'Well thanks for waiting this long to show yourself...'

Well I just got back from a six day vacation in San Diego yesterday. Had an excellent time while I was there. Most of the time there we just relaxed by the pool, but we took a little time out to drive around a bit and took some pictures which you can see here. We stayed at Matt's uncle's house in Rancho Sante Fe, which is just north of San Diego, and is a really high-dollar area as far as mortgage rates go. Matt and Ketti were watching it for him for a few weeks while he was on vacation in Europe with his family.

Going to watch Wall-E this morning with Daniel and Alicia and their kids. After that, hang out at Dennis, and sleep. No plans for the weekend just yet, but I should find out today if I have a date this weekend or not. It was Mike's birthday yesterday, so we'll probably celebrate that this weekend as well. Have no clue what to get him... Tami's birthday was on Tuesday, and I'll give her her gifts tomorrow.

It's Sam's last day at work tonight. I'm going to miss her quite a bit. She's been an awesome friend the last year or so since I transferred to conversions, and helped me get through some really rough times. She's going to be an elementary teacher, and I wish her all the best in her new career.

'I see your picture, I smell your skin, on the empty pillow next to mine...'

The last couple weekends have been excellent. The weekend before last I went out with some friends Saturday night to celebrate a co-workers (Shawn) birthday. He'd rented a limo to take everyone to the club and we were there until about midnight when we drove to Mill Ave., which is kind of the hotspot of downtown Tempe where the streets are lined with bars, restaurants, and shops. We were going to go to a place called The Cherry Lounge, but just as we were about to get in, Shawn, who'd had a little to drink that night, walked directly into a pole, and the bouncers wouldn't let us into the bar. After going to another bar we headed home. The next day my friend Ian flew in from California to watch the Seahawks/Cardinals game. I'd bought tickets for Ian, Dennis, and myself, and Ian brought an extra Seahawks jersey for me to wear. In the end the Cardinals won by a single field goal in the last 5 seconds of the game.

This last Saturday was my 26th birthday, and Stacy decided to invite a bunch of my friends to have dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Scottsdale called Benihana. The restaurant has you sit around a table which is also a giant skillet, where the chef cooks your food right in front of you, while also providing entertainment in the process through tricks, jokes, etc. There were 11 of us at a single table, and we barely fit. Most of the menu included seafood, which overall I'm not a fan of, but I still ended up eating some sushi and shrimp.

Daniel and Alicia ended up buying me one of the 'mugs' that were available for purchase. The mug is white, and in the shape of a crouching ninja (pic here). Your supposed to pour liquid in through a hole in his back, and drink through a straw placed in the sword scabbard hole at the top of his shoulder. Other gifts include tickets to see Static-X from DJ & Melissa, tickets to see Chevelle from Tami, cologne from Dennis & Nicole, some shirts and a gift card to F.Y.E. from Angi, and Stacy ended up paying for dinner for both myself and Niickiey, which was considerably generous of her, especially considering that the food at Benihana is by no means low priced, and the fact that she'd already given me DVDs of Resident Evil 1&2 the weekend before (which also contained a movie ticket to see #3).

Pictures from Benihana

Pictures from the Seahawks vs. Cardinals game

'I'm holding on a rope, got me ten feet off the ground...'

Wow, these entries are getting few and far between. Well I've been doing really well the last couple weeks. Money's starting to trickle back into the bank thanks to a month and a half of working without a day off, until this last weekend, where I was mere hours away from losing my virginity when I decided not to go (completely) through with it, and instead to wait until I was sure I had a meaningful relationship with someone, whether it ends up being the girl I'm seeing now, or someone else later on down the road. More than one person has criticized me for making this decision but I think when it comes down to it, it's the right one for me.

But enough about that. Last Saturday I went to Dennis' youngest son's 7th birthday party. Had a great time swimming, eating pizza, and hanging out. Then on Sunday I went to the zoo with Stacy, and her friend Ally ended up coming as well, to my surprise. I never wrote about Ally, but she was at Stacy's birthday party last June, and long story short, she was quite attractive and I mentioned to Stacy later on that she should hook us up.

So anyways, when I heard she was coming I was pretty excited about it, but things didn't quite turn out the way I would've liked at all. To me, the day turned out fairly horrible as far as making an impression. I was tired from having worked the previous night; it was hot and humid as hell, even at 8:00 in the morning; I barely said a word the entire time we were walking around the zoo; and a lot of little things, that, to my constantly over-analyzing mind, just made the day seem to get worse as time went by. After we'd left the zoo, I was riding back with Stacy and told her all of this and she said she thought things went just fine, and they probably were, I just tend to stress out too much sometimes.

Here are the pics. Many of them didn't turn out as well as I'd like. I think this is mostly because I only brought my short lens, and most of the animals were a good distance away.

Got my vacation approved for this holiday season. I'll be flying up to Washington on November 16th, along with Mike who finally decided to come up with me. We'll be staying a couple days at my brothers, then the three of us will rent a car and drive to Montana on the 19th for Thanksgiving with my parents and other family members. Then we'll head back to Seattle on the 25th, and Mike will fly back to Phoenix the next day. I'm going to stay for another two weeks to celebrate my brother's 24th birthday on the 5th, and fly back to Phoenix on the 10th. All in all it comes down to 3.5 weeks of vacation, which is the longest I'll have been out of Arizona since I moved here 7 years ago, so I'm really looking forward to it because I hate this f'ing state.

No plans for this weekend just yet other than a Diamondbacks game, which I'm still not even 100% sure I'll be attending. Probably be signing up to work the weekend again.

'And be a simple, kind of man. Be something, you love and understand...'

