'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 could never be the one that you want, don't ask. Well, here's to living in the moment, cause it passed...'

So vacation's been great so far. The day after Mike and I arrived, we took a tour of Whidbey Island where I grew up, along with my brother and Sabrina. To get there we took the ferry to Clinton, then drove north through Clinton, stopping off to get Pete some baking powder for heart burn, and getting some hot chocolate at a drive-in coffee house. We then drove to Greenbank Farms so my brother could pick up some wine. When we got there, we noticed they had some kind of swap meet or something going on in one of the buildings. We went in to check it out, and while looking around I spotted a tiny violin on one of the vendors tables. I went and grabbed Pete to show him, and he found out it was only $25. That was a steal, and he thought it looked pretty cool, and Sabrina used to play violin when she was younger, so he decided to buy it.

We left the farm, and headed north to check out Fort Casey. We walked through there a while, with my brother and I talking a little bit about the fort, and taking a few pictures here and there. After Fort Casey we drove toward Oak Harbor, taking the back road around by West Beach, and passing the most recent house that our parents and us had lived in before we left Oak Harbor. Driving downtown we passed our church and the first apartments we'd lived in when we first moved there, which at the time my dad only paid a mere $80 a month for a three bedroom, two bathroom, two story apartment. Then we drove down Pioneer Road downtown and decided to stop in at Mi Pueblo for lunch. It was dark and empty inside on the first floor, and I almost thought they might actually be closed or something, but we walked upstairs and someone who looked like he was about to fall asleep at the table he was sitting at, jumped up and helped us. The food wasn't bad. Your basic Mexican restaurant stuff.

After eating we went up the street to a house we'd lived in for a number of years which we refer to as 'The Big White House'. The house is well over a hundred years old. I think it was probably one of our favorite places to live just because it was kind of unique. We have a lot of good memories of living there. The compost bins my dad built were still in the back yard, though the apple tree looked like it had been recently trimmed back. We left Oak Harbor and went by Christian's Auto and Metal Recycling, where my brother and I had both worked at one point, though at different times. We drove by the Naval Base, then turned around and headed to Deception Pass.

When we got to the bridge, Sabrina stayed near the parking lot as she's afraid of heights, while Mike, Pete, and myself walked out on to the bridge and over to Canoe Island which is between the two bridges of Deception Pass. On our way across the bridge, Pete noticed a giant splash in the water below, and thought someone had just jumped off the bridge. Turns out there as actually a number of Sea Lions swimming directly below the bridge, and one had jumped out of the water and cause the splash. At first we thought they were seals, but they were much too large. After watching them for a bit, Pete decided to turn back and stay with Sabrina, while Mike and I walked down on to the Island. We took a few pictures and tried to get a better look at the Sea Lions, but we couldn't really see them from the angle we were at. We headed back to the car, and drove over the bridge to Fidalgo Island, and on to Mount Erie. When we got to the top, it was much too cloudy for a good view of Puget Sound. We took a few pictures anyways though. Finally the tour was over, and we headed back to Seattle via the I-5 freeway over the mainland.

The next day Mike, Peter, and myself headed to the Cascade Mountain range, while Sabrina stayed in Bellvue to pack and do some cleaning. We drove up to a campground that we used to camp at frequently called Colonial Creek Campground, which is next to Ross Lake. The campground had changed quite a bit since I'd last been there, but most of it was exactly the same as it had been for decades. We left and drove up to Washington Pass to check out the snow. None of us had brought any boots or anything so we couldn't really go in it. That was the end of the trip though, and we headed back to Seattle.

The next morning I got a phone call early in the morning from my parents. My dad said that they were out of power because it had started snowing the day before around noon, and hadn't stopped since. At the time of the phone call they were up to six inches, with no sign of stopping. This is pretty much exactly what my brother and I had hoped for, minus the lack of electricity of course. Still, I wasn't that worried, as we had at least a nine hour drive to their house in Hamilton, Montana, and we weren't even planning on leaving Seattle for another three hours or so. My dad recommended I get chains for the rental, so while everyone was still sleeping, I drove to Les Schwab and picked some up, making sure I'd be able to return them if they were never used. Filled the car up with gas, and went back to Pete's house. We packed up the car, hit up McDonalds for breakfast, and were on the road by 9:30am. The mountain passes were all clear, so the chains stayed in their bag. Only a couple miles from Hamilton there was a bad accident and we had to turn around and take a different, much slower route. We stopped in at Hamilton to pick up some things for my mom at the store, and made it to their house by 9:30pm MST, so all in all, an 11 hour trip.

