Morning blog
Morning. What? I'm blogging in the morning? WHAT? I already slept? Yes, the world is changing, apparently. I had a freaky dream. It rather unsettled me. See, in my dream, I was with a friend (can't remember who, specifically), and it was starting to storm. So we looked out back of the building we were in, and noticed how much it was raining. We were by the sea, so it was a dockside thing. And then we realized, with a little worry, it looked like it was going to flood. Yeah, raining like CRAZY. So we go out to move the car. And it's pouring, I can't see well, I'm trying to lock/unlock my door to see if I can spot it, and for some reason a lot of other cars' lights come on INSTEAD of mine. One at a time, here and there, so it seems like it should be mine, but it isn't. So it's still pouring, we're running by the cars, and then I look up along the coast, and what do I see? GODZILLA. Yes, really. So we start worrying a little bit more, rush to try to find the car. Still can't find it, look up, realize he's getting quite a bit closer and we won't have time, so we decide to run for it, back through the building, maybe past it. And we're about to enter the back entrance, when I look back at this little storage shack out back, not even large enough for a car, and I see the door's open, and two of my friends are inside. Two friends I know from school who are gone for the summer. So we go inside, and I'm talking to them, and then rocks start coming in through the window. Like hail, except they're HOT ROCKS. So a couple trickle through, and I close the door, and then it starts hitting the building like it's being fired from a gun. Then I wake up. It was rather unsettling. I might have actually been shaking a little. You don't mess with that Godzilla, man.

Yeah, so yesterday was cool. Had lunch with a friend, then went to another friend's house for a while. Talked with each of them (about very different things), and it was cool. Then it was time for kung fu! I felt a little more serious about it, for some reason, like I was ready to get down to business. So it was all about conditioning, working hard, and then sparring. Sparring with Justin, since only one other person was ready to spar. We went at it pretty hard. I punched him in the face, he swept me, landed a nice thrusting heel that knocked the wind out of me, and the kicker which was a nice punch to the EYE that knocked out my contact. Not all at once, but here and there. I hit him a few more times, but I think his were a little bit more memorable, for some odd reason. I wanted to keep going after putting in my contact, but it was time for him to go. Another day, another day...

So then it was time to go home, change, eat, and get ready for a movie. What movie? Spider-Man 2, baby! First midnight showing. A friend showed up early and saved excellent seats, and it was very good. Not everybody liked it, but I like Spidey, and the movie was cool. It had it's emotional moments, but the heroic moments were sweet. I can't give anything away, though, so you'll have to decide for yourself.

And I come back and sleep around 3:30 or so, then wake up now. And I actually feel okay. How odd. Maybe it'll kick in later. Maybe I'll need a nap. Mmm, nap. But it's the morning, so I must get on with my day. Busy day, today. I'll still leave a random link, though. It's some news that is VITALLY IMPORTANT. Things like this are what people need to know.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 9:35 AM | 0 comments

 
I'm getting old
I must be getting old, because I'm already TIRED. What is going ON. I think I might have to eat some cereal, finish reading Ender's Game, and enter the lovely realm of unconciousness. That's right, I'm about to finish the book. I've been reading it all of approximately two days. It's that good of a book - I've been having trouble putting it down. Very good stuff.

Man, I got up this morning and got prettied up, then made it to City Hall for the interview. It went well! Yay! But that means I have another interview. I think this one was just the outside filter. To make sure I actually did go to school (hence the request for a transcript), and did the work I said I did. Worked out pretty well. Hopefully the next one will go as well.

Then I came back, finished some business with bills and mail and such, and then went back and read some more of the book. Put me in an interesting mood, in time for kung fu. And today the traffic apparently was dumber than average. Driving slowly in the passing lane, not getting on off ramps in an educated manner, and turning left at the light into the WRONG LANE. Ugh. So I got to kung fu ready for punishment. Both receiving and dishing out. Unfortunately for my realm of pain, everybody was in a good mood. Except for the new student. A 12-year old girl who honestly looked at least 16. It was pretty scary to think she was that young - I didn't know until I found out later. I really do think girls nowadays are getting physically older FASTER. I don't like it. Grr. Anyway, apparently she didn't really want to be there. I taught her the basic stances, but it's hard to teach when the student resists. So I talked to her about it, she lightened up a little, but was still iffy about all of it. Who knows if she'll be back. I found out after class from Sifu that she had actually been the one to sign up (even though she told me her mom signed her up), and had been excited about it at first. How odd...

So that's been the day. And now I'm sleepy. I've been thinking a lot lately (go ahead, make the sarcastic comment I know you're thinking). What is love, really? I was thinking about past experiences, you know - the whole concept of being "in love". English is so poor at giving thorough choices for the variety of levels "love" can truly be at. There's the whole "love" for the people who say it simply because they want to hear it back, but the true depth of the feeling isn't there. There's the next step, where there IS some feeling, but it's sometimes said purely as a response. Then there's the point where it's an expression of the importance of a person in your life. Really, that isn't the epitome of love, in my opinion. It's selfish love. Where you care for the person, as long as what they do with their life fits with what you want with YOUR life, on some level. I think true love is unconditional. The ultimate level is one where love continues through ANY sort of changes. On the same level most people have love for their immediate family.

ANYway... not sure why that's been on my mind. I think it may have actually come partially from the homily on Sunday. Love is good, though. Spread the love! I think that's a good thing to do. Try doing something randomly nice for someone else - with a catch. Do something that you won't get direct credit for. A "secret" kind act. It's rather cool to do. I highly recommend trying it at least once.

Okay, time for bed. I need to get enough rest to be ready for the midnight showing of Spider-Man 2, baby! Mmm, good. So it's random link for you. Have to pick something pretty random. So here! A news article about the wave of the future of broadband. Maybe good to keep with the times.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 11:36 PM | 0 comments

 
Weekend blog
Yeah, weekend, and part of the week. It's been a good day, I'd say. Makes up for my silly injuring myself earlier this week. Let's go back...

So Thursday, I get together with a few friends who happen to take Taekwondo. That, and a little bit of wrestling, as well. We did some free sparring, very loose (no pads), mainly playing a bit with each other. The styles are very different. It wasn't bad. Although one of the guys liked to grapple with me a bit, and since he has something like sixty pounds on me, it wasn't really even. Yeah, that meant I might be able to prevent him getting a good solid lock on me in ways to make me give up, but it DIDN'T stop him from just picking me up over his head. I kept a headlock the whole time, so if I was going down, he was going with me, but it turned out pretty fun. Then we did a couple of forms from each of our own respective martial arts. I did my most advanced one (Gung Gee) which took a good five minutes to do. I think they all liked it (i.e., thought it was COOL). That, and it's about five times as long as the most advanced form the senior student among them knew. Three hundred and something moves. Some of which take a while, since they're more meditative. Anyway, after doing all that, I realized I had a weird pain in my lower left back. I still have no idea how I got it for sure, but I think now it was a muscle thing. Possibly pulled while sparring or maybe even during the form. It got worse through the next hour or so, and that night I was pretty out of commission. It hurt to sit down. A LOT. I was worried it might be a kidney thing. Maybe just too much pizza and Pepsi. It could happen.