Well, I've finally reached my 100th blog entry. The first entry was nearly a year and a half ago, and my life has changed quite a bit since then. Not like "I'm a new man" kind of changed or anything, but it's certainly not the same, thanks to a new job, new friends, and all the things that come with them. I've actually been kind of slacking on the entries lately, due to a few reasons I won't discuss, otherwise I would've written blogs about them

Hopefully more things will change in the future. I plan on moving at the end of March. Not out of state or anything, just to a new apartment. It'll definitely be something bigger than my current 450sq ft box I live in at the moment, and hopefully with a garage, and laundry machines. I'm also seriously going to try and get rid of my debt this year. I've already been in Arizona for over six years, and the need to get back to school is really in my head lately, but I can't do it without getting rid of the debt I'm in, so I don't have to constantly work overtime to pay for school.

Anyways, this weekend was a good one, I can definitely say that much. Dennis' daughter had her 2nd birthday party on Saturday at Peter Piper Pizza. After that I went to dinner at Garcia's with Stacy, which included Fried Ice Cream, which is the shit. Not quite as good as Oaxaca's in Sedona, but good nonetheless. After dinner we hit up Harkins and saw "Children of Men", which was excellent. Definitely a unique theme for a movie.

Sunday I hung out with Dennis and his family as they went shopping at Wal-mart, and Arizona Mills. I'd originally signed up to work that night, but nobody ever told me that they would need me, which turned out great because Tami had free tickets to the Trapt/Shinedown concert at Westgate Center. Trapt wasn't very good at all, but I didn't really expect them to be. I enjoyed the stuff that I'd heard on the radio, but after downloading their CD, I wasn't impressed with the rest of it, and the concert wasn't any better. Shinedown, on the other hand, made up for Trapt's lacking performance, and then some. I'd probably pay to see Shinedown again.

This was actually my 2nd time seeing them, as they played the Godsmack show last September as well, but they made a much bigger impression on me this time around. Especially loved the songs "Shed Some Light", and "Simple Man", which is actually a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover, and where the title of this blog comes from. I've always had a soft spot for acoustic stuff though, especially when it's from bands that are normally accustomed to playing harder music, like Shinedown and Staind. It's a nice break in the albums from all the hate music

After the concert Tami, her cousins, friends, and myself, headed over to Six Shooters to get drinks and play some pool. Had a great time there, but they closed around 1, so we headed over to the Metro Sports bar to hang out a little while longer. Ended up getting home around 2:30 in the morning, and didn't feel like sleeping, so after browsing the net for a bit, I popped in "The Beach", which I've probably mentioned before is a great movie. Didn't quite get through all of it before going to sleep around 5 though.

Going over to Dennis' later today for a barbecue, and to watch Ohio State kick the shit out of Florida. Sometimes I wonder why I don't follow football... I love the sport. I guess I already have too many hobbies to try and keep track of another one, especially one that has so many people and stats to keep track of.

Edit: Well... the game didn't quite go the way we wanted it... That was a great first touchdown though Ohio! Way to stay #1

'Theres only one sure way to bring the giant down...'

Well, after a string of great weekends, this one tops them all. Starting with Saturday, I go to arguably the best concert I've been to yet, consisting of downright perfect performances by Shinedown, Rob Zombie, and Godsmack. Dennis, DJ, and Dennis' cousin came with me, and Tami came separately with friends and cousins. We all had pit tickets. There's no better way to go to a concert than to be in the pit. Before the concert itself, I wasn't real excited about Rob Zombie, but I've got to hand it to them, they played a kick ass show, even throwing in some 'old school' White Zombie shit that the crowd went crazy for. Before the show I'd even told Dennis that there was no way they were going to play anything from White Zombie. Guess I have to eat my words on that. During the song "More Human than Human" they brought out a giant 'robot' on stage that danced around on stage and tried to attack the band members as they played. That's got to be the coolest stage prop I've ever seen. After Rob Zombie came Godsmack who kept ripping out kick ass songs, one after the other, and nearing the end, Sully rode out on a 2nd drum set, complete with bongo drums, and he and drummer Tommy Stewart played a kick ass drum solo (duo?) while the remote controlled platforms would move around on the stage.

After the concert we were supposed to go to Macayos down the street to hang out with friends, some who went to the concert, and others who were going to show up. Sort of for my birthday I guess, but I just wanted to hang out, so I wouldn't have to go home. So we dropped off Dennis' cousin, and then went back to Dennis' place to pick up my car. Dennis said he wasn't going to go. I figured it was because he had work in the morning, and/or just because it would be a bunch of people from work, who he didn't really know. I'd originally planned on going home real quick to change clothes, but we were already running kind of late (it was already 11:30pm) and we still had to pick up Daniel and Alicia from their place. They were going to ride with us so they could drink, and not have to worry about driving home. Besides, the temperature at the concert had been really cool, so I wasn't really sweating at all. So me and DJ got in the car and headed over there. They actually only live a couple miles from my place. When we pulled up, Alicia said to park the car. I asked her how long we were going to be here and she says all night, and laughs. So I'm like, whatever, and park the car, get out, and follow her toward the house. Daniel's standing out in the front yard, along with Nicola and a couple people I didn't know (Daniel's Uncle and Aunt). I didn't know why Nicola was there, but figured she was just waiting there until we all headed down to Macayos, and would follow us.

So I walk in the house, and Angi's sitting there at the table with a friend, and Alicia turns and explains to me that they're throwing a party for me, which apparently was the plan all along. Nobody was waiting at Macayos. Angi had brought Taquitos, and there was chips and nacho stuff, soda, and their fridge was packed with alcohol. I was in a bit of a shock at first. I'd never have guessed this was going to happen. They'd kept it a very good secret. DJ said he thought I might have known, and was just playing around at first, but when I said I didn't even know we were supposed to "pick up" Daniel and Alicia, he knew I didn't have a clue. Tami and her friends took a while to get there. I guess they'd waited at the concert until everyone had pretty much cleared out of the parking lot, and then got lost on the way to Alicia's house. A few more people showed up, including Yvette, Shawn, and Lisa. I kind of wish I'd known about it, just so I could invite friends that weren't related to work, but then there'd be no surprise.

