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BLOG OF POOTENHEIMER... Fear it, Love it
20041227
 
It's the midst of the holidays
It seems like that should be a line from a song. Yes, it's the midst of the holidays (la la laaaa, la la la la) and we all are having just a good time. Was your Christmas good? Mine was pretty dandy. Time spent with the family, all that. Although I'm used to a cold environment, so my sleep was filled with weird dreams. All I really remember is something about swimming through a huge vat of fried rice. That really doesn't sound so bad.

Yeah, so it's that point where my taste is too expensive to cover for Christmas, so I'm getting useful things instead. Like a butcher knife! And a blender! Ooh, and a can opener! I did get these things. It's not just a fantasy. Plus some socks, which is good, as well as a phone. But since I got a crazy cheap phone on woot.com I think my sister's going to trade it in for something different. I think I did okay as far as the giving thing goes. I got my dad some books (sci-fi, his genre of choice), my mom a calendar with lovely pictures of ME in it, and my sister a Nintendo DS. Yes, they were very hard to find during the holidays. But I think she likes it. She's been playing Mario 64 DS quite a bit. We tried out the multiplayer (wireless, of course), and it's pretty cool. Plus backwards compatibility with the GameBoy Advance.

So the holidays were fun, I spent time with the guitar as well. I like the guitar. And we watched the extended edition of Return of the King! Yes, it really is super long, and it helps that they tacked on six consecutive endings. 250 minutes. I'll let you do the math in your head. So now I have all the extended editions, and the idea of a Tolkien trilogy-athon boggles my mind. I don't think I have that much free time in a WEEK. There's nothing like it, though. It's a good movie, and the extended version does add some nice stuff. Plus the easter eggs are always good bonus fun.

And last week I actually spent doing some interesting things. For one, there was a crazy party at Libby's place. The closest to drunk I've ever been. Which is not to say I actually drank, but I sure acted like it. There was a bit of drinking Jenga involved, and I'll just say I'm glad that a camera wasn't involved. But it was a lot of fun.

And I also went out to a bar (sort of) to get some food, ended up being pulled onstage to do some open mic with one of the regulars' guitar. (I don't know if that English is correct, but it's constructed as "with [one of the regulars']/his guitar". Something like that.) I did three songs. The second song was Radiohead's Creep, and I guess the crowd liked it, because they all sang along. Go figure - they didn't sing along with any of the OTHER songs the other guys played. It was a lot of fun, though. I think they liked me.

And I ended up hanging out with Sandra yesterday a bit, so I could see her new Christmas present (a nifty Canon digital camera) and watch Monty Python. "It's just a flesh wound!" Which takes me to today, which is the start of a sparsely populated week. Most people are gone. Speaking of which, what am I still doing here? I think it's time to go.

But before I do! Random link. Linking. Linkage. Linkeroo. I think I probably posted this a long time ago, but it's still fresh if you haven't been in a while. Although I'll warn you, there's course language and such here, and it pretty much requires that you understand the basic concepts of IRC/chat programs. But if you do, woo boy!

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20041220
 
I feel like posting AGAIN
Mmm, yes. Something about coming closer to the break makes me feel more like I have free time, even when I don't really have TOO much. I do like blogging, though. Usually. Sometimes. On occasion.

So yesterday I went to gather some items. As in renting from Blockbuster, getting some food, and firewood. Well, fake firewood. My mom seems convinced I might as well throw money into the fire. Maybe I should. I wonder how well it burns? Anyway, I went to Blockbuster and picked up Collateral and The Bourne Supremacy. While I was there I talked a bit to the guy who was running Game Rush (we have two in town that I know of, one of which is close by me). He was telling me about how the consoles are crazy selling out, and I mentioned to him that I saw signs on street corners for the new slimline PS2s selling for $200, still packaged. And on eBay for more. I also asked him about MGS3, and if he'd played it yet. He said he tried the demo but he didn't like it too much. I asked him if he liked the first two, and he said he liked the first one. I told him he needs to try it again, but with some patience to learn it a bit more fully. So I think I convinced him, and I'll have to ask him later what he thought.

While I was there I was picking up Collateral, and there was a couple looking for movies. They hadn't seen it, and they thought it was out, but I pointed out that there were a couple left. I told them it was actually a decent movie, and worth at least a rental to see it once (which I do think). So they picked it up. I should be a salesman! Yes, they're both good movies, and even though Bourne Supremacy has a cameraman or two who was apparently trying to be macho during the action scenes by holding it with one arm. Outstretched. While covering his eyes with the other hand. It was a little easier to watch on a smaller screen (albeit not TOO much smaller), but I still prefer the long shots in good action movies like Fist of Legend or Legend of Drunken Master (AKA Drunken Master 2). I did like the movie quite a bit, though. I think I still favor MGS3, as far as entertainment value goes.

