This is A Test, this is only a test

This is A Test, this is only a test So this isn't a real entry, obviously. I just wanted to post this picture that someone sent me that someone else ripped off from MySpace.com. (c) to whomever it belongs to, etc. ad nauseum. I guess I'll have to post it at 360's pictures thingy, too, since the blog one makes it too small to read. It is with a heavy heart (and oddly enough, heavy eyelids) that I compose this particular post. This weekend, you see, Ive suffered a loss that has struck particularly close to home. In reflection, its amazing how quickly we became attached. We met at a quick-stop, while I was working. I just stopped to fill up my van, unplanned and awkward as it was, it was still a love that just seemed to fit.. In very short order, we were spending all of our free time together. It started with some casual disc golf, maybe catching a race together on the weekend. Then we were working together. In the past, I had always set some sort of boundary between my personal life and work, but I couldnt help myself this time. Its hard to romanticize crawling around in the dirt and cobwebs under mobile home, or working way up on a power pole in the freezing rain, but we did it together. Motorcycle Riding course in February? Crazy, but we went together. Midnight movie openings when you have to work the next day? Nuts and irresponsible, but we went together. You just cant find that kind of bond very often these days. You get used to that kind of connection. Waking up next to each other, and ending the day side by side. Its difficult to contemplate going to work tomorrow by myself. Im not quite sure how to deal with it. The promise of meeting again someday helps me carry on. Well, that and remembering that I can buy a NEW hat tomorrow, until I can get my old one back from Y & A in a couple weeks.

August 20th 2006 I can't stand it when I want something, but can't quite figure out what it is I want. And no, that's not a metaphor for my life... at least not a conscious one. I'm still full from a big dinner, but I've got this snack urge. Probably from the ride home with a ferry full of pot heads. Thanks Hemp-Fest. There's not enough ice-cream to justify getting a bowl dirty. Not enough Doritos to make it worth getting the bag down from waaaaay up on that shelf. I know, I'm fat, I don't need that crap anyway. I should just go to bed, but now I'm not tired. Why did I even have to bring up the whole life metaphor thing? Now my brain is going to go into overdrive in a thousand different directions, and my fingers will stop working, leaving yet another dead-end blog post. I'd better be careful, or I'm going to loose BOTH my readers. So anywho... Let's see... adventures for the day... We got to sleep in, which is always nice. Went over to Seattle to hang out with good friends (Hello A & Y {who will also remain unamed in this blog, hahahaha}), and watched "Accepted," which was hilarious. Then to a couple different Half-Price Books, and dinner, and then Fry's and the aforementioned ferry ride home. I should probably take a second here and comment on Yahoo!'s easy input of all these hyperlinks. I should also maybe avoid telling anyone that for my first few posts, I was actually editing the source code, and putting in the links myself because I didn't bother to look at how the blog entry thingy worked. haha. What a dumbass I were. Where was I? Oh, yeah. direction of life, et cetera. Um... Insightful observations anyone? This blog stuff does have comments available, you know... It isn't just a one-way street. I spent a bit of time last week reading up on Seattle history. I caught a blurb in a book about the "denny regrade" which kind of piqued my interest, so I decided to do a little research. The Wiki entry for Seattle History was informative, well written, but also could still use some fleshing out. I also found HistoryLink.org, which is this Washington State History encyclopedia online. HistoryLink also has these "tours," which of course aren't really tours, but are walking self-guided tours of historical areas and such. (I suppose you don't have to walk, you could drive, but it would be a bit tricky going inside certain buildings in your car... ) I also read about the Bogue Plan, which would have created this beautiful park system in Seattle and the surrounding areas, and built a mass transit system from Everett to Tacoma. Of course, they're doing that now, but imagine how much money they would have saved if they had done that in 1910. Okay, now I know I had some sort of subject or another when I started this thing. Must be around here somewhere.. oh, yeah. life, direction, that sort of whatsits.... So, we start out as the product of two people, who sometimes go their separate ways for whatever reason, and we're influenced by our environment, and we grow and learn and change, and striving for our own vision of utopia, and (for the most part) unaware of our disingenuousness. So do you live today worrying about tomorrow, or do you work towards tomorrow and ignore today? Is there balance to be achieved somewhere? Where am I going with this? (the line of thought, not as as a metaphor... what is it with you people?) Oh, okay.. So the whole comparison with Seattle was that even though you may not always have an end goal or plan or whatever, that doesn't mean you can't be happy. You don't have to strictly adhere to "7 Habits" or "Who Moved my Cheese" or any other such nonsense. The meandering history of a place like Seattle (or any other major American city, with a few notable exceptions) is really comparative to the meandering history of any individual. To be 25 or 30 or even 60 years old, and not know what you want to do when you grow up isn't necessarily some sort of curse of indecision. Maybe it's a blessing of open-mindedness. The ability to say "this sucks, I think I need to try something else" is ( in my humble opinion) an awesome personal power. That's not to say that I (or you, or anybody) might not be happier had someone else made the choices, and pointed the directions. But that's the wonderful thing about being human. We CAN'T change the past. We're stuck with it. Love it or hate it, you can't ever loose it. And it's our past that creates who we are. If you spend all your time planning for the future, guess what you're going to be doing when "the future" finally gets here? You'll have spent so many years planning, you won't know how to be comfortable doing anything else. Try to be happy Here. Now. No matter your situation. Remember that you've had worse days. And when some stinky stupid stoner who hasn't showered in a week won't stop throwing his superball so his big drooly neglected dog can chase it ON THE FERRY, ALL THE DAMN WAY FROM SEATTLE TO BREMERTON, while you're trying to quietly read your book, and the clueless WSF Deckhand won't pay attention, then you can not loose your temper, and continue to quietly read your book. Somehow, somewhere, the universe will catch up with people like that, and they will have to endure something equally as painful. Besides, if throwing a superball so your big drooly neglected dog can chase it on the ferry is all you have in life, then maybe, just maybe, you've already been put in your place a time or two. Or maybe your just an asshole, I'm not sure. Thanks once again to Google Image Search for helping me find the picture, and to Cawdor Kennels for having the picture up in the first place.

