Celebrating an american holiday with the most canadian of sports.

Minutes ago I realized that I hadn't updated you, my loyal readers, on what I did on the weekend of Thanksgiving. Well get ready and get off my back. Don't tell me what to do or i'll cut you. Wait, that's a bit harsh. I love each and everyone of you and using threats of violence will only serve to scare and hurt. Perhaps this exchange will give you an idea of what I witnessed on Black Friday, the night I saw my first hockey game. Steve, my friend from the great white north of Canada (seriously, i've heard some wear shorts in the snow), was in town and we had made plans to hang out. The tentative deal was that I would show him the wild city of Bellevue, while afterward we would drive down to Kent to see the Seattle Thunderbirds play. We decided that we would fill our bellies with a good bowl of Pho before the game at a place called "What the Pho". Obvious, slightly corny play on words aside, it was actually pretty good as this place usually tends to be.

After we finished filling our tummies, we drove down to Kent to attend the game. My first impression of the atmosphere made me realize what I miss most about going to public sporting events. That thing being the copious amounts of drunk people that attend, especially when said event is not only located in the south end of King County, but is a sport as violent as hockey. For those wondering why I would hold a stereotype of southenders being loud and drunk, watch any episode of Almost Live aired in the last 20 years. Not that I should be judging, as I love the whole atmosphere of people being loud and crazy. The best part of it was probably when a group made up of people dressed in Seattle Sounders gear started shouting soccer chants, leading the crowd to heckle them back for roughly the first half of the game. Anyways, the real action was what was happening on the rink. The game started off fairly calm, and Seattle was up by 3 points at the end of the first half. However, like Seattle based teams are apt to do, the fell apart roughly half way through the third quarter. This brought on probably the best and most famous part of the game of hockey, that being the fights. It was at this point I realized one point that separates hockey from other games here in the states. In baseball, players are suspended for multiple games and have to deal with weeks of controversy if get in so much as a pushing match. However, in hockey, you are allowed to finish a fist fight with another player to completion before the ref will step in a give both players a 5 minute timeout. In the end, We ended up losing by two points, though it was still a fun experience that I recommend to anyone who wants to see something different than what people usually think of when they think of a Seattle sports time.

In closing, it is snowing outside right now. I wish it would stop. I have to drive enough during the week and not knowing how the roads will be can be hectic. Hopefully the roads will be clear in the morning, as i'd much rather look at the snow than have to drive in it.

Lady Gaga has a new CD out

Seeing as how roughly 100% of my readership listens to Lady Gaga, I figure my entire audience is now captivated. Since I last wrote, some pretty crazy stuff has happened.

As I am writing this, I am eating the leftovers of what is my 3rd thanksgiving-type dinner this week. It all started on Monday with the potluck at my work. Everyone was responsible for bringing at least one dish and as you can imagine with a office of more than ten people, there was a lot of food. Though I am pretty sure it was to my detriment, I loaded up not one, but two heaping plates of Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Pie, and other standard fare. Unfortunately in the battle between Alex and food, food won this round. Not that feeling bloated all day taught me any lessons, as I promptly went through the whole process again the very next day, including eating half of an entire pie. However, that's not to say that the whole thing wasn't delicious. That said, today's dinner was still delicious and after tonight I should probably have enough leftovers for the next week.

This past week I also had two more milestones at my work. First, more people came to my Americorps class then have ever came before. While usually I have one or two people come at most, this time I had a whopping seven people come to watch me give my spiel. For the first time ever, I had to actually keep to somewhat of a presentation format, instead of the Q and A sessions I am usually used to. Adding to my still growing list of skills was the fact that his past Monday was the first time that I had to give a lesson to my entire office. One of the projects I have been working on is getting the office setup and trained in this new assessment program people will be giving to job seekers that come in. While my plan was to give the different groups that make up my office their own individual training sessions, the powers that be though it would be a good idea for me to instead give everyone in our office a short lesson on the program at the same time. While I have never given an individual presentation on such short notice, I was told that I did very good job of explaining the benefits and drawbacks that the program has. My next step is to contact people after the break and get them setup on individual training sessions.