Ooh, and I found out there's a Chili's close by, so I got some food to go from there. It was good stuff! Yeah, I didn't realize it was close by because for some reason I was looking for places in TULSA. Even though I apparently live in Tulsa AND Bixby AND Jenks AND Broken Arrow, all at once. So my options are varied. Ah, but there's nothing like chillin' in front of the TV, watching a movie, eating chicken and corn on the cob, with a fire lit beside you (IN the fireplace, just in case you were wondering). Ooh, it was luscious. You should join me sometime! Like I had two friends do last night, for my second movie (Collateral). Libby and Courtney both were kind enough to keep me company to view the film. Whilst drinking lovely beverages (Pepsi and IBC, no less) and keeping cozy wrapped in (separate) blankets in front of the fire. Mmm, good.

Oh, and I did forget to mention one other birthday during the birthday craziness - my friend Taylor had hers. She's the latest victim to my inept meanderings on guitar theory and technique. Anyway, happy birthday to all! And to all a good night!

Ooh, blogs are the wave of the future. My friend Sean finally realized this. He has a few interesting tales to tell. Perhaps, in the future, he'll have MORE than a few tales to tell. Time will tell. I will tell, too. Maybe. Do you tell? Does the word "tell" seem strange to you now? What if I were to tell you a sentence using "tell" in a completely inappropriate tell? Would you be able to tell? Would you go tell it on a mountain? Or maybe show and tell? Ah, just go to tell.

Time for random linkage! Yes, it's a lot of random linking for two days, but forgive me. I'll tell you what - I don't blog in predictable intervals, so carpe diem. Okay, so you remember my Circuit City event? Apparently some people had slightly different experiences with it. Oh, and if you just need to relieve some stress, maybe you can try new methods.

Comments:
haha I don't know about "inept meanderings", but sometimes it is a little meandering, but it's good! I learn stuff and feel smart! So it's all worth it.

Tay
 
I'll have you know I had a blog before they were called such. However, it's much easier to use one someone else has written than to write the code and host it myself. So nyah.
 
Hi Poot!
Sandra is pretty. Looks like she is a lot of fun too. I never did like to get dirty...
Have fun!
 
the fireplace was good. ha, i liked how you had to mention libby and i were in seperate blankets; we could've been sharing, no one would've known. =P it was a good time; we shall do it again.
~!*court*!~
 
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20041219
 
Yes, December is STILL BUSY
I've been pretty busy with Christmas traffic, shopping, parties, etc. It's kinda crazy. But hey, that's how it goes sometimes. I'm sure YOU'RE busy, too.

For me, a lot of it's been kung fu. See, we started lion dance again (I mentioned before), so I've been practicing regularly with that, as well as helping with the kids' class. Because it's growing, and we don't have a lot of instructor students that can help. So I'm putting in what time I can. Which MEANS I go there straight from work, and don't get home until close to ten. It's reminiscent of my earlier days, the horrid combination of school/work/kung fu. Although instead of doing homework when I get home at ten or so, I get to play. Yay!

Speaking of playing, yeah, I got those four games, but I've only played one, and one other one I got. Hitman 2 is one. It's all about being sneaky, which I am, naturally, so I like it quite a bit. For instance, your first mission is to take out the head of a mafia crew. He's in his mansion, which is surrounded by a wall and guards. So you have to be creative to get to him. You could be silly and pull out the biggest weapon you have and try to just Rambo your way in, but the COOL way is to pick a different method. For instance, you could hit the flower delivery guy before he gets to the front gate, take his clothes and flowers, drop all your guns (so they don't frisk you with bad results), and get in like that. OR you could go to the food delivery guy and do the same thing (all mafiosos have lots of food, duh). OR you could do my personal choice, take out a guard when he steps out to take a pee in the bushes, and take his clothes. So once you've got that, you can just wander the area, as long as you're not doing weird things. Running around carrying a large weapon would qualify as weird. So yeah, you just stroll about, make your way upstairs, and slowly take out all the guards you need to. I like using the silenced pistol, so you can just walk towards a guard like you want to ask him something, and then just pull the piece out and double tap him in the head. Then, of course, move the body so nobody's the wiser. The way I did it was to do all that, then head into the boss's office when he left for a moment, step out on his patio, waited for him to return, then snuck up behind him and use the fiber wire to do the dirty work. Then it's time to get out before anyone realizes what's wrong.