Well, I don't think it was my kidney, but I did change my diet a bit. Was planning on it, anyway. Eating slightly healthier. Still haven't cold turkey'd the Pepsi, but I'm drinking much less. More water, OJ, that type of thing. And cereal. Although I'm thinking I might be lactose intolerant. My gastrointestinal system seems to get a little more gassy than normal after I eat cereal, so that may be the case. Hopefully I can wean myself of the intolerance eventually.

Hmm, all these words from a vocabulary not often found in the normal populace makes me think of a pet peeve of mine. It's not a BIG pet peeve, but it's just an annoyance. The words "peek" and "peak". Just FYI, you PEEK around a corner. Take a PEEK at things you're interested in. And you reach the PEAK of a mountain after climbing. Or think your favorite movie is the PEAK of all filmmaking. It seems like every time I see it, it's used wrong. It would be really funny if I've been annoyed this whole time and it turns out that I'm the one whose perception of misspelling is confused.

So today I went out to a kung fu picnic. Yay! It was a beautiful day, and we got a bunch of the crew and their family out to the park for a picnic. Fun stuff! I got some sun, some fresh air, and it was good. I also found out I suck at throwing a football. I used to be able to spiral one without issue, but apparently not anymore. It was pretty sad when one of the 10-year old girls turned out to be able to do it better than me. I did finally get it down a little better, and then we played a full game of touch football. It wasn't really a full crew, since we only had about five men who knew what they were doing. That, and a couple of girls. One of which was the 10-year old, the other 16 or so. So yeah. We swapped out positions, and I ALMOST caught a couple of nice passes, only to be shoved or be victim of pass INTERFERENCE. But it was all good. Then they risked putting me in as QB, and lo and behold - I throw a successful pass for a TOUCHDOWN! Yay! It was pretty funny, they were all making comments about how I was pretending to suck to pull it off. Which I was. Maybe.

And tomorrow I have an interview. Yay! An interview for a JOB. I think I've forgotten what a job is. It's just been so long. Yep, 10 AM, at City Hall. For which position, you may wonder? Senior Systems Analyst. Ooh, it sounds so specialized! That would be uber cool to get it. Government job, which has definite bonuses. The weird thing is that they want my school transcript. Which I'm cool with. I have way too many hours on it. Over 140 for undergrad, about 39 for graduate. Yes, something like 30% more than what most people have for each. So I have a ton of classes they can see I've taken. Which I think will help. I'm a little nervous about it, but not too much. I do have to get up early, which means I need to go to bed soon.

So to bed! To bed with me! But first, I will read. My latest book is Ender's Game. An EXCELLENT science fiction novel, by Orson Scott Card. I recommend it highly. ESPECIALLY if you don't like science fiction (you know I'm talking to you) - it will make you see the error of your ways, not giving sci fi a chance. I hear they may be making it into a movie, closely working with Card himself. If they do, I HOPE it turns out well. They're making I, Robot into a movie. A novel by Isaac Asimov. Something tells me it won't be completely loyal to the book, but if they keep ANYTHING that Asimov put in of substance, it'll still be good. Asimov is cool.

Random link time! I have a bit of an interesting news story for you. The world continues to spawn interesting developments, in ALL areas of life.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 11:38 PM | 0 comments

 
Getting tired ALREADY
I'm just getting old, I think. Or maybe my body's trying to recover from the mad kung fu I've been putting it through. First time I've had bruises this regularly since the first time I went all-out. Although the first time the bruises were quite gruesome. Nice and dark, turning yellow, covering the entire arm. They don't do that anymore, I just get occasional dark spots, sometimes no marks at all. But they are bruises. I need to do it! Justin is going crazy on conditioning. He's getting to the point he can null my arm if he hits hard enough. I've never had that before, so that means I need to catch up with him. And with the conditioning I've done - if he can null MY arm like that, I can imagine the damage it might do to somebody else.

So I'm sitting here, thinking about going to bed early, putting Dit Dar Jau on my arms and legs. I finished the crash mode of Burnout 2 today, in between my meals of pizza and Pepsi. I'm thinking I might actually start eating some healthy stuff for a change. Maybe even drink more WATER. I'm sure all the grease and caffeine isn't helping my kung fu. But it's good. Maybe if I finish off the rest of my pizza, I'll actually have had enough to last me a while, so I can get to eating HEALTHY stuff. Good thing there's a Bill and Ruth's right around the corner. Anyway, Burnout. Yes, it was hard. Since my XBox is RETARDED. Indeed, that, plus the large scratch some nice person put on the game so that the last crash level only functioned at random intervals. Ooh, it made me MAD. But I persisted, by resetting the machine each time it decided to stop working. And I DID IT. Yay! Nice thing about having some time to play games. You only need to rent them, and you can finish the whole thing. Well, I can, at least. With my overdeveloped hand-to-eye coordination, practiced over several years to hone my skills to a supernatural level.

I went and did a bit more computer work for my private repair work sessions today. It was frustrating - the computer's network connection was super slow, and I kept thinking I had missed some major spyware that was eating it up. So I went into safe mode, ran some Spybot S&D, installed a firewall, and finally realized that the computer was fine. It was Cox that was at fault - the woman had actually gotten some sort of "seasonal" deal, so the network connection is basically down for the summer. She updated it and they changed it instantly. Then all was good, and my efficiency level shot back up to normal. Her machine at her Tulsa house is now spic and span. She's been really happy with what I've done, so she gave me a couple of things she said they were just going to toss. I personally wouldn't toss these couple of things - which is why she gave them to me. Yeah. These couple of things are a Rio and an old Gateway laptop. That's right, she GAVE me a laptop. I'm okay with that. It's a Pentium 2, but hey, I'm not complaining. So I'll probably start messing with it, playing with a few different things you can do with laptops. And I'll be setting up her WiFi this Friday, so that should be extra fun. Two laptops, one Apple, one PC. We'll see how that goes.

