Whoda Thunk.

The above translation of "who'd have thought" is something I've found myself mumbling several times over the past few days. I'm often asked whether or not I believe in fate. My usual response is that it's a load of BS people use to make themselves feel better about potential for the future. Well yeah I still have that opinion, although recent evidence has caused some doubt.

Over the past few days and weeks I've been doing my best to find the negative aspects of an entirely positive situation. I've been focusing entirely on what might go wrong or what might make it difficult, rather than what was so positive or optimistic. Call it doubt or a lack of self-confidence, but I really wasn't seeing what was right in front of me. If the world was perfect no one would know it. If a relationship was perfect it would be boring. One only has to look as far as my parents to realize that conflict keeps things interesting and is part of a functional relationship.

So yeah I'm getting around to a bit of a news event here. Kind of interesting that during the entire life of this blog I've always been single. Well last night I decided the drought should end. It was actually kind of interesting the way it happened. We went to this Chinese buffet restaurant which was all you can eat for like $7 which was a pretty sweet deal, and anyway they bring the fortune cookies at the end and I eat mine and it's something lame about showing passion towards what I'm doing or something which I just sort of shrugged off. My car of people was the last to leave and as we're getting up I notice that there's one more fortune cookie at the end of the table that has been left. I of course snag it immediately and upon busting it open find not one, but two fortunes. I'm going to edit this with the exact quote of the first one which I of course kept later, but it was something like "romantic attachments are not always logical, nor rational." The second said something along the lines of "you never know what will happen until you try." I tend to be a pretty spontaneous person, and it's one of those totally random things that will usually swing me off the fence into a decision. Well, that and 8 happens to be my favorite number, and that was the date. So off we go later that night on a moonlit walk down to the lake by the golf course, which has become my new favorite place on Maxwell. Breaking tradition there was no preparation whatsoever, and thus I spent several minutes stumbling around in circles before eventually saying what I'd dragged her down there in the dark and cold to say. Sometimes command of the English language just doesn't suffice.

So what we have here is a new challenge I'm facing. When writing notes back and forth when in the large lecture auditorium, I recently busted out some spur of the moment poetry towards this now significant other. The last two lines are probably the most relevant.

"What will happen next, who really knows.
We'll see if across the Atlantic, only water flows..."

Red Means I've Been There.

(Large map removed due to spacing issues, basically the whole map was filled in red except for North Dakota, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine, North and South Carolina, Hawaii, and Alaska)

Hm, guess I've been around.

The Way You Move...

Just a quick blurb of a movie review here, saw You Got Served over the weekend, and it was pretty much what I expected. Some pretty amazing dance sequences, intermingled with some pretty terrible plot elements. So yeah, go for the rhythmn, hit up the snack bar or restroom during the rest. Spend a lot of time going "WHAT THE" as they do things like skid across the floor on their head or bend their bodies in incredible ways. Pretty bumpin soundtrack too, which is the main reason I recommend seeing it in the theater vs renting it, unless you have a monster system yourself. We'll say 4 M's due to my love for music in motion.

Did I mention I fell off the bed like a week ago and bashed up my elbow pretty good? Pretty funny stuff. If you're lying on your right side, and you're at the very left edge of the bed randomly, don't try to roll onto your back, or you'll find out how far off the floor your bed is. Been a while since I've had as good looking a scab.

In other news, there seems to be rumors of going various places during various weekends upcoming, but I'm not sure whether any of it will actually pan out. Still riding the fence on the major topic at hand though. Seems popular opinion among my rational friends is the rational side of it. I guess that makes sense.

Long Lunch Breaks are Fun.

That's about as exciting a thing as I have to say today.

Messed with the template a bit, made my description less wordy and added a where am I now section so that doesn't have to be the first question people ask me over the phone. It seems the guestbook and guestmap have become ignored and are thus crying themselves to sleep on a nightly basis. :(

Btw I think I'm going to reward whoever the 10,000th hit is to the site, just hit the "print screen" key on your keyboard, and then go to edit/paste or hit ctrl V in a program like Paint or Photoshop, and you'll have a screenshot you can save and send me. Maybe it'll be monetary, or maybe I'll just tell you how swell you are. Certainly shows how long I've been hammering away at this thing though. And to think the entire time I've been single. Interesting.

The Olympics are this summer, I hadn't even realized that until just now. That's spiffy, because I love watching the Olympics. Shame they're not in the US this time, but Greece seems like a pretty nifty place. Not that I've ever left the country or anything, but when I do I'll probably pop over there at some point. I still have a friend who promised to bust out one of his mother's infamous seven course meals or something if I ever visited, so that would be a good way to take in the local cuisine. The more I hear about other places, the more I realize I'm really going to enjoy travelling.

Dude, she even eats lots of meat on her pizza. And plays DDR. And can enjoy a sunset silently. And has a beautiful singing voice and enjoys singing Disney songs as much as I. And knows sign language. And says hi back even after the 2347283th time I say hi each day.

The "reasons why she's cool" list just kind of goes on.

It's kind of ridiculous how lopsided the ratio is between that and the "reasons why it's the world's worst idea" list is. Unfortunately the few issues there are on the latter are gigantic ones. So time passes and I continue to ponder. At least she's not bored yet.

Well Golly.

Made it over here to the library again for a post, but not anything really tremendously exciting to blog about. Lots of boring classes rehashing mostly stuff I already know, lots of trying to stay awake. Lots of painful PRT, managed the 1.5 mile in just under 10 yesterday which is my fastest time here so that shows promise, especially given we've been going out to eat on a way too often basis due to celebrations involving winning games or people's birthdays or whatnot.

It certainly is a different kind of situation I'm in on the social side of things. There's the capability to spend literally 24/7 with a person, and that makes days seem like weeks, and within a few weeks I feel like I've known at least one person for a year. At least on the mental side things seem to be progressing faster than average. But this leads to a lot of complicated topics that usually aren't covered in week two. So I'm not really sure what's going on at the moment, and that's probably irritating. You want real scary though, I met the parents last weekend, and managed to field all the typical questions pretty well during the interrogation that was attempted to be disguised as polite banter over lunch. Pretty sure that hurdle was supposed to come later too. Ah well I figure I've got a month to ponder, and meanwhile enjoy the present.

Back Again, Oh So Soon.