When we got to my parents, the power was still out, and it stayed out all until the next morning when finally it came back on. The rest of the week went well. Most of the time we stayed inside, with temperatures constantly dropping, at one point even hitting 0 degrees Fahrenheit during the night. To keep entertained we watched movies, TV series on DVD, played video games, and even did some snowboarding on the hill next to the house. Thanksgiving came and my Uncle Jim and Aunt Gidget came to have dinner with us. That Saturday we took a tour of my dad's new workplace at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in Hamilton. Finally on Sunday it was time to head back to Seattle. The trip back didn't seem to take quite as long, I think only 9 or 10 hours. The passes were a little more icy than they were the first time through, but there was still no need for the chains, and I returned them the next day before taking the rental back. Speaking of the rental, we'd tried to get a discount on it by going through our friend Justin, who works as a concierge at a local hotel, but when I returned the rental, it apparently didn't get applied, and it ended up costing me nearly $500 for 10 days. Still, that's pretty much what I'd expected to pay going into it, so no big deal.

It's now been about 5 days since we got back. Much of the time has been spent at my brother's house playing Guitar Hero 3 and Assassin's Creed, though I did manage to go out to see Beowulf 3D at the local IMAX along with Clarence and his girlfriend Niessa, which was pretty interesting. Monday before Mike went back to Phoenix, we went downtown and walked around Pike Place Market, and later that night when Sabrina was driving me home, we got into a car accident when her car was rear-ended. Thankfully nobody was hurt, and the girl that hit us actually stopped, and had insurance. Also ended up playing pool at a dive bar up the street called Piper's a couple times. This weekend I'll be heading to Sabrina's parent's house while Pete is introduced to them. They're having enchiladas apparently, so I'm really looking forward to it :P Sabrina and I went Christmas shopping today. I didn't buy anything, just came along to get out of the house and keep her company.

Yesterday my dad called and said my mom was going in for open heart surgery today, which took us all by surprise. Apparently she hadn't been feeling well, and her temperature had risen to 105, and heart was beating very fast. The doctors discovered a hole in her heart, with an infection nearby, which had spread into her blood. The surgery was successful, and they replaced one of the valves in her heart. She'll have to be on IV antibiotics for the next six weeks.

That's all for now, other than Niickiey text messaged me a couple times. Once the night I first arrived in Seattle, wishing me a fun vacation and happy Thanksgiving, and another on Thanksgiving, saying Happy Thanksgiving. I didn't reply to either, as much as I was tempted to. At first I was angry, then the same old thoughts of wanting answers came up, but I ignored them as best I could. If she wants to talk, she can apologize first, then I'll think about it; but honestly, that's not likely to happen.

Pictures of the vacation so far can be viewed here.

'Hold me now I need to feel complete... Like I matter to the one I need...'

One more day... One more day until I finally leave for Washington. It's been one crazy long month to get through, let me tell you.

I've been on an insane spending spree lately. I racked up more than $5,000 in credit card debt in the last couple months, thanks to a number of things. Namely big purchases such as my new California King bed, and a weekend or two ago I bought two laptops for $350 each, and two HD-DVD players for $99 each at a 'Pre-Black Friday' sale at Wal-Mart. One of the HD-DVD players was for me, one laptop was for Stacy, and what was left over was to sell to whoever wanted it. I got rid of the HD-DVD player, but the laptop has yet to sell. I can't sell it on eBay because I don't have enough time before I have to leave on vacation, so it'll be going back to Wal-Mart for my money back. My car was a big part of the debt as well, racking up over $1400 between getting hit, and bad wheel bearings; not to mention the $160 for the car rental. There was also my new phone, a $170 phone bill, and the trip to Sedona, among many other things I charged to the card rather than my debit account.

I've bought a number of games recently as well, some of which I talked about in my last entry. Bought Ratchet & Clank and Guitar Hero 3; and will be buying Mario Galaxy and Assassin's Creed, hopefully both today. My financial problems aren't going to be fixed anytime soon with the trip to Washington which includes a $500 car rental, gas from WA to Montana and back, and then Christmas is right around the corner. I won't be buying gifts for my family this year, just as I didn't last year. It costs so much to visit them I figure that's their Christmas gift anyways, lol. I wouldn't know what to get even if I did have money.

So anyways, as always, I'm really looking forward to this trip; as is my best friend Mike who's coming along for a little over a week of it. I was looking up the weather for Montana for when we'll be there, and as luck would have it, the day after we arrive, the temperature drops more than 10 degrees from the previous day, for highs in the low 30's, and low's below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, for the entire week. Supposedly it will be snowing all week as well. With those temperature's that's certainly possible, but we'll have to wait and see if it's just a few flakes, or a blizzard. I'm kind of hoping for blizzard early on, then flakes after... I'd love to have a lot of snow, but I want to make it back to Seattle as well, lol.

