 8th, I'll get the good or bad news and find out if my new direction in life is a closer to permanent thing. No stress involved, or anything.

Speaking of stress, had a somewhat heated conversation with a friend of mine tonight, which we'd sort of put off having for a while since a particularly bad day that managed to piss us both off for various reasons... I think I made progress in explaining the true motives behind the things that had pissed her off, but even though she says she understands where I'm coming from regarding the things that made me angry, I still feel like there's something holding her back from truly rusting me, which is quality I hold most important among my close friends. It's interesting, there are times in the past when I've felt we've been really close, I remember even last year telling someone at home she was the best friend I had here, but this year things just seem different. I don't know whether it's my change in priorities, or maybe hers, or just the fact that we're very different people. Before it never was a problem that we had different tastes in music, or different opinions about which "Trading Spaces" episodes had the best looking rooms or whatnot, but now it seems like a gap is widening. Last year, she was the one I went to whenever I needed anything from a friend, and there were a few times I felt like she was doing the same, this year it just seems like that connection has faded away. It might have been my imagination that it was ever there to begin with, when it comes to interpreting the emotions of the opposite gender, I tend to strike out on a regular basis.

As much as I'd like to stew over depressing topics, I'm actually intending to get some Econ reading and workbook pages done tonight and tomorrow morning before class (even though it's optional; I know, I don't know what's wrong with me) and going to sleep early enough to get in another decent length run. So, I believe it's 33 days and counting!

Why Fire Truck Drivers Aren't Paid That Much.

Good thing I was up late last night, because if I wasn't I would have been joyfully awakened by a loud siren, and eventually a big crash and the sound of dragging metal. Turns out that I guess the fire people hadn't quite worked out which route to use to bring fire engines into this new dorm area yet, so they tried to fit a truck in between the light post and the flower/rockbed right outside my window, and discovered it didn't fit. They ended up trampling most of the bed, and finally running over a water main and dragging it with them for about twenty yards before coming to a halt right in the middle of the three quads, lights flashing siren blaring. Quite an interesting thing to see when you randomly look out your window. The trail of dirt and huge ditch the wheels dug is still there a day later, it'll be a lot of fun trying to clean that up I bet.

Hasn't been a whole lot to blog about, I got up on time the last few days and am getting into the exercise schedule I'm shooting for, and thus far no trace of the injury from the summer, although I'm taking it a bit easier to start out. Decided to really focus on how much I eat at meals, you can still get all the great tastes by only having a very small portion of each thing they have. The main problem used to be the eggs/potatoes/sausage etc etc etc I used to cram in for breakfast, and then still have a decent sized lunch and dinner. The breakfast/dinner schedule is what I'll be sticking to, with granola cereal/canteloupe/banana/OJ and milk being the start to the day, and generally the meat of the day over rice and a random side dish being the dinner. The pounds are starting to drop off again, and now that I'm back at school and have multiple choices when it comes to exercise, even if running is eliminated as an option again, I should be able to reach a happier level.

Thursday night was the inaugural poker game, with some of the old school players participating. I ended up the big winner, but there was a lot more luck than skill involved. You don't have to worry about bluffing or betting when you know you have the best possible hand, for example. Quite a nice feeling to have. They decided to go in for $10 a piece instead of the usual $5, so who knows maybe that will become the standard. A few other people who saw my away messages are wanting to get in on the action next week, so that might become a Thursday night thing or something. As long as I'm winning, the frequency of the matches doesn't really bother me. :)

Had a friend visit who I hadn't seen in quite some time, she'd spent the summer galavanding around the globe to various countries, apparently having a ball of a time. We had our usual good time as she called me stupid and I made fun of the way she says certain words, including my name. The need for a futon in here became even more evident as she ended up deciding to crash here instead of troop all the way back to her off campus house around 3am. Apparently my Mom is now heavily researching the idea, basically to prevent me from going out and buying the first thing I see. I don't particularly care, but it would be nice if it would be sturdy enough to last through the year and then into the future, as I begin to move around. Sure is easier than moving a full bed and couch around, especially if you can take it apart. Funny thing about the night was she left my playlist on shuffle when she went to sleep (I'd apparently dozed off earlier) because she enjoys background music while she sleeps. Well an elephant stampede could have gone through the room while she was asleep, because after random Metallica and Creed and whatever else had woken me up like six times, she hadn't moved a muscle. I'd gotten a ton of sleep the night before, and ended up getting up at like 7 anyway, so it was no big deal. Always nice to hang out with long-time friends with whom you can completely be yourself, with no worries as to how it will appear to them. Some people are inherently laid back, and regardless of what you say, it'll never be taken the wrong way. Those people make life so much more relaxing.

