Thursday, June 30, 2005

Site Renovation

Over the course of the weekend, I will probably be revamping the blog just a tad. I am starting to tire of the color scheme and would like to add a little more zing to the site. If you guys have any suggestions or comments on what you would like to see done a little bit differently, drop me a line. I know that the links section is going to get changed around as well as the subtitle line. Anywho, if you come to the blog and it looks odd, do not be alarmed. However, if you come to the blog and it is pink and sky blue with a picture of Ron Jeremy in hot pants, spanking a midget; this may be cause for alarm.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Funny Moment

Imagine a very scholarly British professor saying the phrase "sperm dumpster". My prof just did! Yet another fun moment I can check off of my list of things to experience before I die.

Monday, June 27, 2005

Torn

Last post, I talked about being sad and angry about how Mushi and I ended up. The anger part of it bugs me a lot. It used to be, when Mushi and I would have a fight or arguement, the issue resolved itself and neither of us stayed mad at each other for more than a few hours usually. We were good at talking about stuff....obviously not good enough....but still pretty darned good.

After I got done being a sad bastard about the whole divorce thing, anger started to creep into my emotions. I don't like being angry at Mushi. Even after all of this, I still have a very hard time not getting mad at myself for letting myself be mad at her. Do you understand? Its complicated. I still love her despite all of this and at times I feel like my emotions are going to rip me in two.

Another question that I ponder is what I would do if she decided she had made a mistake and wanted to get back together. There is still something in me that says I would do it in a heartbeat. It has diminished since we first broke up but it is still there. Anger again creeps in and makes me mad at myself for being so weak. I still don't have a rock solid answer to that one but I strongly doubt I will ever need one anyways.

The final big aspect of the whole ordeal that I struggle over is whether or not it has had a positive or negative affect on me. I know it has been largely positive for Mushi. If it has been negative at all for her, she doesn't let on when I am around. I am sure it has had some negative affect on her but she has always been good at concealling those kind of emotions from me. As for me, the answer again depends on my mood. I think so far, I have broken even. There have been some really good aspects of it and some really crappy ones to even it all out. Without this jolt, I don't know if I would have ever figured out what I wanted to do with my life. Now I know. At least I know for the most part. I want to be a teacher or a historian of some sort. I don't want to work in the tech industry like I thought for a while. I needed this stuff to happen to figure all of this out and that makes me said. Mushi has said some stuff to me that makes me wonder if I could have figured this out earlier if we would still be together and maybe on this night of our anniversary I would be cuddling in bed with her right now instead of punching out these paragraphs in the basement of an old house that I share with my friend and a lot of bugs.

I have also gotten more in tune with what I want from life in general. I have also become more concerned about my health and my body. Both are positive aspects to the divorce. On the flipside, I have really messed up mood swings sometimes. I was always pretty even keeled. I don't go crazy or anything but my highs and lows are much more distinct. I have also found my aggressive side. This is good and bad. I am not usually an aggressive person at least I wasn't. I do not think that I am aggressive in the mean way now either; sometimes though, I find myself going after things a lot harder than I ever have and wondering why that is the case. Somewhere along the line over the past few months, I picked up this sense of drive and urgency that definitely was not there before. I am much much more confident of myself now and I don't know why. I just know now that I am better than I gave myself credit for in almost every way. It used to be that when I set a goal for myself, it was more of a far away dreaming kind of thing. Now, I want a timetable for my goals and I want to see results or else I get mad. What happened to me being all laid back and stuff? This is a good thing too but it just kind of creeps me out. I can almost feel my personality changing. This is mostly good, just scary. I have never been so conscious of change before.

I am very lonely now. Never have I felt this way. Oddly, I have no desire to change this too much. I just don't really care anymore. I think this is bad right now but ultimately, may be a good part of the divorce. I have never had any reason to be lonely until now. I think this is making me stronger. That sounds wierd but it is true. I still have friends but I am lacking a companionship that was there with Mushi. I still crave that feeling but not like I used to. I think I can function perfectly well on my own now, I just wish that I didn't have to.

On a minor note, I don't cough as much or clear my throat anymore. For me, coughing and throat clearing is my most blatant nervous tick. I used to do it all of the time. Now I almost never do it. If my allergies act up then yes, the coughing comes back with the throat clearing. Now, I at least know why I am coughing. When Mushi was around I cleared my throat constantly and had a pretty good hack going on too. Does that mean, that she made me nervous? Odd. I am unsure what to make of it.