Haven't really done much these last couple weekends. Just hung out with friends mostly, played lots and lots of Oblivion and Guitar Hero 3. No new pictures to post, though there should be a lot while I'm on vacation.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading

'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.

'Our hopes and expectations, black holes and revelations...'

Just got back yesterday from a four day trip to California, or, more specifically, Disneyland. My best friend and his girlfriend were going, and had asked if I wanted to come along for a few days. I hadn't been to Disneyland in like 8 years, for my sister's 18th birthday, so I was pretty excited. Plus, I don't get to hang out with them enough, so it'd be good to spend a few days hanging out.

They were going to stay until Friday, but I was going to only stay for a couple days, and leave Wednesday in time to make it back for work that night. I didn't have any paid time-off anymore, so not only was the trip going to cost quite a bit for the hotel, tickets, gas, and of course, food, but I'd be losing money not working for a couple days as well. So we decided to take separate cars, but drive together. I technically could've taken a plane back, but I love driving, even if it's by myself, for six straight hours of nothing but desert.

So anyways, I won't write down every detail of the vacation. We all had a great time though. I've never walked so much in my entire life, and I used to walk everywhere before I had a car. My legs were completely shot after two days of walking through Disneyland, Downtown Disney, California Adventure, and to and from the hotel, not to mention walking along the beach, and around the shops, etc. We went on a lot of rides, much more than I went on the last time I was there, including Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted House, the Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, California Screamin', and lots more. I was a little wary of riding the roller coasters (of which most of the rides are), but once I rode them at least once, it was a lot easier, and I ended up enjoying them quite a bit.

We stayed at the Anaheim Hilton and Towers hotel, which was pretty nice, especially for the low $89 a night price. They even accidentally threw in a free mini-fridge as well, but I didn't end up using it because I was never at the hotel other than to sleep.

The only bad part about the trip was that there were three of us, which meant on rides that only sat two people per seat, I was by myself, which wasn't very fun at all. I already knew that would happen, but it didn't ruin the vacation or anything.

So now I'm back in Phoenix, and frantically trying to balance my finances, and who's going to get what for Christmas, and if they're even going to get it by Christmas, or if they're going to have to wait until I get more money. Mostly I'm focusing on getting everyone here in Phoenix their gifts by Christmas, and I've done surprisingly better than I thought I was going to do (which doesn't really mean much). I still have quite a few gifts to think of and buy though, and that will probably all be done today, or this weekend, which I actually took off for once, not only because of the holiday, but because Stacy wanted to hang out one night, so I promised her I would.

So, now for the pictures! Some of these turned out really well, and I can tell I'm getting more used to using my camera and it's different settings, particularly the aperture and shutter speed settings.

As always, you can view them with comments here.

'This problems gonna last, more than the weekend...'

I've been back from vacation a few days now, so it's probably about time I put up the pictures. Had a great time up in the Northwest visiting friends and family, but its good to be back home again.

Click on any of the images below to enlarge them in a new window.

The same images, with descriptions can be found here.

'So help yourself to guns and ammo...'

Well, I've now been awake 35 hours as of this entry. It's been a while since I've been up this long. I'm really tired, and although it's one in the morning here in Seattle, nobody's gone to bed yet, so I won't be either. So, I figured may as well write a blog entry to pass the time, and post up the handful of pictures that I've taken so far.

The plane ride wasn't too bad. My only complaint was that it was a little warm, and my chair wouldn't recline, as I was in the emergency exit row. In fact, this is the first time I've ever sat in the emergency exit row, as normally it's taken by the time I buy my ticket. It was taken this time as well, but for whatever reason, they had me change seats when I got on the plane. I was definitely grateful for the extra leg room, but with that extra room I felt the need to lie down to try and sleep, but apparently the seats in those rows don't recline for safety reasons. The in-flight movie was a good one. Pirates of the Carribean 2. Too bad I didn't have head phones, or $5 to buy some from the flight attendant. So instead I watched it silently, or played my DS, both of which helped pass the time on the 3 hour flight.

After my brother picked me up at the airport and we went back to his house, I opened my bags to find that the TSA decided it would be fun to drag all the contents of my suitcase out, including my 19" LCD which was in a special case to help protect it. I wouldn't have minded this had they bothered to put the LCD back in the case. They didn't, and now there are scratches all over the screen, and the bezel was knocked out of place. Thankfully there wasn't any major damage though. Also glad I decided to carry on my camera, so there wouldn't be an opportunity for it to disappear.

