Catching Up Part Deux
So there was one more weekend where I left off last. About midway through the week I clamped my foot down and said I was definitely not going to be driving anywhere because I had to rest up for my 850 mile trek coming up early the next week, and was planning to just vegetate all weekend. Right. So anyway we ended up down in Pensacola again to help celebrate one of her sister's birthdays. This was an interesting trip as we ended up crisscrossing the entire city at various times, seeimingly whenever we wanted to get somewhere it was clear on the other side of town. It reminds me of LA somewhat, you can drive for like 45 minutes and still be in town. It's not as interesting though, instead of buildings and freeway interchanges you have a lot of swampland and dimly lit highways. Scrabble was the name of the game at one point, and I somehow ended up winning due to some rule about a failed challenge against me giving me a bonus 50 points, although for some reason the word Pez was accepted about halfway through on a triple word score and that gave me about half my total. So yeah more eating out, more buffets, more enjoying myself a little too much. More on that later.
We eventually graduated that Tuesday, and found out we were the top flight in our squadron, which was somewhat unexpected and kind of cool. Was a bit sad to close up shop back at the room, as it usually is when you move your home from one place to the next. Luckily all roads seem to lead to Maxwell at some point or another (or unluckily some might say) so I'll probably be back as a captain for some more fun.
I knew coming back here the scale wouldn't have good news, given I spent six weeks eating out constantly, having pizza for lunch, and all in all not getting the amount of exercise I'm used to. Little did I know it would have 190 pounds worth of issues. Those of you who recall I it 175 a few weeks before I left and was hovering around 178-180 will realize that is a whole lot of work lost. Well I've been cranking it back up ever since I saw the dreadful news and am back to around 185. The new goal is to be back to 175 by my sister's wedding on the 27th, which won't be easy. Alas when you screw around and let yourself balloon, it's a lot harder to lose back what you gained. It's not like I didn't know it was coming though. I just had a really amazing six weeks socially, and sacrifices tend to be made for such rare occurrances.
So now we move on to the difficult concept of keeping in touch intercontinentally, which is definitely not something I've tried. I've hooked myself up with dialpad.com, which lets me use my comp to call her landline for three or four cents a minute, rather than the twenty nine it costs via my cell. She's also found a way to use the military DSN network to get to me, although we won't be able to use that as extensively. Meanwhile we've started up the ol e-mail/e-card thing, although with no computer at home yet that's limited as well. The seven hour time change is most of the problem, so when she gets home from work I'm just leaving for work, and when I get home she's going to sleep, and when I go to sleep she's leaving for work. So we've been using the in betweener times when we can, and e-mailing and text messaging the rest of the time. She's in the process of trying to get leave for my sister's wedding so she can meet the whole family and we can at least spend a couple days together, but barely anyone in her office has been able to take leave so it's looking worrysome, should find out tomorrow. At the same time the price of her ticket is like half what it was a week ago, but it has to be purchased by Thursday, so the clock is really ticking. Here's hoping.
In other news it looks like I'm pretty much in JSUNT class 0505, so this journal will become relevant to those navigator types pretty soon now. Start date is 20 April, with graduation sometime in January I believe. More details as they become available, in the meantime I have another forty days or so to do nothing but work out and explore the wonders of recreation.
It's a little different though this time. Somewhere way over there is someone important. Better yet, she thinks I'm important too. And that's kind of cool.
Saturday, March 06, 2004
Now That I'm Relaxed...
Okay okay I hear you geez look I'm blogging happy now?
So where was I. Looks like the last real post was the day after things got official up in this. And here we are almost a month later. Well I'm certainly not going to make any excuses about why I haven't been blogging, because I don't need to. That last month I spent nearly 24/7 with a quite a swell person, and given I had no internet, it was rare that I wanted to trapze over to the library and waste time staring at a computer screen. Instead I spent the time having an absolute blast.