Yeah, it's pretty fun. Sneaky sneaky. Then there's the other one I've been putting time into: Metal Gear Solid 3. If you've played the first one and liked it, you'll probably like this one. It's the closest thing to an interactive movie I've ever seen. The cut scenes are all top-notch, quite good voice acting, and even a soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams. There are a lot of them, but I think they're well done enough that they're worth watching. And the actual game involves being dropped into the jungle in Russia (at the beginning) to take care of some things. This one involves a ton of realistic options. You have to worry about camo, making noise, fixing injuries, even hunting wildlife to eat and survive. You can still be sneaky in this one. There's a ton of options. In many cases you have an abundance of choices on how you want to handle a situation. I prefer sneaking up behind soliders on patrol, grabbing around the neck and kicking the back of the leg out, then dragging them away to put a knife to the throat, then hiding them in the shrubbery. Kind of like Hitman, but more detailed. It's more than just that, but that's still an element that's in there.

Man, I guess my vicarious aggression is just abundant in my gaming. Stress from holiday season, I guess. Although today I did get to do some real aggression. We had our standard lion dance practice today, and then a student asked to spar me afterwards. He's the other Eric in our school, and he's pretty young, tall, lanky, and very quick. He's the most flexible guy in our class, if I remember correctly. So he wanted to spar. And we did, no pads. It was a lot of fun. He tried a few high kicks (which he throws very fast), and then realized he might not want to do that against me after I countered by snapping a few kicks in the wide open groin area he left exposed. Yeah, high kicks are generally not a good idea, although I managed to land a high snap kick to his chin. Hee hee! Yeah, my toes grazed the tip of his chin, it wasn't too hard, but he knew it was there. And I think I conditioned his shins a bit, because I'm used to countering kicks by putting my shin up against his. I know he felt it at least once. But it was a lot of fun.

And yesterday was the birthday day. My sister's birthday was yesterday, so we took her out to Osaka (after Royal Dragon was discovered to be closed for a wedding something or other). I forgot how good the food there is. Our chef was pretty cool, too. The rice and shrimp there are luscious. Yes, luscious. And while we were there, Marni gave all of us some gifts. Yeah, it seemed kinda backwards to me, too. She gave her boyfriend a small plaque, with a Saint on it (I don't remember which, which is bad), she gave me a necklace with St. Joseph on it, my dad got a full framed set of pictures of her with an inscription between them, and my mom got a necklace with gold and a small diamond. It was sort of crazy, but I guess she just appreciates the family that much. Which is cool. MY present to her is waiting, because it's rather large (not physically), so she's getting it for Christmas. And I can't tell you what it is, because it's SECRET.

Yesterday was also Sandra's birthday (you know my sister just loves that)! She was not in town, though, so I had to send her a letter, in lieu of my presence. Just birthdays everywhere.

And I think it's time to get back to chilling, because I want to. Mmm, good. I rented the Bourne Supremacy and Collateral, which are both sort of sneaky movies, but I like them. I guess I'm in a sneaky mood, being Christmas and all. Sneaky sneaky!

Okay, time for random link. Christmas shopping? Did you try online? If you're not sure where to look to find good deals, try this. It's pretty new, but I think it's not too shabby. Oh! And bonus random link - this is a movie I think might actually be pretty good.

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20041213
 
December is BUSY
That's right. December is BUSY. With all sorts of stuff. My weekend was packed. Which is not a bad thing.

Yeah, the week was mostly work, bits of kung fu, choir, etc. At work I'm helping the company get started on fixing some spyware with an enterprise version of Spy Sweeper (which is apparently the only real choice now that Pest Patrol was bought by a different company). It's pretty slick. Works like an enterprise (i.e., company-wide) version of a virus scanner. I like it.

That, and lion dance practice has begun in kung fu. Every Sunday for now. This is the first year I'm going to be the lion! I'm normally Buddha, but I guess I'll have to be ferocious now and be a lion. The lion head. A guy named Kaleb has the good fortune of being the butt. It's hard work! I'm going to get buffer, I think.

Which reminds me of class this week, on Thursday. Or was it Tuesday? One of the two days. I think it was a Tuesday. Anyway, Sifu had pulled all the floor mats up, and it was time to clean underneath and clean the mats before putting them back down. So we split into teams and cleaned. One team to do the initial scrubbing, then a water vacuum machine, then cleaning all that off and any last grime. Me and Justin were on the last team. So, to make it just like a traditional kung fu school cleaning, we'd grab a mat and then sit in a horse (or occasionally another stance) to clean the mat. It was a good workout. About an hour of horse stances. But we did get to get up from them between mats, so it wasn't too bad. But it was kinda cool.