We ate lunch at The Honey Hole, and afterwards decided to hit up the mountains and try to attach my brother's snow chains to his tires, so we'd be prepared if we had to use them on the way to Montana on Tuesday. Unfortunately we weren't able to get them on, although we weren't trying for very long, as it got dark pretty quickly, and it was pretty damn cold outside (about 36F).

Went back home, had dinner at Gorditos, then went over to a friends to hang out for a while. So far the only thing I managed to forget was my contact lens solution, which is no big deal. Will be going to my Grandma's house tomorrow to set up her computer, which she had sent me a while back to fix. Monday we have to take my brothers car to the mechanic to look at his clutch, which has been causing problems. It's been "fixed" twice already, but the problem keeps returning in a matter of days, and we need it fixed before the trip to Montana.

So, that's all for now. Having a good time, just as I always do when I come back here. Looking forward to the road trip on Tuesday, seeing my parents, etc.

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.

'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...

'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.

More pictures from Texas

Here are some more pictures from Texas. These were taken over the weekend. I rented an SUV, and we drove down to Space Center Houston on Saturday, and then drove down to an island/city called Galveston on Sunday. There's a place called Moody Gardens there that we visited, that has contained ecosystems inside of 10 story pyramids. One of them was a rainforest ecosystem, that had plants and animals from four different types of rainforests. The other was an Aquarium, that had plants and animals from four different oceans. It was a lot more interesting than the aquarium we'd visited earlier in the week. Quite a bit bigger, with quite a bit more to see.

Pictures 2

'I could've lied, I'm such a fool...'

Wow, it's been nearly a month since I've made an entry! Not sure how much I have to catch up on, so I'll just start typing...

Vacation was good. It was definitely needed to. Unfortunately I was only able to go snowboarding once, and there wasn't any fresh snow when I went, so I didn't have quite as much fun as I did last February, even though I did better at the beginning of the day than last time. The snow was packed hard and frozen though, so every time I fell, which was quite a bit, it hurt like hell. I'm still too scared to go toeside though, so I pretty much just scrape down the hill sideways. Once I get toeside down, I'm sure I'll improve quite a bit. I did a lot better getting off the lift, as well as getting up after strapping in or falling down though, so I was happy about that. I haven't uploaded very many pictures yet, and the ones I did can't be accessed because MS is temporarily down, so I'll post those in another blog at a later date.

Some good news work-wise. My employer is sending me to Houston, Texas for two weeks, starting January 2nd. That should definitely be an interesting experience, being somewhere completely new, and for the most part, all alone. I should have plenty of internet access while I'm there thanks to Dennis letting me borrow his new laptop, and the Hotel will surely have free wireless internet access. Someone else from work on a different shift is going as well. I've never met him, so hopefully he's pretty cool. This is a pretty big step for me as far as work goes as well, since I've been there less than a year, and they're already sending me other places to help out. I think it's a definite sign of their confidence in me, etc. Maybe someday they'll send me someplace really interesting, like Paris or London. Everything is paid for by my employer as well. They've already reserved the flight and hotel. Everything else will initially come out of my pocket, and I'll be reimbursed once I get back on the 14th. They allow up to $60 a day for food! I spend about that much in a week normally, so I'm definitely going to take advantage of that =P.

As usual I've waited to the last minute to buy Christmas gifts. So far only bought four gifts, and still have about 8 or 10 to go. I'm looking at spending just over $1,000 this year, though it could end up being a bit more than even that depending on what I can think to get for some people. So far I've bought a Makita 18V Drill and Flashlight set for my Dad, some pearl earrings for my mom, a bluetooth headset for my brother, Bubble Bobble for GBA for Dennis' brother, and an ASU jacket for Dennis' dad. I'm probably going to get Stacy a digital camera. It'd definitely be useful in the future to take pictures of her daughter. Right now she's using a scanner to make them digital. Going to try and get DJ a Reggie Bush jersey off Ebay. I have no clue what Dennis wants. Probably going to get his wife some perfume, just need to find out which kind she wants. Not sure what to get his kids either. Dennis said I should just get them gift certificates to Industrial or something (a skater clothing shop), which would be fine, but I want to get them something that they'd actually enjoy, which means toys of course, as they're 5 and 7 years old. His daughter is turning one year in January. I thought about getting her a doll or something, but her mom got her a ton of those, so I'll have to find something else. Maybe I'll get Stacy's daughter a doll though. Not sure what to get my sister. I thought about yet another season of Little House on the Prairie, but that's what I've been getting her for like, two years in a row, so I'd like to get something different. I need to think of something for Tiffany as well. The only thing I know she'd really like is a new PS2, but that's a bit spendy. I thought about getting it as a combined gift for her and Mike, but he doesn't play video games all that much. Still, he did ask for one of those classic game systems that have like 20 games stored in them that you just plug into a TV and play, so if I got the PS2, and like, Midway Arcade Treasures or something, that might be good. Also thought about getting him an MP3 player, or a new video card for his PC, because he was talking about getting a new PC so he could play newer games, but I told him that'd be a waste, because he just needs a new video card (he's using an old 32MB GeForce 256 if I remember right).