Valentine's day weekend was the first of many trips that were to come. That one was a jaunt down to Pensacola, where her parents house is. I ended up meeting pretty much her entire local extended family, and good fun was had with games like Boggle and Cranium. Her mom is almost as competitve as I am, so we had a good time talking trash all in good fun. The highlight of the trip revolved around the fact that I'd "acquired" her address off the 29B form we had to fill out as a safety precaution before leaving for the weekend, and had a dozen roses delivered to her parents house the night before we were to arrive. As she tells it, her mom told her to go in and look at the dining room table, and seeing the flowers she assumed her dad had gotten them for her mom. Her mom then bragged about there being a card and when she looked at it, she realized it was her name not her mother's on it. I guess a bit of setup is necessary, I've always not been a huge fan of flowers, and had spent the whole week downplaying them, talking about how they die and are pointless and why would anyone want them and whatnot. Yeah well anyway, the inside of the card said "Because I said I'd never get you flowers." Of course I managed to step into the restroom for like fifteen seconds having been dying for the previous hour on the road and missed the entire thing, not knowing it was going to take place so quickly. According to her mom the look on her face was a sight to behold. Speaking of which all you men out there, FTD.com does same day delivery even the day before Valentine's Day, which I was quite impressed by. Quality product too, I didn't have any complaints and I don't think she did either. It was just a day trip down there, as we had the big test to study for the next week.
The following weekend was a bit more of an extensive trip. I finally caved after about a week of poking and prodding and agreed to go to the Founder's Ball for her sorority in Tallahassee at Florida State. By the time I figured out I was going though it was pretty much too late to rent anything semi-formal to wear, so I had to hustle through some last second calls to LA to get my measurements from the tux shop where I'll be renting for my sister's wedding, and then to the suit place here that was about to close in order to get the order in a day in advance. Unfortunately we forgot about the time change on the way down there, so after getting on the road around 3pm we didn't actually arrive at the event until 8:30pm, even though it started at like 7. It ended up working out though, as she got about ten feet into the room before she was swarmed by every person there at once. It's quite a sight, let me tell you. Meanwhile I held her stuff and stood off to the side admiring the wallpaper, before a few of the girls noticed and started introducing themselves. I tried to announce myself as her chauffer or tagalong but it seems that story didn't fly. Good food was eaten along with some delicious cake, and many a picture were taken of the event and its participants. By the end of the night I had a bunch of the names down, after getting a lot of "I've heard SO much about you"s and "oh so THIS is Matt"s. She went out with the girls afterwards, but I retired back to the room knowing the days ahead would be quite lengthy. The next day was filled with various activities like lunch at the Olive Garden where you can never go wrong, as well as a trip to the mall where I made friends with the sig other of another of the girls, and we eventually escaped back to his place to watch some quality television while they raided the Mac counter. Dinner was at a Thai place I think where I downed the biggest plate of fried rice ever, quite good stuff. Again it was an early night for me, and a late night for her, but given she wasn't doing any of the driving (not by choice) that worked out. Oh I almost forgot, they have this lake/pond thing over there that looks really pretty at night, and we did our "gross couple thing" for the day by taking a walk around it and enjoying the scenery. We both agree watching other people do such things is gross, and thus we must take advantage of opportunity to rub it in other people's faces for once. The next day we were supposed to get an early start, but instead a trip to Starbucks to play the ten fingers game (always entertaining) followed by a trip back to campus to see the sights as well as take a bunch more pictures. The coolest thing we did was head over to the stadium, which college football fans who have seen Florida State play will recognize as a major one. Although they had the place pretty locked down, we managed to find an entrance through a chain link fence that was normally closed and locked but what looked like a repair truck had gone through recently at field level. Thus for the first time in my life I went walking out onto field level of a football field, with the towering stadium all around. She said she'd been to a truckload of games and never been down there, so it ended up being pretty neat. We went out to the 50 yard line after some peer pressuring from me and assurances we wouldn't get in trouble, and checked out the 360 view the quarterback gets during a game. Trying to imagine the place sold out full of screaming fans was pretty tough though. After a quick kiss on the 50 just so we could say we had and then a quick stop at the bookstore to pick up some edible supplies for the road and a hat we were on the road again, this time for Gainesville. To complete the rivalry tour we visited her sister at the University of Florida, home of the Gators. This was the only immediate family member I hadn't met yet, and thankfully I wasn't immediately cast aside and we got along pretty well. To continue the eating out trend (more on the result of that later) we headed to TGIF and then Coldstones or one of its variations, before eventually touring the campus and again getting into the stadium at field level so she could spit on her rival's mascot or something. The real bummer of that weekend though was the trip back. We didn't leave Gainesville until 8pm or so Sunday night, with the trip back to Montgomery being 350 miles of which like 200 were on a winding rural highway with a whole lot of nothing to look at. I easily saw more deer that night than the rest of my previous lifespan combined. I'd estimate the number to be about 150, and I'm not exaggerating. I was slowing down constantly every time I saw them up ahead, with those glowing eyes that give us the saying "deer in the headlights." Eventually we got in at about 1am, and then promptly had to be in class by 7. The 500 mile day altogether had me pretty dead. Good times.