As the title states, I am torn on a lot of topics in my life right now. I have a hard time being mad at Mushi because she did what she did to better her life at I time when I was not doing that for myself. At the same time though, does the institute of marriage mean so little that you automatically drop it when you lose patience with it or your spouse? More time or another shot was all I asked, she was unwilling to give me either. I guess I am mad because I didn't get the chance to show her I have changed and to prove myself and that it where my anger stems from. I think she would like me better now.

Oh well, time to get some sleep. Must move forward.

The Anniversary That Wasn't

So today or should I say the 26th of June, should have been Mushi and I's first anniversary as a married couple. Woo.

The question I have been pondering as of late is this: Had I known everything I know now and how all of it would end up, would I have just stayed in bed a year ago today? The answer varies depending on my mood. Lately, I have been tilting toward the "stay in bed and watch movies" answer. The whole divorce thing has kind of jaded my take on our relationship. I have a lot of fond memories with Mushi and now all of them have this tinge to them that kind of ruins them in a way. I am sure Mushi is going through the same thing now and that all of her memories of me are tainted by the fact that as of late, I have been kind of a jerk to her. I dunno, it just seems like all of my memories end in a "but" now and that kind of makes me sad and angry. Sad and angry pretty much sums up my take on the whole relationship and how it ended. Such is life.

Speaking of tainted memories, I watched "Land of the Dead" tonight. That movie has now tainted all of my fond memories of George Romero zombie movies. Smart zombies piss me off.

And on that note, I am going to sleep.

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Date Disappointment

Tonight, I was supposed to go out to dinner with this girl that works in another department within the store. We were going to have Japanese food, which I have been in the mood for now for several days. Notice how I have been using workds like "supposed" and "were", yeah, that is because the date didn't happen. >:(

Everything seemed to be on track until I got to work this morning to find out that she drove to Washington to pick up a guy friend of hers and bring him back to Idaho with her. WTF! That was my first good indicator my date was going awry. She then suggested that instead of going out, I should go over to her place and have dinner. I thought that would be a tad awkward considering the other company there but agreed.

As the day wore on, even the dinner idea seemed to deteriorate. I think it was kind of half-hearted to begin with but whatever. Overall, I am kind of ticked off. Not so much that I didn't get to go out but at the inconsideration that she showed in doing that to me. What if I had made reservations to somewhere? I just didn't think that the whole thing was very kosher. If you are going to brush me off, just tell me. Don't be all weird about it. I hate it when people candy coat things or dodge around subjects that make them uncomfortable. I can take rejection and disappointment but at least have the decency to shaft me straight up without any of this excuse bullshit.

Other than that, my day went pretty well. I think I figured out what the next tattoos I am going to get are going to be of.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

If You Were An Educator You Would Understand aka Another Dumbass Customer Story

So I am at work today and not feeling horribly happy about it. I had gone to bed at 3:30am and woken up about five hours later; to top it off, I was a tad hung over from the previous day's fun. I hate mornings, they are bright, fresh, and full of hope. Thus, people are chipper and happy to be alive...except for me because I am awake and the sun has yet to reach its zenith. Blasted sun. Enough bitching and on with the story.

I am working and I get a phone call. On the other end of the line is a lady who sounds to be in her early to mid-thirties and she has a conundrum. She informs me that she wants a camera that we have in stock and wants to know how many I have. I tell her that we have three of that model in stock and I hear a groan surge across the line. She then tells me that she is a teacher and this camera was to be for her classroom, hence, the school would actually be the ones buying the camera and not herself. I say okay, wondering why I should be giving a damn about any of this when she then asks me if we take purchase orders as a form of payment. I tell her no. She then tells me that my employer isn't really even supporting the school system because basically, we won't cave to her needs and demands. I then tell her that usually when schools do business with us they do so by giving us checks. She then tells me that is going to talk to her administrator and wants to know if I can hold one of the cameras for her. I reply that it was the stores policy to not hold items for customers because of weird goings on in the past. She then lets out another grumble and tries to cut herself out of the conversation. We exchange the normal formalities and I hang up, happy to be rid of the annoying customer.

