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3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,June,2004 | urlLink urlLink Esper entered our lives in March 2003. She was a rescue from the vet's office. She needed a home or was going to be put to sleep and we needed another cat to keep Russell company. From the second Esper met Russell, she let him know that she wasn't a kitty to be messed with, and in fact has been the Alpha Cat of the household. Esper has a wonderful loving personality. She is cat that approaches you when she wants to and on her terms. Unlike Russell who doesn't mind a human picking him up for a cuddle. However, with me alone, Esper does allow me to pick her up for a cuddle and allows me to approach her on my terms. This is especially good when I have had to pick her up in a hurry. urlLink urlLink Esper is approximately 2 years of age though she is the size of a 9 month old kitten. She hasn't grown a great deal from when we picked her up at five months of age. She's the small cat that I've always wanted. urlLink urlLink |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,July,2004 | urlLink After some encouragement and patience, Esper now sleeps in the basket during the night rather than on top of the wardrobe. This way, we know she's warm. urlLink urlLink 'This is the life.' urlLink |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,July,2004 | urlLink A thoughtful look into the distance... urlLink urlLink One gorgeous look into the lens. urlLink |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,July,2004 | urlLink Esper keeping guard of her fish. urlLink |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,July,2004 | urlLink Esper too has an affinity for the bed as you can see here. urlLink |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,July,2004 | urlLink Esper: 'Do I look like a pack horse?' Menchi: *Giggle* urlLink |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,July,2004 | urlLink 'What is this abomination?' urlLink urlLink 'I suppose he does does look cute.' urlLink urlLink 'Let me clean that for you.' urlLink |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,July,2004 | urlLink Esper claimed this spot for about a month or more. It sure did make finding her a lot easier. Usually she's tucked away in a hidden corner. urlLink urlLink She also figured that it wasn't all that bad to sleep on top of the post. A definite improvement from the top of the wardrobe. urlLink |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,July,2004 | urlLink 'They think I'm napping but I'm devising a plan to get into the tank. With all those bubbles, it would just be like a health spa with snacks.' =^.^= urlLink urlLink 'Oh hello. Could you possibly feed me. This servant is broken. All she does is take photo after photo.' urlLink |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,July,2004 | urlLink 'Oooo, that tuna sure smells good.' urlLink |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,July,2004 | urlLink 'If I look away, maybe you'll just give up and go. Hint Hint' urlLink urlLink 'Dammit! You're worse than the paprrazzi! Shoo!!' urlLink |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,July,2004 | urlLink Esper is actually the most difficult to photograh. She never stops moving. (Look at that tail swish!) I need to watch her for hours when I want a photo. Good thing I was putting this blog together, otherwise I may not have peservered. urlLink |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,July,2004 | urlLink 'I'd like to see you do this.' urlLink |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,June,2004 | The STARtrek team has left Hedland for Karratha. *Sigh* It was tempting to go and follow them with what is ensuing in the pharmacy, but for the good of the customers and owners I've stayed in Hedland to work. *Bigger sigh* It's my final shift at the airport today. It saddens me to leave it, even if it is for six months. I've enjoyed my 6 months there and have learnt so much about air travel and cargo and freight transport. My knowledge at the start of my employment was nothing compared to what I know now. And the knowledge base is ever growing. And here is a link to my workplace's website. I didn't even know that they had one until now! urlLink Golden Eagle Airlines |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 29,June,2004 | Yolanda and the STARtrek team arrived safe and well in Port Hedland. We all had dinner at the Thai restaurant. Everyone was easy going and the food was good. Though the service could have been faster. I will be heading into the high school with them after my shift at the airport to help with a few sessions. I'm thinking Physics right now as I've never done that session. Variety is the spice of life. ^_^ |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 28,June,2004 | I never have liked waiting for anything. There I've admitted it. I'm sitting here now waiting for a group of university students travelling around the Pilbara in Western Australia doing free science shows for Year 10's. This is something I am involved in but since I wasn't at university studying first semester, I missed out this trip. This is called the STARtrek Science Show. It's lots of fun and you meet kids and teachers from schools from a diverse range of backgrounds. urlLink The STAR Program I get along with the ever fearless leader Yolanda really well. In fact I would consider her a friend and a wonderful role model. I can hardly wait to see her once again even if I am going back to Perth in two weeks and I'll be seeing her every second day or so while at uni. Anyway back to waiting. Between 6:00PM and 7:00PM. I told you I don't like waiting. *Points to time stamp* |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 28,June,2004 | Well that's right! Who am I kidding anyway? I haven't got anything done on this blog. That's for sure. I had a somewhat okay day overall. It started off good, then went bad then finished good. So I figure okay. I went to the airport for my first shift. That went good. Everything went well. I was thinking, 'What a TERRIFIC Monday!' However, I discovered I packed the wrong shirt for my short stint at the pharmacy so I had to head home before going there. And luckily I did too. I found my fiancee at home. I instantly get worried as he never stays home unless he's sick. He isn't one to complain so when he's sick, he's sick. Me on the other hand, sorta the opposite. I'm the pathetic one. Anyhow it turned out that he did call my workplace and he only had the number to one out of the two offices. The receptionist refused to give him the number of the second office despite my fiancee introducing himself and saying that it was important. The call was made at 9:30AM. The plane had left and we were doing a general tidy up. I got home at 10:15AM. Still no call from the receptionist. I get the details of what happenned from my fiancee after finding out what was wrong with him. He could barely walk!! >_ I also said to my supervisor that I expected an apology from the receptionist. I understood that if I didn't get one, I didn't get one but was very tempted to go to the receptionist to give her a large chunk of my mind plus more. But I wasn't going to because I didn't want to lower myself to her level. My supervisor did however pass this all onto the boss. The boss pulled the receptionist aside at 11:30AM/12:00PM stating that she needed to apologise to me and whether she had even passed the message on. The receptionist hadn't and the boss pointed out that I still wouldn't know had I not gone home and asked for a reason. The receptionist didn't have any reason apart from 'I don't know.' During my second shift at the airport, the receptionist makes no effort to apologise to me face to face. She makes a phone call home sounding significantly different to my fiancee who answered it to the point that he didn't recognise her. She then makes a phone call to the second office from which I was based wanting to speak to me FIVE minutes before the plane was due to land. I happenned to be the one to marshall it in, (You know, wave the batons at the plane with those secret signals.), so I HAD to be out there. The receptionist made a deadly mistake when apologising. And that is ladies and gentlemen is to lie and make excuses. When you apologise, you are admitting wrong a claiming full responsibility and if you can fix the situation, you do so. That is how I have been brought up. And chances are, the person you're apologising to already has figured out what went wrong and where, just like I had today. She first blamed my fiancee for not stressing the importance of his call to which I state that I had already spoken to my fiancee and that I know that he had stated the importance and that he even requested the number of the second office. This of course led to the reason that she isn't allowed to give out the number as it is a private number. I point out the fact that the number is allowed to be given out to family and that I only have one fiancee. (And by the way, she does know who my fiancee is and also, it isn't a secret.) She then states that she doesn't know who to give the number out to. I point out that I have been working for the company for a shorter period of time than her and know exactly who to give the number to and who not to The she says that she's been in trouble for giving the number out in the past. (Now she's blaming the boss.) I point out the blatantly obvious again and point out that it was only by pure chance I went home and that my fiancee was barely walking when I got there. I also added that she had no idea how furious I was when I found out and how inconvenienced I was during what was supposed to be a calm 2 hour break as I had to rush and get medication for my fiancee. She said she was sorry and that she was trying her best. To this I simply state, 'Thanks anyway.' and hung up. And everyone that was around me at the time heard me and was shocked especially the leading hand who heard everything that I said. But I was angry and had no time for arguements. I think a few people thought that I was still angry but I told them that I was fine and that I was only angry at the receptionist, not them and that I direct my anger at the source, not everything else around me. Which was true since I hadn't said a word of it to anyone until then. I did mention to my supervisor that I had been rude to the receptionist and explained what had occurred but it was no big deal as she saw it and understood. My supervisor has also had problems with the receptionist so I thought it would also be a good idea to talk to the boss as well to which I did and it was all okay. I did state what I said verbatim and what the receptionist had said. I hate to think what would have happenned had I not have got home and found out while I was at the airport. My fiancee will be alright. He should be back at work tomorrow. I basically told him to rest and left no room for arguement. And that is why my day is finishing on a high note. |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 23,June,2004 | Well the great launch of this blog has been delayed. A good friend of mine is going through a difficult time at the moment. I was talking to her instead of posting and updating. **Big Hug** ^_^ Anywho....here's an update as to what I've been up to. I went to a performance by the urlLink West Australian Ballet Company last night. It was outdoors in the cool, (perhaps cold), night air under the Milky Way. And picnics were encouraged. I took along spring rolls which were a big hit with the everyone. It was a terrific night out. Though I do have to admit that I was disappointed by the first act. Some of the dancers were slightly out of time and there was one point I was beginning to wonder whether it was even worth the $15 I had paid. But the rest of the show went wonderfully, enough to make up for the shaky start. |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 21,June,2004 | I don't know why but I feel like a million dollars today. ^_^ I won't argue with the Powers that Be about their agenda for me today, (not that I believe in fate and all that). I'm going to go to the ballet tomorrow night being held at the Civic Grounds. Should be a good night. It's outdoors and it will be cold. I'm making spring rolls for it. But I will have to double check on the status of taking food. There's been so many last minute changes with the thing so far. First tickets were at $40 per adult, and now they're $15 per adult. Four performances by the West Australian Ballet Company. The proceeds are going towards the town's hospital so it's a good cause as well as a good night out. Will be posting up photos of me and my cats sometime tonight, then a mass e-mail letting everyone know this blog exists. ^_~ |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 18,June,2004 | I got my Snoopy's today! I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy!!! |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 15,June,2004 | I don't like public holidays. And no, I'm not a work-a-holic. The mail never stops so if I am on the courier route that has the Parcel Post contract, (that is to be read as parcels sent by the average Australian individual/company to another Australian individual/company), work increases at an alarming exponential rate. Public holidays are worse when they're not national holidays, but state ones. There have been two long weekends in Australia in a row. However, not all Australians enjoyed two lots of three day weekends unless they were jetsetting across the nation. On Monday, 7th June 2004, it was Foundation Day in Western Australia. It celebrates the founding of our fine state. However not many know this and use this day as an excuse to get drunk or achieve little else. We managed to do the gardening, housecleaning, laundry, shopping, wash the car and bid for Connect-a-Snoopy's on eBay. I missed the MacDonald's release and didn't know until the last day which coincided with this particular Monday. I won the bid. However, processing of the payment was delayed even though it was done over the internet. Internet banking is not convenient when you still have to wait for a human to process it. On Monday, 14th June 2004, it was the Queen's Birthday long weekend in