August 18th 2006

Another wonderful day. Big congratulations to mom. She recently quit smoking after some rather urgent health issues, and we're all really proud of her. We gave her an official "quit smoking" present today of a new 19" LCD monitor for her computer. yay...

The picture posted with this is from Pearls Before Swine, a comic by Stephan Pastis. Before the angry mob attacks, I KNOW the picture didn't post very well. You can see it here. It just sort of rang true, so I thought I'd throw it up there. Our society, at least here in the US, definitely seems to have reached a point where politicians are no longer affordable to the common man. Now, I know it's the punch line and everything, but really the truest (and saddest) part is the final pane of the comic. The "What's a Senate?" is really indicative of how little most people know about how our legal system works. There's much more to be said on this, but I will wait for those ideas to coalesce into something tangible.



I get my new laptop back from warranty work next week! woot. With any luck that will mean more posts on more subjects. It'll be nice to have a pc with a stable battery and a working wireless connection, so I can wake up at 3am and write. lucky you, eh?

Kudos to Wave Broadband for new channel launches this month. As of the 22nd, we're launching:
Hallmark Movie Channel (.. 208)
Universal HD (..191)
National Geographic HD (.. 159)
TMC HD (..651)

HD good!

Okay, you caught me. If you've read this far, and you've read my other posts, you're probably expecting some long-winded post about nothing in particular. I haven't stumbled across anything worthy of such a post in the last day or two, so there. I'm letting a couple ideas marinate for a while, and maybe there will be something interesting up here in a day or two.

* Re-Post from Y!360 / MySpace *

August 17th 2006 PARTS 1 & 2

August 17th 2006 1/2

So I had this whole long thing I was writing (I was already up to a page in MS Word) about how distracted the modern American is, but I just cant seem to find a voice for it, if that makes any sense. I had a thought, some sort of mental twitch, but I just cant seem to develop it into a coherent idea yet. Maybe some other time. Of course, it would probably help if I wasnt making dinner, watching CSI, and trying to talk to the roommate at the same time. Oh, well.