Oh, I got Driv3r today. It got bad reviews. But reviews aren't everything. I had the first one, which was a lot of fun, and since I loaned it out and NEVER GOT IT BACK, I thought it might be worth it to get the latest version. I played it a bit, although I think I'll have to finish Burnout before getting to it, since the driving style is VERY different. I actually found it pretty funny - I did just a "drive" mode, where you can drive around a city. The cities are pretty impressive, they're full cities, you can go anywhere. In this version of the game, you can actually hit pedestrians, which you couldn't before. Something about just driving along the sidewalk and hearing a shriek followed by a "thump" every few seconds is amusing. Maybe I'm just twisted. It's decently hard, although they tried adding a first-person shooter mode into it. Which I personally think is a bad idea. But the car physics are still good. The AI is atrocious, but I just like it for the driving rush, with a slightly more realistic sensation (normal speeds) of driving in a city. And they have some crazy cars. You can actually drive a full semi. I'll be playing it bit by bit. Since I have extra time. Since I have NO JOB. Ugh. Hopefully that will change soon.

Yeah, I'm still sending out applications a'plenty. I do hope to hear back from a few of those. At least SOMETHING. Hopefully something fun. Time will tell.

Okay, bedtime. I'm going to finish my Pepsi, put another layer of Dit Dar on, read some more Halo (almost done) and sleep. Yay! Sounds good. Random link time! Somehow, some people miss this. How could you? It's the ONLY choice for music playback, really.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 12:30 AM | 0 comments

 
Hello hello
So the weekend has come and gone. Good stuff on weekends. This weekend? All a blur, somehow. But yesterday was supposed to be interesting - we were supposed to film a commercial for kung fu. Alas, one group participating bowed out at the last minute, so sadly, no new television moments for yours truly. Not yet, anyway. Maybe in the future, we'll see.

Friday! Kung fu action. I got to see one of the older students, someone who started about the same time as me. Last name of Abagnale. Yes, if you're wondering, he's his son. So got to help him review, plus work out with a decent number of people there. It was all very good.

Then Saturday arrived - originally going to be the women's self-defense class, although it got canceled. Not enough people, sadly. So Sihing and I trained for a bit, instead. He's starting to turn into iron, I think. I'm going to have to catch up with him. So that went on for a bit - but that night, that was the fun stuff! A concert I got invited to by a friend, four bands playing, at the Venue. Main gig was the Effects, although the one I was interested in seeing was Stephen Speaks. Apparently now it's just Ryan Rockwell. The guy's amazing. Made me realize I could be doing that, though. Just one guy, a guitar, and a microphone. I should consider starting that, as a form of income. FUN income. Yay!

And Sunday. Father's Day! I spent it with my dad. Go figure. Which mean Japanese food, buying a new toy with him (combo VCR/DVD player, Panasonic, quite good), and checking out the new library. Which apparently I'm within walking distance of. I didn't even KNOW it existed. How sad is that? I need to read more, I think. Maybe that's a sign. Yes, the new location for Hardesty. A quite impressive library, actually. I'll have to visit it sometime.

And church went pretty well. Three guitarists and the piano. Somehow we were all in tune. It's satisfying when that happens. Yes, and sometimes I get a little accusatory when I am grumpy, so the comments I made about fingers pointing and relative talent levels was probably not completely appropriate. I think I need to work on that.

This week so far has been pretty good. A lot of kung fu, still sending applications for jobs, hoping I can meet all my bills this month. We'll see. And speaking of jobs - my last one, the whole situation with that bit of chaos... I found out more today from my old supervisor's sister. She called just to make sure I knew, and I found out that the "substance" involved was actually medically prescribed, which made me feel a little more relieved, but it makes it a bit more of a tragedy. I'm still a little detached from full acceptance of the whole thing. Things like that don't happen often. Which is probably good.

Okay, it's late. Late enough that I lost a bet. That I would go to sleep earlier or not. And yes, I was the FOOL betting on me going to sleep earlier. Somehow it didn't work out, as you can see. Because I was playing Burnout 2! It's so good. Crazy car racing, insane crash madness. Quite fun. Something about racing other cars in full traffic, dodging cars in the wrong lane of traffic - the adrenaline rush is substantial. And the physics engine for wrecks is quite nice. Plus the crash mode, where you get one moment to try to make as chaotic a wreck as possible. I think it's a guy thing, but I really like it. Something engineering-related about it. It is slightly oxymoronic, though, trying to deduce the most economical way of causing as much chaos as possible. Whatever it is, dang, is it fun. Yay! All in anticipation of the third game in the series. Coming soon!

Okay, enough advertisement similarities. It is now time for me to bed. To sleep, perchance to dream. So I'll give you a random link. I've probably put it up before, but I was helping someone try to find a decently priced computer - if you care about saving money, here's what you're looking for.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 2:05 AM | 0 comments

 
Must... sleep... blog calls first...
I'm TIRED. It's been a long day. Sort of an extension of yesterday, which was weird. I sent another application in, talked to the guy at the consulting firm (my contact) to find out more about the guy I was doing the job for and what happened to him. Apparently it had to do with substances. I'll leave it at that. That's still unsettling to think about.

Did all the job stuff, then got going with my day. Which ended up not really starting until four. I'm like that. Sometimes. I didn't move the file cabinet, because I couldn't get the truck. I still need to get my certificate from campus, too. Maybe I'll just have them mail it. Who knows. Hopefully I will, sometime soon.

I decided, on a whim, to go to kung fu today. For the last forty minutes or so. Forty minutes of PAIN. I arrived just in time for more conditioning. Which means pushing through different stations, punishing yourself in different ways at each one. One is push-ups, one is kicking the bag, one is horse stance work, so forth. So there was that, for a while. Then it was sparring time! Justin and I started, went lightly (after being exhausted from conditioning). We finished up rather hard, though. I had a few tender spots on my cheekbones where he smacked me nicely, and a very good one on my lower ribs. Knocked the wind out of me nicely. Ooh, it was rough. But still good.

From there, choir practice, with a whopping FOUR people there. Including two instrumentalists, one of which was me, the other of which does not sing. So three vocalists, two instruments. It went okay. It made me a little frustrated, mainly because of rhythm issues. I just felt underappreciated, since I've been in the choir for EIGHT YEARS, and the choir director griped at me about keeping proper time. When the piano keeps - erm, I'll just say slightly worse time. And rhythm. Somehow when others are gone and I'm in charge, the music turns out very well. But I guess I'm not good enough when others are there. Grr.

Bleah, so it's just been kind of a stressful day, yeah. I did get to talk to Sandra. She went out of town for a couple of days, and we weren't GOING to talk to each other, but I think after we each had a rough day today, it got to a sort of "screw it" point, and we went ahead and caved. So she had a rough day, too, and it was nice to have someone who understood.

Oh, I did find out more about my dad. Apparently the readings that the doctors were concerned about were most likely a fluke. Since the angiogram overrides all other tests, since it came up looking good, it looks like my dad's okay. Which is very good. I am thankful.