And the weekend was crazy busy. Busy on Saturday with paintball! It was a lot of fun. Went with Carlos and Justin (a different Justin) and did some woods ball. I took my Armotech (looks like an M4 carbine) and had lots of fun with it. Great exercise, some good games. Got sun and fresh air, so all in all it was good. Then had to get cleaned up and go to the kung fu dinner. Yay! The dinner was good. Ryan's Steakhouse. Not upper class food, but it's buffet style, so if you didn't like what you had, you could go back and try something else. We had a ton of people show up. And Sifu gave out awards, in addition to little pins to recognize how long we had been at the school. One for a year or less, another for one to four years, and one for five or more years. Yeah, Sifu erroneously put me in the middle group, but I've actually been there (as of this year) for five years. Dang! Five years is a lot of kung fu. So I got the cool DRAGON pin. Mmm, dragons.

After that I did some computer work to fix a friend from kung fu's machine. It was a lot of work, so he paid me, which is good. I wiped his drive, reinstalled the OS (with a better version), set up his DSL, made sure his machine was up to date in patches and was secure, and he was good to go. Hopefully he's enjoying it.

Sunday was more kung fu. Lion dance practice. Had to skip a choir lunch (kinda sucky that I did) to do it, but it's part of kung fu. And right in front of the school there was a massive Toys for Tots drive. Which made it very hard to get in. See, it was sanctioned by marines and policemen. So hum-vees (the REAL ones) were parked at every entrance, to scare you away. Didn't work on me, because I needed to go to KUNG FU. So I got in, just in time. Before all of the thousands (I'm not kidding) of Harley-Davidsons showed up. Yeah, they do a parade every December for the drive. Starts somewhere on Riverside, ends right in front of the kung fu school. In the huge parking lot. I did get to see some crazy motorcycles, and a lot of leather jackets.

After that it was taking Sandra to Newman for church (she was TOO TIRED after all those pesky finals to drive). Mass was weird. Lots of mistakes. One humorous one was Henry (the alter boy) lighting a candle with a match, then blowing out the match, but somehow forgetting to move it away from the candle. Yeah, both went out. Physics works like that. Then he lit ALL four of the advent candles. Whoops. And someone came up to rectify the situation, but blew out a PURPLE candle, not the pink one. It was insanity. And the music was all right. I actually played the Our Father on time this time. Plus I played some Christmas carols after church, just for funsies.

And today was interesting because of a little extra something that happened at Circuit City. See, they made a mistake in a deal they had. Any $19.99 game you could get two for $29.99. Nice deal, eh? Well, somebody made a boo-boo and they were actually being sold two for $9.99. Yeah. So I made my way over for lunch and snagged four for $20. Found out later, they sent a memo out about ten minutes after I left to notify everyone NOT to sell at that price. I should have bought twenty. Imagine the money that could have been made. I guess it was a mistake that started yesterday, but they're fixing it tonight. If you're lucky, you could go to one of them and find an attendant who's unaware to purchase from. It will still ring up on the machine at the lower price until tomorrow.

So I have way too many games and too much to do to enjoy them all now. Oh well. I'll have break to take care of that. Yaaay! Vegetation is always fun. I guess that's my Christmas present to me. And now it's time for random link! Want to do scientific things that aren't normal? Well, apparently someone's made a list.

Comments:
i've had the fun of sitting at a crossing of the motorcycle parade. (i'm sure you can sense my sarcasm)
~!*courtface*!~
 
he was supposed to blow out one of the purple candles. on the third sunday of advent, you light two purple candles and the rose candle, hence padre's homily on the meaning of the rose candle. just fyi.
 
Yes, yes. After a bit of research, I found that you are indeed correct, oh anonymous commenter. Since the fourth candle is still lit BEFORE Christmas, I thought that's why Padre was talking about it. Eh, you learn something new every day. Or sometimes every other day. Or sometimes not at all.
 
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20041205
 
Blogging after a brief rest
Okay, so maybe not so brief. Yeah, I haven't blogged in a LONG time. What can I say, I've been busy! Quite busy, and it hasn't been so bad. So much has happened, all I can put is sort of a Cliffs Notes version.

SO. Last weekend was Thanksgiving. I'll start there, because I have pictures for the previous weekend. So Thanksgiving was good. Spent time with family. Ate some good food. Chilled a bit and played lots of Halo 2 on XBox Live. Marie Callendar's has excellent pie. Especially cheesecake. MMM good.