Everyone was talking for a long while, and then around 1:30 or so, I was sitting by myself, as I'd been on my feet for the last 6 hours, and Lisa came over and asked me if I wanted to join the party in the other room. I complained that the party kept moving, but she grabbed my arm and dragged me to the living room where most everyone was sitting and had me sit down in a chair against the wall. Then out of the corner of my eye, I see a bunch of people in the hallway, and I look over and theres a girl in a police uniform, and I realize what's going on. So she comes out and asks who's birthday it is, and everyone points at me. So she comes over and sits on my lap facing me, takes off the uniform, and the next hour is filled with an innumerable amount of lapdances and 'games', most of them for me, but she also gave other people dances as well. People kept giving me bills for more dances, Tami in particular, who was the one that ordered the dancer in the first place. She was damn good looking. No complaints from me at all. Apparently Tami had actually picked someone else, but for whatever reason they'd sent this girl. At one point Tami yelled "Just wait until you get married!", so if your reading this (and I know you will), I'm going to hold you to that! =P.

After she'd left, Tami was telling me how nobody was sure if I'd be cool with getting a stripper for my birthday. They thought I might walk out or something. I told them I'm not sure why. I'd been to a strip club before, it just wasn't my thing because you drop tons of money just to see naked chicks tease the shit out of you. It just doesn't seem like a worthwhile way to spend my money. Every once in a while is fine, but some people go f'ing crazy, going to strip clubs every other weekend or more. They also thought I might be uncomfortable with it, since it was around a bunch of people I knew, but I was actually much more comfortable in that situation than at a strip club.

DJ had to be home by 3am, and most everyone else left by 4. I went home and tried to sleep, but since I'd slept right before the concert, I wasn't very tired, and ended up waking up around 7 or 8 in the morning. Daniel and Alicia had invited me over to watch football at their place, so I headed over there around 11am. I had softball at 4, so Alicia and I left her place and picked up DJ on the way. We lost both games this time =( . I still ended up scoring a run, although I was running for someone else. After the game, I went home and took a shower before Stacy came and picked me up to go to dinner for my birthday. We went to The Cheesecake Factory and had a great time talking about various stuff. I told her about the party, and about my brother, who's thinking of moving to Hawaii next year. After that, she wanted to go play pool, so we decided to go to Six Shooters. She called her boyfriend; who, until that moment, I wasn't even aware of; to see if he could come, but he was about to go to sleep. So we started driving to Six Shooters, which was some ways away, but on the way there, she decided she just wanted to go home. She said she was feeling kind of sick, but for whatever reason I didn't really believe her, but I didn't say anything about it.

So I took her back to my place, which is where her car was at. We'd taken my car because her tags were expired. I opened her gift, which was a Blockbuster movie pass, microwave popcorn, sprite, and candy, which was pretty cool, cause I love movies. I have a monthly rental subscription pass at Blockbuster, but I told her I could still use it to buy some movies. I also not too fond of popcorn, because it's pretty much all I ate the first six months after moving to Arizona (that and ramen noodles), but I didn't mention anything about it, cause it's hardly a big deal. So then she left. It was around 10:00. The weekend supervisor had called me the night before about working this weekend, but obviously I wasn't going to work Saturday night, and I didn't really feel like going in Sunday night, as I'd been up since 7am already. I might start working again next weekend though. I could really use the money, especially with Christmas right around the corner, the IRS breathing down my back, and the PS3 / Wii launch in November. GameStop is starting to take pre-orders for the PS3 the first week of October as well, so I need to get in on that ASAP.

So, that ends this weekend. Most of the pics from the party are NSFW, so I can't post them here, but there were a couple that I could, including this one below. The quality's pretty shitty, as it came from a photo sharing site (I wasn't able to take many pictures with my own camera). I'm hoping to get the higher quality originals later though. I didn't take any pictures at the concert either. I did get some video with my phone though, and may upload that in the near future if it's half decent looking.

Edit: Pics have been removed, as I seem to have deleted them from the server at some point...

'Ridin' around town in a drop-top Benz...'

Well, I think I would disappoint some people if I didn't mention that today is my 25th birthday. Yay! Not doing anything special today, as it's still a weekday, and I have to work tonight. Saturday is the Godsmack, Rob Zombie, and Shinedown concert, so that should be fun. May or may not hang out with friends afterwards. Sunday I might go have lunch or dinner with Stacy, and of course there's softball again. Earlier tonight at work they had pizza and cake, and Daniel and Alicia bought me a rapping frog (pictured below) that sings 50 Cent's "In da Club", because, damn, it feels good to be a gangsta

'All is numb, I've been lost too long...'

Ok, I realize not all of you want to read a lot of minor details, so for those people, here's the summary of last night....

- Went to a club for a co-workers birthday
- Lots of alcohol involved
- I actually danced for the first time in my life
- Went to hang out at a friends mom's house afterward until 5 in the morning where someone gets naked in the pool, someone else throws up all night, and being the only one sober, I get to take in all the details, most of them written below.

Now either read the details, or skip to the bottom rule below that start out what happened today, which is quite a bit shorter.

---

So last night got a little crazy. I'd been invited to go to a club in downtown Tempe, called Grahams Central Station, for a co-workers (Shawn) birthday party. He'd rented a limo, and was going to go around and pick everyone up in it on the way to the club, but I decided to take my own car, that way I could come and go on my own schedule. Also picked up a few friends (who also work with me) on the way (DJ, Daniel, and Alicia). When we got there, we couldn't find anyone, so we walked around forever trying to find them. The club is pretty big, as it's four different sections, one for hip-hop, one for country, one for misc (rock, oldies, hip-hop, etc), and a kareokee room. Finally the people that came in the Limo all showed up (Shawn, Lisa, Nicola, Marquis, and Yvette) and we found them in the hip-hop room, where we pretty much stayed at the rest of the night.