the eastern states of Australia. This means a mail delay which means the shipping time of my Connect-a-Snoopy's will be lengthened. But I am assured that they will be reaching me in the very near future. The $200 we were owed has been paid. Even then, we had to approach the person in order to get the money. It was too much of an effort for them to get off their butt to pay us. Go figure. |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 06,June,2004 | Well I finally got round to setting the ball rolling on this project. It only took one month to do so. There's only the bare minimum at the moment, or perhaps not even that considering the lack of photos. A short delay is expected before anyone can board the voyueristic train. |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 30,July,2004 | No, this hasn't turned into a blog of a Crazy Cat Woman, although this really depends on who you talk to. And if you talk to me, well it just may depend on the angle that the sun is shining. Freaked out yet? ^_~ The truth is, I do need kitty litter. I have just recently become the proud owner of hermit crabs. Yup, it only took two weeks before I took in some critters to call pets. It must be some new record. We'll just ignore the fact that I went into a home that had two dogs and existing hermit crab. My best buddy keeps them in a Television Terranium. She was down to one lonely crab and they need to live in a community. So anyhow, I figured that I could buy some buddies for this lonesome crab. Somehow, I too ended up with hermit crabs in a tank of their own. Oh, and why am I buying them? Well, I've never noticed hermit crabs on the beach in Perth. And need I remind you of the nasty weather condition called Winter that is affecting Perth? They're all set up on my desk and well, they don't do a heck of a lot. They dig, eat, sit in their pool of water, walk, climb and a whole lot of sitting. But on the upside, they're quieter than three cats playing 'The Fields of the Serengeti' at 3:00AM in the morning. ^_^ *Sigh* I just wanna cuddle a cat, maybe two or three. ^_^ |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 28,July,2004 | I finally finalised my timetable today! All labs and tutorials have been assigned. I had my first lab today. I amazed my lab demonstrator. After two and a half years, I prepared for a lab properly. I even knew what was occurring and what to expect in the results. Though I think I may have freaked out the poor student that was assigned to be my lab partner. She isn't studying a Chemistry Major and wasn't too familiar with the equipment. And on top of that, there was me with about 8 pages of pre-lab summarised notes in addition to pre-lab summarised instructions in my lab book. Now I've got to prepare for my labs next week, write up the lab I did today, pick a seminar topic for Week 10 and research like crazy, do a weekly summary for my vegie unit. And do a few readings. Phew! ^_^ |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 23,July,2004 | I finally made my appearance on campus today. I caught up with a couple of friends while buying my books and unit materials in a record time of fifteen minutes! And there was time to even browse at over-priced stationery. ^_^ And I may even be getting a job as a tutor for Yr 8-10 students while I'm here. I'm definitely returning to the life of a 'Poor Uni Student' with great gusto. Which reminds me, I must get those Youth Allowance forms filled in. YUK! |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 19,July,2004 | Just posted up photos of Menchi finally . Time to post a link on urlLink TheCatSite . It's time everyone got to see what my cats look like. I've been promising photos for so long. After a few failed attempts and false starts, I think that this will actually be successful. ^_^ |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 16,July,2004 | I'm moving in with my best buddy now. The people I'm staying with have nothing wrong with them. I just don't think I'll fit in. More later. And I can't get over the changes to Blogger! |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 16,July,2004 | We're in Perth after a couple of days spent in Denmark. It's our last day together today for 6 months. Then one more week of settling in and then uni starts so that should keep me occupied. Will post more later with pictures from Denmark. |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 09,July,2004 | We'll be setting of tomorrow for Perth tomorrow between 2:00AM and 4:00AM. We plan to be in Perth sometime late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. We'll then be driving to Denmark and returning to Perth on Wednesday. And after a period of settling in, I'll be blogging once more. |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 07,July,2004 | Had to reformat my laptop. I've got to reinstall Hello before I can upload photos of Menchi and get his blog up and running too. |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 03,July,2004 | I've decided to do something about my work. I'm going to write a formal complaint and stop complaining. I am going to do something constructive. |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 03,July,2004 | I made the wrong choice with which job to finish up with first before I left Hedland. I should have finished up at the Pharmacy first, not the airport. I cannot believe that I thought working at the Pharmacy would be less tiring than the airport. It would had the current manager actually behaved as a manager. Here's the Cliff's Notes. Someone isn't performing their duties. I talk to the manager about it in an attempt to clarify the situation and to see how I'm supposed to interact with this person. I was told not to interact with this person despite 24 hours before that I was asked to train this person as they had not been trained before. This despite the claim that this person has worked in apharmacy before. I was also berated for making the complaint and was told to leave it alone. Needless to say I am furious and not at all happy. I have sent detailed e-mails to the owners after each and every shift detailing what goes on in the pharmacy. The owners are sympathetic to my concerns and apologise each and everytime that they are on the phone to me, whether it be at the pharmacy or at home. One of the owners is coming up next week. YAY! Other good news: I have a place to stay in Perth and it's not with family. EVEN DUCKING BETTER!!!! |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 01,July,2004 | Firstly, I'm going to try use the 'Burger Theory' while writing this. Let's see how I go. *sigh* Things went terrific yesterday morning. My shift at the airport went fantastically. It was a light flight so there wasn't too much baggage. Then it was off to the high school to join up with the urlLink STARtrek Science Show team at Hedland Senior High School. I joined up with the Physics session and never had more fun building bridges from straw and then testing their structures. I had lunch with them all afterwards at the shopping centre after they bought food from where I would eat personally. ^_~ There are just some places where I simply don't reccommend. And before I knew it, I was back at the airport for my final shift. I packed an amazing amount of bags into the hold. I was surprised as to how much I could fit into the hold. I will be returning the uniforms on Saturday instead of tomorrow. Work at the pharmacy is preventing that and today I'm feeling so drained. And I'll launch into why I'm so drained. I had ealier asked my mother whether it would be okay to move back into home in Perth to finish of my university degree. She said yes which was surprising considering I did move out after the ultimatum of 'It's either your boyfriend, (now my fiancee), or family.' and this was when the relationship was long distance . No surprise what I chose. Anyhow, my mother hasn't mentioned anything of the move to my father. And she wants me to talk to my father about the move and see how he feels. Well I can already work this one out folks. My father has already said he doesn't want me in his life. He even told me that when I asked him straight out and he's even indifferent to the idea of my fiancee and I marrying. I suppose it is better than outright hostility. Anyway, I don't think my father will agree to me moving back home and even if he does, things will be made difficult. Frankly, I can do without all the hassles until after I graduate and even then I may not want to deal with it. So now I'm waiting to hear back whether I am able to stay with a friend of my fiancee's. I hear back on Saturday. I'm not too optimistic about it to be honest but we'll see how things go before I hit panic stations even if it is only nine days before I leave Hedland. I will graduate. I must. |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 11,August,2004 | The university miraculously found my payment. I live with crazy people. They go mad when the television doesn't work. Not much more else to say. |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 10,August,2004 | Just recieved a notice from uni today notifying me to pay approximately $50 of Ameneties Fees that I've already paid. Opening a can of whoop ass on Thursday. I can't do it tomorrow since it's full on with lectures and a four hour lab. I'm looking forward to the lab. I'm analysing the caffeine content in tea, coffee, decaf coffee, and a sample of a drink of my own choice. My choice is Chocolate Mint Tea, something that had the lab technician wearing the 'Oh, you're one of those students...' look on his face. :P |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 06,August,2004 | At the end of the second week of uni, (one more lecture but it's still the end of Week 2), I'm finally felling tired. I'm still as enthusiastic as I was on Day One. I've got a bit to do this weekend. Going over lectures from Week One and Two. Two lab write ups to start on for PEC249 Biomolecular Design. Discussion questions to complete for PEC340 Instrumental Analysis. One reading and a Weekly Summary for TLC277 From University to the Workplace. Guess which one is my vegie unit? ^_~ Actually, the vegie unit scares me. Not the workload or anything, but the numbers of soon to be graduates that do not have a clue as to how to get a job, some don't even know what job they would be qualified for. o_O Sure I may not be a great example when it comes to answering 'What do you think you'll be doing next year?' but I have a goal and I know how to apply for the job I want and I've done research into it. Bronwyn and Nathan go up to Geraldton today for the weekend. I get the place to myself with Brillo and the hermit crabs. Sammie is also going to Geraldton. (Sammie and Brillo are puppy dogs by the way.) I'll be spending most of my time studying. |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 01,August,2004 | I've started wedding plans. One decision a week. I've started a wedding blog as well. urlLink Fusion Wedding - Our Way Blog |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 11,August,2004 | YAY!! All can rejoice I finally asked the question!! The Best Man has bee asked and accepted happily. Boy he doesn't know what he just got himself into 8) j/k more soon |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 06,August,2004 | Well it's complicated but they have been chosen. I just don't think they're aware of what their exact titles yet. ^_~ The role of Maid of Honour goes to Bronwyn. There were a few Freudian slips from her before I even asked. It was amusing so I did let it drag on for a couple of days before officially asking her. Sure, I asked her to be bridesmaid, but she'll be Maid of Honour. She is married after all. But then Maid sounds old, so maybe Chief Bridesmaid instead. The role of Best Man goes to Tim. The only slight little problem is that someone, namely the groom-to-be hasn't gotten around to asking him. We can't see him saying no. And he'd be great to have around on the day. |
3,557,723 | female | 23 | Student | Aries | 01,August,2004 | The journey has begun. I've chosen my wedding dress. It will be red, a blending of East meets West. Sorry, no pictures until the day. (The date hasn't been set.) I'm not risking my fiancee having a look before the wedding. My best friend and I put our heads together and put ideas together resulting in the dress. Thank you chickie babe! I could not have done it without you. We went to three bridal stores yesterday. Now, we did have an idea of what to expect. It was a Saturday. We hadn't made any appointments, but these stores do not require appointments. You would think staff would be happy to help and appear to be friendly. In two of the stores, the staff either ignored us, were unhelpful or downright rude, and one particular staff member managed to do all three! urlLink Cupid's Bridal was our first stop. This is the only store that I can reccommend. It was extremely busy in this store so it was quite understandable that no one approached us instantly and we were quite happy to look around. Despite being busy, staff members who were serving other bride-to-be's found time to say hello and to offer assistance when their customers were in the changing rooms. urlLink Cupid's Bridal does Made-to-Measure. They're open to all sorts of ideas, colour, cut, style, theme because they make the dresses. Fantastic to any bride-to-be who wants a personalised dress. I will be approaching this store to see if my dress can be made by them including dressmakers. We were even allowed to look at embroidery samples and encouraged to take them and to hold them against dresses around the store. In HobNob, we did encounter one helpful and friendly staff member. Unfortunately, she was assisting with a bride-to-be. She was also open to ideas though the oriental factor did throw her a little. I do admit, it's not easy to find what I want. But she was able to show me a dress that had been done in red even though it wasn't a blending of cultures. We then went to walk around browsing. It was here that we encountered the staff member that manage to ignore us. We approached her when I found a dress that caught my eye. I was told that it was not available in red and in the same beath, she said that she wasn't sure. It would be fair that she checked though isn't it? When it was made clear that I wanted a red dress and I wasn't compromising, only then did she check with another staff member. And then when she came back to tell me that it was definitely not available in red, she proceeded to tell me that there were lots of shades of red, she could only name two, pillar box red and burgandy. Like I didn't know. I am the one looking for a red dress, and hello, I'm Chinese for crying out loud. We love red! If that was not enough, she started to ask how much I was willing to spend. I replied that I was collecting quotes to see how much I had to spend on what I wanted. Then she cut me off by saying that dresses were around the $2,000 mark. Nevermind that I want something that she obviously couldn't cater for or that I wanted something that wasn't the norm. The only way that I could possibly fathom a budget would be collecting quotes on what I liked and then adding the cost of additions needed. Unfortunately or fortunately, we did see a blue dress in the store above HobNob that had the perfect cut. Wrong colour but they can do it in red. I'll be checking whether they have any ties to HobNob before I spend a cent. I do not want any of my money going into HobNob's purse. The third store isn't even worth mentioning. They were utterly useless. They didn't do Made-to-Measure. I don't hold this against them. However, the staff were unhelpful and talked down to me as if I didn't belong in there. I can't remember the name of the store at this stage. |
