'Wasting words on lower cases and capitals...'

Wow, it has been a while hasn't it? Lots have happened since my last entry, but I'll go over just a few recent things briefly.

Saw Foo Fighters last weekend, and they kicked ass. Bought a new car, 2008 Mazda 3 s GT. You can see the pictures here. Sold the BMW to Emilio for $3500. Started seeing a girl from work a few weeks back. Her name is Shannon, and it seems to be going quite well so far. Went to the Renaissance fair on Sunday. Saw some comedy shows there which were hilarious, but otherwise mostly just walked around and checked out shops. It's proxy season at work, so I'm working 50+ hour weeks. I've gotten quite good at Rock Band, and play all songs on Hard, and about half on Expert, all on the guitar. Re-signed my lease at my apartment complex for another year. I'm really enjoying living there. It'd be tough to find something better at a similar price. Helped Ron move about a mile and a half away from me, so I should be hanging out with him quite a bit more, especially since he has weekends off now. Haven't really taken any pictures lately, but hopefully that will change soon. I need to get out on the road and go somewhere.

That's all for now.

'There's truth in your lies, doubt in your faith, all I've got's what you didn't take...'

So this weekend I slept a lot, played a lot of video games; namely Oblivion for PS3, and FF: Tactics for the PSP; went to the Arizona State Fair with friends, watched a lot of American football, and unfortunately, did not work any overtime.

I also got my car back yesterday. The repair work looked fantastic. The back left side of my car looks brand new. They even fixed my driver's side door, which had been catching on the sill whenever you opened it, and had become incredibly annoying. Unfortunately, in repairing the side panel, they'd somehow caused the seatbelt not to retract all the way.. so I've basically traded one annoyance for another; but the door was more annoying I think... It also seems that the weatherstripping has ripped off slightly from around the drivers side window, and what used to be a slightly audible hiss, is now much louder. Need to try and find out if that's easily repairable.

My PS3 Hard Drive extender finally came in, I think 3 weeks after ordering, which is a little ridiculous. I dropped by Fry's Electronics and grabbed a 500GB SATA drive to use with it, and an SATA-to-eSATA cable. Using my Nextar external enclosure, I attached it to my PS3 after removing the 60GB 2.5" drive, and putting in the extender. 500GB PS3 FTW!

Also ended up buying the new slim PSP. It's crazy lighter than my old one, to the point where it feels like one of those cell phone displays that don't actually have anything inside them. Still, should be much easier to hold for long periods of time. Haven't tried TV-Out yet. I was going to trade the old PSP in for credit toward it, but it seems to be missing the serial # sticker, so I'm going to try and get rid of it on eBay or Craig's list. Seems like I can get around $100 or more for it if I can find all the accessories, etc, which is great, considering EB Games/Gamestop was going to give me $50-60.

Picked up Oblivion:GOTY. Traded in my 2 month old Oblivion that I paid full retail for ($60). They were going to give me a mere $9 for it! Thankfully the clerk said he'd give me $15 cash. Brand new the original game is now only $30, so 50% is a pretty decent deal, so I guess I can't complain. They're reselling them for $26.99 used.

Oh yes, and there are pictures from the fair. While there, there was an older lady who wanted to ride the ferris wheel, but they wouldn't let her because the rules are you must ride with another person. I was just sitting on a bench waiting for my friends to finish riding, so she asks me to ride with her. So we go up there and they tell her there are no tickets left on her card. Turns out she bought an 8 ticket card ($4), and already had ridden one ride. Well she thought each ride was a single ticket, but they're actually multiple tickets, usually 4 or 5. They told her she didn't have enough left on the card and she started getting upset, so Dennis let us use his card.

Pictures

'You promise, you promise that you're done, but i cant tell you from the drugs...'

I just found out yesterday that my brother's been doing coke off and on for the last five to seven years. He's been smoking marijuana since he was 12, and I knew he's done ex and shrooms, and possibly acid, but never did I think he'd be stupid enough to do cocaine. I don't know what to do about it, or even if there's anything I can do. He doesn't know that I know yet. I found out through his girlfriend. When she first told me, he'd only told her that he'd done it once or twice in the last year or so, but after I talked to her for some time yesterday we decided she should put pressure on him to tell the truth, because we were certain it had to have been more.

Turns out we were right, and it came out that he'd started after being kicked out of my parents house and living with his friend David. They'd started selling small amounts, and would take a little for themselves now and then. He stopped for a while and then after moving to Seattle he and some friends started selling again, and would take some from that as well. Once he met his first girlfriend he stopped altogether because she made him, and in between her and his current girlfriend he did it again.

Now he's supposed to fly to New York in a week or two to visit some friends, and apparently the plan is to do more while he's there. His girlfriend asked him why he couldn't just go and visit and skip the drugs, and his answer was because it was a 'package deal'. If he was going to New York, he was going to do coke, period.

On one hand, I don't want to think he's addicted. After all, he only does it a handful of times a year at best, he never pays for it, and apparently he wouldn't know where to get it even if he wanted it (although I'm sure if he 'did' want it, it wouldn't be hard to find). But the fact that he can't go to New York without getting high, and the fact that he all but refuses to stop even though his girlfriend is extremely unhappy with him just screams 'addict'.