I've been working a ton of overtime since I came back. Both last weekend and this weekend I worked both Saturday and Sunday night, and worked some overtime during the week to. All that extra money will be nice. I need to get the heater fixed on my car. Doesn't work at all. It's been getting pretty cold here in Phoenix at night; even down to near freezing one day, but mostly in the low 40's.

So anyways, that's all for now I think. Probably add another entry in a day or two.

Having fun so far

Well, I finally got internet access, though only through use of my PSP, and stealing someone else's internet connection. Should be at my parents house later on today though. Ended up having to buy a new video card for my computer, because the heatsink of my old one came off during the flight over, and I think I ended up frying it. So I bought a GeForce 6600GT 128MB. It runs a hell of a lot faster than my old 4200.

Went snowboarding on Thursday. Didn't take to many pictures though.

'Take another motherfuckin' hit of LSD...'

Wow, I just came home this morning from work, and the apartment below and to the left of me apparently caught fire last night or this morning. All the glass in the front door and the window was all smashed in, and there were a number of people around working on stuff, cleaning up, etc. When I went up the stairs to my apartment, my front door was ajar. I'm guessing the firemen opened it to make sure nobody was inside. My apartment smells a little like smoke, but it's not too bad. The fire never made it to my apartment though, so that's good. I would've freaked out if I'd come home and everything was burned to the ground =/. Especially because I don't have renters insurance or anything.

So I'm finally going on vacation tomorrow. My plane leaves just after seven in the morning, so I have to pack all my shit today. I need to clean my apartment as well, cause it's pretty damn dirty (compared to usually anyways). Had to throw away a lot of the food that was in my fridge, since I'll be gone for so long. I need to get a hold of my brother as well, to see if he can get me a ride from the airport. I plan on staying at his place for a few days, then go to my parents, then next week we'll head to my grandmothers in Montana for Thanksgiving, then back to Washington.

I probably won't be around a whole lot for at least through Thanksgiving, since I'll be hanging out with my brother much of the first week, and my grandma doesn't have internet access at her house.

'And every time it rains, are the angels crying...'

I think I slept through over half the weekend. I'd wake up, and try to think of anything I could do that day, and nothing would come to mind, so I just fell back asleep. Only hung out with Dennis for a couple hours on Saturday. Called Mike Sunday, while waiting for one of my tires to get repaired. Apparently his g/f Tiffany had been in the hospital for a couple days, and she was getting out in a couple hours. Said he'd call me if they ended up doing anything. No call came, so they probably just went home and rested. I doubt she was in the mood to be doing anything. I really want to start hiking in the morning again though, so I'll have to give him a call this morning and see if he's up for it sometime this week. The weather's been great here in Phoenix the last week or two, now that it's cooled down. Usually high 70's to mid 80's. A couple people have asked me if I'd taken my car on any trips yet, but I haven't, mainly because I don't really want to go by myself.

Watched "Jarhead" on Friday, which was a pretty cool movie. There wasn't much action in it, surprisingly, seeing that it takes place during Desert Storm. I won't say anything more than that though, as it might spoil the movie. Also got that Blockbuster movie deal where you can rent unlimited movies a month. Already rented four movies, including "Donnie Darko", "Be Cool", "The Amityville Horror", and "Suspect Zero".

Only one more week until I go on vacation! I can't wait to get out of Phoenix. It seems like forever since I was up in WA, and I was just there in August! Three weeks of vacation should be really nice though. Apparently we're going to Montana for Thanksgiving to visit my grandma as well, which should be fun. I love going there in the winter, especially if it snows.

'Under the bridge downtown, I gave my life away...'