Ugh, I am tired from being stressed out, as I mentioned. Why do you think I'm blogging so ridiculously early? Yes, I think I shall read more Halo and then fall asleep. It's a good feeling, to get all ready for bed, and you're nice and cozy, reading. Then you decide you're more tired than able to read coherently, and you can just put the book down, shut off the light, and fall asleep rather quickly. Mmm, good. I'm drinking a Pepsi, which should help me fall asleep, too. Yes, for some reason, Pepsi comforts me more than makes me wired. Ah, the sweet nectar. And so I shall write a haiku about it, in a moment of spontaneous creation:
  Ah, my Pepsi can
  Sitting by me to console
  Now I am at peace

So I am now peaceful. And I shall leave you, dear reader, with a link of a less than organized fashion, also known as a random link. Yes, most likely a page constructed using the language known as HyperText Markup. And here it is.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 12:14 AM | 0 comments

 
Should I blog again?
Okay, I'll blog again. It has been a crazy day. More than normal. It started interestingly, by getting a call to find out that the one job (out of four potentials) I wanted least is no longer an option, since the company chose someone else. Fools. I suppose if they want someone who'll actually USE all the time allocated for that position, it's better that way. I'd probably finish two full weeks of work in two hours. That can be a problem, sometimes. You think I'm exaggerating? That's actually happened to me before.

So that started the day. Then I was on my way to lunch, and I got another call, from one of the consulting firms. Do you remember the last contract I was on? Working on a web page, since late last year? Yeah, well, I thought I was going to help the guy finish it sometime either this week or next. Apparently, not anymore, since the company called to tell me he passed away. I don't know details, but they needed to get access to his computer for personal info, and I was one of the only contacts they had. I'm still not sure how to react to that. It's a bit heavy and out of NOWHERE. I think I'm probably in denial, and will be for a while. It's not normal to just have things like that happen.

Yeah. So anyway, that's how the day STARTED. Since I couldn't really swallow all that at once, I just moved on with my day, which is probably good.

Before I go on, I have to do some filling in. I've been hanging out with a lot of people lately (lots of them ladies), wondering if I want to get back into any sort of relationship or not. I wasn't really looking for one, just was enjoying my singleness. Well, one person I started hanging out with last week has changed that a bit for me. We've known each other for about a year, but never really hung out a lot, until recently. I was teaching her guitar, and then we decided to watch a movie after the lesson... things just kind of happened from there. Do you know the types of people you meet in life that you just get along with, without having to try at all? You know, people that you just click with? Well, she's one of those people, for me. Not like I have a large list of people like that. I'm normally moderately notorious for being mysterious and hard to connect with, I think. I've been hesitant to even talk about her to people, for a variety of reasons. But after hanging for so long, I think I can safely say the connection we have is not a fluke. "Who is she?" you may be asking. Pssh. MAY be asking, right. You ARE asking, I'm sure. Well, I'll tell you - her name is Sandra. And she is COOL. I'll give you a luscious (yes, luscious) picture, and leave it at that for now.





this goes in my top three best pictures (that I've taken)



So that's something that's been occupying mindspace and time. And it is good. Details I may not dole out unless people ASK me to post them. That fits into my natural mysteriousness. Or does it? Hmm...

Yeah, so that leads into lunch, I guess. Sandra, me, Sihing (Justin) and his ladyfriend, and one other kung fu student from our kwoon went to New Hong Kong. Excellent place to eat. You can order large plates and eat them family style (meaning share contents of plates with everyone). They have very good duck fried rice. Oh, it was good stuff. Although that might be partially because I'm probably turning Chinese, bit by bit, with all the kung fu. What? Okay.

Ooh! And my UPS arrived today. Yay! I just finished hooking it up a little bit ago. I had to plug it in to let the battery charge a bit, first. But now - no more incessant beeping from the "battery replacement" on my old UPS. That, and even with my monster monitor, it's only using up half the new UPS's capacity. Fourteen minutes of battery, baby! I might actually even be able to hook up my guitar stuff into it. We'll see.

And tomorrow's another day... I need to STILL go pick up the file cabinet. Which is huge. So I need a truck. Which I know someone who has one. And that last sentence didn't make a whole lot of sense. But you know what I meant. AND I got my fifth and final security certificate! Yaay! I'm qualified for network security goodness. If only people would get with modern times and realize how good of a thing that is. And how they should hire ME because of all my security skillz. Alas, that's how the world turns.

Ah, and my day isn't quite over yet. I received a phone call from a friend in need, so it looks like it's going to be a telephone counseling session (or perhaps just a listening session) for another hour or two. It's okay, I like having opportunities to be there in times of need.

Random link! Didn't catch that coming, did you? Woosh! I just sprung it, at the start of a new paragraph. Pretty slick, huh? Yaay! I'm in a good mood, for some odd reason. And my blog benefits from it. As do you, perhaps. ANYway... Random link! Whoa! Didn't think I'd say it AGAIN, did you? It would a double surprise action thing, going on there. I think I've posted this one before, but it changes enough... maybe you'd like to see what's new there now.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 2:00 AM | 0 comments

 
I like to blog early in the morning
But today I'm blogging late at NIGHT. Yes, it means that I actually am blogging twice in ONE DAY. How crazy is that? Pretty crazy, let me tell you. I'M pretty crazy, sometimes. Yes. Especially for continuing a paragraph about craziness for so long. Oh, I could keep going. Indeed I could. And I am! But that's enough. No, wait... THIS is enough. There.

So today was interesting. I went to the hospital around 10:30 or so this morning, dropping off my sister and her friend with my mom so they could go to camp. I missed seeing my dad by fifteen minutes, which was sucky. But I took a book (the latest Halo book, I'm borrowing), and it kept me occupied for a while. It's a good book! Same author as the first book, which is a very good thing. The first and third books are quite good I've decided. The second book is just a written version of the game - it's much better to just play the game instead, I think. ANYway. So I read the book, while waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Until 2:30. I did get through half the book, even with major distractions. I found out about my dad around noon - apparently they took a look, and there's nothing really wrong with the angioplasty they did before. He was just showing symptoms that made them think there might have been something wrong. So that's kind of good news. We still have to see what's causing the symptoms, so that's moderately worrisome. We'll see, though.

And then it was doing a bunch of nothing (which I have vastly enjoyed doing lately, let me tell you), and then kung fu! Still doing the conditioning thing. What does the conditioning thing do? This...