Five minutes later. I am looking like I am working when my phone rings...again. Same middle-aged teacher on the other end, only she does not recognize my voice. She is trying to sounds sweet and asking if we had a camera in stock that she would like to buy. I play along for a few seconds and tell her that, yes, we do indeed have her camera. Guess what the next thing to come out of her pie hole is? Could I please hold the camera for her until she comes to buy it. You know when you were little and when you wanted something and your parents told you no but you kept begging and going on about it? What did your parents tell you after asking for a second or third or fourth time? "No." At least mine did usually and the constant hounding usually pissed them off and rightly so. Well, when customers do that to me I get ticked. I get really ticked when they try to call back and talk to someone else to see if they will get a different answer than the one that I gave them. Grr.

Anywho, that was about the time that I stopped playing along and told her that we would not hold her precious camera for her and that she had just finished asking me the same question not five minutes earlier. There was a brief flitter of silence on the other end as she was clearly trying to figre out what to say next, knowing that she had been outsmarted and caught in her little game. My guess is that the lady was an elementary educator. A K-6er. People that can spend eight hours each day with thirty or so eight year olds are a different breed from the secondary ed teachers. You can pick a primary ed person out of a crowd instantly. That and usually they are not as good at spotting game playing and deceit as secondary ed people are. So there is still an uneasy silence on the line when she then tells me that there must be some way for me to hold that camera for her. I tell her again, no. I then tell her that about the only shot she has would be if we held it overnight and that she came on got it in the morning. Every once in a while management will do this. The customer then tells me that she was hopign that we would hold it for her for two weeks. TWO WEEKS! I then tell her that they barely like doing the overnight holds that they would never go for a two week long hold. She then proceeds to tell me that my building is full of human beings and surely there must be a way that someone can walk over to the cameras, grab one, and then stash it in a desk for her until she comes to get it. I then tell her that there is a snowball's chance in hell of that happening and then she starts going off about how long it takes to get checks written from administrators of schools. Then she says the gem of the day to me, "If YOU were an educator YOU would understand." Hahaha! As soon as she says this I let her know that I actually have a secondary education teaching certificate in history. Another long silence...very long.

This time she breaks the silence with a grunt and asks me if I could transfer her to someone that might have the authority to bend the rules a little more than I was willing to do for her. I then tell her that I can't transfer from my phone and that she would have to hang up and then call back and ask for administration. She made another disgruntled sound and then told me goodbye. I love customers.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Train Wreck Television: Take One

Tonight marked the first day of shooting for Spyder, Anderson, and I's show, Train Wreck Television. It will air on public tv, so like this blog, only ten people will probably actually watch it. Soon, it will have a website of its own and we may actually have episodes available for download at some point.

The highlight of the night was conducting the interviews in the bar district of downtown Boise. It is amazing what drunk people will say or do when put in front of a camera. Amazing. We had one guy that was a self-proclaimed jackass, another that was an alcoholic, and there was a girl from LA. The girl from LA was pretty funny, she supposedly went to the Viper Room when she was ten to see a concert. I told her she had a crappy parent. Either that or she was a liar, either way, it was fun.

Seeing that it is 3am, I need to get to bed. I have to be up at 8am and right now that does not sound too entertaining. Good night!

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Oh Goodness

Ok, right now I am freaking out. I am kind of buzzed (more drunk than buzzed) and I am in the middle of my summer school class right now. This is bad. Spyder, Jake, and I, were working on the television show and drinking at the same time. I am in the middle of a conversation about fascism and Nazism and the prof is asking me questions. The weird part is that I think I am holding my own in the discussion.

I have only drank once before a class. This is my second time. The crappy part is that I was watching slides the first time I was slightly buzzed. This time however, I am more than buzzed and being forced to participate. I think I am doing well, then again, I am slightly drunk. Jeez, I hope I am doing ok. Anywho, I am also typing on my blog while I am a tad buzzed in the middle of class. So, I think I should stop now because I am having a hard time focussing on other stuff right now, let alone typing this. Oh crap, drinking before this class was a bad idea. Hehehehehehe!!!

I Still Have It

Though I may have been out of school for a year, I have not lost my edge. My Contemproary Political Ideologies class is breezing by. I have turned in two essays and both received a 100%. I also got my mid-term back and I snagged a 94% on it, the highest of anyone I know in the class. The fun part is that I am putting out almost no effort to get the grades I am getting. We will see if my luck holds out; I turned in another essay today that I was not very pleased with but that doesn't mean a lot. I usually have pretty high standards when it comes to my writing and some profs still think my stuff is good when I think it sucks.