I still don't know if I'm going to tell him I know. If I do, it won't be until the end of my vacation there in November/December. There's no point in ruining the trip by bringing it up beforehand. I want to see if the increased pressure from his g/f changes anything as well. If he's not addicted, he should be able to give it up if he knows he's hurting someone and will lose them if he continues.

Off that subject, my car is finally in the shop. Apparently it's going to take up to 3 weeks to get repaired. In the meantime, I'm renting a car through Enterprise for a mere $9 a day. At the moment I'm in a Chrysler Aspen, but I'll be trading that in this morning for a car because of the gas milage. It's a pretty nice SUV, very comfortable, and has decent pickup having a V8, though the sound system is horrible. I hooked my MP3 player up through the AUX port, and the speakers were distorting even at low volumes, even after turning the bass down on both the player and the stereo. Hopefully whatever I get today will be fun to drive and include a better sound system.

Also, Niickiey and I will be taking a trip up to Sedona the weekend of the 13th-14th. I'll be sure and take plenty of pics while we're there.

'Oh and you come crash into me, yeah... Baby, and I come into you...'

Well I'm not happy at all. Someone decided to roll their car/truck/whatever into the side of my car today, and then take off without telling me, so now I have a giant dent in the left-rear quarter panel. Thankfully the most I'll have to pay is $250 thanks to full-coverage insurance. We think it might have been the garbage truck, because the car was parked on the side of the street near the garbage cans at Dennis', and not really in a position to get hit by a car coming around the corner, and too far away from the neighbor's driveway to be backed into. Plus the paint on the other car was white, and there are no white cars near Dennis' house.

Yes!

This is awesome...



Thank god for free replacement warranties that actually end up costing $30 after fees and taxes. Oh well, saved myself $140 over paying for the new one... hopefully the wheel is still good...

'I hate you so, but love you more I'm so elastic...'

Well, I've now been working seven days a week for over a month, and will be working every day at least for another week, if not the week after that as well. Still managing to hang out with friends though, or at least trying to. Have a busy weekend ahead of me. In between sleeping and working, Friday I'll be heading to The Family Values Tour, featuring Korn, The Deftones, Stone Sour, Flyleaf, and a bunch of other bands. Saturday I'm going to see Pirates of the Caribbean. Sunday I'm going with some friends to take a tour of the new Arizona Cardinals (NFL) stadium. I guess the tickets for the tour were free, which is pretty cool. Hopefully I'll be able to check out a game this year as well, as I've never been to an NFL game (or NBA, for that matter). Hopefully either Saturday or Sunday I'll be able to make some time to hang out with Mike and Tiffany as well, as we haven't hung out in a long time. Monday is the Red Hot Chilli Peppers concert. I also have to re-sign my lease this weekend. I didn't really want to, but I'm not really sure where I want to move yet either, so I'll sign another 7 month lease. That should give me enough time to look around some, and it'll be cooler temperatures by the time I move.

Put some subwoofers in my car the other day. Dennis had a Kicker 120w amp, and three MTX 10" subwoofers in a box that used to be in his Cavalier. When he traded in his cavalier, he didn't really have any use for them anymore, so I bought everything off him for $100. We installed it ourselves, and it went fairly easy, as the previous owner of my car already had the car wired for subwoofers, so we just connected the wires, and it worked. OK, well it sounds simpler than it actually was, but it wasn't too difficult. I need to do a little better job at connecting the wires together though. Right now they don't have the strongest connection, and are sort of just hanging around. The box is also about 1.5" too long to fit all the way in the back of my trunk, which sucks, but it fits, and I can still fit my toolboxes back there, as well as a few other things. Here are some pics if you want to check it out. 120w doesn't sound like much, especially when split between 3 subs, but it sounds damn nice, so I'm happy, especially for a mere $100.

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.

'And I seem to lose control, with you...'

Well, I finally got my gauges working yesterday. It seems a fuse blew out when I was messing with things the day before, and after replacing it, and making sure all my wires were connecting, it worked without problem. Here are pics of the new gauges in the daytime (left) and the night (right).



Looks like I'll be working some more overtime this weekend as well, covering for another person. We start proxy season next week as well, which means 50+ hours per week. A good thing, because apparently I owe the IRS around $1500, and another $500 in state taxes.

'Its alright cause there's beauty in the breakdown...'

Well, long time no blog, and for good reason. I've been quite busy the last week, as my brother came down to visit. He lives up in Seattle, and I normally go up there a couple times a year to see him and my parents, but we'd been talking for a while about him coming down to AZ for a visit, and I told him last time I was up there that if he'd just get some time off, I'd be more than happy to provide the plane ticket.

I took the week off from work, so he wouldn't have to sit around the house being bored while I worked/slept. He flew down last Saturday afternoon, and we ended up hanging out at Dennis' for a while, and then went out to a bar with Stacy and a friend of hers. The bar wasn't too bad, though it was a little small, and thus, a bit crowded, but any bar would be on a Saturday night, so not a big problem. It was a Karaoke night, which was kind of cool, as you get to see drunk people make fools of themselves. Some actually weren't too bad though. Even Stacy got on the mic and sang some U2. Her friend sang as well, but I didn't recognize the song. I don't have the balls to do something like that myself, and I don't drink either, so you won't be getting any American Idol audition videos from me anytime soon =P. After the bar we all went back to my apartment and hung out for a couple hours, and then I took her home.