3,476,464 | male | 24 | Arts | Cancer | 31,May,2004 | This is me enjoying my vacation in Chicago back in 2002. Well my favorite team in ice hockey is the Detroit Red Wings and well you see those nice blue shades, i gave it to my cousin the next year. The Michael Jordan i just gave it away hehehe. Basically im not really a very trendy person. For me what's important is person inside and not the way the person looks. 'DON'T JUDGE THE BOOK BY ITS COVER!' urlLink urlLink |
3,476,464 | male | 24 | Arts | Cancer | 31,May,2004 | Green Arrow 'You make me sick! What kind of a man are you? The whole city needs your help,not just the Nice Section!'. Hal Jordan, Green Lantern replied 'Get off your horse Oliver! I'm helping who i can, as i can order of their innocence in these fires! Those slugs downtown want to burn their homes, i'm not going to let innocent people suffer for it!'. 'You sound just like the lily-white Fat cats who've been straggling donwtown to death! They can't be left to die just because their protests got out of hand!'. Green Arrow answered while pointing an arrow towards Hal whil replying meekly and helping innocent bystanders from the inferno of the city 'You saw them Ollie! Heard what they said to me! What they accused me of! They started those fires! Started the mob violence, adn if they don't want me there--FINE!'. Shooting the sleeping gas arrow towards Hal Green Arrow answers 'You're not listening you dope!' and hal while catching the arrow and instantly blows in front of his face 'More violence! No wonder you love these people--You hypocr--Hggk!' Green Arrow now helping Hal to his knees says 'They've been trained to hate people like you and me through all the abuse this city's given them! Sorry they hurt your feelings but GET OVER IT!'. Hal replies 'They brought this on themselves. WHY SHOULD I HELP?' Now enters Tom Kamalku Green Lantern's sidekick and replies softly and directly 'Because you're GREEN LANTERN!!! Because Green Lantern would never hold a mistake against somebody who needed his help!'. Hal freezes and looks towards Tom who added 'The fires are getting worse.' Immediately Green Lantern summons his ring to make thousands of buckets and gets water over the sea to put out the fire while saying 'Not for long, they're not. Coast City will be saved today. All of it!' Well this was one of the most appealing and owe inspiring contexts i've read in the comic book LEGACY: The last Will and Testament of Hal Jordan written by Joe Kelly in 2001 published by DC comics. My tears instantly fell from my eyes the first time i read this book. I cried not because never in my life would i have the powers of Green Lantern has, but the point and somewhat the message this particular 3 page scene is giving to us was really true. Let's face it in all of us people, there is a hero in us in some ways. People tend to forget that in some ways, big or even little ways we can contribute in helping for the improvement of the lifestyle of people in these world. Giving donations, helping people with their problems, giving advices, being a good example, and many more. In short let them be inspired! We have the power, all of us! Yet somewhat I still think our world still has a long ways to go. People with power in governments instead of helping the less fortunate ones they tend to corrupt the money of the country for their own selfish needs. People resorting to violence in settling the score on some enemies. The cycle will go on and on, and until some of us realize these nistakes, we will be still where we are right now. War among ourselves and peace still very far away from our grasps. Lifestyle of poor people are still the same. And yet i still believe there is still hope. As what they say 'the only constant thing in these world is change'. Change for the better or worse? A small sample of a good change towards other people can spread like forrest fire in an instant. As long as no one relenquishes it. Well kidding aside a small thing can touch other people and hopefully it will become bigger and bigger until all of us people realize, we are a small world after all, and if improvement and peace should be given a chance we should start with ourselves helping others with the best way we can. As i said, its either you're a member of the Green Lantern Corps or not? What will it be? |
3,476,464 | male | 24 | Arts | Cancer | 01,June,2004 | Well nowadays you see in the news when you turn on your tv sets late at night, mostly their reports for the day are either violence, and some even more violence. People think that by resorting to these ways they can achieve their goals in life. But isn't this wrong? I don't know about you but if i can remember correctly when i was still a kid and watched early mornings shows like Super-Book and Flying House, aren't these signs that we may be nearing the end of the world as we may know it. War, violence, immorality, killings, nature's destructive powers, are now prevailent in our days now. Movies being made now are much more connected with the with these realities in which subconsciously is trying to bring a message to the people that if we do not change the way we live our lives right now, the end is really near. It's already knocking at our door for some time now. But still some movies and other form of media communications like tv try to show inspirational movies. Movies like recently Bruce Almighty and my favorite The Passion of the Christ. These movies try to give us a positive message that there is still hope of mankind and that God is always there for us, its up to us if we will embrace Him with open arms or not. After having said that i would like to go to the message i want to point out to all of us. Basically right now, the movie industry are making a lot of investments on superhero movies. Comic book characters are being made to life in films. Their popularity have really risen above any expectation and the comic book medium has even been popular to a lot of people. Young and old alike. What i'm trying to point here is that admist all the violence and sufferings that is happening in our world, people try to look up on icons, someone they want to believe in, someone who could give them hope in their lives, their superheroes. And what better superhero is there than the real people depicted in the bible. Jesus Christ the true superhero. Our God Almighty. Its just a vague suggestion but its a way better alternative to the violent and adult related storyline we have in our comics today. Great writers and artists should give this a little chance. Make an on going series making the bible stories in our modern day comics. It will be a sight for sore eyes for avid fans who likes the art of pencillers like Jim Lee, Mark Silvestri, Alex Ross to name a few, and the writings of Jeph Loeb, Stan Lee, and Brian Michael Bendis for that matter. It can be successful if made the right way plus its a good way to give the people the chance to discover the Holy teachings of God in the Holy Bible. Well its kinda weird having these ideas but its worth a try. Any kind medium to just and make a difference in this world is a good thing for me. |
3,476,464 | male | 24 | Arts | Cancer | 01,June,2004 | Grass Valley, Sacramento. April of 2003. Well i was here because i helped my newly found friend in San Francisco, which was my original destination, to locate her hospital she was planning to work someday. This was the first time i went to the States all alone, i mean i stayed in California for days in a hotel all by myself until i met my nursing friend 5 days after. Had also a great time sight seeing and discovering the beauty of the place, and more importantly having the greatest freedom of all for the very first time. Wooohoooo!!!!! urlLink urlLink |
3,476,464 | male | 24 | Arts | Cancer | 01,June,2004 | This is me having a diner in Boston Lobster Feast in Orlando Florida with my uncle back in 2002. I had the best time back there, well kinda having been to Universal Studio for the first time, having seen Marvel Comic book attractions back there and many others. I'm kinda dark skinned in the picture because sad to say i was walking all day long for 3 days i stayed there under the scorching heat of the sun. Well it was worth the effort, i did lose a couple of pounds. urlLink urlLink |
3,476,464 | male | 24 | Arts | Cancer | 01,June,2004 | Well basically i'm a part time local comic book writer, and having read some and collecting comic books from popular foreign comic book publishing like Marvel, DC and Image i somewhat came up with my very own, up to my own knowledge of the subject matter, unique storylines for some popular comic book superhero characters. First of all is the Dark Knight himself, BATMAN. Well if you are reading his line of comics, me well i have a collection of trade paper back comics of his, you may encounter storylines like him having broken his back and left for suspended animation for sometime but eventually came back a year after when sales of his comics went down dramatically when the storyline was about the new BATMAN he appointed to take his place. Another storyline is that of having a virus plague Gotham City. Then there was rebuilding the whole Gotham city after it went to ruins when it had an earthquake. Then BATMAN, aka Bruce Wayne became a fugitive when he was framed for the murder of his girlfriend. Another was that a long time friend of his became one his dealiest enemy. All this storylines was already been made and they have all the same conclusion, BATMAN always won in the end and he was still, basically all his life, a very rich person. My own unique storyline is that what if the Wayne enterpises went bankrupt and eventually Bruce had to give up all his belongings and even to the point of stopping from doing his job as BATMAN because of lack of funds. Wouldn't it be a walk in the park for the villains? I know there are a lot of flaws in these but still its a good concept. Next is that of the Fantastic Four, one of my favorite comic books. My unique storyline here is that, well we all now that the heart and soul of the FF team is Reed Richards. The genius behind all the machineries they. Their leader, the Plasticman of Marvel comics. His wife Susan Richards, aka Invisible Woman. Her brother Johnny Storm, aka Human Torch, and finally Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, the rock hard solid behemoth of the team comprises the whole Fantastic Four. Well i just gave a brief description of their team, some of them i need not to describe as with their names you could already know their abilities. Now here's my concept what if Reed Richards went insane because of a successful plot by Dr. Doom, their arch enemy, against him. Who would lead the team to victory and who would eventually defeat Dr. Doom if your leader is already useless and a big hindrance to your team? Ah well i did say some, well about 2 concepts but the point here is how did i come up with this concepts? Well for beginners let's just say place your frame of mind in a way of having ideas in 'The WHAT IF SCENARIOS?'. You get what i mean folks? Basically its coming up with plots or storylines with the what if this thing or that thing happens concepts. Like what if Captain America never believed anymore in the American dream, to the point he is now killing people and is working for the mob? In short he becomes a villian? Another one is what if Jean Grey married another X-man besides her two lovers wolverine and Cyclops, let's say Iceman? What you think will happen to the whole team and what will be their reaction? What if the New Green Lantern had the choice to leave behind his duty being a Guardian forever to save the life of his girlfriend and the countless people of New York? These simple plot lines are the starting points for all people, beginners in the genre of comic book storytelling. I know its easy at start but wait until you submit your concepts to the editor, that's where the fireworks start coming. Trust me, at first you should accept every mistake you made and all the advices they tell you to refurnish your storyline. Eventually after a couple of returns and edits, hopefully you'll get the right concepts and the storylines editors would like to have for that character. Try and try until you succeed. That's a good motto for me, it really works to tell you frankly. |