Seems like yesterday I was passing through the Day Street gate for the last time. It was finally over, and life would slowly be returning to normal. It was a pretty emotional few days at the end there. I guess I should say weeks given the news that I got at the beginning of week ten. Being here definitely brings back memories, both the good and the bad. So yeah, checked in and started running into people from OTS left and right. The interesting thing is most of my upper class and some of my lower class is here as well, so the people you couldn’t really associate with while there were finally at the same level as you. The other somewhat awesome thing is everyone here is the same rank. This might not make sense to those on the outside, but on the inside due to fraternization rules and whatnot knowing whether or not someone is enlisted or in your chain of command is sort of a required element before getting to know someone. So yeah, I figured I would meet some interesting people here. The fact there were about two hundred females here versus the twenty or so at OTS was also quite promising.

So yeahhhh. If I had tried to write about how good things might be at the end of the first week, I would have been hard pressed to find something better than the way reality turned out. Now lets not get too excited, but yes, I met someone. Guess I should cover the problem first. Germany. It’s a country in Europe quite far away. And so logistics have sort of shut any potential down. However, it’s really given me the hope for the future that had been slacking over the last few years. There are people out there like me, there are people who understand the type of life I’m living, and there are people who would make me very happy.

So what are the odds that someone like this would be at ASBC. Well I wasn’t expecting much really. I was certainly not expecting I’d be lucky enough for them to be in my flight, the group of fourteen people I’ll be spending much of the time here with. And the real kicker is since they house the members of a flight all in the same hallway, she lives next door. What are the odds people. So yeah, Matt’s a happy camper at the moment.

During the first evening here the guy across the hall and the guy next door to me had come out to say hi so we were chattin it up in the hallway with the typical what do you do where are you stationed did you make the retarded mistake of getting married type conversation (well maybe not that last part out loud) when the girls who we figured were just antisocial began making appearances from the other end of the hall. And so out pops this little bundle of cheerfulness. We blab for quite a while until I feel like a retard for standing that long in the hallway twiddling my thumbs and call it a night. But of course the alphabetical seating arrangement in the flight room has her sitting across from me, so I do my best to try to focus more than average on the lessons and whatnot. That second night after the first day of classes though I stopped by her room for some retardedly fake reason I can’t even remember right now and ended up hanging out for several hours just chatting about this that and the other thing. People who know me know that I tend to be a little um, inquisitive when I first meet someone. I’ve always found it kind of useful to learn as much as possible about someone early on. It just makes it easier to gauge what to expect in the future. It also helps to somehow inquire about those subjects that depending on the answer have the potential to shut things down in a hurry. Yeah it’s not exactly a required element of casual conversation with someone, but I kind of had a feeling that the relevance of this one would be more than average. Luckily I didn’t scare her off too badly though with my continuous grilling. I think.

On Saturday we decided to get out of the dorms and see what there was to see outside the gates. We headed over to one of her family's friend’s places, and chowed down on some yummy edible material. They had two small children there, so I did my usual smile and open my eyes up wide thing and made them giggle profusely. The father was also in the AF, so we had a bunch of conversations and I did the "try not to say anything stupid" thing for a while. Eventually we made our escape and headed over to one of the local malls, because for once I actually was able to provide an idea of something to do, and recalled they had an ice skating rink. I hadn’t been skating in years, and it was certainly an experience. I’m not exactly as agile on blades as I once was. Truth is though, when you're with someone with a smile like hers, you could be watching paint dry and be having a good time. :) Later we wandered around the mall, and I happened upon a wonderfully curvy G35 which was able to distract me for quite some time, still the most aesthetically pleasing vehicle I've seen. That was followed by a trip over to the east coast’s version of White Castle, and then back over to the mall where we went to see Along Came Polly. I did guffaw a few times, so we’ll have to go with 4 Ms. Eventually the day ended and life was good.

So I’ve known someone for like five days and already think she’s pretty durned swell. But yeah. Germany. That’s like, far. Like, really far. Doh. Maybe she has a twin in the San Antonio area. If not it’s back to the drawing board in six weeks. But it should be an interesting six weeks. Worst comes to worst I’ll have someone to visit if I’m ever in the area. Maybe when she’s a general and I’m a captain she’ll be able to hook me up. Har.

Edit: This was written last Saturday and it's now Thursday, so I'll probably have another post around the corner soon.

Like, Woah.

So we have some major happenings here. Not exactly a quick read, but I've broken it up a bit and will post it over a period of a few days, so get comfortable or do it in sections or something. Not having internet to post as it happens is pretty annoying, this probably won’t get posted til like a week after my last one. So I guess starting with my trip here is the way to go.

I got about ten yards outside the gates of Randolph before the rain started. Actually rain doesn’t really describe it. Something like downpour. Or an adjective like torrential. Never in my life have I driven through rain like that, and I’m not even exaggerating. They said like four inches fell in the San Antonio area that day or something. I was doing about twenty five mph in the fast lane, and basically having to tailgate the car in front of me to see the brake lights and make sure I was going the right direction. The reason I was in the fast lane was that the yellow line was actually visible, whereas any of the others were just lost in the mess. Compared to jaunt from Cali to SA, this one was very relaxed, I only had to drive a couple hundred a day, so there was plenty of time for blog making activities along the way. My first night I hung out east of Houston, having basically accidentally blown through the whole city due to the lack of visibility. I’ll have to hit up the NASA Space Center there on the way back through. That was the nice thing about it, even though the weather was crappy I will have a second chance with too much time on the way back to do much of this.

So since there wasn’t much out there where I ended up staying in my typical Motel 6 or Super 8 other than a mall, I wandered in to see what the happenings were. In typical spontaneous fashion, I saw that a showing of Cold Mountain was showing in the next few minutes, and even though I knew it was romance based and I tend to avoid such I went ahead and purchased a matinee ticket and barged in. Boy am I glad I did. This one gets a solid 6 M’s out of 7. Largely due to the entertainment provided by Renee Z whose last name I won’t even try to spell. Her character doesn’t appear until like an hour in, but makes her presence known in a hurry. Pure hilarity ensues pretty much every time she has a line throughout the film. It adds a comedic touch to an otherwise powerful drama about what a few short moments with “the one” can create inside a person. Great music, great performances, all around superb movie. Definitely one to curl up by the fire with if you’ve got that special someone to keep you company. Even worth seeing for you single folk, although you’ll come out of it wondering when it’ll happen to you.

Next up was a raid at the local Dairy Queen, which of course got me a lot of strange looks because the place was deserted due to the extreme cold and pouring rain, and here I am sauntering in with my tshirt shorts and sandals in typical traveling Cali boy fashion. They don’t have very many DQ’s out in Cali, so I try to pick up the Snickers variety of a Blizzard whenever possible while on the road. The RENT soundtrack was getting some heavy airtime in the ol CD changer while pluggin along, my vocal range fits pretty well with two or three of the parts, so I try to entertain cars next to me whenever possible. I tend to get some stares and some fingers but they’re just bitter they’re not having as much fun as I am.