So everyone's drinking and talking etc, and Lisa starts trying to get me to go and dance, and this is after I'd told her the previous day that I wasn't going to, etc. So I keep telling her no but she wouldn't give up and she grabs my arm and tries to drag me out onto the dance floor. So anyways, I figured it'd be less embarrassing to just go and dance than to try and fight with her about it, so she starts teaching me how to dance, since I've never tried before, only we're not dancing how everyone else is cause she starts out with basic stuff like steps like it was country line dancing or something, but then on to more... intimate (?) moves, pressing her body against me, so I can feel what she's doing, etc, and try to follow it. Having an attractive woman's moving her body against yours certainly helps take your mind of the fact that you feel like a complete idiot. Sometimes she'd cover my eyes with her hands, I guess in an effort to get me to concentrate on how she was moving, etc. Not sure if it helped me dance, but it was kind of hot, lol. Anyways, after my first "lesson" she got me to go back out two other times, with less resistance on my part, and I definitely had fun doing it, however, I still felt like an idiot, especially when she would move away and try to get me to dance on my own.

The club closed around two in the morning, and Alicia called her mom, and said we could all go over to her mom's house to hang out. Most everyone piled into the limo, but Daniel (Alicia's husband) said Alicia had to ride with me to make sure I got there ok, although I already knew how to get there. Alicia and I arrived well ahead of the limo (I have kind of a heavy foot) and so we waited out front for them. The limo finally arrives about 15 minutes later, and we open the door to find Shawn sprawled out on the floor in the back of the limo, passed out. We wake him up and help him out of the car, and he can barely stand, so Daniel and I stood behind him, trying to hold him up. Everyone's kind of randomly talking and laughing for like 20 minutes, and the limos still there, and eventually we decide that Shawn needs to go home, so we tell the driver to take him home, and Yvette and Marquis say they're going home to, so they hop in the limo as well. They argue with the driver a bit on how much time they have left, but eventually they take off.

Then I find out Nicola's getting worried about getting a ride home, and she's on the phone with her (ex?) boyfriend trying to get him to come and pick her up but she doesn't have a clue where she's at, so I give her the address and directions, and offer her a ride home, but I think she wanted to go home immediately, so she kept talking on the phone. We go inside the house, and out into the backyard where there's chairs and a pool etc. Daniel tries to dump a bottle of water on Lisa. Nicola's still on the phone. Someone suggests we all get in the pool, but nobody wants to be the first one in, everyone wants to make sure everyone else is going to get in to, and nobody has swim suits except Alicia who borrowed some shorts from her sister. I don't want to go in at all, and Lisa says she's not going in if I don't go cause she didn't want to either, so everyone starts trying to convince me to go in but without a pair of shorts, it just wasn't going to happen; though, for a minute, I considered just saying fuck it, and jumping in, but my boxers arn't exactly tight around my waist, and I don't think they'd stay on too long in a pool, lol.

So Alicia and DJ get in, and Daniel almost does, but then comes back and grabs Lisa to try and drag her in, but Lisa grabs me by my front pants pockets (I'm sitting in a chair) and this would've created a pretty interesting picture had someone thought of taking one, anyways, I tried prying her hands from my pockets, which wasn't easy, but finally got her to let go of me, but both her and Daniel flew back onto the ground and into a plastic bucket filled with empty beer cans. So that ended that (for the moment anyways). After a few minutes Daniel went onto the side of the house and started throwing up pretty bad. While he was back there, DJ and Alicia are still trying to convince me and Lisa to get in the pool, and start giving us shit about not going along with the idea. Lisa mentions that it's not like anyones naked or anything, and says if they get naked she'll get in. So then a couple minutes later, after more arguing, DJ slaps his wet boxers on the side of the pool and says now that he's naked, she has to get in. So now everyones laughing and Lisa says she's not getting in, and goes around the side of the house to see if Daniels ok, cause he's been throwing up for the last 30 minutes or more, and DJ puts his boxers back on and him and Alicia get out of the pool. Nicola comes out from inside the house, grabs her purse, and leaves. We think she was mad, but we're not sure why...

Then Lisa and Daniel come back around from the side of the house. He looks ok, and is smiling and everything, and his eyes are barely open cause he's so wasted. Then all of a sudden he grabs Lisa and starts pulling her toward the pool, and then Lisa grabs me, and I grab a wooden post that's holding up the porch awning and Lisa locks her arms around my waist, and everyone else is pulling Lisa trying to get her in the pool, but its no use, and they finally give up. Eventually Daniel goes back on the side of the house and starts throwing up some more, and Alicia and DJ go over to see if he's ok. Lisa and I just sit on the porch talking about dancing and other things. Finally, around five in the morning, we leave Alicia's mom's house. Alicia and Daniel stay there, and I take Lisa and DJ home, stopping to get something to eat on the way. DJ's girlfriend calls right before we get to her house, wondering why he's not home yet. I drop him off, go home, and go to bed for 4 hours, since i'd woken up right before going to the club anyways, I wasn't real tired.

---

So then today I went and exchanged my DS Phat for a Onyx Black DS Lite. This thing is so much better looking than the original DS. EB Games has a deal going on where you trade in the old DS for the new one, and get it for only $70, which is nearly half price, and a hell of a lot better deal than I thought I was going to get. Also picked up Starfox Command for it, and pre-ordered the collectors edition of FFXII for the PS2. On the way home I picked up some Chipotle for lunch, and went to Safeway. Tried calling Mike to see if he and Tiffany wanted to hang out, but they were up in Payson visiting his mom. I have softball at 6pm tonight. Hopefully I do just as well (or not any worse) than last time. My brother called today to recommend the movie "It's all gone Pete Tong". (IMDB) Anyone ever heard of it?

'so fall into my eyes, and fall into my lies...'

Well, I had another good weekend. They seem to be happening quite often actually... that's kind of odd. Anyways, Saturday was DJ's party. There wasn't too many people there, but I remember DJ saying he was only inviting a handful of people this time. Just to hang out at his house, eat pizza and cheesecake (yumm), etc. Sunday I hung out with Mike and Tiffany. Went to Arrowhead Mall and walked around a bit, then dropped my car off at her parents, and headed over to Chili's for dinner. They've got pretty decent food there.