Sunday we were going to head up to Montezuma's Castle, which is a place along the I-17 freeway where there is an adobe house set up in the cliffs, and the remains of another house on the ground nearby. There's not a whole lot to see there once you've seen the house (which your not allowed to enter), but it was the only thing decently close that I knew of where we could take some interesting pictures, and it was a good Sunday drive. Unfortunately we arrived at around 5:30pm, and we found out once we got there, that they closed at 5:00. So the next day we went back.

On our way there the 2nd day, I decided to take advantage of being out in the middle of nowhere, and ended up hitting 130mph in my car. I'm positive I could've hit at least 140, but I was forced to slow down as to not hit the cars in front of me =P. At a different spot in the road, someone in a relatively new WRX tried to get me to race, and after he showed off for a bit, I revved my engine hard just to make him happy, and he pulled away pretty quick.

Tuesday we ended up going to a Phoenix Coyotes game (Arizona's professional hockey team). The Coyotes lost to the Vancouver Canucks, but I ended up snagging a free t-shirt without even trying. It practically fell into my lap (after being shot from a t-shirt launcher).

Wednesday we ended up going to Sedona for the day. Sedona is a city about two hours north of Phoenix, located in a valley surrounded by plateau's of red rock. The place is extremely picturesque, and is a giant tourist trap. We went to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which is a fairly famous spot to visit. Then we headed up to Slide Rock, which wasn't quite what I expected. Just a river that happens to run over a big section of rock that's been worn smooth over countless years of erosion. It was fun to hike around though. Then we had dinner at a place called Oaxaca, which is a Mexican restaurant, and then headed out the Sedona airport, which is located on the top of one of the plateau's so we could try to take some pictures of the sunset. Unfortunately there isn't a very good spot to see the sunset there, and even if there was, it sets behind mountains, rather than the horizon, so it doesn't provide very good pics.

Thursday we went to see Annapolis at the theater. Wasn't a bad movie, but it was more about boxing than the Navy; which wasn't a bad thing per se, but it doesn't really fit the title. Then we went bowling with Ron and a few of his friends down in Tempe. I hadn't been bowling in a very long time, probably around 8-10 years. I was pretty surprised that they actually had shoes in my size to. After that we went and hung out over at Ron's place for a couple hours, which was just down the street.

On Friday we sort of just hung around the house. Later that night Stacy called, and was going to come over with her friend from work. Her friend didn't show up, but Stacy still came. We all just hung out and talked for a while, and then decided to play some Tekken, which is her favorite game.

Then on Saturday I took my brother back to the airport after we had lunch, then headed over to Dennis' house to play pool. I had to work that night, and actually ended up being late because I thought I worked at 10pm, but was actually scheduled for 8pm because I was covering for someone who normally started work then. Work was fairly steady, but the night still seemed to drag because I was pretty tired.

Yesterday I went over to Tiffany's parents house to watch the Superbowl with Mike, Tiffany, and her family. Her parents recently bought a 63" Mitsubishi HDTV, and a gigantic entertainment center. Perfect for watching the game, other than the lack of surround sound, but not a huge loss. It's too bad the Seahawks didn't win. DJ was saying a few days before the game that the Steelers would win because the game was rigged, and after seeing some of the calls made by the refs, you'd almost believe him. Either way, they had their best season in history, and hopefully we'll see some of the same next year. It always sucks to see a team do so well one year, and then fall apart the next.

Today I attempted to install some reverse gauges into my car. Unfortunately for me, they didn't come with any instructions, so I had to do some searching on the net. Didn't take too long before I found some, and the initial part of the installation went quite smoothly. I knew the difficult part would be the electrical part, and when it came time for it, it was proven right. The previous owner had installed some Indiglo gauges in the car (and had taken them out before he sold it), so there was already a power inverter connected. Sweet! All I have to do is cut the red and black wires, and replace it with mine! So I thought anyways.

After a couple hours of trying to get it to work, I only ended up cutting the power to the backlights to the original gauges, which means I can't see the gauges at night at all anymore, which sucks for me, because I work at night... I'm not sure how to get them working again, and the reverse gauges still aren't coming on, so I'm going to ask around at work to see if anyone would be willing to fix it for $25/hr or something. I know a couple people there that work on cars, so hopefully it won't be too difficult. On the up-side, they do look good installed. Once I get them fully working, I'll be sure and put up a pic.

Speaking of pictures, here's a few from the last week when my brother was down...

New wheels...

Just putting up a couple pics of my new wheels, as well as a comparison pic with the old one. I wasn't even expecting to get them yesterday, as the website said 1-4 days, so I figured early next week at best, but they called me while I was at the movie theater watching Underworld: Evolution, and said I could get them put in today, and it would only take about an hour and a half. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The tires I ordered ended up being too wide, so they had to go from a 235, to a 215, so that the edge wouldn't rub on the wheel well. Ended up saving $40, but the tires wern't the brand I wanted, but oh well. They look really nice anyways; much better than the stock ones. I'd like to paint my calipers, but that would probably require me to take the wheels back off, and as I don't have a jack for the car (probably should look into that...), it would be a bit difficult. Anyways, because the tires weren't the right size, I ended up spending over three hours at Discount Tire. Even after I finally got out of there, I still had to renew my lease for my apartment, and didn't end up going to bed until 5:30pm, and as a result, ended up sleeping through my alarm clock, and was 20 minutes late to work. Turns out I'm going to be working tonight as well, which is good. More overtime is always good.