3,476,464 | male | 24 | Arts | Cancer | 01,June,2004 | The title of this article says it all. My whole life has been a combination of ups and downs. Basically all of us people have this same kind of feeling. Not a soul in this world could have not felt this kind of life before, and if ever the person says he or she hasn't it's obvious their lying! Trials and obstacles always come in our lives and it depends on us how we can handle them. Whether you be a rich or poor person, handsome or ugly, these things will eventually come and disturb us with our everday life. I was once a medicine student. Well one thing is for sure that i could say to you, and this is a fact, if you don't like what you are doing, you'll never ever be successful in it because your heart wasn't into it. Your dreams are not in it. For me, my med school years where both the best and worst part of my life. The best because i had the chance for the first time in life to live away from home. To have my own time and to do whatever i wanted to do. And basically because i was somewhat forced to take up medicine by my parents it's kinda obvious what i did back then. Absences were very frequent and going out in malls, night bars and casino was very often. I would sometimes go back to my dorm with the sun already shining. And to think i still passed my tests and still made it to second year. God really works in mysterious ways. But still time catches up with you, let's say in context the law of averages will eventually come into place. My lifestyle at first was really bad and well basically i had given up trying to pass some subjects and well i just gave up. Kinda bad because i failed my parents, it was the first time in all my life i failed to acomplish something. It was really one of the worst part of my life. The dark days was already coming... And yet i didn't give up. My friend there who is now a junior intern once told me, 'Jun always remember not all the time we are on top of the world, sometimes the worst things comes into play. Always remember that its not how many times you fall down, its how many times you get up.' So i was there beside him remembering those exact words, 2 years later am already starting my master's degree in arts, and hopefully with the help and support from my friends, relatives, loved ones and God, i can finish this course and become a successful comic book writer in the future. Follow your dream, as long as your happy with what your doing, you'll do fine. My friend was right with those sayings. So as a conclusion, its really up to us to what will happen when trials and obstacles come into our lives. Its like what the basketball analyst once said, the ball is round sometimes your on top, sometimes your down. Wouldn't you agree? |
3,476,464 | male | 24 | Arts | Cancer | 01,June,2004 | As was having a conversation with my gf yesterday about the great empires that have ruled and controlled many countries during their time. Well its kinda obvious right now who are the dominating nations ruling us, the US and UK. We may call them the anglo-american powers. But comparing them to the previous world powers namely Egypt, Persia, Babylonia, Greece and Rome to name a few, basically they still have a long way to go when it comes to the time of rule they have in our world. But enough about that, what really was the focus of our conversation was that 'What if we had the power to change time, well having a time machine what period of time would you like to be in?'. First and foremost my gf is a very religious person and me somewhat having been a sacristan in our church for quite sometime right now. So my first answer was that if its my choice i'd rather go back in time, to the time of Jesus and somewhat bring a stop to His crucifixion. Basically for me having the time machine is like having the chance and the ability to go back from time to time not only by yourself, hey why not bring the whole artillary. Hehehe....kinda weird but i do like things to go my way, and if its going my way, its got to be the easiest way. And in having to try to accomplish my first goal to stop Jesus from dying, i would have to conquer the world power during his time which is Rome. And having the right machinery, personnel and artillery well basically i could be king in that nation in no time. Jesus would have been saved and everybody happy. Easy isn't it? But remember what's written in the Bible has already been foretold and should happen said my gf so the scary thing that will happen there is that even though i maybe the King during that time, wouldn't Jesus approach me and tell me right in front of my face 'I know who you are, I know where you came from. You are not from this time. And you know what is the thing for you to do...' I told you i'm somewhat of a religious person and having thought of that i had goosebumps all over my body. So the next thing i did was change the timeline. Hmmmm....the best timeline should be the time after the whole bible was written. That's the best for me so that what's written in the Holy Book should be as it is. So end of story i will rule during that time, but....it went also to my mind, i have the time machine, why waste time in conquering only a single time period where you can rule for the rest of your life. How is that? Well for me it's kinda tricky but fun though. i would rule only for a year during that time i'll assign a designated person to rule in my absence and i will fast forward to a couple hundred years to see my progress. i can go back any time i want so long as there is consistency in my rule and so to check if my hired servant is doing his job. I may age a year or two but still for the people during the times i conquer i maybe considered a living legend. An immortal. Nice isn't but we should snap back to reality and remember that tampering with time will cause a great disturbance in future generations and in the first place we may never in all possible ways have the ability to make a time machine. And if ever hopefully it wouldn't be the end of the world. So for now it's really nice to sit back, relax think for a moment and ask yourself that same question, 'Of i had the time machine what time period would i have conquered?' |
3,545,538 | female | 17 | indUnk | Sagittarius | 04,June,2004 | **~So I am totally new here..everybody seemed to get one of these thingies so I decided to try it out too.So yeah..well lets start off with a little on me and who I am.~** I was born on December 7, of the year 1986, in El Paso, Texas...that city close to the border. I used to live in Juarez, Mexico though until the age of like nine then I moved to my so called no-town..Chaparral, NM. Yep don't be amazed if you dont know where it is. I didn't even know it exsisted until when I moved there. I used to hate it. I used to hate it with a passion. Living in the city and going to a desert was totally weird. Very weird. I thought I would never get used to it! how could they not hive a little store a block away!! Then I started a new school and made friends easy. Thats when I thought it wasn't that bad. I made so many friends..they were so open and so not conceited. I had come from a private school into a public one and it was two different worlds. They didn't care what I was wearing, or what brand my tennis shoes and school supplies were. They liked me for who I was, and they didn't expect me to make some awesome party or anything like it. i was there for about hmm...let me remember two years..then it was back to the private school I had now learned to dislike. I had to wake up at around 6 in the morning to drive (well my mom!) all the way to that stupid school! I how much I disliked it! It realy was horrible. one of those years I wish I could just get out of my memory. Everybody was so fake and backstabbing. It was like if I was living in a typical blonde girl movie. The thing was that they were all Hispanic!!! SOOO that year ended then back again to a public school. I was back on track with all my old friends and OH it was the best year of my non-High School days! It was just awesome! I was so excited that the next year I was going to HS. Wow HS, and with all my friends and buddies I had learned to love! But NOO!! My parents made the horrible decision of going to another private school. And that one I disliked even more. I was like the only Mexican in like a High School (weird since El Paso is like, about 75% Hispanic) that consisted of 25 people. Scary..they all thought they were superior to me. But I didn't let my guard down..I always kept going. Then relief came as I entered the HS I had been longing for.. Gadsden High. It was awesome..my old old friends and a huge school! With Mexicans! Yippie! It was the best three years ever! And that, brings me here..I am now official High School graduate. I graduated on May 14th..and so I enjoy these beautiful vacations which I think wil be the best vacations ever..or so I think. **Note** Graduation was about three weeks ago and I am now in Dallas, TX visiting my sister..hmm... best vacations ever eh? |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 31,October,2002 | Halloween. The second most commercialized 'holiday' of the year. People crawl out from under everything to get dressed up. I never really understood it. Which is why I'm going out this year as a cynical and curmudgeonly system administrator who dreams of telling his users to stick it in their PCI slot. (If you're not a sys admin, trust me; that one's a hoot.) Then there's my friend, Eric. He's an interesting guy. For very complex values of interesting. We worked together for a while at a network operations center. Eric was midnights, I was day side. We didn't see much of each other when we first started working there and he got some bad advice about me implying I wasn't someone he wanted to associate with. Ironically, the person he got the advice from was actually someone that no one wants to associate with. Anyway, Eric and I discovered we had all sorts of interesting aspects of life and personality in common and have become pretty good friends. Anyway, he made a comment with a vaguely boogerish tone to me today on ICQ that I wanted to share: Eric (2:29 PM) : It's all green and slimey and at body temperature, waiting for you. Eric is gaining a reputation for being quoted in blogs, it would appear. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 18,October,2002 | Well... This sucks. I had a nice long post talking about how I liked how the page looked and about color-blindess all finished. Then, when I went to publish it, I got a database error. I suppose that you get what you pay for. I'm really not complaining yet. I'm a professional geek and I know that glitches happen. But on the second try??? Bleah. I'll try to remember to copy the new blog entry to the clipboard before posting it so if the system burps again, it's just a matter of pasting. No work wasted. Maybe I'll try again after lunch. Wendy's again. Bacon Jr. Cheeseburger with mayo, mustard, and extra pickles; five piece chicken nuggets, BBQ sauce; chili; XL Diet Pepsi. $4.52. Maybe the cute girl with the sad and pretty eyes will be working today. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 18,October,2002 | So I wanted to see what this whole blog thing was about. I decided to read a random sampling of 10 or 12 blogs from this and other sites. Of the ones I read, I decided that I could do one that would be at least as entertaining as about half and better spellchecked than perhaps 80%. I don't guarantee that I'll spell everything right each time or be absolutely grammatically correct, either. In fact I write in a very conversational tone which frequently lends itself to grammatic license, so there ya go. I'm most likely doing this the way nearly everyone does at first: I give a justification for doing what I'm doing, tell how I'm going to do it, and then get into the conversations. Call me a sheep. But I'm a self-aware sheep. I don't really know how often I'll post. I suppose, as with anything new and shiny, I'll use it frequently at first and then taper off as time goes on and the novelty wears off. Especially if I realize it's more work than I thought it would be. I'm a lazy person by nature, so the simpler something is, the more likely I am to use it. The irony is not lost on me that I'm a systems administrator who deals with computers of all shapes, sizes, flavors, and complexity all day long. But maybe that's why I like simpler things in life outside of work. I'm gonna stop now and post this, just to see what it looks like. A lot like taking a look at those boogers before we flick them away. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 13,November,2002 | I promise my next entry will have nothing to do with boogers or poop. It was purely coincidence. Honest. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 13,November,2002 | Did you ever stop to wonder how much bodily waste you produce in a lifetime? I did. And, it turns out, I produce a lot. I'll bet you do, too. Just think about poop for a second (yes, I know 'poop' is an infantile term but think about the person who's writing this, as well as the reasons for doing so.). Anyway, poop. How many times to you poop in a year? I go about once a day, on average. I don't know how close this comes to a standard sampling of mostly healthy Americans, since the people that I've polled look at me really funny and back away quickly. Anyway, say I miss a few days here and there and go twice in a day here and there. I'm gonna guess it averages out to about 300 times per year. Also because 300 is a nice round number, as opposed to 283. So we have porcelain contemplation about 300 times. Let's think about a lifetime. I'm 37 years old. I know that when I was a baby I was a pooping machine. I probably skewed the number per year right out the window from 0 - 2, and then got into a sort of toddler/youth routine. I won't hazard a guess as to frequency, though. So we'll say that I started my (approximately) 300 times per year pooping routine at about age 18. So I've been 'in the habit' for 19 years now, so far. I'd hope that I'll maintain my regularity for quite a long time more but, just for the sake of convenience, we'll say 40 years, until 58. After that, it'll be Metamucil and oat bran time for me. 40 years, 300 times per year. 12,000 times. That's a lot of contemplation. As a side note, even with a minimal stay of five minutes, that's 1,000 hours on the pot!! Now we have to figure out weight. Very difficult, as it's always so variable. But I got a precious few guesses ranging from one half to one full pound per. So we'll split the difference and say 12 ounces or three-quarters of a pound. When we grind that through the calculator, we arrive at a figure of 9,000 pounds of poop in 40 years. 