Well, I'm back from vacation. Other than having to go for a funeral, I had a great time visiting friends and family, and getting out of the heat. The weather in Washington couldn't have been better. It was sunny and mostly cloudless almost the entire time I was there; usually temps of low to mid-80's. Only started to cloud up on the day that I left. While on vacation, on Saturday night, I went to a party at a house that apparently nobody knew who lived there. Not much happened there, so we left after about an hour or so. Then on Monday my brother, myself, and a friend, drove up into the Cascade Mountains to shoot my brothers new .40 cal pistol (Walther P99), as well as his .308 rifle and our friends SKS. Unfortunately due to the heat, the bugs were out in full force, and it took a while to find a spot where we could at least tolerate them. I got my mom to play a bit of Gran Turismo 4. It's quite entertaining to watch old people try to play video games. I had to buy her a 24hp car just so she could stay on the track for more than 5 seconds =P.

Made a few more plans for when I come up in November. My brother said he can get rooms at the hotel he works for at around 1/4 of the price, so about $50-60 a night, for what normally is a $220/night room. He figured it'd probably be best to get Stefanie a hotel room while we're in Seattle so she doesn't have to sleep on his couch =P. It'll probably only be for one night anyways. I'll probably rent a car the week she's there as well. All this will severely cut into my car fund, but it'll be worth it. I was able to sell my System of a Down ticket on eBay. I actually made an extra $10 on it as well, which was nice. Dennis and DJ said the concert turned out really good. They weren't too impressed with Marz Volta though. I've only heard one song by them, and wasn't really impressed either, and Dennis said that was their best song. I'm not quite sure why they were touring with SOAD.

Now that I'm back in Phoenix, it's back to work. I guess they stopped mandatory overtime starting today, which, although is bad for my paycheck, I'm kind of relieved, cause I'm extremely tired. I feel like I need a vacation =P. Unfortunately sleep will have to wait though, as Dennis wants us to hang out with him this morning after work. It's nice that I only have three days of work until the weekend.

I have a few pictures to post up, but they're at on my camera at home. I'll post them up once I get home from Dennis'

XM Radio and other good stuff...

I got XM Satellite Radio this weekend. I was planning on getting it around September, when I bought my car, but it turns out someone at my work was selling their hardware, which was still in the package, for $50 less than what it would cost me if I bought it from the store, so I got the XM SkyFi Receiver, Vehicle Kit, and SkyFi Audio System for a mere $200. Plus I didn't have to pay tax or shipping. If it were up to me I would've got the SkyFi2, which has a built in wireless transmitter, but the wireless transmitter only works when in the car kit, and even then I'll be buying an XM compatible stereo for my car, so the FM transmitter would be useless. Even though XM radio has 150+ stations, I only really listen to about six or seven of them. Two rock stations (ch 47, 48), three electronica stations (ch 80, 81, 82), and two hip-hop stations (ch 67, 68) which I very rarely listen to. Most of the other stations are pretty much crap. I might add the 90's station later, but whenever I've turned to it, there wasn't ever anything I liked playing. They shouldn't just have a "90's" station, it should be like "90's Alt Rock", or "90's Hip-Hop", etc, not everything ever made in the 90's all rolled into one station... You can't have Celine Dion come on after Tupac....

Got some excellent news this week/weekend. I've been trying to get my best friend Mike to go with me to Washington on vacation at some point, and he keeps blowing me off, but DJ said he'd love to go up when I go for Thanksgiving this year. Mainly he wants to smoke some Washington and/or Canada grown marijuana, as well as hang out and see the sights, etc. Apparently Jimi Hendrix is buried in a cemetery in or near Seattle, so we're going to check that out, as well as go to Kurt Cobain's house, which I think is right up the street from my brother's apartment. Kurt was cremated, and his ashes put in three different places, so he doesn't have an actual grave. According to what I read, when Courtney Love asked around to a couple cemeteries, they refused to put a grave for Kurt in their cemetary because it would generate unwanted traffic (aka immature teens).

Not only is DJ planning on going, but yesterday Stefanie mentioned she was going to drive up to Washington with her ex-boyfriend at some point. I got a bit angry because I had just asked her a few weeks ago if she wanted to go up with me and check it out, but she made an excuse about how she wouldn't because she'd probably end up not coming back because she liked it so much. I thought she might actually just be thinking it was a little forward of me to ask her to come because we're not dating or anything. Apparently she had just said that because she thought I was going at Christmas time, and she had to be here in Phoenix for Christmas. When I explained to her that I didn't have any actual dates set, and that I was planning on going up for three weeks anytime around Thanksgiving through Christmas, she was a lot more open, and seemed genuinely excited about going.