I should take a better picture of the entire car with them...

'Did I drive you away? I know what you'll say...'

I'm bored as hell...

This day's been going by so slow, but thankfully, only 1.5 more hours of work. Ordered a new cellphone this week, a Samsung SGH-T809. It's light years ahead of my current Samsung SGH-E105. I was able to talk the T-Mobile rep to giving it to me for a mere $189, when the original upgrade price was $250, and the MSRP is like $379, so not a bad deal at all. Kind of cool how much money you can save just by asking =P.

My brother's coming to visit in a week. He'll be flying down from Seattle next Saturday, and staying until the Saturday after that. I took the week off from work so we'd have plenty of time to hang out. I need to find stuff to do though. I need to get the heater fixed in my car as well. Thought about buying some new wheels and tires also. Would cost me just over $1300 for the ones I want though. The ones I'm looking at are the 17" Enkei DM5's, at Discount Tire, with Yokohama tires. Just got my first oil change the other day. The bottom of my car ended up scraping on the retractable "bridge" (not sure what it's called), so I had to sign a waiver saying they weren't responsible for damage to the car. Didn't scrape too much anyways, and it's not like I can just go without getting my oil changed =P.

Had lunch with Stacy on Tuesday. We went to a fancy Mexican place (Abuelo's), because I thought we should go somewhere new, and it was rated the best on citysearch.com. The food wasn't bad, but no different than most other decent mexican spots. The restaurant itself was pretty nice though. Prices weren't bad at all either, not cheap, but not expensive. While we were there, she asked about Stefanie, and if I'd heard from her yet. I told her I hadn't, but that it was her birthday tomorrow (Wednesday), and that I planned on calling her. Then she said something that caught me a little off guard. She said I'd been taking things out on her, like my frustration about the situation with Stefanie, which is why she (Stacy) hadn't called me in a while. I'd been trying to get a hold of her for a month and a half, with no luck, until she called me while I was in Houston. I apologized, and told her if I did, it certainly wasn't intentional. I tried my hardest to remember having said anything mean to her. The only thing I could think of was some remarks about online dating though, which she had tried a couple months ago. She must've accepted my apology though, because she insisted on paying for lunch. After lunch we went shopping at Walmart. I bought the DVD "Lord of War", and ended up letting her borrow it, because she hadn't seen it yet.

Wednesday I hung out at Dennis' for a while with him and DJ. Played a little pool, and then watched American Pie 4, which was about as bad as I thought it would be. After that I went and got my oil changed, which took a lot longer than I thought, because I had to go to Napa to buy my filter, because Walmart didn't carry it, then drive back to Walmart to get it changed. It took 30 minutes just for my cars turn, and another 30 to get it done. I just walked around Walmart the whole time. Wasn't really interested in looking for anything in particular though, since I'd just been there the previous day with Stacy, so it was pretty boring. After that I went home and told Stefanie's voice mail Happy Birthday.

Thursday, I started watching my "Firefly" box set, and now I love the series more than ever. I really hope Fox, or anyone really, picks this show back up.

And now we're at today, which I don't really have any plans other than renewing my apartment lease for yet another 7-15 months, depending on if they'll give me any months for free for the longer leases. I thought about moving, but I'd have to move the week my brother was here; plus, I'm not even sure if I really need to move. My rent is being increased by $30 a month if I re-sign, which is hardly much more money, and certainly cheaper than where I thought about moving in to, which would be somewhere around $200 more per month, though it's quite a bit nicer there, and certainly bigger.

Today's pay day, so I'll have to make the decision on whether or not to get the wheels and tires, or if I should build a new computer. I think I'm going to go with the wheels/tires though. The new Elder Scrolls doesn't come out for a couple months, and that's when I'll need my new PC, so I can hold off on that. I need to look into getting refunded for the money I spent in Houston as well. Turns out my employer will reimburse me for my car rental as well. Too bad I didn't know that before I went; I would've got it for the entire two weeks, instead of just the weekend. Would've made things a hell of a lot easier, and funner. Oh well, I'll know better next time.

'The secret is out; goodbye, goodbye, goodbye...'

So, apparently Stefanie really does have a boyfriend. It wasn't who I thought it might be, which is a good thing. It's actually one of her ex-boyfriend's best friends. I've met him a couple times, and he seems like a pretty cool guy, which is surprising, because Stefanie, like most other females, always seemed attracted to assholes. I'm actually happy for her, that she finally found someone she likes that, hopefully, won't treat her like shit. I still haven't talked to her. Dennis actually called her up yesterday to find out what the hell was going on, even though I'd repeatedly asked him not to when this all first started. In a sense, I'm kind of glad he did. I would've rather had Stefanie tell me in person, of her own will, but it's clear to me now that she literally may never speak to me again. I guess she told Dennis she thought I was going to commit suicide.

She thought I was going to kill myself, and still she couldn't bring herself to call me. How fucked up is that?

So anyways, I'm going to try my best to let it go. It's not as if this isn't going to happen again. Unfortunately I realize that this is now one less person keeping me in Arizona.