I only have six or seven more classes left until the end of class so I think I will be getting a pretty high grade in it, which will be great for my GPA. I think if I can get an A in the class that will put my all-time GPA above a 3.0 which means that I may be applying for grad school soon. I am still debating whether or not I want to do that yet. Schools don't like to higher starting teachers that have a Masters but no in class experience so I am not sure what my next step in this area will be.

I think I am going to go see Batman Begins again tomorrow morning. It was a sweet movie the first time and I wouldn't mind seeing it again. Tomorrow will also mark the first day of shooting for the television show that Spyder and I are doing. It is basically Spyder's show but I am kind of a co-creator in it. So far, the working title for it is Train Wreck Television. It will have its own website soon and probably have some video feeds on it if all goes well. I need to get on top of the whole building of the website thing. I will post the address when it is finished.

Saturday, June 18, 2005

Doubtful Hope

I just got back from a night on the town with a bunch of people I work with. It was an interesting night; a guy I work with named, Domingo, had his birthday this evening so I went downtown to celebrate with him and quite a few other people.

The night went well and no one got arrested like last time so that was good. We did end up at the Twin Dragon, my favorite Chinese restaurant, so that was good. The thing that cracks me up is that I can out drink anyone I know by a long shot. I don't know why either. Yes, I am a tad heavier than most of them but most of them drink more often than I do too. It must be genetics I guess.

Anyways, I drove the birthday boy, his sister, and this new girl at work home tonight and on the way the new girl and I got talking about food, Asian food in specific. It turns out she has never had Japanese food before and does not know how to use chopsticks. I found this kind of funny because the only people I know that can't use chopsticks are my parents and my brother. They are traditional Idahoans, what can I say? Either way, her and I may be going out sometime soon to eat at Zutto, my favorite Japanese place around here. The upside to this is that it is a date, the downside is that she was pretty drunk when she said she would like to go out with me sometime, so we shall see if it actually happens or not. As the title states, I remain doubtfully hopeful about the whole thing. Who knows, better yet, who cares? I am still debating as to whether or not I do.

On another note, I met up with a girl named Angie while I was downtown. She used to be in my Drama class when I was in high school and I have not seen her since. She signed up with the military after she graduated and just got back from Iraq a few days ago. It was good to see her again. She is one of the few people from high school that I actually gave a rat's ass about. Either way, she is doing well and that is cool.

Now it is time for me to go to sleep. Having just eaten, I am a tad sleepy now and I need to be to work by 11:30am tomorrow. Night Night!

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Batman Begins Rocks!

Admittedly, I am a sucker for superhero movies but Batman Begins is really really good. Spyder, Anderson, and I just finished watching it and I must say that I think Spider Man 2 has taken a backseat to this new Batman film. Everything about the movie was very well done, the acting, the tone, the overall theme, everything tied into the Batman world flawlessly. Christian Bale plays an excellent Batman and Alfred is played by the guy that starred in the 90s television show The Equalizer. I have always loved that guy and now I can like him even more.

The other cool thing about the movie is that most of the Batsuit and stuff that happens in the film are semi-plausible. The technology that Batman employs is not too far around the bend of the most part and I thought that that was kind of cool. I need to be a billionaire so I can buy fun toys. :)

Anywho, just thought I would post this and then go to bed. After all, I must work out in the morning.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Unique Finds

Today, I found two unique things to gobble up my free time.

First, I found a cool documentary series about the history of BBSs and the people that ran and used them. I found this to be really nostalgic. Spyder turned me on to BBSs when I was probably about 13 or 14 and we spent many an hour idling away in chat rooms and playing the fun little door games that most of the BBSs had. For the young folk out there, BBSs were the grandfather of the chat room. They were much more than just a chat room however, they had files to download, games to play, and people to talk to. They were basically mini-internets that you called up. The BBS software was housed on some other guy's computer and he basically let you tie up his phone lines while playing on his machine. It was good fun. Either way, the documentary is an eight part series that I have found to be quite interesting and memory rousing.