I'm a bit wary about how long that excitement will last though. November is quite some time away; and, since we're driving up, she'd have to take quite a bit of time (at least a week) off from work, because it takes a minimum of 2.5-3 days of constant driving to get to Seattle from Phoenix. She would only drive up with me on the way there, and then fly back to Phoenix after staying there a few days. I'm still remaining optimistic that she'll end up coming after all though. There's so many places to go, it'd be pretty hard for her to get bored in only a few days (*knock on wood*). Now to wait out the four months....

Getting off this Wisconsin death trip...

This weekend started off slow, so I prepared myself to waste it sitting around my apartment being bored, but thankfully, that wasn't the case. Friday night was my last night in the mentoring program at my work, so Monday night I'll be a full fledged employee, which comes with no additional benefit, in fact, quite the opposite. While in mentoring, if I screwed up, it didn't matter quite that much, as I had someone to turn to and ask questions, as well as take the blame or make up a story for the Supervisor, so that I wouldn't get into too much trouble. The next couple weeks should reveal fairly clearly if I'm going to be able to make it through the year without getting fired.

Saturday I did nothing, just sat around the apartment. DJ called me up and said he was planning on going to see "The Longest Yard" with Dennis, and wanted to know if I wanted to come, which I did. Unfortunately Dennis couldn't get his mom to watch his three kids while we went to the movie, so we ended up not going. I stayed up Saturday night until about 5:30am, as I figured I probably wouldn't get any phone calls to do anything until at least 10:30-11:00am. Turned out I was wrong, as Dennis called up at ~9:30, so I only got four or so hours of sleep. I didn't feel all that tired though, so wasn't too bad. I got up, shaved my head and got ready for the day, and walked over to his house, which is about a mile away, in the 95 degree heat. Thankfully there was a slight breeze, so it wasn't completely horrible. August can't come any faster though... Played six or eight games of pool at Dennis' with him and DJ. Only won once, but came extremely close every other time. I'm getting quite a bit better at it lately. They used to win with nearly all of my balls still on the table =P. After that we watched "The Aviator", which was a pretty decent movie, though slow at times. Probably wouldn't hurt to cut at least 30 minutes of footage from it, being a 3 hour movie. After that we went to Blimpie for subs, and then Blockbuster and rented "Finding Neverland", (also a decent flick, especially for one tailored to children) and another movie, which I forget the name of, as we haven't watched it yet.

Dennis dropped me off back home around 11:00pm, and I decided to give Stefanie a call so she wouldn't complain about me never calling. Turns out she lost her job as a server at The Olive Garden on Thursday, just for not ringing up someones desert, so that sucks. She was going to go get something to eat at Taco Bell, but asked me if I was hungry, and wanted to go to TGI Friday's since their appetizers were 1/2 off. I wasn't particularly hungry, as I'd just eaten a foot long sub only a couple hours earlier, but I'd rather hang out with her than sit around my apartment, so we went. Originally she was planning on just buying some cheap $2 appetizer, since she just lost her job, and was trying to conserve money, but I thought that was pretty ridiculous, and told her to order whatever she wanted, as I would pay for it. She objected of course, so while we were looking at the menu, I just asked her what she thought was good to eat, and I just ordered a few things she said, which ended up being chili cheese fries, mozzarella sticks, and some giant salad, as well as an alcoholic drink (called a Tidal Wave) that she suggested I should have if I ever started drinking alcohol. So we just shared all the food (except the alcohol, which was hers of course) and talked for a long time about her old job, school, friends, etc. Good times.

Yesterday I was thinking about how hard it seems to be to maintain more than a couple of friends as an adult, particularly with a schedule that's completely the opposite of everyone you know because I work nights. I have roughly six friends that I like hanging out with, none of them which work with me, and none of them hang out with each other. I used to spend every Saturday with Dennis, and Sunday's with Mike, and the others pretty much got neglected, as I have a hard time calling people to just talk to unless they're a really good friend (which are the two people I already hang out with). Week days and nights are virtually impossible to hang out with anyone because I sleep during the afternoon/evening, and then go to work at night. Having to work on Friday nights certainly doesn't help either. Thankfully Stefanie's sort of a night person herself, so after I'm done hanging out with Dennis or Mike, there's still a chance to hang out with her for a few hours on the weekends even if it's around midnight. My friend Richard, who, before today I hadn't spoken to in three months, recently bought a house and sent me the pictures a couple days ago, so I called him up to say Hi and congratulate him, and catch up, etc. He'll be going to Texas next weekend, but he wants to buy and install a new surround sound system in their house for their new 52" HDTV, and asked me if I'd help him out with it in a couple of weeks, so that should be fun.