After that we drove to downtown Tempe, which is where ASU is at, and all many of the bars and clubs, etc. We were going to a club called Margarita Rocks, but it wasn't open for another 20 minutes or so, so we went next door to The Tavern, and they had a few drinks, and we talked for a while until the other club opened up. It was pretty dead for a little while, but picked up soon enough. An older hispanic lady tried to get me to dance because she thought I looked bored, but I wasn't going for it. Not enough alcohol or self-esteem for that type of thing (probably doesn't help that I don't drink, heh). Lots of great looking women at the club, which makes sense, seeing as ASU's practically across the street. Left there not long after midnight, picked up my car, and went to bed.

The next day I headed up north to check out some landmarks in Arizona that I haven't been to yet. I drove up to a place called Tonto Natural Bridge, which is essentially a short, but very tall cave that goes through a cliff, forming a natural bridge. Hiked around there for a while, then drove up to Winslow to check out the Homolovi Ruins. I thought they'd be more well preserved than they turned out to be, but it was interesting just the same. Got stopped by a Park Ranger while up there, cause I forgot to put my pass in the window. After that, I drove back to Phoenix, and over to Dennis' house. Watched "Firewall", then went home and to sleep.

Got up early today to go to work. I'm working days this week to get additional training at work. I hate driving in traffic. It's so different than driving at night, where there are little to no accidents, and the freeways just move along without any problems at all. Coming home was even worse. Took me an hour or more, when it normally takes 20-25 minutes.

Anyways, here are some pics from the weekend. The dogs are from Tiffany's parents house, the middle one being Tiffany's dog Rowdy. The rest are from the Tonto Natural Bridge, and the Homolovi ruins.

John's car get's an unwanted paint job...

So, this isn't exactly what I wanted to blog about, but as it just happened, and I'm still a bit annoyed by it, I will. Got off work early tonight to come home to cracking sounds right outside my car as I'm driving up to my apartment complex. At first I thought some idiot threw fireworks in the road and/or at my car, but once I was parked, and went to look if any damage had been done, I was unfortunately, or fortunately, wrong. Turns out some idiots thought it'd be funny to shoot paintballs at passing cars in the alley behind the complex. They're idiots because it would've been quite a bit smarter to do it where you don't live, or even better, do it at random spots where your continually moving, and thus, harder to find. After getting a bucket of water, a couple wash clothes, and a towel, I went down to quickly wash off the yellow paint that was splattered all over the passenger side of my car. I'd only been directly hit twice, and I'm pretty sure at least one hit the street in front of my car, as there was paint splattered all over my front bumper as well. The paint came off surprisingly easy, which leads me to think that the companies that manufacture paint balls thought ahead and made it more of a thick colored water rather than actual paint. Either that, or after a number of incidences similar to mine, they changed it from standard paint. Anyways, I probably looked like an absolute idiot, washing my car at 2:30 in the morning. Took about 30 minutes to get all (hopefully) of the paint off. Right before I'd finished, the complex security officer rode by on his bike, and I waved him down and let him know about what happened. He went and checked it out, but didn't see anyone, but let me know the cops had been called.

Bad luck didn't stop there, however. I went back to my apartment to find the door locked. It's been broken for months, and I was just in my apartment 30 minutes earlier, but now all of a sudden the lock is working, and of course, I don't have my house key. So I call up the office, which is just voice mail at this time of night, and left a message that I'd been locked out, and then I waited for someone to get a spare key to unlock it for me. As the guy shows up about 10 minutes later, the security officer comes by and tells me another car just got hit right in front of the police, but of course, they didn't see it happen, or who did it. Even so, as I waited to get my key, I saw two cop cars driving around the parking lot, and all of a sudden about 5 or 6 shots could be heard. The cops stopped and got out, and it looked like they were looking around, but I didn't bother to go and see if they'd caught the people or not, for fear of retaliation if the idiots found out I'd reported them, and who I was; particularly since I'm pretty sure they live here.

Anyways, here are the pics of the damage, which was a lot worse than you can see here, as there was paint all over the side, and front of my car. You can only see where the balls actually hit in these pics though, as they were taken with my phone's camera, which lacks flash, and obviously isn't going to be the greatest at taking pics in low light. It completely skipped my mind to grab my DSLR... oh well, next time, LOL.



So, on with the rest of what's happened since my last blog entry...

My vacation's been approved, and after spending somewhere around $1,100 on repairs for my car, it should be ready for the trip. My bumper "still" has not been repaired, and I'm extremely annoyed that it's taken this long to get fixed. I'm going to call the body shop this week and try and find out what the hell is going on, but at this point, I'll probably have to wait until after I get back from vacation to get it fixed. My brother will arrive on Thursday, and we'll leave Friday, though I'm not sure what time yet. At first I thought it'd be best to leave at night, so we wouldn't have to deal with the Los Angeles traffic, but my dad said that since we won't really be driving "through" LA, I shouldn't have a problem at any time of the day. Night might still be a good choice, as we'd be going through the hottest part of the country without the sun beating down on us. Anyways, I imagine we'll figure it out by the time my brother gets here.

Lots of birthdays this month. Stacy's was the 8th, Dennis' was the 15th, Angi's was the 10th (I think?), Tami's was today, and Mike's is on the 26th. With all the birthdays, car repairs, and a very long road trip ahead of me, not to mention I haven't worked overtime for months until tonight, my bank account's looking a little thin, and my credit cards are maxed. Not a good position to be in. Sure, the trip is unnecessary, but I got the car all fixed up because of this trip, and I'm really looking forward to it, so I don't have any plans on backing out unless something serious happens in the next 6 days.

I've been sort of avoiding the girl from work a bit since deciding not to date her. We still talk when we see each other at work, and we've gone to a couple Arizona Diamondbacks games together, but haven't gone to dinner or anything like that. Stacy says I'm being a bit of a dick by not telling her that I don't want to date her, but in my opinion, as the idea of dating was never discussed in the first place, I don't really feel like I'm obligated to say anything. That'd be like having to tell every girl I started hanging out with that I didn't plan on dating them, which is ridiculous.