Outside of work, I get to see my friend Steve tomorrow. While he has shown me his home city of Vancouver before, this time it is my turn to demonstrate our strange American customs and way of life to him. We haven't decided where to meet yet, but Sushi or Pho could very much be involved. Also, Devon hasn't been seen in 3 weeks. It is possible he may have been kidnapped by the creatures that live behind his house. Seriously, the last text I got from Devon was about a gargoyle that was staring at him from his porch.

Anyways, its time that I get started on my Christmas list. I don't even know what I want, but I figure I can think of a few things I might want.

Exhausted!

So last time I presented one of these amazing literary events to my readers at home I was only 2-3 days into my job. Now, that I have been at this gig for a month, I can safely say that it has been one of the more exciting jobs I have had. Granted my last two jobs involved me being a punching bag for a bunch of angry, entitled consumers, but they were at least interesting endeavors that provided endless stories. So far I have been apart of such projects as coordinating software installations on all the computers in the office, helping people edit and create their resumes and cover letters, helping people find jobs, teaching classes about americorps, teaching classes about the youth job market, and other such things that escape my mind at the moment. Already I know that I will be in charge of following up on program that Microsoft ran. I also help a wide range of people, as everyone from former executives for the Sonics, to retired machine workers come to see me for their help. All this has amounted to one of the most satisfying jobs I have ever had. Granted I have only been at it for about a month, but its nice to feel like you can go somewhere during the day and feel a sense of accomplishment about what you are doing. Especially when you have a lot to do.

Other then work being pretty sweet, I have been enjoying going to happy hour as of late. In fact, my friend Devon and I decided that it would be a pretty good idea if we went at least once a week. So far our establishment of choice has been the Rock Bottom Brewery in downtown Bellevue. Food is 5 dollars, while beer brewed on site is 3 dollars a pint. The entire meal is quite filling for what you get. I personally recommend the Chipotle Chicken Pizza. It consists of fresh chicken breast, jalepanos, onion, and fresh tomatoes. And i'm not talking about a slice for 5 dollars, but an entire pizza to yourself. The beer is also very tasty and you can't beat that it is brewed on site for the price you pay. I would like to try some other places and much of my lunch time is spent browsing the events section of the Seattle Times looking for other places to go. However, if you are looking for a cool place to chill out after work, you could chose worse places I guess. Well, at least more expensive ones.

Before I go, I have to give a shout out to Uncharted 2, aka one of the best games ever. I am already about half way through, but so far it combines history, action, and a great story in to a complete package that is awesome. While no one element is perfect, the way everything comes together makes it better than even a lot of movies. For those with a PS3, I recommend you at least get a chance to play it.

My new job!

So in talking to many of my loyal readers, the number one topic people seem to be interested in is what my days consist of. This seems rather odd to me, as my life doesn't seem THAT exciting. But, I guess if it entertains people that's all that matters. Some people have even said that they would watch a television show about my life ala Rob and Big. This I can understand. I'm sure if I had MTV levels of throwing around money I could make the most interesting reality show known to man. Maybe I should start a letter writing campaign. In fact, that is assignment for all of my readers. Everyone should write a letter to MTV saying that you want my face on the airwaves. Sure it wouldn't be the most realistic depiction of my life, but if "The Hills" can do it, so can I. I read an interview with one of the stars of said show the other day in which she basically said that all of her friendships and relationships were decided upon by the producers of the show. I personally would be fine with this. I figure if they are gonna give me money to be on TV they should at least have some say to what goes on their network.

Anyways, I have to apologize for the lack of updates this past week. I have been spending so much time at my new job that when I come home I just want to shut my brain off for the 4 free hours I have before I have to go to bed and repeat the whole process over again. For those who haven't heard, I am now the new Technology Access Specialist at Worksource in Redmond. Though I was hired through and am part of the AmeriCorps program, so far I would consider myself a Worksource employee. For those that don't know what Worksource does, they help people in the state of Washington with job placement and retraining. My job for the organization involves helping people that come in with their tech problems when they come into use the computers. This can be anything from helping them find where to save their documents, to going over grammar in their resumes. During the down times, I have been working on projects such as doing research for presentations and training in the various programs that I will be using. In just this last week I think I have traveled farther and learned more programs then I have had to do for all my previous jobs put together. Though this may also be because the job is still new and exciting, it also seems like the days go by much faster, though this could be because I have a lot more things to fill my day with. Still, I am excited for this job and what I will learn in the coming weeks. Already I am scheduled to do a presentation at a youth center about the services we provide, so that should be pretty cool.