Guess I won't do this all at once, will probably cover most of the rest in the next post.
Okay okay I hear you geez look I'm blogging happy now?
So where was I. Looks like the last real post was the day after things got official up in this. And here we are almost a month later. Well I'm certainly not going to make any excuses about why I haven't been blogging, because I don't need to. That last month I spent nearly 24/7 with a quite a swell person, and given I had no internet, it was rare that I wanted to trapze over to the library and waste time staring at a computer screen. Instead I spent the time having an absolute blast.
Valentine's day weekend was the first of many trips that were to come. That one was a jaunt down to Pensacola, where her parents house is. I ended up meeting pretty much her entire local extended family, and good fun was had with games like Boggle and Cranium. Her mom is almost as competitve as I am, so we had a good time talking trash all in good fun. The highlight of the trip revolved around the fact that I'd "acquired" her address off the 29B form we had to fill out as a safety precaution before leaving for the weekend, and had a dozen roses delivered to her parents house the night before we were to arrive. As she tells it, her mom told her to go in and look at the dining room table, and seeing the flowers she assumed her dad had gotten them for her mom. Her mom then bragged about there being a card and when she looked at it, she realized it was her name not her mother's on it. I guess a bit of setup is necessary, I've always not been a huge fan of flowers, and had spent the whole week downplaying them, talking about how they die and are pointless and why would anyone want them and whatnot. Yeah well anyway, the inside of the card said "Because I said I'd never get you flowers." Of course I managed to step into the restroom for like fifteen seconds having been dying for the previous hour on the road and missed the entire thing, not knowing it was going to take place so quickly. According to her mom the look on her face was a sight to behold. Speaking of which all you men out there, FTD.com does same day delivery even the day before Valentine's Day, which I was quite impressed by. Quality product too, I didn't have any complaints and I don't think she did either. It was just a day trip down there, as we had the big test to study for the next week.