You know college sweatshirts serve a very useful purpose. It’s a very good way to figure out how old females are. Unfortunately there is an error percentage which sometimes causes some issues. Actually if everyone could just wear their age on their forehead that would be helpful. And better yet whether or not they’re enlisted would be good too. Oh and their hometown because meeting someone from Alaska doesn’t help much.

Driving across bridges is really fun. I always used to force my family to go out of the way to drive across any big bridge that was in the area, and I still find them to be quite impressive. There used to be a run in California that was an 8k that ran across the Vincent Thomas bridge, a steep one that went across an opening of LA harbor. It was pretty fun because the first major portion was uphill, but then of course you’d get to bound down the other side before unfortunately having to turn around and make your way back. But yeah, got to cross some cool bridges, including one over the Mississippi for the first time in several years. There was also a really interesting portion of the 10 where for dozens of miles the highway was elevated on pillars because it was crossing swampland. This led to some beautiful visuals you just don’t see in LA. I’m sure to those who live in the state of Louisiana aren’t too impressed, but it’s just a different kind of terrain for a big city boy. Snapped some pictures on my way into New Orleans, after remembering that I’d brought my camera and wasn’t using it.

The storm was pretty much following me along, so I wasn’t able to do as much in New Orleans as I would have liked. Again though, there’s always the way back. Found a pretty good deal for a downtown hotel over at the Hampton Inn and Suites by the convention center right across from the Riverwalk. Hit up the casino that night of course, and manhandled the poker room for a hundred bucks or so before spraying the money around at various other things trying to make my millions. No real action though unfortunately. Got this real strange compliment though while at the poker tables. Those who know me know I constantly whine about the lack of compliments I receive, so when I do get them it tends to put me on cloud nine for days. So anyway, I’d love to say it was a gorgeous model like character who said it, but in reality it was a lady who was at least eighty and had obviously been around the block a few times. Okay a few dozen. Anyway, I make some comment about having amazing cards and then fold my 2 7 offsuit with a smile, and she’s like “you have the most beautiful teeth I have ever seen.” Which is a little strange because I’ve never even considered that to be a good feature. Usually it’s all about the eyes, which I totally agree with, but the teeth thing was pretty unexpected. It’s probably impossible to notice but even though I had braces and used to wear a retainer I stopped like everyone does and a couple of them moved out of alignment. Then again the lady was eighty and probably half blind so I probably shouldn’t be too impressed. I did get made fun of back at home though on Christmas because supposedly my teeth were so white it was blinding family members when I smiled. I occasionally bother with those whitestrip thingies, but only when I’m trying to impress someone or something. Also should mention the extraordinarily cute pit boss they had working there, which isn’t something you usually see. Definitely gives you something to stare at though in between folding crappy hands. The negatives with real life poker is only playing one hand at a time means you spend the majority of the time with nothing to do if you’re a tight player, and are forced to socialize and whatnot with those at the table or those watching. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it helps if they’re easy on the eyes.

Spent some time afterwards wandering around the Riverwalk and checking out the subject of so many novels and other writings. Afterwards I randomly stumbled upon a restaurant that claimed to have some pretty durned good Cajun food, which is of course a required staple if you’re going to hit up New Orleans. I had the seafood combo special thingy whatever it was, basically like eight different kinds of meat and fish which is of course quite a cool thing for a carnivore like myself. They had a live jazz band playing, which is a genre of music I’ve always enjoyed. They even had a dance floor, and all sorts of people were havin a good ol time, but unfortunately my age group was very underrepresented. You can tell I was in a good mood because not only did I ask the waitress what was good there, but I then even took her advice. Stranger yet was the fact that I tried something I had never had before for dessert. Yes I know, stop the presses, Matt tried something new. I can see those close friends of mine keeling over as I say this. But anyway yeah, I’d never even heard of bread pudding until she mentioned it, and so I decided to give it a shot, how bad can it be. Well it was bad. I’m apparently not a fan or something, but the only good thing about it was the sauce or whatnot over it, but the actual dessert itself sort of felt like eating stale jello. So yeah, SEE WHAT HAPPENS when I try new things.

My final night was spent in Pensacola, Florida. Those who know my story know that this was supposed to be my destination following OTS, but it was not to be. It’ll now be a temporary residence for water survival training for a few weeks later on in the process, but unless I cross train or something at some point it’s unlikely I’ll spend time there outside of that. Adding Florida onto the list put my list of states I’ve been to at forty three or so. Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and South Carolina are now the only one’s left. And yes I know I really should be taking Hawaii off that list as soon as possible. I’m workin on it.

Yeah so eventually I got to Maxwell to report in for ASBC. I guess I’ll pause.

Time Warp...

Back at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama. Seems like yesterday I was finally leaving this place. At least now I have all the privileges I didn't then. More after I get settled in and figure out what's going on. Plenty to talk about from the trip, will spam away later.

Just When You Thought..

That I'd actually be in one place for a while, I'm off again.

After finding out I could leave a day earlier than planned without getting charged leave, I'm gonna take off at some point tomorrow and head East. Along the way I'll be heading through Houston, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, and Pensacola, although I may only stop at some and stop at others on the way back. Eventually I'll be back in Montgomery, AL for the first time since graduating OTS on Halloween. ASBC is the name of the game this time at Maxwell AFB, and I report there for class on the 19th, with it actually starting the 20th and letting out I believe March 3rd. So sometime around March 5th I'll be back here doing the get paid to sit around and wait deal again. In the meantime I'll make bank off TDY pay, something I can't complain about. Unfortunately it would appear there isn't any broadband access in Billeting there, and I won't be dialing up, so I'll probably be a frequent visitor to the library again for use of their internet. Should be an interesting experience, being back there but with all the privileges the world can offer. Also interesting will be the fact that instead of 130 or so OTS students, my ASBC class will be a massive 600 or 700 students. That's a whole lot more faces folks. Looking forward to seeing old friends from the trying times of OTS, and making new ones.

So yeah, will update when I get situated over there. My cell phone as usual will be travelling with me, so that's the way to contact me if you feel the need, or want me to get you something from somewhere along the way. Sorry jambalaya can't be shipped, or I'd be sending myself some too.

Getting Stuff Accomplished...