Other than that I don't really have much else to say. I will try to write another blog pretty soon, so don't worry about that. I haven't forgotten this.

PAX 2009

I have to admit that when I got up early on Sunday morning I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. All I knew about PAX was that it was a medium sized gaming convention that's half LAN party, half product demonstration. That said, I never figured that it would be the type of thing 70,000 people would be going to. After picking Devon up at his house, We drove to the Washington State Convention Center, where we parked the car and walked a block to the Hyatt Hotel to pick our admission badges up. A perfect start to the day was seeing that the car parked next to us in the convention center garage had the world map to Legend of Zelda painted on the hood.

After getting something to eat at Subway and by chance meeting David and Stephen there, we went to listen to a presentation about pricing in the game industry. I thought it was entertaining, though it was a tad lengthy and wouldn't really make for good blog story. What would make for a good story is when we finally got down to the show floor to look at the different vendor booths. Everyone was there including Blizzard, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and many others. All presenters had many games on display, many of which were playable and all due for release in the future. Though many were showing off games that will be available in the next month, the ones I was interested in were those that won't be released for another 6 months. That said, there were 3 games I made it a point to play.

Mass Effect 2: Felt like the first game, though it seemed much more action oriented. Maybe it was just the combination of the pre-made class and the fact that it was on an Xbox, but it feels less like an RPG and more like and FPS. However, this made the battle in the demo seem a lot more fun and exciting.

Uncharted 2: Pretty much the same as the first one, though the graphics are 10x better.

Starcraft 2: This was the big game of the show for me, as not only have I been waiting for it to be released for the past 3 years, but it's also more than 6 months out. There were at least 10 demo stations, with one half of the machines setup for 1v1 matches, while the others were there to demo the single player portion of the game. Realizing that I would be destroyed by nearly everyone there if I were to play against anyone, I choose to demo the single player portion of the game. That said, what I played was capital A Amazing. The level I chose to play out of the two available was one in which I had to escort some civilians down a road infested with Zerg. As the mission went on, the Zerg would step up their attacks, giving a reason to create more units or at the very least create some sort of tension. Though it was a pretty simple early game mission, it still was a lot more creative than the base-destroying missions of the first game. One thing that I didn't have time to do was get into the pre-mission planning phase that happens before every mission. This portion is where you can do things like choose which mission to tackle next or which upgrades and units to buy. I can see this making the single player portion very popular simply because it allows players to see progression of how they are doing throughout the camping. Not to be cliche, but the worst part of the demo was it ending and realizing that I will have to wait 6 months to play the final game.

Even if I hadn't played these demos I would say that PAX is worth it to go if you can. I took home plenty of free swag including many beta codes, t-shirts, and posters. My only regret would be that I would have liked to go to more panels and investigated some booths in more detail. However, I guess that would be a testament to how much stuff there is to do.

Update!!!!

So as of September 16th I will be joining the exciting world of government based non-profits. That day is when I will be starting my job working for Washington State Worksource through the AmeriCorps program. My job will consist of helping those that come into the office use the computers so that they may find work for themselves. This is great because I was starting to get pretty sick of not having a job. I can at least feel good about not being a bum and spend the next two weeks not having to look for work. It's also good because I finally can say that I have a job that is something other than being a retail lackey. I guess the next step would be to find a cheap place in the Crossroads or Redmond area so I won't have to drive an hour to work everyday.

I had an interview the other day!

So I know I haven't updated this in awhile, but I had an interview with Americorps/Worksource the other day. If I get the job, I would be helping people that come into the Worksource offices do work on the computers, completing such tasks helping people save their documents and teaching them basic computer knowledge. It's in Redmond so hopefully I will be moving there very soon. Doesn't pay much, but I would get rid of roughly half my student loans in about a year. That, and I also get medical insurance, which is great because right now if I were to get hit by a car I would die in the road because I wouldn't be able to pay the doctor. Anyways, I lost my job under Bush, and would gain a new one under Obama, so that is a plus. Guess the stimulus works.

Birthday!