Watched Doom and Saw II this weekend. Doom was better than I expected. Not a blockbuster, but probably worth your money if your not overly critical when it comes to movies. Saw II was excellent, easily just as good as the first. The ending was very, very unexpected, and a really cool idea. Looking forward to seeing Jarhead next weekend. I may go watch The Weatherman this weekend or later this week, as it's been given pretty good reviews, and I'm starting to appreciate Nicholas Cage's acting skills more.

Finally received my Infinity Kappa Series 50.7 speakers on Friday, and installed them yesterday. When I removed the old speakers from my car, I discovered that the kick panel 5 1/4" speakers, and the rear 4" speakers were not stock, but pairs of the cheaper 2-way Pioneer's. Not bad, but I can already tell the difference with the Infinity's in there, even though they're not even getting half their RMS in wattage. Their RMS is 85w (max 255w), and my Alpine deck only puts out 25wx4 RMS (50wx4 max). Hopefully later I'll get a dedicated amplifier for those, as well as one for whatever subwoofer(s) I plan on getting. Probably be either Rockford Fosgate or MTX.

My employer is requiring mandatory overtime starting next week, through November 16th (which is the day I leave for vacation), so I'll be working at least 50 hour weeks until then, which is nice. Oh, and my cell phone bill went over it's minutes for the first time this month. Unfortunately it happened to be way over, and instead of the usual $55, it shot up to $170. Good thing I happen to have a decent amount of cash at the moment. Had to loan my brother $400 as well, cause he just switched jobs, and isn't getting paid much until his training period is over with.

Car pics

Went out and took some pics of my car today. Took these by a park near the apartment complex I first moved into when I moved here to Phoenix. Yesterday I got all the paperwork finished on the car, including registration, license plate, title, and insurance. My brother says I'll probably have to buy new springs if I want to raise the car so it's not so low, so that sucks, as I was hoping for an easier, and cheaper method. Anyways, here's the pics...

'I woke up in a car...'

Finally! 8 long years of waiting are finally over. I bought my very first car today. It's a black 1994 BMW 325is, with tan leather interior. The car itself is in damn good condition, at least in my opinion. Just needs a good wash. There are a few things I'm not happy with, but I'll either live with them, or change them later. Such as the automatic transmission. I really wanted a manual, but not enough to pass this car up when I saw it. I also wanted black interior, but tan is probably better in the Arizona heat. The aftermarket exhaust is also way too loud, which means I'll probably have to replace it, which is going to cost a bit of money. The stereo will have to do for now. It's a 200w Alpine MP3/WMA XM Ready CD player, which isn't bad at all, but it's a little old and worn, and I prefer Kenwood or Pioneers anyways. There are no subwoofers or amps, so I'll have to get that later on as well, and the speakers seem to distort fairly easy at high volume, so they're probably the factory ones. I'm definitely going to replace the current rims as well, probably with 5 spoke ones, preferably white, and not chrome. Also want the BMW symbol in the center of them, but it's not necessary. The car itself has at least 189 horsepower, though it has the aftermarket exhaust and cold air intake, so it might even be over 200. Definitely has some pickup once you get on the freeway though, but since the exhaust is so damn loud, I feel like one of those dicks that go gunning around everywhere showing off their car, even when I'm barely cruising down the street at 30mph. The driver side window and door panel seem to be a little loose as well. Hopefully it won't get any worse. Also, the car is lowered a lot, and I'm going to have to get used to creeping over speed bumps and watching closely for potholes.

Other than that the car is excellent, and exactly what I was looking for. The leg room is a little short, but that's more my fault than the car, as it has plenty of leg room compared to many other cars. I'd have to get a truck, or a tank of a car, like a Buick to really be comfortable. The car has power everything, which is really nice; as well as an alarm. All in all, the car ended up costing $6,300, which is $500 less than it was advertised. The Kelly Blue Book price was about $5,900, but with all the extra stuff that was on it (euro lights, aftermarket exhaust, cold-air intake, H&K shocks) it was worth it, as much of that I would've installed anyways had it not been included. Here's the only picture I have of it so far, which is unfortunately the shitty one that was posted with the advertisement on Autotrader.com, but I'll take more of my own later. Going to get the title, insurance, and license plate tomorrow hopefully. I'm also hoping I won't have to get emissions done, since it just had it done back in July.

'It's been a while, since I said I'm sorry...'

So, long time no blog entry. I suppose because not a whole lot has happened in the last week and a half. This last weekend was kind of fun though. Saturday I went over to Dennis', as he was having a barbeque for the ASU vs. USC game. Poor ASU, they were doing so well in the first half. Then I went to go see "Into the Blue" with Mike, his g/f Tiffany, and a girl that worked with her. The girl was apparently interested in meeting me, but, to put it politely, she "wasn't my type". To some people, being not attracted to someone just makes you shallow, so i guess that's what I am. Thankfully she had come to the movies more to hang out with Tiffany, and not to be hooked up with me, so i wasn't obligated to act as if I was supposed to be interested. The movie was actually pretty good. When you go to a movie purely to see a hot chick (in this case, Jessica Alba) you don't really expect the movie to be the greatest, but this one surprised me. Not something I plan on buying, but something I enjoyed watching aside from the fact that, in the rare case that Ms. Alba wasn't in a bikini, she was in some very small shorts and tight tanktop.