Can feel pretty good afterwards. Been doing a lot of studying for the FAA test I'll be taking in the next few days, and have been getting upwards of 90% on all the practice test versions I've taken... There's a few sites that let you just create tests of whatever number out of the bank of 700 or so, but for some reason I've yet to get a perfect. Every time I do it I knock out more that I'll never miss again, but they just keep cropping up. I figure with enough practice though I should be fine. I demand perfection these days when it comes to tests, so hopefully I'll start off on the right foot.

Also went running today when I was planning to take the day off, which was quite tiring. Played a solid two hours of basketball for PT Friday, and then ran 4 miles in under 32 yesterday, which was pretty quick given I hadn't run in a week. Today I did the octagons course due to having some euphoric energy for some reason after two hard days in a row, which was also about 4 miles and huffed and puffed my way to around 35, although the distance is a rough estimate on that one. Was definitely feeling more tired right off the bat though.

Also have been at 173.5 for the last couple days, which is a new low. That puts me at least 32 pounds down, although I'm not entirely sure where I actually topped off. I was back up to around 180 after the holidays, so glad to see as planned in the first 10 days of the new year I've dropped back down. I keep trying to find a good comparison to how much weight I've lost, like giving birth to a small child or something, if you think of one let me know.

Downloaded Crazy Taxi 3 to entertain myself with, that arcade came is quite fun, and playing it for free should be even better. Also noticed I haven't yet blogged about Uru, will have to get around to that too. Also decided to test out the whole playing poker online for real money thing, since I'd been making steady progress at the play money tables. Basically do it while multitasking, getting stuff done or watching a movie and playing a few hands every now and then when I have monsters, and occasionally doubling up and getting rich. Only made one deposit and not planning to make another, was planning to just not play anymore if it ran out, but so far it's multiplying. With training happening very shortly and no real internet there, I'll just cash out all my winnings beforehand. Not a terrible thing to get paid to be entertained.

Oh and maybe the best part about the last day or two is I had a really lengthy like multi hour conversation with one of my friends. That hasn't happened in quite a while. Sometimes I get bored, sometimes they do, but we just jabbered on and on. Always nice to build on the connection you have with someone when possible, especially when the majority of my connections currently travel great distances.

So yeah, feelin good about life today.

Flap Flap Flap Go My Wings...

Pretty uneventful few days. Did my two last x-country flights, which just leaves the last low level to do at some point. Pretty uneventful, other than the last one me finally managing to do pretty much a perfect takeoff and landing. Pretty sure it was the first one my IP didn't actually touch the controls at all. Cessnas aren't exactly C-130's but hey, at least when that infamous scene in the movie comes when a pilot gets taken out by some unnamed crazy guy I'll be able to at least attempt to save the day. I kind of wonder whether the nav is the one who does all the radio work in the operational AF. That would be fun.

Muster time has been 1330 this week which is somewhat nice because you get to sleep in, but somewhat annoying because it's right in the middle of the day and you tend to just not get anything accomplished. Luckily I have done a bunch of studying, and should be ready to take the practice tests in a couple days.

Ooh and my license plates finally showed up, so next time you see some Joe Cool cruisin by tagged 5EXF814 you'll know it's me. And yeah, I sort of double taked when I first looked at it too. Something about the fate of sex at 14? If you can come up with a more clever interpretation please share. I might still get my initials or something custom next time around when it comes to renew. Hey at least the it would match this site's dns, so you'd really know it's me.

I've had a sort of annoying headache in the back left of my head for a couple days so ima go lie down. Not sure where it came from since nothing has happened and it's sort of been off and on, but I'm sure rest will improve things. Just sucks because after two days in a row I haven't run in like three days. Hopefully gonna have a good racquetball game during PT tomorrow and at least get a workout out of that.

Two Double O Four

Phew. As years go, this one was packed.

Took a look back at previous new year's blogs, and was interested to see what resolutions I had last year. Hit 175 by June was one, which I succeeded in doing, although about 6 months behind. Graduating on time was one, which I succeeded in doing... well not really but hey what else was I going to do during the summer. The other was be able to look back and see a ton of fun things that I did with my last year in college. This one I'm proud to say I more than overdid, although much of it can't be advertised here. The New York trip was definitely a blast, and that reminds me, I never got around to doing my best things about college list. It's still on my to do list someplace.

So, resolutions for this year. This time I won't be so easy. We'll go with maintaining 175, and yet be able to do 80 pushups in 2 minutes. Last check at OTS I was at like 46, so I have a real long way to go there. Managed to get through the holidays with only about a 3 pound gain, so by ASBC that should have fallen off again. If only there weren't so many good sweets lying around at home... Let's see what else. I'd like to be a Distinguished Graduate from ASBC while I'm on the subject. That will require some hard work but I think it's doable, and will be a good kickstart to JSUNT when I get back. That won't be completed by next January 1st, but I'd like to be doing well come that point. And last I'd like to expand my circle of friends here to something like I had in college, with there always being someone I can call and go out with.

Disneyland recap, pretty much the usual. Great fun. I took advantage of the video recording aspect of my digital camera, and had a nice old guy standing around by the teacups take a 30 second vid once I really got going. If you want to find a really good way to get a headache and feel like you're going to barf, feel free to ride with me. Unfortunately I only get around 24fps on my camera, but it was quite obvious to see I was the fastest spinner out there even though I was by myself [beams]. Had a couple favorite moments from this trip, the first of which was over at the Plaza Gardens stage, where they played swing dancing music pretty much all night long. I hung out there for like two hours, I'd forgotten how much fun it was, having only been once in my life. This has pretty much affirmed that the ideal person must have a sense of rhythmn, because being able to tear it up is just great times. Saw many a couple with grins from ear to ear doing all sorts of random nifty moves, and other than the usual thirty seconds of universal macking after the countdown ends that was the only time I had that pang of "darn, would be cool if I had someone special here with me tonight." Nothing to be worried about though, I'm sure everyone who's single gets that feeling from time to time. My second favorite moment was during the "Believe in Holiday Magic Spectacular" that they actually have on a nightly basis during the holidays. Disneyland does fireworks like no other. Instead of launching them from a single point, they launch them all across the entire back area of Disneyland, allowing for peacock looking effects as well as shooting stars, and countless variations, all timed to some great music. Part of one of the songs is "Do you remember, the way things used to be, when you believed in make believe..." The look on parents' face and the huge eyes of their kids as they watch the explosions of light and color is something else. Then they always play something patriotic, and then an uplifting wha BAM song, as the finale brings cheers from all across the park. I'd probably pay full price to get into Disneyland just for the fireworks and the countdown.