Been playing a bit of Battlefield 2 lately, and doing quite well at it. Playing on an unranked server, I was able to get the 2nd to top spot, and the game after hit the top almost immediately, and stayed there for the rest of the game. Because of it, I've decided to play on ranked servers in order to improve even further, as I'm sure those are more challenging.

On another note, I was recently able to get a hold of Stefanie. I'd text messaged her one day when it was raining a few weeks back, about how I loved rain, and she replied with "me too". We texted each other a few more times, and I found out that she was actually moving that day into a new place, so the rain wasn't really helping. She said she'd have to invite me over once she was moved in, but I took that part with a grain of salt. Still, I was thrilled to finally hear from her after 8 months or so. Hopefully I can salvage this friendship after all.

Happy Birthday

Yay, another year gone. I've really been feeling old lately. Thanks to my heart condition, I could probably easily die at 50, so I could be nearly through half my life already. I still need to get a degree. Even if I started next year, I'd be 28 or 29 by the time I finally graduated. I guess that's not too bad.

Stacy called me yesterday to see if I wanted to go to lunch with her today. Still haven't told her about Stefanie, and I'm still not sure if I should. Knowing me I probably will though. Maybe she'll stop talking to me to. Stefanie still isn't talking to me either. I haven't tried getting a hold of her since she called two weeks ago. I wanted to call her last night and say something to try and get her to call me today, but I didn't know what to say. She probably doesn't even remember it's my birthday, even though I told her a month ago. If she doesn't call me today, then I'm going to stop waiting around and just go over to her place at random times until she finally answers the door (j/k! lol). This is getting pretty ridiculous... This whole thing about dealing with issues by ignoring them is childish.

Blog...

Well, I ended up buying a new bouquet of roses, because the other ones had some dried up petals on them. It was good they did anyways, cause the 2nd bouquet was much better looking than the last. They were white, but with pink tips on them. So I got a hold of Stefanie yesterday morning, and a bit too early, as she had been sleeping. I told her to call me back once she got back from school in a couple hours, and when she did, I went over to her place and gave her the flowers. She was pretty surprised, which was the point of course =P. She gave me a hug, and put them in a vase in the kitchen. When I told her that my feelings for her weren't a 'comfort' thing, she basically said "well, I'm not so sure about that". I told her I wasn't a person who dated people because it was somehow convenient for me, and she said that wasn't what she meant, but didn't say any more about it after that. She asked if I wanted to go to lunch and a movie with a couple friends, and although I still hadn't slept yet, I said yes anyways. We went to Albertsons first, cause they were having one of those 10 items for $10 sales. Then we went to Garcia's to eat lunch, but when we got there, Stefanie got a phone call from her work. She was supposed to be off, but I guess they scheduled her anyways, and unless she found someone to cover her shift, she had to go in and work. She couldn't get a hold of anyone, so the day was cut a bit short, but I ended up getting 3 hours of sleep for the day =P. Since we didn't get to keep our plans, we're going to hang out later today instead, though she has school until 5pm, so unfortunately we won't have a whole lot of time to hang out, but I'll take what I can get =).

This weekend I have a birthday party to go to for one of Dennis' kids. I think he's turning 5 this year. He just started kindergarten. Next weekend is DJ's birthday party, which should be pretty fun. A ton of people from work will probably be there, along with Dennis and his wife. I'm getting closer and closer to buying a car now to. I have about $3500 saved up, so only a couple more months to go.

'Read my writing on the wall!!! '

Well, the estimated date for getting my car has been pushed back yet another month, to October. I've been spending tons of money lately, mostly on food, and sometimes on necessities. I went to the optometrist for the first time in over three years on Friday. Originally went to get a pair of glasses. Wearing contacts for the last three years for 18+ hours a day, and for twice as long as they're rated, can really wear out your eyes. I'll still be wearing contacts, but mainly only when I leave my apartment, otherwise I'll wear the glasses, which should not only help save my vision, but it'll make playing games much, much easier, as my eyes won't instantly dry out.

Dennis' wife Nicole's birthday was on Saturday. We went out to eat at The Olive Garden, which is an Italian restaurant, and afterwards, went to a couple places for drinks and appetizers with a few friends. Ended up having a pretty good time, as did everyone else, and it was mentioned that we should go out together more often, but I have a strong feeling that's not going to happen. Ah well. Hoping to hang out with Stefanie tonight, but it's nearing midnight, so I'm wondering if she'll call back. She works fairly late, so I'm not giving up hope quite yet. Haven't hung out with Mike in two weeks. Last weekend he said they were just going to relax around the house, and he went to Payson to visit his mom this weekend. I would've gone if I didn't have Nicole's birthday to go to.

Anyways, I read a friend's blog recently, which was basically had a bunch of facts about him in "layers", so I'm going to do the same thing below, just to add some content, and in case any of it's interesting to anyone for some odd reason.


Layer One: On the Outside
* Name: John Cameron Barber
* Nicknames: Juan, Lank 1
* Birthday: September 22, 1981
* Birthplace: Seattle, Washington, United States
* Eye colour: Blue/Hazel
* Hair colour: Lt. Brown
* Height: 6'6"-6'7"
* Righty or lefty: Righty
* Religion: Agnostic
* Sex: Male

Layer Two: In the Inside
* Your heritage: Scottish, Dutch, German
* Who do you look like: Me.
* Your weakness: Lazy, low self-esteem, my heart condition
* Your fears: Rejection, inadequacy,
* Your perfect pizza: Hard to say. Pepperoni's fine, but I love Canadian Bacon and Pinapple as well.
* Goal you?d like to achieve: "The American Dream", seriously.