The following weekend was a bit more of an extensive trip. I finally caved after about a week of poking and prodding and agreed to go to the Founder's Ball for her sorority in Tallahassee at Florida State. By the time I figured out I was going though it was pretty much too late to rent anything semi-formal to wear, so I had to hustle through some last second calls to LA to get my measurements from the tux shop where I'll be renting for my sister's wedding, and then to the suit place here that was about to close in order to get the order in a day in advance. Unfortunately we forgot about the time change on the way down there, so after getting on the road around 3pm we didn't actually arrive at the event until 8:30pm, even though it started at like 7. It ended up working out though, as she got about ten feet into the room before she was swarmed by every person there at once. It's quite a sight, let me tell you. Meanwhile I held her stuff and stood off to the side admiring the wallpaper, before a few of the girls noticed and started introducing themselves. I tried to announce myself as her chauffer or tagalong but it seems that story didn't fly. Good food was eaten along with some delicious cake, and many a picture were taken of the event and its participants. By the end of the night I had a bunch of the names down, after getting a lot of "I've heard SO much about you"s and "oh so THIS is Matt"s. She went out with the girls afterwards, but I retired back to the room knowing the days ahead would be quite lengthy. The next day was filled with various activities like lunch at the Olive Garden where you can never go wrong, as well as a trip to the mall where I made friends with the sig other of another of the girls, and we eventually escaped back to his place to watch some quality television while they raided the Mac counter. Dinner was at a Thai place I think where I downed the biggest plate of fried rice ever, quite good stuff. Again it was an early night for me, and a late night for her, but given she wasn't doing any of the driving (not by choice) that worked out. Oh I almost forgot, they have this lake/pond thing over there that looks really pretty at night, and we did our "gross couple thing" for the day by taking a walk around it and enjoying the scenery. We both agree watching other people do such things is gross, and thus we must take advantage of opportunity to rub it in other people's faces for once. The next day we were supposed to get an early start, but instead a trip to Starbucks to play the ten fingers game (always entertaining) followed by a trip back to campus to see the sights as well as take a bunch more pictures. The coolest thing we did was head over to the stadium, which college football fans who have seen Florida State play will recognize as a major one. Although they had the place pretty locked down, we managed to find an entrance through a chain link fence that was normally closed and locked but what looked like a repair truck had gone through recently at field level. Thus for the first time in my life I went walking out onto field level of a football field, with the towering stadium all around. She said she'd been to a truckload of games and never been down there, so it ended up being pretty neat. We went out to the 50 yard line after some peer pressuring from me and assurances we wouldn't get in trouble, and checked out the 360 view the quarterback gets during a game. Trying to imagine the place sold out full of screaming fans was pretty tough though. After a quick kiss on the 50 just so we could say we had and then a quick stop at the bookstore to pick up some edible supplies for the road and a hat we were on the road again, this time for Gainesville. To complete the rivalry tour we visited her sister at the University of Florida, home of the Gators. This was the only immediate family member I hadn't met yet, and thankfully I wasn't immediately cast aside and we got along pretty well. To continue the eating out trend (more on the result of that later) we headed to TGIF and then Coldstones or one of its variations, before eventually touring the campus and again getting into the stadium at field level so she could spit on her rival's mascot or something. The real bummer of that weekend though was the trip back. We didn't leave Gainesville until 8pm or so Sunday night, with the trip back to Montgomery being 350 miles of which like 200 were on a winding rural highway with a whole lot of nothing to look at. I easily saw more deer that night than the rest of my previous lifespan combined. I'd estimate the number to be about 150, and I'm not exaggerating. I was slowing down constantly every time I saw them up ahead, with those glowing eyes that give us the saying "deer in the headlights." Eventually we got in at about 1am, and then promptly had to be in class by 7. The 500 mile day altogether had me pretty dead. Good times.
Guess I won't do this all at once, will probably cover most of the rest in the next post.
Friday, March 05, 2004
832 Miles Later...
Note to self, that's a long way to drive in one day alone.
Was up at 3:30am yesterday, dropped her off at the airport from 4:30-5am, started driving soon after, stopped at the border of Texas for a bit of a casino break for a couple hours, eventually arrived in San Antonio at 9:30pm. Somewhere around twelve or thirteen hours of actual driving. Then I had to report the next morning at 8. I'm a bit tired. Still unpacking/recuperating, probably will see some lengthy posts soon.
Note to self, that's a long way to drive in one day alone.
Was up at 3:30am yesterday, dropped her off at the airport from 4:30-5am, started driving soon after, stopped at the border of Texas for a bit of a casino break for a couple hours, eventually arrived in San Antonio at 9:30pm. Somewhere around twelve or thirteen hours of actual driving. Then I had to report the next morning at 8. I'm a bit tired. Still unpacking/recuperating, probably will see some lengthy posts soon.
Monday, March 01, 2004
Monday, February 23, 2004
Like OMG
Ok so I have five minutes in between classes to slam away at this so I can't give details but I headed down to Tallahassee for the weekend and pretty much had a blast, stories as soon as I have time to hammer away.