Must say a few words about the plane ride back as well. Unfortunately the lengthier flight to Dallas was quite boring, but my connecting flight to San Antonio got delayed a bunch so while chilling out in the terminal I did what I usually do, strike up a conversation with some random person. Surprisingly I had some excellent for the couple hours I was stuck there and then in the air, since we happened to get seats directly in front/behind each other. They were a combat medic in the army, based out of Fort Something or Other in San Antonio, unfortunately I don't keep up with the bases of other branches, although I probably should. They were an E5 after only being in a year and a half which is pretty impressive, and eventually I had to answer the question of what rank I was, which luckily happened pretty late in the flight, because from then on as usual the aura of the conversation changed to something other than what it was before. Nothing like rules about fraternization to kill a conversation. There might be something about different branches though, I'll have to look it up if it ever becomes relevant. Luckily there are no rules against conversation when bored in airport terminals. I need to find a clever way to dodge those kinds of questions without making it obvious.

Boy was it nice getting into my car again, after driving the old minivan while at home. Leather seats, bumpin sound system, sunroof wind in the hair, ahh....... Oh and that whole put your foot on the accelerator and it actually goes someplace thing is nice too. Now all I have to do is get running again (today's three miles was a good start) and be back in a bit of shape by ASBC in a couple weeks. That and finish up my last three flights for NIFT and take the test and pass with flying colors after studying a bunch...

Recap...

Yeah it's been a while, I've been busy. Busy enjoying myself actually.

The flight home was relatively uneventful, other than the fact I had to leave by 4am for the 6am flight... Also got robbed blind for extended parking at the airport because the economy lot was full, but oh well. It seems the plots that caused massive security at LAX were foiled along the way at some point, for other than the rain there were no mishaps on that end. All in all I awoke about 1:30am Pacific time and finally walked in my front door about 10:30. I was already tired, but alas it was a full house and Christmas had just begun.

Had the usual good time in the living room, with my sister's fiance and my brother's girlfriend making it a group of seven rather than the usual five. The typical hilarity ensued, which was captured in quadruplicate thanks to new digital cameras for my mother and sister to go along with my father's and mine. Great fun had by all, and eventually much chocolate was eaten and many insults were tossed.

Finally got an MP3 player for running, although it appears that the wireless earpiece I was hoping for doesn't actually exist. It would be a really cool James Bond type of product, being able to just have the mp3 player in my pocket or on my arm and have a wireless little thing in my ear, but alas. Got all sorts of interesting books and whatnot, which should keep me busy for the couple weeks before I'm off to ASBC.

Was able to meet up with a bunch of people during the few days I've been here, which is always good for the soul I suppose. Saw one friend I had missed out on seeing my last time to Santa Barbara, so it had been quite some time. That had me more cheerful than usual, even though misestimating the travel time to get down into that general area caused us to miss the movie time we were aiming for. Allowed more time for chatter though, which I never complain about.

Yesterday was dedicated to the art of snowboarding, which is always a good time. Although I can still make my ankle hurt if I move it a certain way, it wasn't noticable on the slopes. There was more snow on the ground than any previous trip, so the dreaded patches of ice were much fewer and far between. I took on the roll of teacher for the first few hours and managed to get one person from the stage of not being able to stand up to being able to heel edge and skid all the way down, and the other person from that stage to being able to do toe edge and sometimes string them together. Quite a lot of progress, and in the meantime I managed to not do anything retarded. Then while they all ate lunch I went over to some of the more difficult slopes, since we'd gotten on the mountain much later than planned thanks to me reading the wrong opening time and then an hour long rental line. We finally made it onto the mountain at like 10:30, and I highly recommend showing up at like 7 for a 7:30 opening in Big Bear in the future. Anyway, had some fun going fast for a while, then right before the lift managed to eat it pretty hard in a flat patch, which is always the most difficult section for me. I'm fine with most steep slopes, the steeper the better to a certain point, but give me a flat section and I'll find a way to catch an edge and go flying. I later did a nice somersault off the top of a lip (unintentionally) but other than that it was a mishap free day. Sore wrist and sore ass are really the only casualties, other than the usual sore muscles pretty much everywhere. Ended up being quite a long day as we didn't leave until around 6, then raided Denny's for all sorts of unhealthy food (I didn't eat lunch I was allowed) and eventually made the three hour trip or so home due to routing through Glendale to drop someone off. Finally hit it around midnight and tried to stack up some sleep, as we all know where I'll be tomorrow.

Speaking of which, all you stalkers and internet admirers, as well as prison inmates in Nebraska (well assuming you break out), I'll be at Disneyland tomorrow doing the usual New Years Eve thing. You could probably read past years' posts for info. Rumor has it that at Noon I'll be at the Walt Disney and Mickey statue in the center of Disneyland in front of the castle. Then of course for the big event at Midnight I'll be in New Orleans square at the edge of the bridge above Pirates of the Caribbean. Too bad I'm already hoarse from yelling so much encouragement yesterday, as busting out the countdown at the top of one's lungs is always great fun. So yeah, feel free to come say hi, I guarantee I'll say hi back. Well, potentially once I pick myself up from having keeled over.

La Dee Dah...

Another few days without being able to run or do anything significant, another boring post. Luckily I'm just about there and should be able to get off my ass just in time to fly home and do some fun things. Just quite irritating to be at least a week out of shape and have to get back into it. Rule #1, don't get injured. Rule #2, I have about a million rules and I label them all as Rule #1.

So I decided to go ahead and finish up the Myst series with Exile. Having completed it, I'd really like to say it's my favorite of the bunch. Unfortunately that's probably biased, because it's the most recent. I remember thinking the original Myst and Riven especially were incredibly awesome when they first came out. This one works out to about ten hours. And yes, I caved. I think it was twice I used the devil that is the walkthrough, and in both cases I'd spent about an hour wandering around trying to figure it out. The great thing about this game when compared with Riven is that solutions to problems are very near the problems themselves. When you flip a switch or whatnot you can generally tell what it did, without having to go wandering all over the map to various places you were stuck on seeing if whatever you did helped any of those problems. For those who like logic in general, I really have to plug Amateria. Quick synopsis before I get to that, you start off in one age, and can link to any of three ages at that point, in random order. The ages don't connect, and you don't need information from one of the three to do another of the three or anything like that. So if you get bored and stuck on one you can do another, but will eventually have to go back and puzzle through the one you're stuck on. Only once you've completed all three do you link to the final age and "piece it all together" as they say. I was unaware of this concept, so the two times I used the walkthrough were because I figured the answer must be in some other age and I'd missed it. Of course it wasn't, but I didn't really get that DUH feeling, because the answers were difficult as expected. Anyway back to Amateria, everything in this age is logic based, and at the end it all comes together in an amazing sequence that makes puzzling through the different aspects all totally worth it. Reminds me of my days with contraptions in the backyard, but you'd have to see old home videos to understand that. Voltaic also has a pretty sweet visual ending, so as a whole the results of your troubles are quite gratifying. The acting by the bad guy is quite good, and there are about a dozen possible endings, one of which has him rush you with some sort of hammer and knock you dead, which had me backing away from the screen in a hurry. Overall the puzzles are not as difficult as Riven, mainly because like I said they are solvable just based on what's in the general area for the most part. That's not to say they're easy, some do take a while, but they don't require copius notes throughout the game or anything.