4.5 tons. Amazing when you think about it, eh? There's also the pee. But I can't even get into that one right now. Plus, pee is way more variable than poop. There's also the toilet paper. There's a lot of that going through the sewers, too. The ancient Romans used to use a sponge. Middle eastern peoples used their left hand (which helps to propogate the stigma of leftys). But 4.5 tons of poop in 40 years. I can only imagine the totals if I live to 80. And people laughed at me when I said I was gonna start writing in a blog. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 18,December,2002 | More than a month since the last entry. I'm not one of those 'I need to update hourly so I can tell people about what I had for lunch' people. I write when I feel like it and, I suppose, I feel like it. Much has happened and a little is new. I took a 5,000 mile road trip to Phoenix and back all by my lonesome and I liked it. I'd do it again in a minute, with about as much advance planning as I'd done this time. Which was very little. I left on 23 November in my nice rented Dodge Intrepid and set out west. I chose the southern route as I wanted to go through Oklahoma City. A friend, Jon Mills, is a grad student at Oklahoma U in Norman, just outside of OKC. If I could make it there I had a free floor to sleep on. So in the course of a single day, I put nearly 1,100 miles on me in 19 hours or so of driving. I don't recommend it unless you're either insane or are stubborn or are really cheap. You get to decide which two out of three I am. Got to OKC about midnight local time and pretty much collapsed. It was a floor to sleep on, sure. But it was possibly the softest floor I've ever had the pleasure of collapsing on to. Got up the next day and treated Jon to his first Waffle House experience. I'm a big fan of 'em and firmly believe that people should really eat there once in their lives. The food is good, pretty cheap, and the people watching is superb. Left OKC and headed west again, down Oklahoma and into the Texas panhandle. Let me just say here that Oklahoma City is as different a place as I could have imagined. Trees and grass everywhere, very standard midwestern architecture. Texas is exactly what I thought it would be like. A lot of open scrub land without much of anything between gas stations. The roads are well maintained and traffic was pretty light. They just needed to improve the speed limit. 65 is just too slow down there. I pegged the cruise at about 73 or so and settled back and listened to the CD and watched the world go by. I stopped for a late lunch in Moriarty, Texas, at a McDonald's. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 25,April,2003 | Wow... This is so much fun I haven't entered anything in months; since last year, in fact. Which doesn't seem like all that long ago. Yet, I suppose, it is. I don't know if I can even remember everything that happened on my trip but I did promise myself that I'd write it all out. So here I'll try to finish some more. Moriarty, Texas is a small town on the map of Texas in the panhandle. Texas' panhandle goes north and south, rather than east and west like Oklahoma's. I've always thought of it as more the upright of the piano but I don't think that sounds quite as ummm... manly as 'panhandle'. Funny thing here. I just looked up Moriarty, Texas on MapQuest and find that there apparently is no such place. There's a Moriarty in New Mexico, but I'm almost positive I stopped for lunch in Texas. Damn. It must be a destruction of short term memory, since I thought I'd stopped in Texas when I last wrote here, two weeks after I got home. Anyway, wherever it was I stopped, there was a McDonald's. I ordered my lunch, which I remember was a Big Mac. I was jonesin' for a Big Mac for some reason and kept driving until I saw a Mickey's on my side of the highway which was quite a while as most of them were on the other (north) side. So I'm standing there, waiting for my Mac to be made (no onions, light lettuce), when in walks what I can only describe as being 'trailer trash' personified. She was wearing a thin babydoll tanktop that showed way too much of her middle. While not fat, really, she certainly had enough extra that the part not covered by cloth was coming out for a peek around. She was also richly tattooed around her chest and arms and upper back. There were probably more but I was trying to keep my brain from imagining those possibilities by digging my fingernails into my palms. She had the quintissential 'skank' look all around. She walked into the McDonald's clutching a greasy McDonald's bag and asked to see the manager. When the manager (a nice girl, young and, like most young women in that part of the country, married) come up to find out what was wrong, urlLink Lydia (my name for her) shoved the paper bag into the manager's face andsaidthatherorderfromlastnightwasallwrongandthey- didn'teatitandshecalledthestorelastnightandthemanager- theresaidshecouldcomeinandgethermoneybackandshesaved- thefoodincasetheydidn'tbelieveherandshedidn'thavea- recieptandshewantedhermoneyback. Just about like that, too. The manager looked dumbfounded and I can't say as I blame her. So she went in back and was looking through the manager's log for any mention of this. She was being a conscientious person and trying to make sure that the store wasn't getting ripped off. Now me, having had a long and storied career at McDonald's, would have just given her a refund for what was in the bag just so she'd leave. But that's why I'm not a McDonald's employee anymore. By this time I'd been served and I picked a seat which would allow me the best view of Lydia as well as keep me a decent distance from her in case she decided that she was gonna start something which would call for the local law enforcement. So I sat back and watched while the manager went and looked in the log for a note which explained what was going on. Apparently she couldn't find such a note and was unsuccessful in getting hold of the manager from the previous night. Again, in my book, this is going above and beyond the call and I would have definately done whatever it took to get her out of my store. But the manager was not to be fooled. She continued to try to find out what was going on. Maybe she had knowledge that I did not regarding Lydia and her boyfriend, who was waiting in their car. Amazingly, I finished my lunch before this whole ordeal was closed. If I hadn't been in a hurry to get back on the road again I might had stuck around to see what transpired. As I left the store, the manager was on the phone and Lydia looked.... well.... zoned out. I'll leave you, Gentle Reader, to draw your own conclusions as this was what I was forced to do. Outside, I saw her male companion. I'm not sure what his role in this drama was but he was apparently content to sit in the car and smoke and listen to the radio while Lydia fought the good fight inside. For all I know, they're still there, making argument and counter argument about what to do while the food, the bag, and the counter they're sitting on all become one unified mass which will eventually possess sentience. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 30,August,2003 | Cool. I never know what to think of these sorts of things, but this seems to be fairly on the money for me. I got it from here: urlLink Mind Media Brain Persuasion Test Your Brain Usage Profile Auditory : 40% Visual : 60% Left : 52% Right : 47% Bob, you exhibit an even balance between left- and right- hemisphere dominance and a slight preference for visual over auditory processing. With a score this balanced, it is likely that you would have slightly different results each time you complete this self-assessment quiz. You are a well-rounded person, distinctly individualistic and artistic, an active and multidimensional learner. At the same time, you are logical and disciplined, can operate well within an organization, and are sensitive towards others without losing objectivity. You are organized and goal-directed. Although a 'thinking' individual, you 'take in' entire situations readily and can act on intuition. You sometimes tend to vacillate in your learning styles. Learning might take you longer than someone of equal intellect, but you will tend to be more thorough and retain the material longer than those other individuals. You will alternate between logic and impulse. This vacillation will not normally be intentional or deliberate, so you may experience anxiety in situations where you are not certain which aspect of yourself will be called on. With a slight preference for visual processing, you tend to be encompassing in your perceptions, process along multidimensional paths and be active in your attacking of situations or learning. Overall, you should feel content with your life and yourself. You are, perhaps, a little too critical of yourself -- and of others -- while maintaining an 'openness' which tempers that tendency. Indecisiveness is a problem and your creativity may not be in keeping with your potential. Being a pragmatist, you downplay this aspect of yourself and focus on the more immediate, obvious and the more functional |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 26,August,2003 | Damn... I've gotta post more. Even Eric has a blog. But he calls it his Livejournal. I'm still better looking than he. And I can almost name the presidents in order. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 29,September,2003 | So I've promised Greer that I'll write to her more often. Heather has unintentionally lit a fire under my butt, having written something only slightly shorter than urlLink The Fountainhead . I, however, am going to content myself with sending her postcards for the moment. And the URL to this blog. Hi Greer. :) |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 27,September,2003 | My little niece, McKenzie Jane Maxwell, was born yesterday, Friday, September 26, 2003. She's 8 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches long. And has black hair. And is a very cute little girl. I'm very happy. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 25,September,2003 | This is from my friend Heather. It's a commentary about technology that I think hits the nail on the head: Most people: 'this is not working, I will call someone to fix it.' me and You: 'This is not working. Why? What if I tried this? Maybe if i do this? Let me see if the help menu can help me. Let me check out the support page on the web. Ok. Now I'm stumped. Where's the phone?' I blame dependency on technology. We're taught to use a calculator, but not how to add or subtract. We're taught how to use our computers, but not how they operate. We don't need to know these things, because somewhere out there a computer or machine can do it for us. Heather is perceptive. And she rocks. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 23,September,2003 | Monday Night Football The game was a bust, the Raiders were getting their butts handed them on a platter. It was 31-10 when I left part way into the fourth. Didn't really have much at stake in the game since I don't really follow either team. I like Jerry Rice, though, so I always hope for a good game for him. He wasn't being used to his potential tonight, unfortunately. Gannon looked like a high school QB out there too at times. I'm not quite sure how they made it to the Superbowl but they really started falling apart during that game and I think it's continued. Next week is Green Bay vs. Chicago. The Bay has fallen on some hard times this season. Brett isn't as strong as he used to be. They're opening the 'new' Soldier Field, too. I drove by it when it was nearly done about six months ago. It's hideous. They just bascially kept the outside walls of the old Soldier Field and built a new stadium inside. That's all fine and good except there's no cohesiveness to bind the two together. It just looks like.... well.... they built a new football stadium inside an old one and forgot to take the walls down. The good thing is that it's a classic matchup of two old NFL teams. They're part of the Black and Blue Division, which Detroit is also in. They tend to play a much more agressive style of football and they have a long rivalry extending back 70 or so years. Plus, they both sort of suck so the matchup will be a little more even. I'll predict Green Bay takes this one. GB 28 - Chi 17. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 19,September,2003 | There are times I just can't figure out how the hell bands come up with names..... 'Dude... what would be a good name for a band?' 'Well... it's a metal band... we'd better have the name 'Dead' in there somewhere.' 'Yeahhhh.... and, like, we've got soul, so we should put that in!!' 'Duuuuuude... this is some gooood shit!! Where did you get it??' 'Cut it out.... we're naming the band!.... What else?' 'Well... we're, like, primitive and shit.... Like on Survivor, where that guy ran around naked.' 'Yeah, they have two tribes... So we should be a tribe, cause we'd kick their ASS totally!!!' 'Dude... This is some REAL good weed!! Stop bogarting my bong!!' 'Dude!! Shut up and listen!!' 'How about 'Tribe of Dead Souls'?' 'Excellent!!' ***** cut to next day ***** 'Dude... I was soooooo stoned last night!!' 'Yeah, we could tell... But only until we got high, too!' 'Yeah... what did we decide on the name of the band?? You guys remember?' 'There was 'Dead' in the title... and I think 'Soul'... and, what, 'Survivor'?' 'No, man... 'Tribe'!! That was mine!! Rock on!!' 'Yeah... 'Dead Soul Tribe'.... That must have been it.' 'Dudes!! We rock!!' 'We're gonna be bigger than Lionel Ritchie!!' 'Dude... you need more weed!!' Thus is named the Dead Soul Tribe. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 16,September,2003 | So tired. Stupid Monday Night Football. Why does it have to start at 9pm?? Why can't it start at 8pm? That hour would make a world of difference. I know they want to have it start late so the West-Coasties have time to get home/to the bar after work. Would it be so hard to have it on a one hour tape delay, though? I mean, they did it for the Olympics, and it's likely that the people watching the game wouldn't cheat. But even if they did cheat, so what? That's their problem. Yep. One hour tape delay to the west coast. Let the 2/3 of the American population who doesn't live there get to bed at a reasonable hour. Last night's game went into OT (A shitty team like the Cowgirls forcing OT. Imagine.) and it was already a longish game. I didn't leave Mitch's place until a little after 1am. I got home, checked my email -- I'm obsessive that way, and went to bed at 1:30. Then got up at 6am. Nope. Not tired at all. Not me. If ABC would dictate that these games start at 8pm EST, I would have been in bed at 12:30. That extra hour can make all of the difference. To top it off, the damn Cowgirls won it. WITHOUT A SINGLE TOUCHDOWN. *SEVEN* damn field goals. What kind of a team only makes field goals?? The Cowgirls do, I guess. OK, I'm done now. I need coffee. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 11,September,2003 | You must like to spank or be spanked, because your romance is remeniscent of Secretary. A truly modern love story, it shows that you don't need to be conventional to be normal. You're probably the type that owns a whole lot more leather than what's upholstering your car or sofa. Yeah, you know what I mean. urlLink What Romance Movie Best Represents Your Love Life? brought to you by urlLink Quizilla I'll let you draw your own conclusions. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 10,September,2003 | urlLink Edward Teller Left Mark on Science, Society (washingtonpost.com) An amazing man who was a brilliant mind, too. I think he is best summed up in the following: In Teller's autobiography 'Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics,' Teller said he was often asked whether he regretted having worked on the atomic and hydrogen bombs. 'My answer is no. I deeply regret the deaths and injuries that resulted from the atomic bombings, but my best explanation of why I do not regret working on weapons is a question: What if we hadn't?' |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 10,September,2003 | I've decided that I'm going to be buying my CDs used now. eBay has a lot of them, all for the perusal online. I just bought three Queensryche CDs for a total of $11, including shipping. Less than $4 each. And still the RIAA doesn't get a penny from me. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 15,October,2003 | Last night. The Eagles. One word. Awesome. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 14,October,2003 | I snagged this quiz from a friend's Live Journal: Your soul is bound to the Ninth Totem, Titan: The Bear . Titan appears as an umber colored bear. He embodies strength, might, flair, and power . He is associated with the color umber, the season of autumn, and the element of earth. His downfall is overbearance. You are most compatible with Cockroaches and Snakes. urlLink Which Animal Spirit Totem Are You? brought to you by urlLink Quizilla |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 09,October,2003 | Mental note: Remember your password when you change it. Otherwise the pucker factor goes WAY up. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 09,October,2003 | The building I work in his three elevators. It's seven floors total, but you enter on the third and fourth floors. I take the elevator when I'm going more than one flight up. I take the stairs if I'm going one flight down. Many times, I take the stairs down all the way. I have a problem going up because of bad knees and back. I can do it if I have to and sometimes I do, when I'm feeling good. Or masochistic. I can't figure out people who take elevators up just one floor. They will wait, literally, for minutes. Two or three at times when the elevators are busy. (Oh, forgot to mention that one or two are usually broken at any one time) When the elevator comes, they'll get on, push the button for the floor above and stand there smugly while everyone else on the 'vator stares holes through their skull and dreams about giving them an express ride to the pavement. I do understand that, because it's a little confusing about how this building is laid out, people might get on the elevator thinking they're on the second or third floor and they want to go to the fourth or fifth. Then, when the elevator goes up only one floor, they realize their mistake. That's cool... I've made similar errors. I harbor them no ill will. It's the people who do it all the time. Who are just there, waiting, because it was easier than going to the stairwell and using their legs. Exercise. What a concept. People drive 600 yards to work. People drive a quarter of a mile to go to a gym so they can walk a mile on a treadmill. I suppose there will be a time when people will ride their urlLink Segway down the hall to wait for the elevator to go up -- or down -- a flight to the next floor. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 03,October,2003 | keep in mind that you can't find your life if you're being consumed by it. Told ya. She rocks. And is insightful. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 02,October,2003 | urlLink broadband � Speed Interpretation Sweet... Crapcast finally did something right. I'm getting 3103 kbps to Los Angeles! The upload sucks, at 177, but I don't care. It's the download that rocks well. 3 Mbps... I'm in the big time! |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 02,October,2003 | Jeanelle is coming in today from Florida. I haven't seen her for nearly a year. It's pretty weird, too. I mean, we still talk on the phone several times a week, even nearly daily at times (800 numbers are nice) but we haven't seen each other for a year. She tells me she's dropped weight; I've dropped about 30 pounds in the last 4 months or so. It'll be interesting. Then there's the whole divorce thing to add to the weirdness. I know it has to be done but it isn't really something I'm looking forward to. The paperwork is easy enough, since there's no contention between us over property and no kids. It's just a matter of signing papers. Tragic. We're taking Michael to Cedar Point on Saturday and on Sunday we're going to go to Hillsdale to Jimmy's house and have a birthday party for him. I'm getting him the new Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004. Funny thing about it -- it's advertised as a 'Centennial of Flight' edition, yet is MFS 2004. The urlLink centennial of flight is December 17, 2003. I suppose it's nitpicking but people today are so unaware of history as it is that I like to see it correctly represented. Cedar Point should be interesting, since it's only supposed to get up to 55 on Saturday and Michael doesn't tolerate cold all that well... He's going to be a skinny popsicle when we finish up. Yup. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 26,November,2003 | I found a site which details the last meals requested by the condemned in Texas: urlLink http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/finalmeals.htm Which prompted an email exchange between jen and I. (I'll spare the details here) But it did cause us to ponder what our last requests for gastronomic delights would be. I thought you might like to read them: jen: i'd have fettucini alfredo with grilled chicken, pine nuts, and mushrooms; garden salad with balsamic vinagrette dressing; fried scallops and clams and ketchup; grilled salmon; potato skins with bacon and sour cream; mozzarella cheese sticks; vanilla ice cream with hershey's syrup; and faygo red pop. Mine: Prime rib, medium rare, 20 oz., with mushrooms Greak Lakes trout, broiled in lemon butter Garlic and cheese mashed potatoes with butter Sweet corn on the cob Homemade pumpernickel and white bread Chocolate malt with extra malt Coke Raspberry cheesecake with a raspberry sauce Double scoop chocolate sundae with marshmallow topping |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 21,November,2003 | Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz! |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 21,November,2003 | I got to see Greer on Tuesday, which was a great and wonderful thing since she's been in Togo since last June. She came here, as opposed to me going to Togo. It worked out better that way. Heather and I met her for dinner at Chili's to catch up on what life is like in a poor west African nation. It turns out that we've got it pretty good here. No killing our own chickens for dinner, flush toilets, reliable electricity, no geckos or scorpions in bed, and flush toilets. (I know I mentioned them twice... but, man!! Flush toilets!!) Anyway, there was much good chatting and catching up and a huge amount of apologizing over not mailing her. I need to do better and I realize that but, as I said to Greer, my life is one long boring cycle. Wake up, convince myself to get out of bed, take a shower, go to work, fix computers, come home, watch TV, go to bed. The cycle continues in a regular Monday through Friday schedule. The weekends have a little more variants, in that I don't work but I do watch football. (And when you're a Lions fan, watching football is work. Anyway, Heather -- who also has a blog urlLink here and I agreed that we would regularly send our blog entries to Greer. Regular readers of my blog (all two of you) will note that I mentioned I was sending her the link to this page for her to read. Turns out that there's a lot of Internet blocking in the world and this site apparently is so blocked. Or to could be because the Togolese don't like the word 'Booger'. Hopefully Greer will have one more free evening to get together before she goes home (on the Friday after Thanksgiving) and we'll have a chance to chat a little more. I've missed her. She's a great person with an outstanding sense of humor. But she'll be back by next August, only to go back to Michigan Tech to finish her thesis work. But having her in the same state will be a Good Thing. I'm also more likely to drive to MTU than to go to Africa. They're getting flush toilets at MTU sooner. :) |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 19,November,2003 | urlLink I got a Final Score of: 53.65 It said I had a -30% penalty for being a yuppie. Which I'm not. So I did better than that score reflects. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 12,November,2003 | 'If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.' - Thoreau I need to: 1) advance 2) be confident 3) have dreams and 4) imagine having a life Maybe that will help. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 06,November,2003 | I found a car.... Go me! 1994 Crown Victoria, dark forest green is what they call it. I call it dark blue. But that's the life of a color-blind person. Got a good price on it; they knocked $900 off the sticker because it's probably going to need transmission work at some point in the near future. But beyond that, it's a very nice car. It's at the transmission shop right now (Haas Transmission, in Dexter. Recommended, of course, by Steve Steeb) getting a transmission flush and fluid treatment. Once I get that taken care of, I'll get an alignment -- it steers just a tiny bit to the right -- and there's a star in the windshield that needs patching. Then I'll treat myself to an early Christmas present and have a decent stereo put in with a CD. Having the truck with it's CD has spoiled me a little. Speaking of the truck, I still have it. Tomorrow I'll have had it for three weeks. I'm keeping it until they tell me to give it back. The car is paid for so the money I'll get for the Taurus isn't really an issue. Plus it won't be an inconvenience to be without a car while I'm getting mine worked on. The only drawback is the gas cost... That truck sucks it down like there's no freakin' tomorrow. I don't know how people can afford to drive them. Speaking of which, the tranny shop called... it's fixed and the shudder is gone. (For now. :) |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 03,November,2003 | Much has happened, all of it seeming a blur at times... But we'll go over things one at a time. Eagles Concert 10/14: Like I said, it was awesome. Joe Walsh is a nut, but in a good way. There were a LOT of songs from the solo works of all of the group but I think Joe had more. Which is not a bad thing. His version of 'Life's Been Good to Me' was cool. The death of the Taurus 10/16: I was working late, preparing for a presentation to a group of kids on the mythology of the constellations. Coming home on Ford Rd. around 11:45, I saw a guy coming at me flashing his lights. He was in an SUV so I was slightly below his hood which made the brights that much brighter. Anyway, I was trying to figure out why he was flashing his lights at me when I saw the deer in the middle of the road. There was at least one buck and one or two others, though I couldn't tell how many. I didn't have but a second to react. I managed to not hit the deer on the front which would have certainly killed him and possibly hurt me if he flipped into the car or caused the airbags to go off. I hit him on a glancing blow to the front fender of the car. His chest broke the mirror and his antlers shattered the window. I spun him around and his hind dented the rear door. I went into the ditch, where I must have hit something that broke the radiator on the bottom since that all leaked out and steamed everywhere. I thought for a minute the car was on fire. Not a good feeling!! So I got to make my first insurance claim ever. 22 years of being a licensed driver. The good thing was that I got rental insurance a year or so ago, so I have a nice 2003 Dakota Quadcab coutesy of AAA. They haven't told me how much they're going to give me for it. I have 30 days of rental coverage on it, so they'll have to do something by Thursday the 13th of November. I'm not too impressed with their quality of service. The search for a new car 10/17 - 11/??: I've found many cars, mostly Tauruses (Taurii?), Crown Victorias, and Grand Marquis, all reasonably low mileage, for around $5000. This plays well into my plans for a fairly cheap car which will get me around for a few years at least while I get a house. Right now the front runner is a Crown Vic from Stu Evans Lincoln Mercury which is beautiful in all ways. But. It might need a new transmission. Which is not a Good Thing�. It's being checked by my mechanic and transmission guy today. They'll decide for me what the final answer is. Shopping for cars is fun when you DON'T need one. Thanksgiving 11/27: I have football to look forward to. Sis is making dinner for me and I'll go there and eat and watch TV and be lonely. Bleah. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 25,December,2003 | Rather than rant about the crass over-commercialization of Chirstmas or lament those of us who might be lonely this season, I'll just say this: Peace on Earth, goodwill towards Man everywhere . To the troops and my fellow veterans, I also say: Thank you. urlLink Of The Troops, For the Troops . urlLink This we'll Defend . urlLink Uno Ab Alto (One over all) . urlLink Non sibi sed patriae (Not for self, but country) . urlLink Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful) . urlLink Semper Paratus (Always Ready) . |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 12,December,2003 | I recently talked about the last meals requested by inmates in the Texas Penal System. It seems that the website I found which gave the information is being removed because of public outcry. I say bullshit. That's just TOO 'PC'. These are simple PUBLIC RECORDS the state of Texas lists. The article I read even mentions that this is the #1 question asked of the officals there. Makes me wonder how many people really did complain. Grr. It disturbs me that this sort of information, which is something a lot of people are curious about, is being made difficult to find out just because a few people find it disturbing. (Fortunately, they will still give you the details if you contact them and ask because, after all, this is public record.) Here's a news flash, people: If you're offended by something, don't look at it. From Robert Mapelthorpe's urlLink Piss Christ to urlLink swaskitas which appear in Microsoft fonts derived from Japanese font sets, where the symbol is associated with luck. If it offends, don't look. We cannot censor that which makes us uncomfortable. We cannot pretend history doesn't exist. If that happens, we become nothing more than a contemporary urlLink Stalinistic state which eliminates that and those who we find offensive and unpallatable. The swastika, in it's context, can be a symbol of evil or luck. Let us teach the difference between them. By the way, if you want the list of last meals, I copped it from Google's cache. Get it now before it expires or email me. Link to the right. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 10,December,2003 | From the same site which gave the Presidential matches, I found which religious belief system best matches mine: According to the SelectSmart.com Belief System Selector, my #1 belief match is Neo-Pagan. What do you believe? Visit SelectSmart.com/RELIGION |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 09,December,2003 | Gimli Gloin's son If I were a character in The Return of the King , I would be Gimli, a Dwarf and handy with an axe when orcs are about. In the movie, I am played by John Rhys-Davies . Who would you be? The Return of the King Test with Perseus Web Survey Software 7 days till the U.S. premiere! |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 09,December,2003 | 1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%) 2. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (66%) 3. Kucinich, Rep. Dennis, OH - Democrat (59%) 4. Libertarian Candidate (56%) 5. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (55%) 6. Clark, Retired General Wesley K., AR - Democrat (52%) 7. Gephardt, Rep. Dick, MO - Democrat (50%) 8. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (46%) 9. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (42%) 10. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (33%) 11. Bush, President George W. - Republican (32%) 12. Lieberman, Senator Joe, CT - Democrat (31%) 13. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol, IL - Democrat (27%) 14. Phillips, Howard - Constitution (19%) Go here to take the quiz and see your choices: urlLink SelectSmart.com 2004 Presidential Candidate Selector I was a little disappointed to see my personal preference, Wesley Clark, at #6. But discounting my ideal candidate and the Libertarian candidate as very unlikely possibilities, Wes moves up to #4. Taking out Dean as the likely candidate for President, Wes moves up to #3 behind Edwards and Kucinich. That leaves him on the short list for VP, which is a good thing. A Dean/Clark ticket would get my vote any day. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 02,December,2003 | YOU ARE: Falling Water - Bear Run, PA - You think sex is very special and should be performed on specific occasions. When you do get laid, you are ALWAYS in sync with your partner. urlLink Which Frank Lloyd Wright architectural design are you? brought to you by urlLink Quizilla |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 02,December,2003 | I encourage everyone to go and provide a can of soup to those who are in need. You can do it from your computer by visiting the urlLink Chunky website . Click on your favorite team (the Lions, of course) and Campbell's Soup will donate a can to charity. They'll donate 5,000,000 cans of soup in the end. This, of course, is just a gimmick and a fun game. I was happy to see the Lions are 14th out of 32 teams, with 63,487 cans/votes. The Green Bay Packers are in total domination, having garnered nearly 400,000 cans/votes. I guess if it can't be my beloved and maligned Lions, it should be the Pack. So go vote for the Lions!! Now!! |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 02,December,2003 | This came across one of the lists I'm on and I've saved it for a long time. Though this is actually a piece of prose and not a legal document, it still touches upon a lot of the things that people should think about in their lives beyond the material. An article discussing the history of the 'will' can be found urlLink here . The Will of Charles Lounsberry Made While He was in the Asylum at Dunning I, Charles Lounsberry, being of sound and disposing mind and memory, do hereby make and publish this, my last will and testament in order, as justly as may be, to distribute my interests in the world among succeeding men. That part of my interest, which is known in law and recognized in the sheep-bound volumes as my property, being inconsiderable and none account, I make no disposition in this, my will. My right to live, being but a life estate, is not at my disposal, but these things excepted, all else in the world I now proceed to devise and bequeath. ITEM: I give to good fathers and mothers in trust for their children all good little words of praise and encouragement, and all quaint pet names and endearments, and I charge said parents to use them justly, as the needs of their children shall require. ITEM: I leave to children inclusively, but only for the term of their childhood, all and every, the flowers of the field, and the blossoms of the woods, with the right to play among them freely according to the customs of children warning them at the same time against thistles and thorns. And I devise to children the banks and brooks and the golden sands beneath the water thereof, and the odors of the willows, that dip therein and the white clouds that float high over the giant trees. And I leave to children the long, long days, to be merry in, in a thousand ways, and the night, and the moon, and the train of the Milky Way to wonder at, but subject, nevertheless, to the rights hereinafter given to Lovers. ITEM: I devise to boys all the usual, idle fields and commons where ball may be played; all pleasant waters where one may swim; all snow-clad hills where one may coast; and all streams and ponds where one may fish, or where, when grim winter comes, one may skate, to have and to hold these same for the period of their boyhood. And all meadows, with the clover blossoms and butterflies thereof; the woods with their appurtenances, the squirrels and the birds and echoes and strange noises, and all distant places which my be visited, together with the adventures there found. And I give to said boys each his own place at the fireside at night, with all the pictures that may be seen in the burning wood, to enjoy without let or hindrance, and without any encumbrance or care. ITEM: To lovers, I devise their imaginary world with whatever that may need, as the stars of the sky, the red roses by the wall, the bloom of the hawthorn, the sweet strains of music and aught else they may desire to figure to each other the lastingness and beauty of their love. ITEM: To young men, jointly, I devise and bequeath all boisterous, inspiring sports of rivalry, and I give them the disdain of weakness and undaunted confidence in their own strength. Though they are rude, I leave to them the power to make lasting friendships, and of possessing companions and to them exclusively, I give all merry songs and brave choruses to sing with lusty voices. ITEM: And to those who are no longer children, or youths, or lovers, I leave memory, and I bequeath to them the volume of the poems of Burns and Shakespeare and of other poems, if there be others to the end that they may live the old days over again, freely and fully without title or diminution. ITEM: To our loved ones with snowy crowns, I bequeath the happiness of old age, the love and gratitude of their children until they fall asleep. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 01,December,2003 | Nicked, as usual, from my friend celtie. urlLink urlLink Which Historical Lunatic Are You ? urlLink From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey. You are Nicola Tesla, inventor of the Tesla Coil! A minister's son from Simljan in Austria-Hungary, you were precocious from an early age. At three you could multiply three-digit numbers in your head and calculate how many seconds visitors to your home had lived. In awe of your older brother Dane, you shot a pea-shooter at his horse, causing it to throw him and inflict injuries from which he later died. This tragedy haunted you ever after. You frequently suffered bouts of illness with hallucinations throughout your life. During one affliction of cholera, you encountered the writing of Mark Twain, with whom you were later to be close friends. Later, another, this time mystery, illness inexplicably heightened your senses to a painful extent, only relenting when you hit upon the idea of the alternating current motor. You developed an aversion to human contact, particularly involving hair, and a fear of pearls; when one would-be lover kissed you, you ran away in agony. Later, you insisted that any repeated actions in your day-to-day life had to be divisible by three, or, better yet, twenty-seven. You would, for example, continue walking until you had executed the required number of footsteps. You refused to eat anything until you had calculated its exact volume. Saltine crackers were a favourite for their uniformity in this respect. In the midst of important work, you forgot trivial details such as eating, sleeping or, on one memorable occasion, who you were. Your inventions, always eccentric, began on a suitably bizarre note. The first was a frog-catching device that was so successful, and hence so emulated by your fellow children, that local frogs were almost eradicated. You also created a turbine powered by gluing sixteen May bugs to a tiny windmill. The insects panicked and flapped their wings furiously, powering the contraption for hours on end. This worked admirably until a small child came along and ate all the creatures alive, after which you never again touched another insect. Prompted by dreams of attaining the then-ridiculed goal of achieving an alternating-current motor, you went to America in the hope of teaming up with Thomas Edison. Edison snubbed you, but promised fifty thousand dollars if you could improve his own direct-current motor by 20% efficiency. You succeeded. Edison did not pay up. It was not long until you created an AC motor by yourself. Now successful, you set up a small laboratory, with a few assistants and almost no written records whatsoever. Despite it being destroyed by fire, you invented the Tesla Coil, impressing even the least astute observer with man-made lightning and lights lit seemingly by magic. Moving to Colorado Springs, you created a machine capable of sending ten million volts into the Earth's surface, which even while being started up caused lightning to shoot from fire hydrants and sparks to singe feet through shoes all over the town. When calibrated to be in tune with the planet's resonance, it created what is still the largest man-made electrical surge ever, an arc over 130 feet long. Unfortunately, it set the local power plant aflame. You returned to New York, incidentally toying with the nascent idea of something eerily like today's internet. Although the wealthiest man in America withdrew funding for a larger, more powerful resonator in short order, it did not stop you announcing the ability to split the world in two. You grew ever more diverse in your inventions: remote-controlled boats and submarines, bladeless turbines, and, finally, a death ray. While whether the ray ever existed is still doubtful, it is said that you notified the Peary polar expedition to report anything strange in the tundra, and turned on the ray. First, nothing happened; then it disintegrated an owl; finally, reports reached you of the mysterious Tunguska explosion, upon which news you dismantled the apparatus immediately. An offer during WWII to recreate it was, thankfully, never acted upon by then-President Wilson. Turning to other matters, you investigated the forerunner of radar, to widespread derision. Your inventions grew stranger. One oscillator caused earthquakes in Manhattan. You adapted this for medical purposes, claiming various health benefits for your devices. You found they let you work for days without sleep; Mark Twain enjoyed the experience until the sudden onset of diarrhoea. You claimed to receive signals in quasi-Morse Code from Mars, explored the initial stages of quantum physics; proposed a 'wall of light', using carefully-calibrated electromagnetic radiation, that would allegedly enable teleportation, anti-gravity airships and time travel; and proposed a basic design for a machine for photographing thoughts. You died aged 87 in New York, sharing an apartment with the flock of pigeons who were by then your only friends. Ridiculed throughout your life (Superman fought the evil Dr. Tesla in 1940s comics), you were posthumously declared the father of the fluorescent bulb, the vacuum tube amplifier and the X-ray machine, and the Supreme Court named you as the legal inventor of the radio in place of Marconi. Wardenclyffe, the tower once housing your death ray, was dynamited several times to stop it falling into the hands of spies. It was strangely hard to topple, and even then could not be broken up. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 01,December,2003 | You are 57% geek You are a geek. Good for you! Considering the endless complexity of the universe, as well as whatever discipline you happen to be most interested in, you'll never be bored as long as you have a good book store, a net connection, and thousands of dollars worth of expensive equipment. Assuming you're a technical geek, you'll be able to afford it, too. If you're not a technical geek, you're geek enough to mate with a technical geek and thereby get the needed dough. Dating tip : Don't date a geek of the same persuasion as you. You'll constantly try to out-geek the other. urlLink Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com celtie found it, I stole it. She's only 38% geek. She keeps her geekness in check, which is probably a good thing, since she has the capacity, should she decide, to WAY outgeek me. And that's a compliment. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 29,January,2004 | This is a pretty cool site... allows you to enter the states you've visited and it generates a map of them: urlLink create your own visited states map I plucked it from urlLink Eric's blog , over on LJ. My criteria for 'visiting' a state is, 1) Sleep in it. 2) Drive the long axis of it. I've never stayed overnight in Georgia but I've driven the long length of it four times on my way to and from two visits to Florida. Likewise Nebraska. I haven't spent much time in Iowa, except to drive the width and stay in Des Moines overnight. But these all qualify. Setting aside those rules, add Arkansas, Mississippi, West Virginia (driven through part of and no overnights) and New York (for the 1981 International Band Festival but we stayed in Niagara Falls, Canada) for all of the states I've set a physical foot in. No new states immediately on the horizon; though if Jen decides to go to urlLink grad school in California (San Diego) :( , I'll be the one driving the van there and back. So much for my vow to never go to southern California. I'm considering a four day weekend at some point, to go to the U.P. so I might zip into Minnesota for a little recon which may or may not end up counting, depending on what we find there. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 23,January,2004 | I'd forgotten that I had started reading urlLink The Victors , also by Dr. Ambrose. It's the story of Eisenhower and the Allied commanders during WW II. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 21,January,2004 | John Walker was one of the founders of AutoDesk, makers of the industry-standard AutoCad program. He's retired now, having made a boatload of money, and spends his time living leisurely. He has a most excellent web space set up and it's unusual in that it's more infomative than flashy. You can see the urlLink home page here . He's got just boatloads of cool content there. He's really into astronomy and put together an amazing guide on weight loss. He also has a reading list urlLink here . The purpose of this post is to focus on this section. This man reads a lot . I went through his list and added six or seven books to my urlLink Amazon Wish List . (Feel free to buy me something from it. :) If you do, and you go there from John's reading list, he'll get a little bonus money. Spread the wealth if you can. Anyway I thought this would be a good place to list books that I'm reading. I certainly won't have the quantity of John's list; he has seven listed for January and it isn't even the end of the month! I likely won't have the quality, either, since I still have childish and purulent interests aside from my intellectual and scholarly ones. Daddy always said to keep your interests broad! :) I just checked out Stephen Ambrose's urlLink Nothing Like it in the World from the library. I'm a huge Ambrose fan and definately looking forward to reading it. It's the story of the building of the transcontinental railroad as told in Ambrose fashion. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 19,January,2004 | Sometimes its hard to ponder life without trying to get all deeply philosophical and self-analytical. I come from a very small family. That's one of the drawbacks to having parents who are older from the start. When I was born, mom was nearly 40 and dad was nearly 50. All of my grandparents were born in the ninteenth century. My mom was an only child and my dad had one brother. In a time where many children was the norm, I end up in a family who are the poster children for the urlLink Negative Population Growth society. My parents produced three children: me, Jim, and Sue. Jim died in 1986 without any kids. I'm 38 and still kidless (of my own; I still consider Michael my son even though Jeanelle and I are divorced). Sue has kept the genetic fires burning with Mitchell and McKenzie. From my earliest memories, I was told how it was up to me to keep the Topping name alive. My dad's brother only had a daughter and my great uncle Arthur never had any children of his own. There was a chance that my brother would get married and have kids but because of his medical problems it was unlikely. That left me as the 'man'. The carrier of The Name. No pressure, either, right? Right. Anyway, so I start out in life with little doubt that I'd have kids eventually. I was a slow starter in the marriage biz but I was still in my early thirties and my wife was still in her early thirties and she had a son from a previous marriage, so it shouldn't be a problem, right? Right. Suddenly I find myself in a position I didn't plan on: Being in my late thirties and kidless and wifeless. So now I think about the possibility of not having kids. And it gnaws at me. Continually. I WANT kids. I WANT to be a dad. It isn't even about carrying on the name, though that's a nice bonus as I'm very proud of who I am and of my history. But I don't have kids and I don't know if I will. I'm not getting any younger and I don't find many 25 year old women wanting to throw themselves at a man who's closer to middle age than to college age. I've had two offers, one quite serious, from friends who are willing to be a surrogate mom for me to help me be a dad. Obviously it's a possibility but I would first very much love to try to have kids (and a family) in the more traditional way. Lest ye think this is one of those angst-ridden 'oh, woe is me' posts, it isn't. It's just that I'm suddenly wondering what I'll do if I don't get to do the thing I've been planning on doing for most of my life. There's also a certain loneliness factor there, too, like just totally ending up alone but I don't really think that'll happen. I have too many friends. Man, that muse returned with a vengeance!! |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 19,January,2004 | It's a couple days later now. My inspirational cup isn't exactly running over with noteworthy thought but it isn't bleak and desolate for now. Maybe my muse finally tired of Mai Tais and Yahtzee and is back at work, albeit hung over. One thing that's kind of worrying me about going back to school is the actual school part of it. I've taken a couple of classes urlLink here and there since my days of urlLink Master's work at EMU but they were fluff classes without much depth. I'll have to actually produce thoughtful insight on a regular basis and that kind of worries me. I mean, I can spew drivel all day with the best of 'em but to be meaningful requires actual thought and actual effort. The application to MSU requires a writing sample and I've been trying to figure out what the best form of writing would be. Poetry is right out. I don't think a fictional piece would be well-received either, unless it had something to do with popular culture. That pretty much leaves standard non-fiction research. They're also vague (read: nonexistant) with guidelines for length of said research. In fact, this is the extent of their instruction about this particular task: One writing sample is required from each applicant. This sample should document your writing and thinking skills, but it does not necessarily have to be an 'academic' paper. Not much there. I have time to figure it out, though. I know the Ph.D. will be worth it but there's a lot of hassle. I mean, expecting me to think!!! I wonder if I could get away with a blank paper with the single phrase, urlLink Cogito ergo Sum , on it. I mean, it shows I think and that I can be succinct with my writing and still get the point across. The drawback is that it also shows I plagarize. They might be a little chuffy about that part. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 19,January,2004 | Didja ever have one of those days where you wanted to write, where you felt like you needed to write, but when you sit down to do just that, nothing comes out? My mind is a painting right now: 'Polar Bear in a Blizzard'. It's just that blank. Blanker than normal. Sometimes at least it has pretty colors and random pictures. Not today. Just pure white. Bleah. The muse who was upon me to write has kicked me in the ass, laughing, while she goes off to the bar for Mai Tais and Yahtzee. Maybe later, then. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 15,January,2004 | 'Cause I thought it was cool. Compassion: You are there to share your sympathy with others. People would consider you affectionate and caring, and someone to look up to. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 14,January,2004 | I have a routine. When I get in my car after work, I switch the radio over to 1600 from its normal spot at WWJ-950. The afternoon drive guy there, Ken Kelly, is pretty funny with a dry and sarcastic wit. He also weaves in some amusing bits of trivia and wry insight on life in general. In other words, he's a lot like me. I've talked to him three or four times, too, when I've called in and he seems like a pretty good guy on top of it. On Monday, I tuned in as is my habit, only to find some wacky talk radio show on. It was curious, since usually when Ken is off they put in a swing/big-band music show. I thought it was odd that they would put in a talk radio show instead. So, because I'm a curious sort, I called the station and asked if Ken was off sick today. I was informed that he no longer worked for the station and they would be replacing his show. I was so surprised by this that I was only able to stammer out that I was very unhappy with this and I hope they were keeping track of the callers. The girl who answered the phone said they were indeed and I was, by no means, the only upset caller. So I ran across urlLink this article today as well as urlLink this one which explain what happened. In the latter article, Catherine Kalman, the former general manager of the station who was fired at the same time, said she 'hoped the station would retain a community focus'. Since the station is now owned by a Dallas, Texas based broadcast company I don't have much hope for that. It sounds like Catherine feels the same way. WAAM was Ann Arbor's last widely listened to and independently-owned radio station. Three others, WWWW (formerly WIQB) 102.9, WQKL 107.1, and WTKA 1050, are owned by mega-corporation urlLink ClearChannel . ClearChannel is continuously (and for the most part rightly, IMHO) being urlLink criticized for supressing programming that is original and innovative and dictating strictly what gets played and what doesn't.. That's not very condusive to being independent and giving a lot of freedom to your personalities. I liked WAAM because of thier independence. Whitehall Broadcasting was an Ann Arbor company. To the best of my knowledge, they only owned WAAM (since 1983) and the personalities there had tremendous loyalty to the company and the owners. Ken was there for 15 years and Ted Heusel has been on Ann Arbor radio for 53 years. He had only a one-hour show, from 11am to noon but it was still interesting. Ted hasn't been fired, really, but he's been offered a one hour show on Saturdays which seems kind of a slap in the face. I'm trying to find an email address for Ken to let him know how much I enjoyed his show and how outraged I am at his being let go. WAAM may be trying to change their format but I won't know about it. I no longer listen to them. If they hire Ken back, I'll listen again. |
942,103 | male | 38 | Technology | Virgo | 12,January,2004 | I thought that all of the urlLink Mid-American Conference schools had reciprocity agreements about tuition. Or at least the Michigan and Ohio schools did. urlLink Eastern does; if you're an Ohioan, you pay urlLink Michigan resident rates to go to EMU. Well that's cool, thinks I. I can go to urlLink Bowling Green and enroll in their urlLink Popular Culture program which is nationally known and highly respected. But boy -- was I wrong . Turns out it isn't every MAC school, just the ones who want to do it. And BGSU doesn't, apparently. So the urlLink per credit hour cost of $776 for graduate credits translates to nearly more than $4700 per semester . Nearly $10,000 per year. I just ain't a-gonna pay that kind of coin. I can't afford it right now. But there is hope yet. urlLink Michigan State University has a very good program in urlLink American cultural studies . I didn't really delve deeply into it since I thought, 'Hey, Big Ten school, Big Ten prices!' but I was a little mistaken there. Big Ten school, not-so-bad prices. I can go there for a much lower cost than BGSU. The urlLink basic cost per credit hour is only $291. According to their nifty urlLink budget calculator , I can take 6 credits at MSU for only $2,150. Much more in-line with my financial ability. And, hey, a Big Ten school in my home state with my alma mater's colors. Synergy. I can deal with it. Now to do some research on the application process. GRE, here I come. |
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