After the movie, Tiffany's friend went home, and we walked around the shopping center a bit. I bought a basketball on the slight chance that Stefanie starts talking to me again, as her ball was flat when we'd thought about playing one day. I should practice anyways. As tall as I am, I can't shoot for shit, and thus, am a horrible basketball player. Sunday I went on my own to see "Serenity", since Dennis was at work, and Mike rarely wants to go to the movies. It wasn't a movie he sounded interested in seeing anyways. I, on the other hand, was very interested, and definitely was not disappointed. If you like Sci-Fi flicks, defiantly check this one out. Unfortunately the ending didn't seem to suggest there could be a sequel, but hopefully they find some way to make one. After that I headed to the baseball fields behind Glendale Community College, where Tiffany and her sister were playing softball, and Mike was hanging out watching. Was only there for an hour or so before the game was over, and went home to play Fable.

Yesterday I went up to Stacy's work, as she'd told me I should the last time we hung out (on my birthday). So I headed up there, not knowing at all why she wanted me to go, and half expected to show up, say hi, and leave again; which is exactly what happened. When she came out to meet me, she seemed kind of surprised that I was there, and asked if I wanted to eat. I don't really like eating alone though, particularly in nice places (she works at an Italian restaurant called Carrabba's), so I asked her if she wanted to come up there tomorrow and have dinner, since she was off. She said afternoon would be better though, and since her work doesn't open until 4pm, we'll be going somewhere else, which is fine. She'll expect me to make the decision on where though, which I never can, because I really don't care. That happened when I went to lunch with her one time, and I told her "alright, lets go to this place then", and she was like "Ok, nevermind, we'll go here instead (choosing somewhere else)". So I told her "See, that's also why I don't make the decision".

So today I'll be going to Dennis' in the morning to hang out for a bit. Then go to DJ's State Farm Insurance guy to get an auto insurance quote, then to lunch with Stacy at noon, and after lunch, Dennis and I are going to check out a car I found just down the street (well, about 8 miles down the street) from me that looks to be in perfect condition from what I saw on the pictures, and what was in the description. It's a 1994 BMW 325i, black exterior and interior, power sunroof, locks and windows; 6-disc CD changer, and manual transmission. The description says that both the engine and the clutch were recently replaced, the new engine only having around 65k miles on it (the car itself has 135K miles). Anyways, the pictures are located here. The website lists the car at $6,450, but it's listed on Autotrader.com at $5,950, and the website has a $150 coupon. Plus, I'm going to tell the guy I want it for $5,500, which he might agree with since I'm paying cash up front for it. So hopefully I'll have my first car by tonight. Won't be able to drive it much until at least tomorrow though, I'll be cutting sleep short as it is. I plan on buying a few things for it in the near future, including custom foot pedals, shift knob, e-brake handle, possibly a new steering wheel, and of course, a new stereo. There's a CD player in there now, but I can't tell what brand it is, and it likely isn't very powerful, and definitely doesn't play MP3's. I'd like one with a front audio input as well, though that's rare. Not sure how much I'll mess with the body. An M3-style front bumper would be nice, but I've never done that kind of thing before. New wheels are going to cost quite a bit. Around $700 from what Ebay has. I really want them to have the BMW symbol on them as well. there's also a really nice Nissan 300ZX T-top on there as well, but it's selling for $9k, which although is a great price for the perfect condition of the car (plus all the mods), I think the leg room would be a bit short in the back, and probably in the front as well, not to mention I don't have $9k.

'Peel me from the skin, tear me from the rind...'

Another boring weekend gone by. At least I got paid well though. This paycheck was my biggest yet, and I ended up taking home $1,973.45 after taxes. My normal paycheck is about half that, but I had tons of overtime on this one, 21 hours of time-and-a-half, as well as 12.5 hours of double time. Plus I claimed exempt on my taxes, so they only took out a couple hundred for Social Security, Medicare, and my medical benefits. My next check probably won't be quite as large, but it'll have quite a bit of overtime as well, so it'll still be nice. At some point I need to find out exactly how much money I've saved. My bank account says $4,500, but that's not accounting for bills, etc for the next two weeks. Dennis still owes me $400-500, and a couple other people owe me a little bit, so $4,500 is probably fairly correct. I'll need at least $5k to get the car I want (likely a BMW 325i or 325is) and another $700 for 6 months of insurance, as well as any money for repairs, etc. I'd like to get a stereo right off the bat as well, but that may have to wait.

I can't remember what I did Saturday. I may have hung out at Dennis' in the morning, then probably slept all day, as I had to go to work Saturday night (more overtime!). Last night I went to see Chevelle and Taproot. The concert was excellent. The opening band (The Black Maria) wasn't too bad either. Kind of similar sound to AFI. Chevelle probably had the best light show during their performance that I've ever seen. The lead singer of Taproot came down and walked all through the standing-room-only crowd while Taproot was playing the song "I" (excellent song BTW). That was really cool of him, and thankfully nobody tried anything stupid to fuck it up. Unfortunately I have no pictures. I thought they would pat us down at the entrance like they did at a previous concert, so I didn't bring my camera, and just my luck, they didn't even search us.

Went to work after that, though by that time it was already midnight. I'd originally told the supervisor I'd be in no later than 11pm, but he didn't seem mad that I was late. So then I sat around for the next 8 hours doing practically nothing. In fact, I was so bored I went back and read every one of my blog entries from the very first one, and after that, read a bunch of other peoples =/. Ah well, brought back memories, some that I wish I'd written down in more detail.