Upon finishing I was quite sad the series was over, but then when watching the "Making Of" movies that came with the games (which you shouldn't watch until afterwards if you don't want spoilers) I saw that a new game called Uru, Ages Beyond Myst had just come out. So maybe there's some future play after all. I should mention Exile was the first game in the series to let you look 360 degrees in any direction at every turn, rather than just at a snapshot facing forward. This added to the photorealism as if you were really there, and created some cool effects. In Uru you actually can wandering around like your typical action game, from a third person or first person perspective, so it should be interesting to see how that changes things.

K done with computer game talk. In other news I leave at 6am on Christmas morning to go home, which means like a 4am arrival or something ridiculous to the airport. Probably going to extended park for two dollars a day at this place I got referred to at the airport to save the fifty bucks or something a round trip taxi would cost. Should be interesting to see what kinds of people are flying on Christmas morning. Plans call for family stuff that day, then a snowboarding trip on either the 29th or 30th depending on weather if it makes a difference, then the usual Disneyland extravaganza the 31st, then leaving again around 3pm out of LAX on the 1st and showing up back here late. Somewhere in between on the 26th-28th or 29th and so forth I'll be trying to fit in various excursions with people I won't be seeing again for quite a while, so feel free to call the cell if interested.

Swelling...

Is kind of a cool thing. I remember when I got a massive bump on my head from racquetball the night before my flight physical that I spent a lot of time touching it and going ooooh that's neat. Yeah so yesterday I was stupid enough to play football (two hand touch mind you) for pc with my section... On some random play I got a pass and proceeded to juke my way diagonally across the field doing the same move on like six guys in a row, eventually juking my own ankle out of its socket or something. It didn't really hurt when it happened, but by the time I got home it was beginning to be annoying. It kept me up most of last night because I couldn't find a position under the blanket that didn't make it bend and hurt, and by this morning was nice and swollen. Had to cancel both my flights today, quite annoying. Was beautiful weather too, it had better be that way the week I get back when I have to do all three flights I have left or I'll be real bitter.

So what's a guy to do when he can't even walk to the fridge without hopping? Well a computer game or two is always good. Over the past few days I'd been working on one of two games I'd actually gone out and bought to entertain me for the next few weeks before I head off to ASBC, and as predicted Black and White Deluxe ate up a decent chunk of time. I got to the last level which is especially difficult and it was getting old though (this is after somewhere around twelve hours of gameplay) so I decided to move on to something fresh until I had another craving that made me go out and buy the thing in the first place (the downloaded copy isn't patchable, and the bugs in the game without the patch make it basically unplayable. The Myst trilogy was the other game in the back, with both of them only costing 10-15 bucks. My bill at most restaurants is bigger than that. I'll give you the low-down on Black and White when I finish it, but let me say my piece about Myst and its successors. For those who like puzzles, logic, or thinking in general, you really need to install these games. There is a reason that for a while this was the greatest selling PC game of all time. To date the series has sold ten million copies. TEN MILLION. Imagine what small percentage of the population are gamers, and you have to figure a huge percentage played at some point. I'd truly forgotten how much fun it is. There are two feelings that will become familiar to those that dive into the world the developers created. The feeling of having utterly and completely stuck and having no idea what to do. This is the most frustrating thing in the world. Unfortunately, it used to be a lot more so. Before Google, or the devil as I call it when it is used in reference to the term "walkthrough." A walkthrough is a step by step solution of an entire game that someone has posted on the web so anyone who is stuck can immediately go and find the solution and move on. If you're going to try any of these games, I recommend repeating the phrase "walkthroughs are the devil" repeatedly. No matter how stuck you are. This is important for two reasons. First of all, when you realize what little thing you missed, or how simple the solution really was, you will feel like the world's biggest idiot. You can try to pretend like you would have figured it out eventually, but admit it, you caved. Second, the feeling of actually solving a puzzle, and in the case of some more complex ones watching it all come together, is one of true satisfaction. I tell you I almost feel as good solving a major problem as I do winning a jackpot. Almost. Then again you don't get paid to play computer games. Then again I do.

If you don't get stuck, Myst is only about 5-6 hours or so. In reality, it might be something like double that. Although I'd never even beaten the game prior (I'd got stuck when it first came out in 93, before walkthroughs) I had the advantage of having the memory of how to solve many of the puzzles. Thus about 2/3 of the game went through very quickly. Speaking of quick, since the game is so old, and modern computers are so fast, the game runs MUCH faster than previously. Literally split second load times for each frame, you can migrate around islands in seconds. Funnier still is the fact it only takes 2mb of hard drive space. As a good comparison as games travel through time, Riven takes up what at the time was a tremendous 85mb, or forty times the space of Myst. Then you have the more recent Exile, which takes up an astounding 2.1 gigs, or 2100mb or so. Cha-ching. Anyway back to the games, as a whole, the difficulty of the puzzles of Myst are not very difficult. I didn't use a walkthrough then, and I didn't use one this time either. Now if you move to the next title in the series called Riven, you're taking a big step. First of all I recommend playing them in order if you care that much, because the storylines make a lot more sense that way, kind of like a movie series. Second, the puzzles in Riven are much more difficult. Individual puzzles are still very doable, but there are a few greatly complex ones that require applying a whole bunch of stuff you've learned along the way to one conundrum. When I first played this game when it came out (I bought it, but later let someone borrow it and they never gave it back, the bastards) I made it a pretty good distance with no walkthrough, I'd say about halfway. Then I caved and used it for what turned out to be the most difficult quagmire, then for some reason stopped and never finished the game. This time around obviously getting back to that point was relatively easy, although I only really remembered premonitions about different parts of the game. There are really a couple parts that are just ridiculously fiendish. You'd literally just have to click all over the screen at times to randomly accidentally flip some hidden switch or push some hidden button. The vastness of the world makes it impossible to know where you should be doing this, as if you're stuck on one island logically it will seem like something somewhere else will unlock that door, or open that hatch, or whatever, when in reality the answer is right in front of you and wandering around everywhere else gains you nothing.