The second thing of the day was the discovery of the PS2 game, Katamari Damacy. It is a very Japanese game in which your father, King Cosmos, has destroyed all of the stars n the sky and it is your job as hs son to take a big ball and roll it around the Earth and gather things in order to rebuild the stars. You just roll this ball around and it picks stuff up, people, cats, chickens, signs, pineapples, you name it. It is a really addicting game with a very simple premise but a very difficult method of gameplay. It is one of those games that you can pick up and play fairly easily but it would take a while to master. All in all, a very fun game.

In other news, I got my first two papers I turned in to my summer school professor back today. I got 100% on both of them, it is good to know that I haven't lost my knack for writing pretty good papers. Tomorrow is my mid-term for the class. It seems so funny to think that the mid-term is tomorrow because we have only had five classes. I like this whole summer school thing. So far, the class has been interesting and some of the discussions it has spawned have been very good as well. I remember now why I like going to school. It makes me want to get my Masters. Hmm...we shall see.

Anywho, I need to get to bed. My allergies and sinuses are driving me nuts and I need to get up early tomorrow for work. Good night.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

To Make The Perfect Soup

Most people who know me know that my cooking isn't half bad. I love to cook and I will try to cook just about anything except seafood; I am not a big seafood fan and have never made anything with fish in it. The one thing that I have tried to make several times is soup.

No matter what I do, I can never make a soup just the way I would like it. I can make curry really well but that is as close as I come. Tonight, I made a chicken and barley soup and I must say, that was the best soup I have made to date but by know means where I would like it to be as far as taste is concerned. I think my problems lie in two places, the spices and the consistency. My soups tend to be very watery and lack substance. I do not know how to put it exactly but I know that it isn't right. As for the spices, I can never get the broth to taste just the way that I think it should and I do not know why.

I think I am going to try to make a soup base soon and then see if a homemade base changes anything. I may also try to find a good soup cookbook. The way that I have learned how to cook over the years is to look at recipes and try them and then once I have them down pat, I extrapolate on them, adding my own flavor to the mix. This has worked very well for me so far but my family is not a big soup making family and the soups that my mom and my grandmothers do make tends to be the thick and creamy variety. My mom makes an excellent chicken and noodle soup that I have yet to make for myself but other than that, not a lot of traditional soups are to be had for me to learn.

Anywho, I am on a quest to make a very good soup. One that has a good broth and is very warming. I have a few ideas for next time I try but I do not think they will lead to perfection. I think I am going to have to experiment a bit before I get to that.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Happy Birthday Blog!!

Today is the one year anniversary of Mogwai's Mind! Happy Birthday to me...sort of!

In my initial post one year ago, one of the last lines says that things could get interesting and who knew how friggin' interesting they would get? A year ago today, I had just graduated from college, full of hope, and a very happy husband-to-be. If I would have known that this year would have gone like it has, I think I would have stayed in bed. If I were to give a title to the first year of my blog I would call it, Bipolar.

I was so happy one year ago today; I was going to get married to the girl of my dreams, I was a homeowner, I had a degree (though I was unsure if I would ever use it), everything was going exactly how I hoped they would. My life was really really good for the most part. What the hell happened?!

Lets see, about seven months after we got married, Mushi and I seperated and I moved in with my friend, Dylan. About a month after that, Mushi decided she wanted a divorce. A month afterward, I moved out of Dylan's and into my other friend, Demonator's place where I am currently. Mushi and I now talk maybe ten minutes a week if even that and I only see her if I need something from the house or she needs something from me, which is not very often. If there was a flipside to the coin that I was standing on a year ago, this is pretty much it.

The question I have been asking myself lately is this, is my life still good? I still have my job be that good or bad depending on my mood. I like living with Demonator. No one in my family has died or come close this year, YAY! I am in better shape than I have ever been. I am now solid on the fact that I do indeed want to teach something (preferably history) somewhere(anywhere). I am taking a summer school class to get another endorsement added to my teaching certificate. My car is almost paid off. And I do get to volunteer at the Idaho State Historical Society and I like that very much. I guess now that I am single I have a lot more options open to me but I would still rather be married to Mushi. Life is wierd now. I can still smile at things but I think I am a tad more jaded than I used to be. Especially, when it comes to relationship stuff. The whole thing with Mushi still finds ways to make itself fresh in my life and so I tend to think about that more than anything. I do think I am more mature now than I was a year ago. I think I see pretty much everyhting through the eyes of an adult now. I know I didn't then. That thought still drives me nuts because I think that was a good part of why Mushi and I aren't married anymore and it hurts to think that to an extent all of that stuff could have been prevented and I would still be happy old me with Mushi in my life had I just been able to be more mature. I guess I feel like the divorce was my fault and I can't get that out of my head. I always tend to shoulder the blame for things automatically and I need to stop that. I know it wasn't all my fault but it is hard for me to say that.