Yeah, I've got more. A nice one on my shin, too. Although it takes bashing a metal pole to do it now. Either that, or Sihing (I've decided that's the right way to spell that) Justin. Occasionally another student will get a nice lucky shot on me and leave a small bruise. Generally when that happens, though, they have a matching one. Only four times as large. Hee hee! I WILL get a horse stance that I can hold for over five minutes, eventually. A proper horse stance, that is. Not like those pansy karate horse stances. What's a proper horse stance? Spread your feet apart double shoulder width. Now get in a seated position, with your knees spread so that each knee is over the corresponding foot, vertically. Make sure your thighs are parallel with the ground - the best way to check is to take a broomstick (or another roundish stick) and put it in the middle of your thighs. If it rolls off your knees, you need to be lower. If it rolls into you, you need to be higher. And one other thing. Get that butt tucked in, not sticking way out like you have it (if you're trying to do it), so you have your back straight. THAT is a proper horse stance. Try holding it for a minute. Then you can tell me that kung fu isn't hard.

So yeah, you do that for a while, your thighs get rather muscular. And it does a lot of other things for you. Keeps me in decent shape. Also keeps me in pain, if I practice properly. I love it!

Okay, long enough blog for today, I think. I shall now give a random link. VERY random. Have fun with this one.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 10:25 PM | 0 comments

 
Time for blog
I've been a lazy blogger since I left school. I think it's because I'm DONE with school, and I don't feel like doing anything remotely similar to work. Although I'll have to, since working is kind of what pays the bills.

Speaking of which, I did some crazy applying today. I sent out three applications, heard back from one already. It'd be a contract, but hey, I wouldn't complain. That, and I have two other maybes up in the air, through my two contracting firms. Hey, it'd be good to have a choice, even. I guess I'll find out what happens pretty soon here.

Some big news, that's no so good. Looks like my dad's going back to the hospital to get an angiogram again. Some stuff from his last operation didn't seem to work exactly as planned, so he's going in tomorrow morning to get it looked at. Makes me nervous, the hospital thing. Hospitals by themselves are not bad. But when you have a family member in one, it tends to raise the nervousness level of it a bit. I'm going to visit him in the morning. Earlier than I'm normally up, but hey - some things are worth it.

In other (happier) news, I got my shelf lining paper! I had a couple of friends over that helped me get it cut a bit, although it looks like I have too many shelves for the paper to handle. So I did a few, and I'll do a bit more before I'm done. I have a lot of stuff, though. So I'll probably fill most of the shelves. The kitchen is actually starting to look like an actual kitchen, though. Oh, and the lining paper is pretty cool. It's rather thick.

In kung fu news, I'm starting to crank up the frequency, to become more of a kung fu bad mamma jamma. With the bruising, and the Gung Gee, and pain. Which produces strength, somehow. It's mysterious, life and its silly details.

Ah, and for the most part, this last week has been one of the better weeks I've had in about as long as I can remember. There's a variety of reasons I could list, although I think it really can be narrowed down to a small number. Why so mysterious? I like being mysterious. Although if you have something to do with one of the small number of reasons, you might know it. Yay!

Enough cryptic blathering. Tomorrow I also am going to get together with a couple of guys, to beat each other senseless. The other two guys don't have quite the same experience I do, so it should be very interesting. Very interesting, indeed. We'll have to see what happens.

And at the end of this blog full of short weird paragraphs, I shall place a random link. Ah, art. Occasionally I find something worthy of mentioning. Check the gallery out.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 2:09 AM | 0 comments

 
What was a blog again?
Yeah, so I'm still not up to a regular pattern sort of thing. Although all the big events that have been happening have slowed down. A bit. Now I'm enjoying the free time I have (minus oodles of cash), hanging out with friends and such. Meeting new people is a plus. I like getting to know the variety of people that are in the world.

It was a good evening today, with kung fu and choir practice. I did both! Wow! Yes, it's amazing. Somehow it worked out. Kung fu was very light. Only four people, including me and Justin. So for us it was mostly conditioning today. Masochistic manuevers, mainly. Beating arms and legs against innate objects, you know how it goes. And then after that, going through one of the harder forms in a very low stance. Ooh, it hurts! Hurts so good... Some of that, a sparring set, and then we started a new exercise today. It consisted of kicking each other in the legs. It's very nice. Justin wants to prepare for some full-contact fighting, and that's one way to do it. So we'll be beating on each other, apparently. I'm cool with it.

And then choir practice! No pianist this weekend, so I'm the only instrument. Which means they waited for me to start practice. I feel special. That, and it was Steve and three new ladies. Ooh, ladies. They were very nice. We practiced the songs, it went well. And the ladies actually complemented my vocal skills (indirectly). I was working on doing one of the harmonies, and I asked them if any of them wanted to learn it, and they all said that a guy doing the harmony sounded good, that they didn't want to mess with it. Aww... That, and there was another harmony (to a song called "We Are One Body") that Steve apparently doesn't like at ALL. He vetoed it immediately. He says it's way too sappy. I asked him to give it a shot, and so I tried singing it, and Steve actually said, "Well, if it's going to sound like that, then it's okay." Woo! Score! I felt accomplished. And just playing the guitar was very enjoyable, too, being the only instrument. Sometimes when other instruments play, it can be a little bit of a pain when you have to adjust tempo according to what SOME people seem to think the tempo should be. But this weekend it should be very smooth. I hope.

STILL looking for work. I wish I had a job, but it's still in the works. Doing the one application a day, roundabouts. I have one to send in tomorrow, and one to follow up on. I really hope I can get it by next week. I don't want to have to worry about paying the bills in an unemployed sort of position AGAIN.

I actually have had some income, though. Fixing computers, mainly. Enough to pay the bills, and even a little extra, to FINALLY buy the lining paper. Ooh! It arrives tomorrow! That means I'll have the weekend to unpack the kitchen. Yay! The kitchen will be rockin'. Then it's a matter of finding a truck to carry a file cabinet I bought for $30. I saw it yesterday. It's freakin' huge. Around four feet tall, a foot and a half wide, and two and a half feet deep. Four shelves of legal size. It's quite nice, I'll enjoy having it, but it's going to be a severe pain to move. Maybe I'll find some help.

I've also decided I need to modify a bit of the computing hardware. My UPS (uninterruptible power supply) has needed a new battery for a couple of years now. I've had it quite a while. APC apparently has a trade-in deal. So I'm going to get a rather nice new UPS for a substantially reduced price. Considering the battery would not be cheap, I think getting a decently priced replacement for the whole UPS would be a good idea. Still happy with the other one. It's good stuff. Keeping my entertainment center oblivious to weird power variations.

Ah, and now I'm starting to get tired. What? Okay. Yes, tired. It happens when I stay up for too long! Omigoodness. What is too long, though? That's a question for the ages. At least a question for not tonight. Yes, indeed. I mean, no, indeed. Or something.