While at Dennis' I talked to my parents for an hour or so about various things, including taking a trip up to Alaska next summer. I get three weeks of Paid Time Off a year, and since I'll have my car in a couple months, I really want to drive up to Washington, which is about 2.5-3 days of virtually non-stop driving. If no one down here wants to go up with me, then I'll probably end up flying my brother down or something so we can take turns at the wheel. I'm extremly excited about that, as the longest "road-trip" I've been on was only about 13 hours, from our house in Washington to my Grandma's in Montana. Plenty of opportunity for pictures though, and thankfully, my battery recharger came with a car adapter =P. The Alaska trip would probably have to be separate. My Dad said it'd be best if we had at least two-weeks of time to do it, and that's probably best, as it's about a 2-2.5 day drive non-stop my parents house to Fairbanks, where we used to live. Then we'd probably head past Mt. McKinley, and to Anchorage, and possible a couple other places, then head back. I really want my parents to come visit Phoenix again as well, and I told them if they could find the time, I'd have no problem paying for the tickets.

Starved of the internet for 2 days...

Well that sucked. Just as my internet at my home goes down, my work also puts a ban on the internet for this week due to excessive filing to the SEC. Finally got my internet at home back today, and according to the cable guy, 99 channels of free cable TV, though I've yet to actually see if this is true or not. Apparently someone in the complex was feeding a signal back through the cable line and it was screwing with more than just my service. I also found out that the cable lines in my apartment are low-density cables, and that I'd never be able to get digital cable here, and that I could possibly have more problems with the internet. However, since I've had my internet for over a year, without problems, I'm not worried, and since I rarely watch TV, I'm not worried about the digital cable wither.

As many of you may or may not know, got my PSP last thursday, and as I've barely done any actual work at my job, I've been playing it quite a bit. I bought Ridge Racer, Wipeout: Pure, and Untold Legends. I mostly play Ridge Racer, and split time evenly between Wipeout and Untold Legends. A coworker has Lumines, and that's basically a very odd version of Tetris. It is quite fun though, especially when the music and graphics change after a certain amount of time/points. Great for those that like puzzle games like that. I bought a pair of clamshell style UMD cases as well, since it's probably not the best idea to stick the UMD's in your pocket. Each case holds 3 UMD's, and still fits quite comfortably into your pocket. I can even fit my PSP and the UMD case, and my cell phone all into one pocket, though the pockets on my pants are pretty large. I managed to fit quite a bit more files than I thought I'd be able to on the 32MB Memory Stick that came with the PSP. At the moment, I have 4 saved games, 17 pictures, 4 MP3's, and two MPEG4 videos. There's almost no space left at all though, and the videos are only 2-3 minutes long each. I really want to buy a 1GB memory stick, but anyone that's not sold out is charging $150 or more for them. MWave.com is selling them for $110, but they won't be in stock until Friday. I'll have to make sure I order as soon as it says they're in. I had considered a 512MB card, but 1GB will store 2 hours worth of near-DVD quality video, so I can rip DVD's and put them on there.

I also bought a USB 2-in-1 cable that will not only act as a normal USB transfer cable for the PSP, but it has a power jack so you can charge your PSP off the USB port while it's plugged in. This is a much more portable way of keeping your PSP charged if needed rather than lugging around your AC adapter. Not as good as a car charger perhaps, but I don't yet have a car, and nearly everywhere I go for long periods of time (work or friends houses) will have a USB port nearby. I highly recommend this to anyone getting a PSP. You can pick them up for $7-12 on Ebay, and I know that BestBuy carries them, and I wouldn't be surprised if places like GameStop, Babbages, or EB Games do, or will sell them in the future.

Tomorrow at work is supposed to be an entire day of review for "the big test" on Friday, which covers all the chapters we've learned about the BITS coding since I was hired. I've done relatively well on all previous tests, mostly averaging 95%, with a couple in the mid-high 80's. You only need 80% to pass, so I'm pretty confident, and I know which areas I need to study already, mostly some of the stuff I had trouble with before, or that I haven't used in a few weeks. The test is on Friday, and although we will have 5 or 6 hours to finish, I'm expecting to be done in under 3. What's great is that we get to go home as soon as we're finished, and still get paid for an entire 8 hour day.

I've been meaning to upload pictures of my vacation to Washington last February, but I'm lazy, and haven't got around to it, but here's one I picked out just for fun. I'll try to upload the others later. This one is of Mt. Shuksan, which is right next to Mt. Baker, where my brother, myself, and our friend Justin went snowboarding. This was an extremely rare winter day in Washington where the sky was completely clear of clouds as far as the eye could see.