So since today is my birthday I thought I would thank everyone that came to my party last week or wished me happy birthday today. I will have a drink in honor of all of you tonight. Probably a tequila sunrise, since it is both healthy and will be a good use of the tequila that I bought last Saturday. Yes, some will say that its a weak, non-manly drink, but to them I say good day.

For those that don't know, I have also relocated to North Bend for the time being. I may move to Bellevue, back to Bellingham, or out of state. I'm leaving all those options open for the time being, so hopefully I can find a nice job and get to a conclusion of where to go next.

Birthday.

The worlds smallest fair. Part 3

I forgot one incident last time that I feel is worthy of mention. While driving through the streets of Huntington Beach trying in vain to find a parking spot. I saw probably the best car accident of all time. As a van was left onto the street in front of us, the truck behind him started to go straight. However, for some reason the van decided to stop right in the middle of when it was turning, causing the truck to rear end the van and take out the trucks left headlight. The van wasn't harmed in any way. Now if that happened to me I would be mad, but I would simply get out, listen to the guys apology and get his insurance, though really if I were to rear end him it would be my fault. However, broski in the van decides to jump out and immediately tear the driver of the van a new one, even though the van was the one that got rear ended. It didn't stop there, as a witness then informed the driver of the truck that he was the one at fault, causing the driver of the truck to freak out at the witness. That was the last thing we saw as we drove away.

The first part of the next day was fairly boring. I had to go to a family reunion. It was fairly boring so I won't bore you with the details of it. After everyone got back from that, we decided to head down to the Orange County Fair. It being a Sunday night in the middle of summer, traffic getting in was a nightmare. The thing is for how big the parking lot was, the fair was actually fairly small. Though it had all of the staples like food, animals, and rides, the area in encompassed seemed pretty small. I did have 3 things that I have never eaten before while I was there. The first was a fried twinkie. I wasn't that impressed by it, as it seemed like somebody just took a twinkie and put it in a microwave. The second thing I at was some chocolate covered bacon. To picture what that was like, imagine a kit-kat bar, though instead of a waffer in the middle it was a very crunchy and salty piece of bacon. The third thing I ate was amazing. For the first time ever I had some fried frog legs. Though everyone thought I was nuts for even trying them, I personally thought they were amazing. For those that have never had the chance to try them, they reminded me of chicken wings that taste like halibut. They even had a slight fishy texture, though that may have been amplified by tartar sauce that they gave me.

The rest of the fair was pretty standard fair. I didn't go on any rides, as not only were they really expensive to ride, but all of them looked like they were designed for the whole purpose of making one vomit.

Cali Trip .Part 2

Waking up Saturday Morning, I was fully prepared for the events of the day to come. For this day, we planned on driving to Venice Beach, where we would bike the 6 miles along the board walk till we got to the end of Santa Monica, which was the end of the bike path. The first thing that struck me about the day was the weather. Though many people think that the beach resides in this sort of perpetual sunlight, there are actually many days where it will be the only place that is overcast. This was one of those days, as it was pretty overcast and gray out. However, the humidity added some heat to the air so it was still comfortable to wear shorts. Anyways, we rented our bikes and got started along the path. The bike path is actually pretty calm, as it is located about 100 feet away from the boardwalk. Because of this the first part of the trip was pretty quiet, as most of the people we encountered were pedestrians or other cyclists. This part was uneventful and it took us about an hour to bike to the end of the path. At the end of the path is the Santa Monica Pier. For those too lazy to do a Google image search, it is basically a small amusement park located on a pier. Games, over priced theme restaurant, rides, you name it.

After getting bored after about ten minutes, we decided to head back, though instead of going along the bike trail we went along the Venice Beach Boardwalk. This is where the real entertainment is. Because there is no regulation over who can set up shop along the boardwalk, just about anyone is able to sell whatever they have. Art enthusiasts can purchase wood engravings of Barack Obama and Michael Jackson. Music lovers have plenty to choose from, as I saw such advertised acts as a guy who did bird calls and a Jamaican guy who freestyled about people that walked by his stand. There were also more medical marijuana stands then I have ever seen in my life. Every five feet I had some guy walk up to me asking if I wanted a five minute "doctor's examination". Granted the examination probably consists of the doctor asking your name, but they didn't seem to really be hurting anybody. Maybe annoying people as they walked by, but you quickly learn to ignore them. It’s not like this are was particularly clean looking either, as there were some parts of the boardwalk that looked like they were out of a shady third world street market.