And now a random link! Because I'm random. Not everyone needs it, but since I'm watching a couple of items traverse the countryside, I've found it useful.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 3:40 AM | 0 comments

 
Ooh, blog, you almost stole my blog again
Yes, but cut and paste saved the day again. Anyway. It's been a good weekend. I had sleepytime today. Mmm, sleepytime. And then it was off to participate in a TEC gathering, to prepare for the next one. (A Catholic retreat, if you know not what I speak of.) Once again, I'm going to participate in a musical way. Which is cool with me. Speaking of which, I played at Newman again, for the first time with the full choir after their trip to Spain.

After that, it was a bevy of choices afterwards. I ended up giving a guitar lesson, then talking to somebody for a while. It was a good conversation, one of the types you don't often have. You know, learning about somebody else, but at the same time, learning much about yourself. I like learning.

Chapter 4 of the trip? I'll make it short, not too much interesting happened. Most of it was in the third chapter. We arose in the morning, way too early. Took our showers, got some Mc-y D's, refueled the convertible and then we were off! Off to drive to Seattle. A good drive, not nearly as bad as the way in. Although crossing the border was quite a bit harder. Man! They grilled us on all sorts of stuff. Asked us questions at the booth, then made us pull over and go in for a serious "interview". One guy, in a rather intimidating fashion, asked us why we had been in Canada. Justin told him, kung fu. The response was, "Oh? Can you not do kung fu in Oklahoma?" That type of thing. Wanting to know exactly what we had purchased, how much money was spent, etc. We finally made it out, but it rattled us a little. After that, getting back to the airport, onto the planes. We got an interesting seat-mate on the first trip. It was a girl in a Supergirl shirt, a blonde. I talked to her for a bit, found out some interesting stuff about her. Apparently, she was coming back from Hawaii, from being in a photo shoot. She was a model, I found out. Oh, but that's not it! She asked me if I recognized her, and I didn't, but I pushed to find out why she thought I should. APPARENTLY she has a website. The kind that I won't post a link to here. So she's "kind of" a celebrity. It was funny. She did let me take a picture of her after we got off the plane.








I got back, then headed back to be greeted by over 15 people coming over to my place for a gathering, people from Newman. As well as Becca! She arrived when Justin and I left, and left the day after we returned. But we did at least get to see each other a little. I got her a shirt with a good message for her boyfriend. Muahahahahaaa!







I don't think he'll see it, though. Oh well. We hung out a little, it was like old times. Good times. I took her to the airport - it wasn't quite as bad as the last time I took her, since the last time I took her was the time we broke up. Ugh, she still affects me. Silly relationships. With all my kung fu badass-ness, a certain look from the right person can still make my knees weak and produce butterflies within my gastrointestinal system. Silly butterflies.

Ah, and the week begins. I start in the morning with completion of computer repair work. Yay! And then to go pick up a file cabinet. Yay! I'll finally have space to organize all my loose papers, bills, etc. It's good, since my current little paper holding device is ready to burst. This week will mean I'll start organizing the apartment fully. Actually unpack a lot of stuff. Get the kitchen organized! Woo! I'm looking forward to it.

Ooh, and I'm tired. I think I'm going to go get some sleep. Random link! I like learning stuff. Do you like learning stuff, too? Here, let me help you.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 4:05 AM | 0 comments

 
Mmm, so late, so good
It's Saturday! Well, Sunday, now. But I stayed up ALL night. Mmm, yeah. Playing, mainly. And it's nice to play. I finally had some relief from knowing my bills are PAID. So I could let myself relax nicely. Whew!

That meant taking a long nap today, then getting up, getting some cereal (so nice) and renting a movie. I didn't actually watch the movie, because I ran into a couple of friends at the Wally World I went to get cereal at. So we ended up coming back to my place and playing. A little bit of Steel Battalion (for the first time in a very long time), followed by a lot bit of Eternal Darkness. Both excellent pieces of gaming goodness. Eternal Darkness was good enough that they just now left. We'll have to continue it later.

Ooh! AND I finally bought my lining paper. It should be on its way next week. That, and I found a used file cabinet to get myself organized, which I'll need, since my little portable one is about ready to explode. I need a full filing cabinet, I think. So that'll help me get organized quite well. Only thing I need to get next is a bookshelf, as well as a monster magazine rack. Then everything will be good. Ooh! I did get my diploma in the mail. I looked at it today, it's very nice. I'll have to get it framed.

Yeah, I went home, visited the fam, helped them with some yardwork. Apparently the storm hit our backyard pretty badly and took a monster branch out of one of our trees. It snapped off, but it's a forked branch, and it's basically stuck twenty feet in the air, with the rest of it touching the ground. Yes, a large branch. So I helped by going and trimming a few branches (with a manual saw), and then carting a few piles of wood out front. There's still a lot more left to do, though.

Anyway, it's time for chapter 3 of my Canada trip. The exciting day. Saturday, one week ago today. Yesterday. Whatever. Woo! So we woke up at a moderately normal time, showered, got dressed, just in time for Sifu to call to let us know he was downstairs with Sigong (Buck Sam Kong) to go get breakfast/lunch. So we met, went across the street to a VERY good little Chinese restaurant. The most Chinese restaurant I've ever eaten at. The minority of the staff even spoke English. And 90% of the people eating there were Chinese, apparently. So yeah, it was quite authentic stuff. And quite GOOD stuff, as well. From there we went downtown in Vancouver to attend the big conference. Which was in, of all places, Chinatown. Go figure.





Yeah, it was a cool place. So we managed to get there, then find the conference. There were a lot of people there, it was pretty impressive.





We found a spot, and watched the big events commence! It started with a four-lion lion dance. Then a bunch of official ceremonial stuff, giving out props to all the grandmasters, mainly. I really didn't catch a lot of it, since most of it was in Chinese. The important part was that Sigong was a big person there. He walked on as one of the last people in a line that filled the length of the stage, and they went and pulled him to stand in the middle, which was cool. They each got certificates. I managed to snag a good picture of him with his.





Oh, and they ranked each of the masters, levels between 1 and 10, I believe. Sifu is a 7. You can guess what level Buck was at.






So after that, they did some crazy kung fu demonstrations. Some were better than others, they did all sorts of styles, including Tai Chi. Buck's students had some of the coolest demos, which included having another student wail on one without him even flinching (but taking him down in an instant after so much time) and bending rebar with the soft point in the throat. It was cool because Justin and I realized that if we had had a demo prepared (a sparring set, for instance), we actually would have had a decent demo, impressive even compared to some of the best in the world. And they were from all over - China, Malaysia, Europe, various parts of the states. I felt honored to be there.