Life still has many good aspects but I would not say that I enjoy it as much as I used to. I guess a large part of that is because I feel kind of empty and lonely. I suppose that is to be expected for a while. I dunno.

On to happier thoughts, this is a birthday after all. This next year should also be an interesting one. For the first time in my life, I have absolutely no idea where I am headed. Actually, to rephrase that, I know where I want to go I just have no clue how I am getting there. I know that I want to teach and travel more. I know that I would like to meet new people. I know that I would like to get a place of my own, despite the fact that I enjoy living with Demonator. I also know that I would like to be debt free. That is a huge goal for me this year. I guess the big theme for this next year is hope. I hope for a lot of things. I hope that my life will not be stagnant anymore. I also hope I will find someone new to share my life with but if it doesn't happen anytime soon, I guess I will be okay with that too. I am going to live this coming year for me and do what I want to do.

I feel change coming and happening but I am unsure what that change is. It is like a big wave swelling up. I just don't know when it will wash over me. Or maybe, I am enveloped by change so much right now that I don't see it.

Either way, I've said it once and I will say it again, stay tuned because things could get interesting!

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Teacher's Pet

I hate people who insist on talking about extraneous topics with teachers to make themselves sound smarter than the rest of the class. I have this dude in my Contemporary Political Ideologies class that insists on doing this. People who talk a lot in classes tend to annoy me. It throws off the professor's timing and makes everyone else bored because no one else in the class gives a rat's ass about what he is talking about. Duct tape would be a good solution for this....or a taser....but that would not be nice of me.

I must go now because I am in the middle of class. :) Ahh...wireless internet.

San Andreas: Initial Review and Thoughts

After going to a couple of Walmarts last night in search of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, I finally found a store who had the PC version on the selves and happily snatched one up. This was at about 1am. By 4am, I was already putting the Grove St. gang back on the map. I had beat down some local crack dealers, tagged over some other rival gang's graffiti, and taken my homies to the Cluckin' Bell for some Cluckin' good grub. Life in San Andreas is good.

The game and game mechanics are well polished and a pleasure to play. If I were going to have one complaint, I would say that when using the keyboard and mouse, the driving controls are a little wonky. There is a setting so that you can use a gamepad and I think I may end up trying this because I found some of the cars a tad counter-intuitive to drive. You can definitely tell this was a console port. This is okay though because it is a very good console port.

Graphically, I expected more. My system specs are: A P4 550 CPU, 1gig Crucial Ballistix DDR2 533, a 74gig Raptor HD, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, and a Radeon X800XT PCI Express video card. In my opinion, this should be ample to run the game at its highest settings for the most part. I turned up the Anti Aliasing to 3, the draw distance all the way up, the resolution to 1024x768, and the visual FX were as high as they would go. The game looked choppy to me and I am not sure why. Some of the graphical aspects of the game look very very nice but the models themselves look kind of gritty. I am going to try to turn the draw distance down a tad and see if this helps me out. The graphics are not bad by any stretch of the imagination but I expected better for some reason.

The sound in this game is awesome. So awesome that I usually end up turning off the radio because it starts to get kind of noisy between the radio, people talking, the car sounds, and the other background noise that envelopes you as you drive through the city. Oh yeah, the radio stations are badass. There are eleven of them and all of them have their own distinct feel and sound. As in previous GTA games, the radio station really add some very nice flavor to the game. In the PC version of San Andreas, you can also make your own radio station if your musical tastes are different than that of your homies. Very cool.

The other thing I would like to mention is the manual and the overall package of the game. It rocks. The game comes in a regular DVD package that you may mistake for a movie if you didn't know that it was a game and the manual is very cool. It is a hardbound travel guide of the three big cities in the game. Rockstar put a lot of effort into the manual and it shows. I like thumbing through the pages and looking at all of the adds as well as the maps. This is the way all game manuals should be designed. Rockstar made it to where the manual is no longer a book you go to as a ditch attempt to figure something in the game out, but more of a thing that adds flavor and depth to the game itself. It is a joy to look at and read through.