I will say hi to all the new people I met though, you're pretty nifty folk, and hi to whoever was putting gibberish in the guestmap. Much to blab about but must skedaddle.
Major cookie points as usual to all those who tag the guestbook/map.
Ok so I have five minutes in between classes to slam away at this so I can't give details but I headed down to Tallahassee for the weekend and pretty much had a blast, stories as soon as I have time to hammer away.
I will say hi to all the new people I met though, you're pretty nifty folk, and hi to whoever was putting gibberish in the guestmap. Much to blab about but must skedaddle.
Major cookie points as usual to all those who tag the guestbook/map.
Thursday, February 19, 2004
TEN DAYS? HUH?
K so apparently things got busy around here.
I can't imagine why.
I actually mentioned it to one of my friends on the phone and their explanation was that now that I wasn't single I didn't have to have a relationship with my computer anymore. I guess that kind of makes sense, but that doesn't mean I'm breaking it off with my cute wittle puter nonono.
We actually had our major test today, the one academic thingy we have here at ASBC. I missed two questions for a 95.56%, which is of couse two more than I was planning to miss so I was of course irritated. Better yet they were silly mistakes, which is always irksome. But anyway the rumor is 95 and above gets a special bullet on your training report saying you got academic excellence or something or other. Our flight is looking pretty good in the overall rankings going into the last event, so we might even get something spiffy out of that.
Yeah and on the social side of things life is good. I'm actually sitting here in the classroom in the back while we're on lunch break and she's over there writing notes to me on the whiteboard when the few other people in here aren't paying attention. Every time I look up from the screen I end up smiling. I actually had kind of a doldrums day yesterday due to a lengthy battle exercise that basically involved like eight people all trying to tell me what to input into the computer since I was the GUI operator and then changing their minds every five seconds and having me redo everything. So yeah she just does like a million little things to make me feel special. As much as I love to say don't sweat the small stuff, I guess sometimes it's the little things that count.
Oh, I should update about the fact that Valentine's day was actually relevant this year too, go figure. More soon now that I no longer have to study.
K so apparently things got busy around here.
I can't imagine why.
I actually mentioned it to one of my friends on the phone and their explanation was that now that I wasn't single I didn't have to have a relationship with my computer anymore. I guess that kind of makes sense, but that doesn't mean I'm breaking it off with my cute wittle puter nonono.
We actually had our major test today, the one academic thingy we have here at ASBC. I missed two questions for a 95.56%, which is of couse two more than I was planning to miss so I was of course irritated. Better yet they were silly mistakes, which is always irksome. But anyway the rumor is 95 and above gets a special bullet on your training report saying you got academic excellence or something or other. Our flight is looking pretty good in the overall rankings going into the last event, so we might even get something spiffy out of that.
Yeah and on the social side of things life is good. I'm actually sitting here in the classroom in the back while we're on lunch break and she's over there writing notes to me on the whiteboard when the few other people in here aren't paying attention. Every time I look up from the screen I end up smiling. I actually had kind of a doldrums day yesterday due to a lengthy battle exercise that basically involved like eight people all trying to tell me what to input into the computer since I was the GUI operator and then changing their minds every five seconds and having me redo everything. So yeah she just does like a million little things to make me feel special. As much as I love to say don't sweat the small stuff, I guess sometimes it's the little things that count.
Oh, I should update about the fact that Valentine's day was actually relevant this year too, go figure. More soon now that I no longer have to study.
Monday, February 09, 2004
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..."
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..."
Sunday, February 08, 2004
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.
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.
Thursday, February 05, 2004
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
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.
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.
Thursday, January 29, 2004
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
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.
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.
Monday, January 19, 2004
Thursday, January 15, 2004
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.
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.
Sunday, January 11, 2004
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.
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.
Thursday, January 08, 2004
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.
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.
Saturday, January 03, 2004
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...
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...
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
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.
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.