After that it was time to kill some time until the crazy dinner. So Justin and I went off to explore the mall, and then play some video games. A bit of DDR, which is always good. Although there were a couple of Chinese girls there who could have kicked either of our butts.






After that, it was off to dinner! And dinner was even crazier than the conference. It started with a 10 lion lion dance. And then more official handing out of certificates, that type of thing. Mostly in Chinese, of course. FINALLY we got to eat, and it was an insane 10-course meal, accompanied by additional martial arts demos while we ate. It was very cool stuff. It just felt like a very rare moment, that not many people ANYWHERE get to experience. Some of the best martial artists in the world were gathered in that room. And we just got to chow down next to them. Oh, and the food was quite good. Interesting, to say the least.






After the dinner (which was at least five hours, I'd have to say), it was the long drive back to the hotel, and then more relaxing in front of the TV, reading, so forth. An excellent day, definitely worthy of devotion to as vacation time.

Yes, a good day. Today was such a nice day, too! Sort of a mirror of the nature of the leisure experienced in the day on that same day of the week, seven days ago. And I think I can sleep soundly tonight. It will be good. Before I can sleep, though... random link! Why have I waited so long to line my shelves, you may have wondered? Well, I had some special paper picked out, and I needed to make sure I had spare money (after bills) to buy it.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 5:38 AM | 0 comments

 
Continuing ONWARD
And I am up too late. But tomorrow's Friday! Yay! Fun stuff to be done.

So I've basically lost contact with the guy I had the contract with. I was supposed to go see him Wednesday at 4, but since I was in Muskogee at 3 and a HUGE storm hit about that time, I decided it'd be better if I didn't get out in the solid rain until later. So I tried calling him, and he didn't answer. And hasn't ever since. So I'm guessing the project is dead now. Which makes me sad. I put a lot of time and effort into it. And it was ALMOST done. Which is the worst part. I thought it was good enough to demo, but he didn't. Which means he's just going to scrap the whole thing, I guess. Ugh.

Well, instead of that, I'm using some of my secondary skills to make some money. Fixing computers. Horribly, horridly decrepit computers. Yes, old, full of mischievousness, and so forth. Well, I've fixed one computer basically completely. Another (the one I mentioned earlier) will require some more work, but it's already been substantially fixed. Mainly the grotesque level of spyware that was residing on that machine. The one I've been spending a ton of time on today is the laptop. It had the standard stuff... the nasty one is a little program called WinTools. Yeah, it's not a good thing. I tried to uninstall it, and naturally, blue screen of death. When removing the files using Ad Aware, they are reinstalled upon boot. It took a session in Safe Mode and a few things to get it cleaned out. Before, it would not be able to shut down at all. Any attempt to would give the BSOD. But now it works! Yay! I guess I can do SOME things right.

And the whole check mess - I contacted the credit union about it, they told me they'd get it taken care of, and I shouldn't have to worry about it. So far, though, it's still NOT taken care of, so if it's still an issue tomorrow, I'll be calling them back. After that, it's time to pay bills and maybe even buy my lining paper.

And tomorrow, I'm going to a concert! Whee! I haven't been to a concert in a long time. I don't even remember which band it is, but it should be fun. I'll wear my Canada shirt. It will be interesting, indeed. Concert, prefaced by more computer fixing fun. I actually am enjoying the computer fixing stuff.

Ooh, I got my diploma today in the mail. Which means I actually DID graduate! I honestly had a few doubts for a moment, thoughts that they might just send a piece of mail saying, "We didn't realize it, but you're missing THIS before you can graduate." But I actually got the diploma. Sweetness! I have a graduate degree!

Hmm. That's a pretty big blog entry right there. I think Canada chapter 3 will have to wait. Sorry. But I'll still give the random link. It's a fun one. One that Brandon gave me - it's really just a graphic.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 3:49 AM | 0 comments

 
Time for more
It is time for more memories! Yes, onto chapter 2 of my Canada trip. Where was I? Ah, yes... the end of the first day. The next day, after eating some food and crashing hard, was EXCELLENT. It was just me and Justin sleeping in until around noon (which means 2 central time) or so. Then getting up, finding out it's SUNNY outside, which means it's time to take the roof down on the car. Eh, I said I wasn't going to post pictures yet, but screw it. Here it is!





Isn't it nice? There's Justin, posing nicely. So we get in our sweet ride and get going, to cruise downtown Vancouver. We head to the streets. There are people everywhere, and it's very cool.





We find a parking garage and then go to eat. It's a cool place, a Chinese Bistro thing.



The food is excellent. Much better than the hotel food, honestly. That stuff was overpriced, and not that great. But the Chinese food was awesome. I got some General Tso's Chicken, Justin got some shrimp, and we got a side of noodles with chicken. We annihilate all three dishes. And a few Cokes. Sadly, Pepsi is not always the choice of a new generation. I think the chefs were pleased that we wasted not any of their food.

Once that was done, it was off to walk the streets! See what shops there were. Go shopping. I did get a rather nice shirt. I think it was the best fit for me. Don't you?




It was cool. So we did our site-seeing, got flirted with a bit, and then ended up going back to the hotel and heading over to a club. The Cactus Club, actually. It was cool! It was a sports club sort of thing. Somehow we got the ONLY male waiter, though. Doh. And seated next to a huge screen TV, which would be cool, except it was showing GOLF. Bleah. We got to sit in the standard restaurant area, but it would have been cool to sit in the other area, where they had nicer formal-looking tables, fireplaces (yes, plural) in the walls, and a fountain in the middle of all of it. I didn't take my camera there, sadly. It was cool. The food wasn't bad. Not exceptional. Except for the cheesecake. OmiGOODness. Proof positive that food can be a very sensual experience.

Then it was time to head back to the room, chill with some drinks, watch TV that was worthless (good stuff to do occasionally), read some, and then crash to prepare for the big day following. Which will be chapter 3.

So - today! I got some good sleep. Mmm, yeah. Woke up, took care of some employment opportunity things, then it was off to help out with computer repair stuff. (Same woman, she just can't get enough of my m4d 5k1llz making her computers so much sweeter.) I ended up working for a while. It was the most atrocious case of computer neglect I have EVER seen. It caused me pain. Ad-aware found over 600 pieces of spyware. The machine was completely unusable in normal mode. I had to do some serious work in safe mode to get it anywhere close to normal. Then installed and ran a virus checker, removed a few viruses. Updated all necessary updates. All of these things that SHOULD have been done on a regular basis, but had NEVER BEEN DONE. So while doing it, I educated the user on how these things need to be done. It's still not completely repaired, it's pretty far gone. But it's actually moderately usable now. I'll have to do a few more things to get it fully functional/stabalized. But it's good money.