Overall, I enjoy the game. I am going to do some more tweaking with the graphics to see if I can't get things looking a little nicer but other than that I have very few gripes with the way Rockstar pulled off this immense world. Now if they could only make GTA: Online. I will have died and gone to heaven. Now it is time to do some more bangin' with my OGs on Grove St.

Monday, June 06, 2005

Time to Go to San Andreas

As soon as I am done typing this, I am off to Walmart to pick up GTA: San Andreas for the PC. I have waited a long time to finally be able to play this on my system instead of hogging one of my friend's PS2s. I will post my initial impressions as soon as I have played the game for a bit.

As for my summer school, it will be a breeze. There are only ten people in the class and so it should be interesting and easy at the same time, a good combination. My instructor is from England and listening to him makes me want to watch Monty Python or Harry Potter. He has a very prim and proper accent and says "thus" and "therefore" very often. I feel smarter just by listening to him.

Back To School

My first class for summer school is in about an hour. I am looking forward to it for a couple of reasons. First, I have been itching to write a paper for a while now so hopefully my wish will be granted. Secondly, my version of taking a class usually entales going to class, finding a spot next to a power outlet, and turning on my laptop. I may take notes, but usually I just play Nintendo emulators or scan the school's IP ranges. You can find all sorts of stuff that way. :)

I am not expecting a ton from this class mainly because BSU classes are not known for being too difficult in the first place and it is summer school to boot. But in the end, I will have my general social studies endorsement. This will also give me a chance to boost my so-so undergrad GPA. I think I will like the class and I am glad it is a step in a positive direction. Who knows, maybe I will meet some hot single chick who likes computer/history nerds. One can only hope. I will post more later, possibly while in class, and let you know how the class is going.

Friday, June 03, 2005

The Hard Drive: A Glimpse Into Peoples' Weird Lives

I have been busily repairing and rebuilding a number of peoples' computers this past week and am constantly amazed by the weird stuff I find on their hard drives.

For instance, I was backing up one of my manager's computers and stumbled across all of the paperwork for his will. Curiousity got the better of me and I had to see what he was giving to whom. His will was pretty straight forward and the only funny part was when he started to divvy up his guns to his different kids. Only in Idaho can one justify having twenty guns. Sadly, I was not in his will.

Yesterday, I was working on another computer and the guy wanted me to save all of his Favorites from Internet Explorer. Just out of curiousity I looked to see what bookmarks he had and I kid you not, he had a local escort service bookmarked. I wish I had not just deleted his cookies because it was a login site and you had to be a member of this secret whoring circle to get in. Damn. People are messed up though. The sad part is that I actually feel bad for the hookers who he pays to sleep with him. If I were in their shoes, I would down some GHB before getting dirty with this guy. Ugh...it makes me want to burn my clothes.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

I'm Not A Loser

And its pissing me off. I weighed myself the other day and found that I weighed basically the same as I did when I started my whole program. I thought maybe the scale was off since it was an older digital one. Today, I weighed in at the gym with Ray and found that the scale was indeed right. I am ticked. I have been watching what have been eating more than ever and it still has not worked.

Starting today, I am buckling down even more on my diet and am not going to eat out for a couple of weeks. I am going to measure everything out and really really watch what I am taking in. I am very frustrated by all of this and I think Ray was a tad too. I have not been lying to him and I have been honest to the best of my ability when recording what I eat. I think the problem is that I do not know what an ounce or a cup of food looks like and so I record it wrong when I go to keep track of all that I eat. Beh.

I do think I am getting stronger though and I know muscle weighs more thn fat but I feel like that is a cop out when I say that. Ray says I should have lost around six pounds by now. The upside is that I haven't gained any weight I guess.

I think Ray was in a lees that estatic mood to begin with because he and his soon to be ex-wife just started filling out their divorce papers. This can put anyone in a not-so-chipper disposition. They are having to declare bankruptcy and get a lawyer and stuff because they also have a kid. I am glad that Mushi and I's stuff went as smooth as it did. The whole divorce thing really sucks.

On that note, I am bracing for a crappy month. June 26th would have been Mushi and I's first anniversary but thats not happening. I am getting pissed just thinking about it so I am going to stop. Besides, I need to jump in the shower and hit the bank before I go to work so I need to get moving. Laterz!