Okay, so that's one weekend. Ooh! Kung fu! Yes, standard kung fu stuff. Sifu's moved sparring to Saturday mornings which makes me sad. I like fighting at night. Although Justin and I have permission to spar after class whenever we want. So that's cool. Today was good, because we started Lion Dance practice. This year I get to be the lion head! I'm used to being Buddha, but the thin Justin (a fairly new student) is going to take that place. It's hard work being the lion! You have to carry the head , balance it and move the mouth and eyes as necessary. Plus doing all sorts of stunts at the same time. It'll take some getting used to. My legs are still a little sore from it.

Church has been pretty good for the most part. I took a break from Newman a week ago, and went to the cathedrel downtown with Sandra. I'd never been, so it was new and interesting. Yeah, Sandra was in town for the break, so we hung out and did random things like watching a HORRIBLE movie called Alexander, and playing Burnout 3.

This week I helped a few people with different things. Like giving a guitar lesson yesterday, fixing a few people's computers (or starting to, and for money, even!), and giving the Friday kung fu lesson to several people. It was good. I like to help.

Oh yeah, some decent news... I finally paid off all my major bills! Which was no easy task, especially considering my loan has finally kicked in. Not a loan as income, but the one I used to pay for SKOOL (before you make fun of me YES I misspeled it on purpose), which is a good chunk of money. So I have to start paying all of that off. But I'm caught up! Yaaaay! Also, I changed up my phone bills so now all my cell phone and land line and DSL stuff is on one bill. Plus I changed my plans so now I have better plans for a little less money. I'm good like that. I'm even considering getting some satellite TV now. Maybe just in time for the Super Bowl so I can watch it in HDTV. Not that I really pay that much attention to football, but it might be a nice excuse to have guys over and have fun.

I've been hooked on Digiorno and IBC(warning: will change your browser window size) lately. Tasty. And cheaper. Plus playing bits of Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 (online) when I find time. Not that I have a whole LOT of time.

And Christmas is coming up, and I don't like shopping with crazy crowds. But it's one of those things everyone expects to be done, so I must be a sheep and follow the masses. Eh, after all the pain of the purchase, the action of giving is usually pretty cool. I recommend it.

So TWO weeks ago. You're probably sitting there, saying, "What about that previous weekend? Pictures? What?" Yeah, I went to Fayetteville for that weekend. To visit a lovely little lady named Sandra. And lots of fun was had! I'll let the pictures do some of the talking.



Yeah, we went spelunking! In Devil's Den. It was a lot of fun.


And we took a hard route through the cave, and somehow Sandra convinced a few other people to follow us. A family with a guy and three of his kids, and two other girls about our age. This was one of the kids.


We all got kinda dirty.


But we still managed to somehow look good, while we were dirty.


But there was no time! We had to go to Wal-Mart immediately. Forget the cleaning part.


Yeah, we picked up some stuff (CANDY stuff) and came back. Still dirty, mind you. Don't I look good?


And so we began construction. On what, might you wonder?


A gingerbread house, of course! Nevermind that we didn't use any gingerbread.


And we worked a bit, and got it looking pretty good!


Until Sandra destroyed it. Accidentally, but still.


We reconstructed it, with much pain, but it was back!


It turned out pretty good. Yeah, so there was all that, and then we went and saw the Incredibles, which, yes, was incredible. I want to see it again. All in all, it was a very good weekend. Good vibes for a while.

Okay, so that's about all the stuff I want to talk about for now. I think that might make up for some. With all the pictures, and stories, and stuff. Hope you like it. Time for some random links! Yes, LINKS! I need to catch up. First a bit of music. Now don't mind the song so much, it's not something I really like too much. But the art here is incredible. And this is a song you might recognize. With some interesting animation to go along with it. Oh, and want to know how to find out how many games of Halo 2 everyone's played? And how they did at each? And what freakin' time they played each game, and which other people were playing with them? Some sites can tell you. Assuming you know the XBox Live names for the people you're looking for.

Okay, that's enough. Maybe more links attached in this spot later. Hope you liked my catchup blog! Hopefully my respite from blog was only a temporary one.
Comments:
Sounds like you've been quite busy, m'dear!

Congrats on the Lion head and the bills being paid.

and HEY who says you can only invite GUYS over to watch the Superbowl, eh?? No, of course *I* didn't want to see the big game on sweet, sweet big screen HDTV. Oh NO, a GIRL wouldn't care about THAT. =-p

mmmmMMMm... IBC

Great pictures!! You guys are too darn cute... that looked like a lot of fun. =)

Anywho... hope we can hang out again soon.
Later!

-Christina
 
The YPP Forum I've been visiting has been hooked on this... you should try it, Ericus.
 
Eric, you're such a goob. But you still rock.

Tay
 
Nem sem kumé caki vim parar. Mas tá fixe!
 
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as of 10/23/03

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