For those interested: Works good. I should hear about a promotion I applied for by tomorrow, but Im not holding my breath. I know there are several people ahead of me that are more qualified, and I like what I do now (for the most part). I'm still adjusting to being in sales. It's a surreal experience compared to doing physical work for a living. All the same, I do like it. I like the people I work with, and I've got the best manager I've ever had.

The family is good, thought I dont see as much of them as Id like. I miss my big sister and her kids like crazy, and wish shed get her butt back up here to Washington, but Im not holding my breath for that either. I'm just going to have to hurry up and get a motorcycle so I can road trip down there for a visit, I guess.

August 17th 2006 Probably the neatest thing about this is that I really doubt anybody is reading it all the time, desperately looking for their next fix... er... that is... my next post. I'm going to look for something interesting to write about today, and maybe post a real entry tonight. I did want to take a moment and point out this site, though.. I've been digging around through the photos, and it's pretty interesting. At least for someone who's never been to NY. The site is called the Satan's Laundromat, and yes, I found it while I was looking up how to spell " laundromat." * Re-Post from Y!360 / MySpace *

August 15th 2006

Going to the laundromat sucks. duh. Sadly, that was about the highlight of my day. Sleeping in until noon, then getting a haircut and doing laundry. woo hoo.

A lady tried to buy three dryer sheets from me at the laundromat. It's odd the things people forget when they set themselves to the mundane tasks life requires. How do you figure the market value of three dyrer sheets? Of course, you could use basic math and divide the cost of the box of dryer sheets ( $ 4.99) , including tax ( $ 0.42), by the total number of dryer sheets in the box (80) . It would almost be an insult, though, as this would throw out centuries of market driven economic theory, along with the laws of supply & demand. A dryer sheet may only be equal to its individual mathematical value ( $ 0.067625, but really this value is only indicative of its value as a material object. Its true value is to me as a finished consumer good. Or better yet, as an integral part of a product I am making, or a task I must complete. And this is not taking into consideration the costs the product incurs once it leaves the store, tansportation costs, storage fees etc. How can I possibly calulate the emotional costs? I spent precious time selecting this product from a plethora of competeing consumer goods? Naturally, finding myself in posession of many dryer sheets in a location (the laundromat) far removed (across the parking lot) from the store, I am in a unique position to profit handsomley from the sale of any surplus dryer sheets I may have in my posession.

So now comes the ethical question. Do I pull a Haliburton, and profiteer at the expence of the unprepared? How do you calculate the needy-ness of someone faced with an entire week of static cling and excess clothing lint? Is it possible to put a dollar amount on such laundry related suffering? How many times would this poor soul be zapped by static whilst trying to sort her socks? Obviously, I must do everything in my power to alleviate her suffering.

On the other hand... Here this person was so sidetracked in their life they went on a necessary errand and forgot a necessary ingredient. How caught up in your Paris Island-ish mental regimen do you have to be to forget the essentials? Do you often take your car in for an oil change and drive the wrong car? Or maybe take the bus? Or maybe she hasn't purchased dryer sheets in year, choosing instead to live on the charity of others. I can see her lurking in the laundromat every day, existing on the charity of others. A quarter here, a cup of bleach there, maybe some dryer sheets on Monday... Society cannot tolerate these fringe dwellers, suckling on the teat of the wealthy launderer. Damn the dryer sheets and the permanent press. This wrinkle-free welfare must stop!

Naturally you can see how I was torn. Of two minds. The Anakin in me felt sorry for her, and was aghast at the mere idea of a week of clinging, static riddled, lint infested clothing. The Vader in me wished to punish her for such feeble minded lack of attention. (and possible laundromat lurking)

I must say that the teachings of my mother influenced me greatly, and helped me avoid a potentially devastating public relations debacle. The Anakin in me won the battle (not against bad acting, mind you), and the poor soul got her dryer sheets, free of charge. As a side note, I must also appease the economist in the crowd, and mention that it was no great loss on my part, three dryer sheets having minimal value in and of themselves ( $ 0.20321775). The transaction also had no appreciable impact on the supply and demand side of things, as I had also forgotten my box of dryer sheets, so had purchased a new box, creating a surplus. If anything, I probably saved a small amount of coin on the future transportation and storage of said dryer sheets.