Got my $60 rebate from my 120GB hard drive in the mail today. I always think of rebates as free money, since by the time I get them, that's basically what it is.

Anyways, haven't posted any pictures lately, and I don't have any new ones to post quite yet, so I went back through my pictures folder and decided to post a few older ones. The first is a hill on the way to Montana from Washington back in 2003. The snow being only on the one side made it look pretty weird. The second is a picture of the beach on Whidbey Island in Washington where my parents live, and where I grew up. The third is a picture from Fort Casey, which is also on Whidbey Island. The fort was built during WWII for protection against the Japanese, as there is a major naval base on Whidbey Island. Although there were soldiers there, it never had to be used during the war. Only a couple of the cannons remain. The Fort itself is quite interesting to walk around in though. A few years back I posted some video footage of me and my brother there. The fourth is a pic taken around the same time that the first one was. This one near the Columbia River in Washington. Number five was taken on Lake Washington when I was up there last summer. The weather was excellent while I was up there, and provided some nice sunset pics. None quite as good as the last one though, which was taken at Rosario Beach, on Fidalgo Island, also in Washington. I went there on the last day of my vacation that summer specifically to get some sunset pics. I took six or eight, but I think this one looks the best, as the light goes all the way down the water to the camera.

'I wanna always feel like part of this was mine...'

This weekend wasn't too bad. Saturday I ended up spending the entire day with Stefanie. We had lunch at Sizzler, which was the first time I'd ever been there. It wasn't too bad, but there's definitely better food for your money. Then while she had her tires checked we went over to the mall for an hour or so, and just walked around, and she bought some shoes and bathroom stuff. Then we went and watched "Dukes of Hazard", which had some funny parts, but was a mediocre move overall. Neither of us had to pay to see it though, as I had some free movie passes my work had given to me for voluntarily working so much overtime a week or two ago. After that we went home for a bit, and then had some dinner at Applebees before heading off to a sort of going-away house party for one of her friends from her old job. I didn't have much fun there as I didn't know anybody other than Stefanie, and I'm not much of a social person. Stefanie kept trying to get me to be more social, but I honestly don't get what I was supposed to talk about. She later admitted that she understood, and that she'd probably be the same way around a ton of people she didn't know. I guess she only knew about 10 people there to begin with.

Anyways, we were only there for about an hour or so, and it wasn't very fun for either of us, so we decided to go to TGI Fridays' for drinks and appetizers instead, along with two of her friends (Renzo and John). Although (again) the service and food weren't really up to par, we had a much better time there, in part by making fun of the service and food =P. Stefanie went on another rant about how men are assholes, and that the only good men were either gay, or people like me. She wondered if anyone even found her attractive anymore. This would've been a great time for me to let her know how I felt about her, but again, I don't want to ruin the chance of her coming to Washington with me in November; although earlier today I started considering whether or not I should just come out with it and get it over with.

Sunday started out pretty boring. I called Mike when I first woke up. Apparently he'd been at Disneyland since Wednesday, and just got back the night before. He said he didn't really have any plans to do anything but if he did he'd give me a call. So for the next five hours or so I sat around my apartment listening to music, browsing the internet; just wasting time. Of course by that point I pretty much figured Mike wasn't going to call back, which was fine with me, as Dennis said he'd give me a call late in the afternoon if I wasn't going to be hanging out with him (Mike). So I gave Dennis a call, but apparently his air conditioner was broke, so he was going to stay at his parents house, but was going to the 99 Cent Only store before heading over there, and asked if I wanted to come. So we went there, and to Burger King to eat. After he dropped me off I called Stefanie to see what she was up to. She was just coming home from the gym, and was going to clean her house for a bit, and then go to Wal-Mart if I wanted to go with her.

On our way to Wal-Mart, her car hit the bottom half of a shopping kart which someone had conveniently left in the road, and that someone had only moments earlier, hit themselves with their car, which was parked on the side of the road. Stefanie was sort of in shock at first. She got the car only a couple months ago, and has had all sorts of crap happen to it already. The cops showed up minutes later, which means that the other car likely hit the shopping cart long enough before we did that they could've moved the damn thing out of the road before someone else hit it, before calling the cops, but of course, they didn't. The cop told us to pull the car onto a side street so nobody would get hit. After we did that we thought we saw something leaking out of the car, and it was wet about half way from the intersection, leading up to the car. Stefanie really got upset then, and could barely talk to her mom on the phone through the tears. I got some on my hand and smelled it, and it didn't smell like anything, nor was it colored or oily looking, so it wasn't anything from the actual car. The cop thought maybe it was water coming off the wheel well (which is where it was dripping from. Apparently there was water running down the side of the street we had been driving on, and Stefanie had rolled through it when turning onto the side street. As much as we tried to tell her that it wasn't anything from the car, and it was just water, she was still freaked out that her car might be seriously damaged. She finally calmed down though, and we eventually went to Wal-Mart anyways, and the car didn't seem to have any problems with the brakes, or steering or anything, which I think helped her calm down a bit more, as she seemed to return to semi-normal in Wal-Mart.

Today was extraordinarily boring. It's a Monday, which means everybody's at work but me. Sometimes Stefanie has Monday's off, but she had to work in the morning today. Dennis called, and we talked for a bit. Other than that I've just been browsing the forums, catching up on PSP homebrew news, checked out Logitech's new G15 Keyboard and G7 Cordless Laser Mouse, which I'm absolutely going to put on my shopping list once I have the money.