Layer Three: Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow
* Your most over-used phrase on MSN: N/A
* Your thoughts first waking up: Ah Christ...
* Your best physical feature: I have no f'ing clue. I suppose my general weight, as I'm naturally and permenantly thin. Can be a curse or a blessing...
* Your bedtime: Weekdays: somewhere between 11am and 2pm. Weekends, usually around 2am to 5am.

Layer Four: Your Pick
* Pepsi or Coke: Tough choice. I'll drink both, and enjoy them equally, depending on what I'm in the mood for. Right now? Coke.
* McDonalds or Burger King: McDonalds, but had it been an option, Jack n' the Box
* Single or Group Dates: Overall, single, but group dates can have their pros as well. Never "really" been on either though.
* Adidas or Nike: DC Shoes, or other skate shoe company
* Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate
* Cappuccino or Coffee: Frappuccino

Layer Five: Do You?
* Smoke: No
* Curse: Continually
* Sing: Yes. Not professionally, but along with music I'm listening to.
* Think you?ve been in love: Possibly... They say that you "just know" when your in love, so going by that definition, I haven't, but I've definately had very strong feelings toward a girl
* Want to get married: Absolutely
* Believe in yourself: I guess sometimes, but not often
* Motion sickness: No
* Think you?re attractive: Not really, but not particularly unattractive either
* Think you?re a health freak: Definately not
* Get along with your parents: Definately
* Like thunderstorms: Yep
* Play an instrument: I played the sax and piano for a very short time in elementary/junior high

Layer Six: Have You Ever
* Smoked: Cigarettes: no, marijuana: yes
* Done a drug: Everyone in this generation has done a drug at some point. As far as illegal drugs, only marijuana.
* Gone to the mall: Of course. I worked at a couple for a combined 4.5 years.
* Eaten an entire box of Oreos: Many a time. Like I said, definately not a health nut =P And Oreos are awesome
* Eaten sushi: Yes, didn't particularly care for it
* Been on stage: Yes
* Gone skating: Roller skating yes, Ice skating no
* Gone skinny dipping: No, though I did have the opportunity
* Stolen anything: I steal litterally every day. As far as shoplifting though, I suppose I did relatively often in elementary and junior high. Much riskier these days
* Played a game that required removal of clothing: No
* Been caught ?doing something?: No?
* Been called a tease: Definately not... I don't think...
* Gotten beat up: No.
* Shoplifted: Yes

Layer Seven: Getting Older
* Age you hope to be married: 35
* Number and names of children: At least two, boy and girl, boy first. Names? Not really sure.
* Describe your dream wedding: Definately in a church. I'm not religious, but tradition and all. Other than that just your standard wedding I guess. I don't need anything special.
* How do you want to die: In my sleep, and before my brother.
* What do you want to be when you grow up: Retired eventually, other than that, something in the IT industry.
* What country would you most like to visit: UK, Egypt

Layer Eight: In a Partner
* Best eye colour: Brown
* Best hair color: Brunette, dark, medium, light, I don't care
* Short or long hair: Medium
* Height: 5'5"-5'9"
* Best articles of clothing: I really like white speghetti strap tank tops, jeans are always good.

Layer Nine: In the Numbers
* Number of drugs taken illegally: 1
* Number of CDs that you own: 50+
* Number of piercings: 0
* Number of tattoos: 0
* Number of times your name has appeared in the newspaper: Once, when I was born.

'Come down, and waste away with me, down with me...'

Well the Diamondbacks game was kind of fun. The game itself wasn't particularly exciting, since not many runs were scored, or even hit for that matter, but it was fun just to go and watch. I've only been to one other baseball game in my life, and that was to a Seattle Mariners game like ten years ago when my dad got tickets through his company. Thankfully the Diamondbacks won 2-1 versus the Detroit Tigers. We didn't get to stay until the end of the game, as we had to leave about the middle of the 8th inning to make it to work on time, not that it matters since all the runs were scored before we left. Food is outrageously expensive there. A large 44oz soda is over $5, and no free refills. I also got chicken strips and fries, which was another $5 or so, and the chicken strips were pathetically small. The fries were surprisingly good though, which is saying quite a bit considering I'm not real fond of fries. That night at work time flew by at a decent rate, which is always good when it's the last day of the work week. For some reason it seemed like half the people didn't show up that night either, including Eddie. When I text messaged him he replied saying he had driven somewhere on the West side of town with his girlfriend, when his car broke down, and apparently he was high as shit, and walking down the street somewhere...not sure where though.

I went with Stefanie to the mall today so she could buy some new tongue rings. She asked me which one she should get, but I told her if it were up to me she should just take it out. I like earrings and belly button rings, but when it comes to tongue rings and nose rings, or anything else really, it's just not something I find particularly attractive. While we were at the mall we walked through the JC Penney's we both worked at (and where we met) three years ago, and on our way out of it we saw Mike and Tiffany standing in line at the register, and talked to them a bit. Mike turns 28 tomorrow. After that I hung out over at her place until she had to go to work.

I was supposed to go see a DJ at some club tonight with Richard, but called me up and apparently those plans have fallen through because apparently the club it was at turned out to be a gay bar. Ah well, there'll be other weekends and other DJ's. I ended up going to Dennis' for a couple hours instead, and watched "Coach Carter". After that Stefanie got off work and we went to T.G.I. Fridays and hung out there for a couple hours.

Here's some pics of Bank One Ballpark that I took at the game. The panoramic one is three shots spliced together. As you can see, I didn't have a tripod or anything, so the images don't quite fit perfectly, but you can get the general idea of what it looks like.

'This disease, keeps holding me down...'