Other than that not much to report, halfway through a weekend, with a whole list of stuff to take care of tomorrow and especially Monday, so we'll see how that goes.

Oops

Been being a good boy, busy as a bee, will update later today.

Thought I'd Never See The Day...

Well I said I was going to go all out on the whole open minded thing this year, and so far I've kept to it... Got assigned a group for my Business Plan project in Writing 109EC, seems like a pretty electic group, apparently the meeting we're having outside of class to start setting things up is going to be at one of the group member's sorority where she lives, apparently they have a nice big living room they use for a lot of group projects or something. That'll be a new experience, four years later I've never been in a fraternity or sorority. First time for everything. I actually managed to listen to her talk without really stereotyping her immediately, so I think I'm improving.

In other news I turned in my app thingy for House Co-Chair or what-not, that should be interesting. I figure might as well start taking on leadership roles where I have to deal with morons, practice for the future. I'll probably take the reins and be the group organizer for this Business Plan project too, least that way I can be sure of a decent grade. The awesome news is that I don't have a final on the very last day like I thought I did, turns out it's taking place late the prior week. So I'll probably be heading home that weekend instead of having to wait til the Monday. Good deal. Er wait a second, why am I in a hurry to get home again? :/

Are You In Group 1 Or Group 2?

Six weeks behind the times at least, finally joined the crowd in going to see Signs. I'd actually heard a lot of mixed reviews, so it ended up being better than I expected. Not really in your face booyah launch you out of your seat scary, just pretty suspenseful throughout. Logistically, it didn't make much sense at all, but the concept of aliens wandering around isn't exactly realistic in today's day and age either. We'll go with 4 M's, it was creepy enough to make me be glad I don't live in the middle of nowhere. The acting by the children was pretty amazing, really helped set the mood. Not exactly at the caliber of a Hayley Joel Osment, but not too shabby in their own right. Also turned on Panic Room at what appeared to be about a half hour in last night on the RHA channel where they basically just show nonstop movies, which was decent. Only so much you can do with the concept though, there wasn't much depth to it. This one gets 3 M's, although I generally give higher ratings to Jodie Foster's performances, this one fell pretty flat. Some intense slow motion scenes that magnified the height of the action, but it got pretty repetitive.

Third day of classes today, which is my second longest day of the week. Monday Wednesday and Friday start off with a morning Econ 100A Microeconomics lecture, which so far is just regurgitating stuff I already knew, so I'll probably spend the time reading the book and working on the workbook during lectures, paying more attention if he actually covers something I haven't already learned 3 times in Acadec, Micro/Macro AP, and the Econ 1 and 2 courses. There are pop quizzes in that class though, as well as about scheduled ones every few weeks that end up being 75% of the grade, so you can be sure I'll stay on top of things. Hoping to stick with a 7am wakeup then workout concept, getting me back here around 8:15 in time to shower eat a decent breakfast and get over across campus. My second class of the day is at 2pm, which is my Econ 119 United States Business History lecture. So far looks like it'll be pretty much memorization, more of a history course with lots of reading and so forth than an econ course. That one is 50% Final and 50% exam papers, these two take home little 4 pagers where you get 6 questions and choose to answer one or something. Doesn't look like it'll be too rough either. On Mondays and Wednesdays I then have a two hour lecture from 3 to 5 for my Econ 138A Income Tax class... Yeah, it might be painful, but I figure of all the things that might be useful later in life, knowing how to save yourself money sounds like a pretty good deal. It's actually a two quarter class, think I'm taking 138B in the Spring. Today will be my first day of it since it doesn't meet Fridays, more on that later. Then on Wednesdays I have ANOTHER class, a Econ 100A section from 5 to 6, so that makes 4 straight hours of class on Wednesdays. Will definitly be the least favorite day. The good news is just one class Tuesday and Thursday and two short lectures on Friday, so I should be able to deal.

Gah, now I have to just avoid taking a nap during my 10-2 gap every other day after waking up at 7, haven't missed a class yet, no need to start now. :)