Riven as a whole is more like ten hours if you have an unfair advantage of previously playing parts of it like I had, and I'm guessing at least twenty or thirty otherwise. Definitely one of the longer games out there, and more difficult. I'd really seriously like to watch someone else play it. Someone of high intelligence especially. Other than the previously mentioned fiendishly difficult parts, there's really no reason someone smart shouldn't be able to beat this game. It's just interesting to see what kinds of things get different kinds of people stuck. What is completely obvious to me seems impossible to someone else. It's kind of like that who looks up when they walk into a closet thing. Some people check their back seats every time they get in a car, some people would carry around an alligator back there for days before noticing. Being observant helps tremendously in these games, you might walk down a hall or path like twelve times before finally spotting what you needed to. I seriously recommend it to anyone smart enough to enjoy the challenge. If you want hints ask me, it's much more satisfying to receive a bump in the right direction and come to the right conclusion yourself eventually than just reading it in plain text and going OH DUH.

So yes, get your hands on a copy of this game if you like a challenge. It's simple, takes five seconds to learn how to play, and can provide hours of entertainment. Did I mention the worlds, Riven's in particular, are asbolutely beautiful? I'm seriously looking for some of the stills to use as desktops. They truly look like what a fantasy world would be, to the point you pretty much feel like you're there. I won't give away any details, but at one point I literally flinched in a big way and started away from the screen due to an event that occurred. Pretty rare that you see that in a game that doesn't involve grenades at point blank range.

Ah, the clock strikes midnight, guess it's time for sleep. Tomorrow, I'll try out the third installment in the series, Exile. Never played it, and I'll be darned if I'm not going to beat it without using a walkthrough. Hm triple negative there. Think it made sense. Should be interesting to see how long it actually takes... This whole can't walk thing is rough I tell ya.

A Different View of the World...

Yesterday was by far my favorite day flying thus far in NIFT. The obvious explanation is due to a couple things. The wind for the first time wasn't a big deal, so the vast majority of the ride was smooth as silk. The other thing was the day was absolutely beautiful, and you could see for fifty miles in any direction. Luckily we happened to be doing a cross country, so it was my longest flight thus far, and by far the most comfortable. Took a bunch of pictures along the way of just what it looks like to be just chillin at six thousand. Another cool thing about the flight was due to the winds the active runway was runway 3, which is the runway always used by the major airlines. I got to taxi all the way over to that side of the airport alongside the terminals with gates and whatnot, and we performed the runup right alongside a massive Southwest plane. I found it quite hilarious that someone was crammed in coach looking out their window at me in my dinky Cessna out for a stroll. I felt even sorrier for the Continental plane behind them, because we actually got to take off in front of them, so hundreds of people had to wait while we putt putted down the runway. It's also kind of fun to be on the radio with tower and ground as they give these massive jets orders to hold short of the runway because we're on a five mile final, as was the case when we landed on the return trip. We did a touch and go way down in Live Oak County at an uncontrolled airport. Those are kind of fun, because first of all I'm actually beginning to enjoy trying to land properly, and then just being able to do the aircraft equivalent of flooring it and taking off again is pretty cool too. The other neat thing was all the navigation calculations I did during the trip planning to compensate for the wind and whatnot were pretty much right on, which is always a good feeling given my career track. I should also mention we flew a low level on Tuesday which was good times as well, where you just skim along about five hundred to a thousand feet off the ground and use dead reckoning to navigate; stuff like "there's a river" "ok here's the river on the map we need to go south" to follow along a predetermined course. Low enough you can see dogs running across lawns or what kind of clothing is hanging from a line is pretty cool. Only three flights left, doubling up tomorrow with a cross country and the second low level, and then backed up the last flight until after I get back from the holidays to allow more time to study for the FAA test while I'm sitting on planes in transit and sitting around home.

Some Mondays...

Are better than others. After a lackluster weekend of not getting a whole lot accomplished, I went to bed relatively early last night motivated to get off my ass this morning. And so I did. At 5am, even. Boy did I have flashbacks to what life was like for about twelve weeks. And boy am I glad those weeks are over. Getting up that early is a lot easier when you're getting eight hours of sleep per night instead of four or five. So yeah, was up way before the sun, and went off and ran the equivalent of a 10k again. What puts me in an especially good mood is that I did it in about 50:30, or just over an 8 minute average mile. This goes way back to about junior year in high school to find the last time I ran that far that fast. It isn't anything ultra amazing, as a freshman I ran one in 42:25 or so, which is under a 7 minute average, but it's really showing how far I've come. A couple years ago I could barely run one mile in 8:30, and I wasn't even attempting to run a 5k without walking. Now I can run a 10k nonstop at a faster pace than I used to run a mile. It's a really great feeling when you finish a solid lengthy run. Just about your whole body is tired, and you actually feel like you did something. It reminds me of the feeling after a race, the switch from utter torture during that last mile to jubilation as you cross the line the victor. Suddenly the weakness just leaves the body and you feel like you could go dance all night long. It also does wonders for the ego, I lose at least three pounds every time I run, even on cold days when I barely sweat at all. I've been holding steady at the 175 mark, but I continue to improve my endurance and keep adding more arm work, and have finally gotten around to throwing ab work in as well. One of the things that really works for me is watching some kind of motivational clip when I first wake up on days like these. Whether it's the Where Eagles Fly music video thing about F-15s, or something like a "The Thrill of Victory" segment from ABC, or even the finale to one of my favorite performances or shows, it really makes you wanna get up and get busy. Least it works for me. Even to the point I don't even listen to music when I run, I just use the time to think about everything going on, and dream about what might eventually be.

We have 1:30 muster this week instead of 8:30, which means more sleeping in if I feel the need. I'm just going to take over the FAA study book for the test I have to take at the end of NIFT and use that time to get a couple hours in each day. Basically just have to memorize the answers to about 730 questions and I'll ace the test. We'll see how that goes.

Cool Sounding Words...