Well this weekend should start off well. The week itself has gone by fairly quickly, probably due to me sleeping for 8+ hours a day. I also just got approved for a Providian credit card, and was able to transfer the balances of two of my other credit cards to it, which is great, because they were both at 25% and 29% APR's, with balances of over $700 each. Now that they're on the providian card, they're at 0% until April of next year, and only 13.49% after that, and my minimum payments will be consolidated, and lower. The reason the two credit cards had such a high APR is a bit of a long and boring story, so I'll leave that out, but now things have been corrected, and I should be saving ~$70 a month just from lower minimum payments hopefully, as well as saving all that money from lower interest. Going to an Arizona Diamondbacks (Major League Baseball for you foreigners) game later tonight. Tickets are free thanks to the company I work for, so even more money saved =P. I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I enjoy watching anyways. I don't have any solid plans yet for the weekend, but sometimes that's better anyways. I'm hoping to go to Richards new house and take a look around, and possibly install a new home theater system, and of course there's always the possibility of hanging out with various other friends that I normally hang out with on the weekend. It was my Grandmother's 86th birthday yesterday, so I gave her a call, which she was pretty surprised about, even though I call her every year =P. My parents and sister happened to be there (there being the state of Montana) as well for the next week, so I got to talk to them also. Well that's all for now. I'll post again in a few days about how the weekend went. Now it's off to bed so I'm not dead tired for work after the game.

'The water is rising up on me...'

This weekend should be...interesting. Saturday I'm going to take the A+ Certification test. Not to get certified mind you, just to see how well I'll do without actually studying for it. My friend Eddie has an A+ Study Guide, and he was asking me some of the test questions, and I had no clue what most of the answers were, heh. After I take it I'll probably read the book and then take it again, to actually get certified. I personally don't give a damn about the certification, because for the most part, I know what I'm doing; but if it'll make people feel more secure about me working on their computers, then so be it.

Stacy's birthday was the 8th. She turned 24. I bought her U2's new album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb". U2's her favorite band, and normally I'd assume she already has the CD, seeing as it's been out for some time, but since she just had a baby, I imagine her finances are going various other places than CD's. Especially because she's only working three days a week. I kept the receipt just in case though. I'm going to take her out to lunch or dinner as well, depending on when's best for her. Going to leave the restaurant up to her, mainly because I really don't care where we eat, and because she's sure to enjoy the food that way.

Stefanie's probably going to come over Saturday or Sunday. She wants to install her CIS software on my computer so she can do her schoolwork here. I'll also be helping her out, as she doesn't know a whole lot about computers. She has a computer at her house, but it's a old Pentium II if I remember right, and she has no internet access. Her ex-boyfriend asked her if I'd be willing to help, but he was more interested in having me actually do his work, than have me help him. He offered to pay of course, but I'm honestly not real thrilled about doing that. Especially when it comes to computers. CIS 101 is just basic computing skills that everyone should learn if they plan on getting anywhere in life today. It's the same shit they now teach in Junior High. He said he already knows what he's doing, he just wants someone else to do it so he doesn't have to waste his time. The class is a mere $50 per credit hour though, so I highly doubt he would've paid me much to do it, certainly not enough for it to be worth the time though, especially since I wouldn't be getting a grade. If he already knows what he's doing, he should've just tested out of the class.

Speaking of girls and computers, it'd be nice if there were more girls that were interested in computers. Even the ones that go to technical schools arn't really interested in them. I know someone who graduated from DeVry Institute of Technology with a Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering Technology, and she couldn't even help her boyfriend install a copy of WindowsXP Pro that she got from the school for free. For those of you who don't know, installing a copy of WindowsXP is as simple as putting in the CD, booting the computer, and following the on-screen directions for about 5 steps. The rest is 100% automated. For those who took this paragraph the wrong way, I'm not saying girls can't use computers, I'm saying there aren't enough of them who are genuinely interested in them.

I mainly bring this up because my friend DJ was talking to me this morning about how I need to find girls that are interested in the same things I am to be able to talk to them for long periods of time, and not just long periods of silence during generic conversations that mainly consist of small talk like "How's your new job going". Easier said than done of course, because my three big interests are computers, video games, and rock music. Three things most girls aren't so interested in. Yes, there are girls interested in rock music (hence the purchased U2 album above), but not quite as much as myself, and most of them are more into hip-hop and R&B. They're also more into the more medium and softer rock bands, rather than bands like Rage Against the Machine, Tool, or Godsmack. I'm into the medium and softer stuff to, but not quite as much as the heavier stuff (and yes, I realize there is heavier, harder rock than Godsmack). Basically what this comes down to is I have nothing to talk about when it comes to conversations with girls other than to reply to whatever they talk about, and thus, I'm uninteresting, which is never good.

While out to dinner with Stefanie last Sunday, when she was first telling me about her CIS class, she mentioned that they would be designing a web page. After asking her if she knew if it would be using a visual editor, or if they would be coding directly in HTML, she looked thoroughly confused at either idea; so I started describing the differences and stuff, and how easy basic HTML was, and as I kept talking, I could tell she really didn't care, which was pretty disappointing, as I thought she might have some kind of interest in it. Still, I've found that some people get more interested in things once they realize they can actually do them, so hopefully helping her out with her school work might spark some interest since she'll actually be using the computer for something other than to search for information on Google or Yahoo, or check her email.

I haven't hung out with Mike for a couple weeks. We were supposed to go shooting last week, but I wasn't able to because I wasn't going to be home early enough, and you have to get out to the range early in the morning before the heat starts to build up. Last weekend I didn't call him either. I'm not sure why, as we normally hang out on Sundays. I did want him to sort of have a weekend alone with his girlfriend so they could possibly work out some issues though; and because I didn't hang out with Mike, I was able to hang out with Stefanie for two days in a row (or was it three?). I think I've hung out with her more in the past month than I have all year, or even all last year.

Still no new pictures from my camera, however, my parents were recently down in southern Washington, and stopped by Mt. St. Helens, and took some decent pics and sent them to me through email. Not the greenest part of Washington for sure, but still makes me somewhat homesick.

Here's what too much alchohol gets you...

Brother just had his 21st birthday on the 5th. He drank a little too much that night, and the next morning, while going to get something to eat, had to throw up (for the 10th time or so that morning). Well, his roommate pulled the car over, and while he was throwing up, he passed out, and fell right onto the asphalt (and his own bile). Now look at him...