Oh, and I did go to Muskogee this time to do it. Of course, while I'm driving, the CRAZY thunderstorm hits. Thankfully, after my Seattle driving experience, I was prepared. The bad thing was the fact I missed my exit, since the rain prevented me from seeing anything less than fifty feet away, and another car was in the right lane when I finally saw it. So I naturally decide to take the next exit for a u-turn. But it's to a highway. With a toll. Requiring exact change or a PikePass. I have neither. So I'm wondering what to do, sitting there, pretending to look for change. And the light turns green! I didn't remember it actually turning green, but I looked up, and it was. So I moved on, turned around, and of COURSE, getting back on the freeway, there's ANOTHER toll. Requiring exact change. Which I don't have. So I pull the same shenanigans. And it doesn't change this time. Until a car pulls up behind me - I'm guessing he had a PikePass, because the light turns green, and I make a run for it! Sadly, there appears to be NO exit going the other way for the exit I needed. So I have to travel until the next viable exit, which of course is something like fifteen miles away. And I pull ANOTHER U-ey. Finally make it to the right exit. Bleah. All in crazy rain, and wind hard enough to make me wonder if I had lost a tire.

The worst part of the storm hit while I was in the house (had to shut down the machine for it, while the brownouts popped up to say hello), and I stayed until it was over. I heard that the Williams building (AKA the Death Star) lost a few windows during the storm, and some trees were uprooted, as well as Utica Square losing power completely. It was a crazy storm.

Then it was time for food, since I had only eaten cereal that morning. And I went with a friend to Pizza Hut. Ooh, they made me mad! The waiter gave us menus, and then decided to chill and do OTHER things for something like 10 freakin' minutes. We order the new BBQ pizza for half of it, and apparently it's NOT what I thought it was going to be, which was supposed to be the spicy buffalo chicken they have (which is AWESOME, by the way), but actual BBQ beef, which is just weird. Oh, it made me MAD. But it was food, I wasn't complaining. And since I bought her dinner last time, Amy was awesome and paid this time. So I'll have to give her extra good stuff when I'm rich. Thanks, Amy!

That's been my day. Oh, except for one other Very Bad thing. My second payment went through - health insurance. Apparently somebody on the other end is retarded. They seemed to think the first digit of my payment was not a 2 (of a 3-digit number, mind you), but a 7. Okay, first of all - there's a textual representation of the payment amount there. Which is very clear. And second of all, I've NEVER paid anywhere close to that amount before, in one check. Why would I now? And third - I don't have quite that much in my checking, so naturally, it BOUNCED. Oh, I'm going to have some words with some people in the morning. So MAD.

Anyway, I'll worry about it later. And that, my friends, is enough blog to make up for a few of the days I missed, I think. I'll leave you with your random link now. Like taking random personality tests? Here you go.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 2:00 AM | 0 comments

 
Still not into a full pattern
And the sporadicity of my blogging shows it. Ah, but I'm back. I went to Canada (eh?) for the weekend. And it was sweet. There was much kung fu, and much touring.

Yes, for those who don't know, I went to Canada. It all began on a Thursday. In the morning. EARLY morning. I stayed up the whole night before, which kinda sucked. Well, I got an hour an a half of sleep. But I packed, and it worked out. So I get to the airport, and of course they've shut down the exit ramp to the airport. So my dad drives AROUND the airport (literally) to find the way in. But I still make it on time, so it's okay. I meet up with Justin (good ol' si-hing), and we begin our adventure.

The flights were pretty good. We stopped first in Vegas! Immediately upon entering the airport, slot machines everywhere. Seriously. I have pictures (my many pics will have to wait, though) as proof. So we have two hours to kill, I try my hand at gambling. With poker. I did okay. Lost some money, but not too much. It was fun. Then it was off to Seattle. But first we stop in Reno. Why? I don't know. No good reason. Swap out some people on the plane, apparently. Bleah. Made two flights into three, which was rather sucky. But it was okay. And we get to Seattle and it's raining. Of course. A lot. But that's all right. We get Justin's luggage (I'm always all carry-on, so it's easier) and then try to find our car rental place. But we don't remember which one it was. So we ask four different places we thought it might be, but it's not them. So we go back to Southwest, and find out it's Thrifty. Yay! We get the info, then go get the car. And it's sweet... a silver convertible Sebring. I will go so far as to say that it was luscious. Although it was RAINING, so we couldn't take the top down.

Yes, it rained in Seattle. And all the way into Vancouver. The ride was very wet, and very slow. Traffic was sucky. But our music was kickin'. I was exhausted, so we ended up pulling over, to grab some munchies. And to expel some bodily fluids, as well. And then we're both much better, so we get back on the road! We looked for our hotel and couldn't find it. For THREE HOURS. We did, however, get a decent tour around Vancouver. We finally found the Sheraton in Vancouver. It was really nice looking, with valet parking and everything. Really nice. TOO nice. Turns out it wasn't our hotel. We were looking for the Four Seasons Sheraton in Richmond. Oh well. So we eventually got there, and it wasn't QUITE as nice, but it worked. We settled in, then went downstairs and got some food. And flirted with the rather attractive waitress, Crystal. Oodles of fun stuff. Then sleeping in to recover, and then just have fun the next day.

Ahh... so much more, but I need to sleep tonight. So I will end the first chapter of my trip here. To be continued! Although I will say that other stuff has happened since I returned. Good stuff. I found some temporary work, to finish off my June bills. Which is good, since I was pulled from my contract job, considering the fact that the guy still hasn't finished paying for me. I must be expensive! So yes, a temporary job, with a neighbor of my parents. She's very nice, and just needs a computer geek to handle her misbehaving computers. Silly computers. Full of spyware. Fragmented drives. She also wants to set up some wireless connectivity, which might be fun. So I'll be doing that tomorrow (ahem, today), which should be good. It's good money. Also, I got another contracting firm looking for work for me. They seem pretty cool! Hopefully I'll hear back about a potential job tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm also going to go back to work for the guy I was contracted for. For FREE. Because the project is almost done, and I think it's worth my time to finish it off, so he can make money, so he can PAY money, so I might actually be able to earn something more from that thing. Maybe a lot more, who knows.

And for fun, what have I been doing? Why, programming, of course. Starting a game with good ol' B.P. He's got a huge story prepared (but it's secret), moreso than he had before. I have huge ideas. So I'm eager to get started. We got the code, and I just looked at it, but it'll take some work. That's okay, it's work that's fun work.

Now it's time for bed, to be ready for my crazy busy day tomorrow. Today. Yes. So you must have a random link! And this is one I found rather randomly. Go figure. I did find it quite interesting - a different viewpoint of life that not MANY people experience. But some do.
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 3:00 AM | 0 comments