I've always wanted to come up with a really cool sounding word. If I could find one that was totally unique, I'd probably use it as a permanent nickname or something. A word like Samurai. Just rolls out of the mouth and exudes power. You are correct in thinking I must have headed out to see The Last Samurai yesterday. This was quite a feature. I'll have to give it 6 M's out of 7, a pretty rare score. Speaking of score, that was possibly my favorite part of it. Whereas some scores are passive and some people think the best score is the one you don't notice, I disagree. The score of this movie took a very active role, and served to further the drama at every level. I've never had any problems with Cruise as an actor, which usually leads his movies to be at the top of the agreement list when heading out with a female to see something. I was over at the Regal Cinemas under the loop on Pat Booker, and was pretty impressed with the theater. The sound was pretty good, not an IMAX or anything, but at least the theater I was in was gigantic. Definitely the kind of place you want to see those rowdy crowd movies like LOTR or Star Wars. But anyway back to the movie, I really enjoyed the performances of all the actors. Cruise's love interest in particular did a tremendous job putting those non verbal looks on her face that let you feel yourself what she was feeling. The storyline itself had a couple hard to belief aspects, but had they been left out there would have been a lot less closure. This one jerked quite a few tears/sobs out of the audience, so be forewarned if that isn't your thing. Pesonally that's what I look forward to, movies that make you feel.

I also forgot to blog about The Life of David Gale which I got around to watching a few days ago. This was another superb movie, and who knows maybe I'm in a giving mood, but I'll have to give this one... well okay I won't I'll give it 5.5 M's. Only because it didn't have that extra oomph to get to 6. As crime whodunnit type movies go though, this one was great. I've always enjoyed Kevin Spacey, and Kate Winslet held her own as his counterpart. There were plenty of twists involved, and the only weak part of the movie is the final outcome is entirely predictable, although that's difficult to avoid. At any rate an interesting one to go see with someone on the other side of the death penalty issue as you. For conversation sake if nothing else. It shows some bias, but gives ammunition for both sides. So yeah, couple good films.

I should also mention that they showed the preview for Troy which was the most impressive I'd seen in a while. We're talking very large scale movie here, with some impressive panoramic scenes of just how gigantic the army that fought was. Yeah it's probably mostly computer generated, but what do you expect. Definitely one I'll go see for the effects side of things if nothing else.

On the other side of entertainment I also blew through Deus Ex - Invisible War a few days ago. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of good things to say about it. If you're a fan of the original by all means play it, but don't expect a higher level of entertainment. Unfortunately the engine requires a tremendous level of computing power, to the point my 1.7ghz gf3 system couldn't handle anything about 640x480. This is the first sign that it's soon finally going to be time to upgrade after over two solid years with this machine. I'll probably hold out for the hl2/doom3 era though. Back to the game, the inventory and gui are quite clumsy, and it's difficult to move between menus, so if you're instantly attacked it is unlikely you'll be able to turn on any biomods and pull out the most useful weapon at the same time before you're hit. The game is also entirely too easy, I had a ridiculous amount of credits at the end, and way too many extra biomod canisters and weapon mods, I could have upgraded everything multiple times over. This is a complete turnaround from the original game, where you really had to pick and choose your upgrades unless you abused the infinite credit bug during that one conversation. The game itself is much much shorter, with me finishing it in something like ten hours of gametime. It's one of those that keeps track as you go, so you can tell how bad your obsession with your computer is. It doesn't count all your loads after dying though, so in reality it's probably more like twelve. But the original was something ridiculous like thirty, and even then you hand't really done EVERYTHING due to the non-linearity. This one tries to be non-linear as well, but you really end up in the same places no matter what path you choose. There are four endings to play with, but I wasn't even interested enough to play through the other ones after choosing the one I did. There are some really cool lighting effects I'm sure, but my system couldn't handle them so they lost their luster at the lowest settings.

There was one really fun thing about the game though, and that was maxing out your strength biomod to the point you could pick up the body of a bad guy, and launch it about fifty feet in the air, and watch it slam up against a wall and crumple down to the ground. This type of realism with the body actually crumpling in a nonscripted motion is something I didn't expect to see until hl2, so it entertained me at various points in the game. Also interesting is the default is to play as a female character, and you actually have to change it to make it a male one. Just shows how creepy computer geeks would much rather watch a female barbie looking model running around taking guys out. I personally changed it to the one that looks most like me like I always do, but hey, that's narcissism for you.

Hm yeah think that's enough entertainment talk for the day. It's finally getting out of the 30s at night, so running in the early morning instead of midday should be doable.

Tellin it Like it Is...

Took one of those nifty "find out what you're attracted to" type tests through match.com that was actually pretty elaborate, and this is one of the results its spewed out at some point:

"Unique Tastes In Women: You are open to seeing a variety of women as attractive. Sure, women with "movie star" good looks catch your eye, but you are often equally wowed by more normal "cute" women. You're not one to judge people based on their looks. In fact, you're genuinely drawn to women that others might dismiss. Maybe it's because you don't buy into society's checklist for "mainstream" attractiveness. Instead, you notice unique features like a cute nose, beautiful eyes, or a cute butt, that make some women special in your eyes. For you, attraction is about the total package."

I mean hello, could they have been any more right. I could not have written it better myself. Well I could have, but it would have taken a while. After more jibberish it goes on to say:


"Open: You have a more open and accepting view of what makes a woman attractive than a lot of other men your age. On the test, you didn't pick the most "popular" women, but instead seemed to focus on your own personal tastes. This doesn't necessarily mean that looks are less important to you than other men. You simply have a unique set of criteria and keep your eyes open for special qualities that make a woman who may seem ordinary to most, extraordinary to you."

This may seem like BS, and who knows maybe it is and there are only like three possible results, but they sure did hit it right on the button. So, where they at? Hilarious responses as well as heartfelt ones to the below post by the way, keep em comin.

Audience Participation

Ah yes. Good times. Given I was bored enough to finally add that About Me section to the right, I figure someone else might actually be bored enough to respond to this. Note I didn't write this personally, I just jacked it off someone else's blog. These things tend to go around, and for once I'm actually curious/bored enough to post it on mine. Best way to respond would be via e-mail, using that handy dandy link that's also to the right. Let me repeat for effect, I wrote none of the below questions, other than number 20. That will be very obvious. Note there's no reason to spend more than five minutes on this, if you even feel like doing it at all. It's for entertainment value, and not to be depressing or an ego boost per se.

1. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
2. Am I lovable?
3. How long have you known me?
4. When and how did we first meet?
5. What was your first impression?
6. Do you still think that way about me now?
7. What do you think my weakness is?
8. Do you think I'll get married?
9. What makes me happy?
10. What makes me sad?
11. What reminds you of me?
12. If you could give me anything what would it be?
13. How well do you know me?
14. When's the last time you saw me?
15. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
16. Do you think I could kill someone?
17. Describe me in one word.
18. Do you think our relationship is getting stronger/weaker/or staying the same?
19. Do you feel that you could talk to me about anything and I would listen?
20. Name one person you think would be right for me.