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.
Friday, November 15, 2002
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.
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.
Thursday, November 14, 2002
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 13, 2002
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
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.
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.
Sunday, November 10, 2002
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.
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.
Friday, November 08, 2002
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?
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?
Thursday, November 07, 2002
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. :)
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. :)
Tuesday, November 05, 2002
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.
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.
Saturday, November 02, 2002
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. ;)
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. ;)
Friday, November 01, 2002
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.
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.
Thursday, October 31, 2002
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?
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?
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
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. :)
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. :)
Monday, October 28, 2002
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. :)
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. :)
Sunday, October 27, 2002
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. ;)
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. ;)
Friday, October 25, 2002
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...
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...
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
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.
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.
Monday, October 21, 2002
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.
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.
Sunday, October 20, 2002
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! :(
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! :(
Friday, October 18, 2002
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.
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.