'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.

Back on the bottle

Well, I guess I'm officially back on caffeine again. I was off for just over six months, which is pretty damn significant for me, since I used to drink soda like some folks breath air. Ever since this new job though, I've started drinking it again. I can't handle only having six hours of sleep and then sitting down for 8 hours without nodding off it seems. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted. Feels good to be able to drink Mountain Dew again though, or as Adam Corrola calls it, "The Nectar of the Tards" =P.

Been thinking a lot about my saving for a new car. August seems such a long ways off, especially now that I've narrowed it down to probably getting a Nissan 200SX SE-R. There are two of them on AutoTrader.com in less than 25 miles of me, both in good-to-excellent condition from what I can tell by the photos. It's got 140HP, and one of them has a turbo, performance exhaust, and a bunch of other performance parts on it. I'd like to get that one, only I don't want it to sound like a damn lawnmower, so I'd probably have to replace the exhaust. The other one just has some performance tires on it I think, but it has double the miles, and only costs a few hundred less. Both cars are around $4,000, give or take a couple hundred. Insurance will only be around $140 a month, but I plan on paying it in a lump sum every six months, as it's cheaper by about $150 that way. Now I just have to wait for 4-5 months for the money to be saved up =/. Ah well, so far time at the new job has flown by, and hopefully it'll continue that way.

Ok, time to catch up...

My friend Dennis and his wife Nicole just had their 3rd kid a few days ago...the 8th I think. It's hard keeping track of days when you work nights. Here is a picture of her. They named her Marissa Shanel Varela.

Last weekend was pretty busy. Went to lunch with Stacy, dinner with Stefanie. After dinner Stefanie, her sister, her sister's fiance, and myself went to a place called Jillian's, which is sort of an arcade/bar/club. Played some air hockey and a few other games. After that we went and saw the movie "White Noise", which wasn't too bad. Had a pretty crappy ending though. If your looking for a movie that will make your date jump and hold on to you, it does do that two or three times.

My friend Mike and his girlfriend both got new cars. He traded in his 2003 Honda Civic LX for a 2002 Ford Focus SVT 3-door. I'm not real fond of the Focus myself, as I think it's pretty ugly on the outside. The inside isn't too bad though, although he got the one with all the options like heated seats, 6-disc changer, upgraded sound system, etc. Even came with a "stock" sub-woofer. It won't make your chest cave in obviously, but it's definitely better than most stock stereo's. His girlfriend got a much better car IMO. It's a 2005 Mazda 3 4-door. I like Mazda's much better than the Focus, particularly the Mazda 6 and the RX-7. The Mazda 3 is pretty much the Protege with a bigger engine and a new body. It's sort of the economy version of the Mazda 6. The interior is even better than the Focus, especially because it has a built in GPS System. I didn't even realize how much GPS systems could do until I saw her and Mike messing with the one in the car. They can really be helpful though. Looks damn cool to, and folds away into the dash so car thieves can't see it =D.

Planning to go to Los Vegas at the end of February. A friend of mine is graduating from the school I originally moved down here to go to, so she's going up there for the weekend with a bunch of friends to celebrate. It'll be my first time there. I don't plan on gambling any though, because I suck at it. Should be a good time though.

Was planning on going up to Washington for a week in February, but plans have been changed to March. I won't be spending probably any time with my parents unfortunately, because I'll be going with my brother and a bunch of friends to Big White, in Canada, to go snowboarding. it'll be my first time "actually" snowboarding. I've ridden on my brother's snowboard down some very short, but not very steep hills, but that's hardly snowboarding. Unfortunately it's going to cost me quite a bit of money because I have to buy pretty much everything but the snowboard (which I'll rent when I get there). Luckily I found some quality gear for pretty cheap prices thanks to Google and Ebay. I plan on spending ~$450-$550 on equipment and lift tickets, plus another $150-200 for the plane ticket, so this will easily be the most expensive trip yet, but hopefully it'll all be worth it. I just wish my brother could get me some solid dates so I don't have to worry about spending $700, and the trip ends up getting canceled. I'll be putting most of the equipment costs on credit cards, so if the trip "does" get canceled, it won't hurt my wallet much....at least initially. Out of curiosity, anyone know of any good places online to get gear? Not looking for top of the line, nor am I looking for cheap stuff. Just looking for something in-between, or if you can get quality stuff at really good prices. I already bought my goggles, but I'm still looking for a Jacket, pants, and gloves. I have a hat somewhere around here... Unfortunately I wear a size 14-15 snowboard boot, so that's going to be a pain in the ass to find. Here's the gear I'm currently looking at, and will probably purchase...

K2 Cyclone Tech Jacket - Grey/Blue - XL - $71 after S/H
Liquid Avalanche Pant - Iron - $140 after S/H
Drop Horizon Gore-Tex Gloves - Navy - XL - $40 after S/H
OR Drop Team Gore-Tex Gloves - Black - $35 after S/H
Spy: Scoop - Black w/ Persimmon Lens $31 after S/H (already purchased)

Traded in my HP 435 digital camera that I got last month for Christmas. Returned it to Wal-Mart, and got a Kodak 7350 instead. It's a thousand times better, and only cost $30 more.