As a side note, I had to google the term Laundromat. Don't get all Sister-Bertha-better-than-you on me, either. You'd have to google it to, if you cared enough. Kudos to WSU for topping the google rankings with their "common errors" listing. Even more odd, when I try to spell check this entry in MSWord, they try to tell me that "Laundromat" should be capitalized.

Also, if the poor soul from the laundromat actually has, or ever will attend anything even close to the training at Paris Island, please do not consider this to be an affront to you or them. If you don't and never will have military training, however, then affront away.

But once again, I have managed to type for a while, and have yet to say anything. I guess that means another blog entry is complete. I didn't even get to talk about the screaming child at Great Clips... ( swear I'm haunted by a screaming child curse. No public location is safe once I arrive, screaming child will appear in short order... but that's for another post)

* Re-Post from Y!360 / Myspace *

August 13th 2006

I'm not really sure why I started a blog. I haven't really discovered any great topic that demands my constant attention. I have no real meaningful information or knowledge to disseminate. Just random thoughts, images, and experiences to share with the faceless masses that don't have anything better to do than read someone else's life story as it unfolds.
Hmm.. on second thought, I guess that's the perfect reason to blog.

Hell, I might even have to start podcasting.

So today was the un-official celebration of my little sister's birthday and my birthday. (Happy b-day Peanut). It started out kinda funky though, 'cause we spent the entire morning (and a good deal of the afternoon) fixing the brakes on my friends car. (hey wuff, que pasta?). Working on a car is always an adventure; especially so when you have limited tools and car in question is a Ford product. Don't get me wrong, I love Fords, but they are not always user friendly when it comes maintenance time. A couple trips to the parts stores, several hours of labor, and much cursing later, brakes all fixed.

Having debated most of the day over a suitable destination for our "celebration," we finally decided on a go-kart track down by Tacoma. In typical fashion, what should have been a 30 minute drive took about three times as long.

I must digress for a moment and comment that the things that people will slow down for on a limited access highway are questionable, at best. Why people must slow to a snail's pace, and stare as they raise the new bridge deck (at a nearly imperceptible pace) will be forever beyond my grasp. If you REALLY must stare, please park your vehicle, and go watch from one of the many viewpoints. If this is truly life-altering experience, get yourself a high speed internet connection, and watch the action unfold on the DOT website.

Traffic tribulations aside, it was a really fun day. Out of the six of us there, it was a first time trip for two, and a near-rookie trip for another two. I was a bit surprised at how un-supervized the whole affair was once we were out on the track. The "pre-briefing" consisted of a 30 second speech about how they were "karts not bumper cars," following which we got in our karts, and started blasting around the track, banging into each other like they were bumper cars. hehe. Follow up a quick 20-lap heat with a big dinner at Red Robin (with a drink or two), and you get at least one tired monkey.
(that would be me, btw)

Good knight
(not a type-o, or error in any fashion. Subtle comedy. if you don't like it or don't get it, you shouldn't be reading my blog.)


Also, the picture is from a random website, found via Google's image search. Surprisingly, some people do use Google image search for something OTHER than porn.

In the immortal words of Calvin (of Calvin & Hobbes)... "I hate it when I can't gird my loins in fuzzy animals"

* Repost from Y! / Myspace *

August 6th 2006

Being that I used to have aspirations of being a writer, I have often wondered if I should start one of these blog things. I guess I'll give it a shot, and see how long it takes before I get bored with it. Kudos to yahoo! for making the process easy.

I'm wrapping up my 3-day off birthday weekend. woot. My roommate and I took Friday & Saturday off to goof off. Joe rented a car, and we drove down to Westport, WA. We were going to go to Ocean Shores, but we'd already been there, so we decided to check out Westport instead. I really liked the beach at Westport better. It felt a lot more like an ocean should. It was pretty windy, but weather aside, it was also more fun.

*re-post from old Y!360 / MySpace Blog*