After we went turned our rented bikes back into the shop we rented them from, we decided to drive down to Huntington Beach to see if we could get anywhere close to the world surf championships that were going on. As soon as we got into town, we realized that we didn't have a shot in the world of finding parking, as a hundred thousand people had descended upon the town to watch the festival. Cutting our loses, we at least got a feel of the atmosphere while waiting in the traffic that was going through the center of town.

My California trip. Part 1

Getting up the morning of July 25th, I knew that by the end of the day I would be 1200 miles away in Cerritos, CA. Why did I choose to make the entire trip in one day? Well the reason I chose to do so was because I wanted to say that it was possible with the magic of air travel. Anyways, I got up in the morning, threw my stuff in the car, and left my apartment around 10:30. I took me around 2 hours to drive the 120 miles to North Bend. After I made finished this first portion, I threw my stuff in the car that would take me to the airport and got something quick to eat before my dad, brother and I left. Our flight left around 4, so we got to the Sea-Tac around 3. We only waited about 20 minutes before we were able to board our Jetblue flight to Long Beach, CA.

This is where the meat of the trip really begins. It was the first time I have ever flown this airline and in my opinion it was a wise decision. Every chair has a TV built into it, as well as a satellite radio. Though the flight was only 2 hours, the fact there are even two entertainment choices standard in all seats made the ride go by much faster. It also helps that they have slightly more leg room then other airlines I have flown. Oddly enough, it was also the smoothest landing plane I have ever been on, as I am use to the plane feeling like it is about to be shaken every time it reaches its destination.

After we touched down, we were let out of the cabin onto the tarmac and straight into the baggage claim. In yet another pleasant surprise, we were excited to see that by the time we got got to the baggage claim, are bags were already spinning around on the conveyor belt waiting for us. We got our bags, checked out our rental car, and threw all our stuff into the trunk. Earlier in the day, I had heard Adam Carolla complain about how radio stations in Southern California are dominated by 20 ranchero music stations and Lady Gaga. Well wouldn't you know it but the first thing we heard when we turned on the radio was the sounds of Los Tigres Del Norte. Flipping through the stations, it took us about 10 ranchero stations before we reached an english language station, which sure enough was playing "Poker Face". Not that I don't mind ranchero or Lady Gaga. In fact, I have both in my Itunes playlist. But, the car did come with satellite radio and given the choice between something I rarely get to listen to (satellite) and something I always listen to (Lady Gaga), you can figure out what I listened to for most of the trip. Besides, how often do I get to listen to foul mouthed comedians of the radio.

We were all pretty hungry after the plane ride so we decided that the first thing we should try to do is find someplace to eat. If you are ever in Southern California, I recommend that you don't eat at any fast food places, save for one. That one is the In-and-Out Burger. Made to order with fresh ingredients, they are by far the best fast food hamburgers I have ever eaten. The fry's are just as good. Though they are fried in the conventional way, they do it in a way where it seems more like they were baked, rather than dipped in a vat of boiling oil. For those in Washington looking for something similar, Dick's Drive-In would probably fit that bill, though I personally find them way to heavy and salty.

After our meal, we headed through Long Beach to Cerritos where my family lives and where I stayed for the week.

Party!!!!

Everyone came to our party celebrating Danny's birthday this weekend. I mean literally EVERYONE I knew was there. Well, minus some people, but they know who they were. How did it go? Let's just put it this way. Two people made a home in both our bathrooms. These names will remain anonymous. They know who they are. Anyways, thanks to everyone that showed up. We have 52 beers left over so anyone is free to come and drink some.

Before I forget, two weeks ago my trivia team got 2nd place and we each took home nine dollars. To keep my pride, I won't mention how we did last week. However, I have good hopes for this week, as we seem to do really well on alternating weeks.

I love the heat.

Seriously people, you just got through a winter in which it was 10-15 degrees for two weeks, followed by three weeks of being covered under a foot of snow. How dare you complain because it went over 80. It's Summer, take your shirt off or something. You could be in Arizona or something where it is over 100 in the shade.

Last weekend, I went to the Bullwinkle Family Fun Center for my friend Ryan's birthday. There was laser tag, bumper boats, and go-karts. Fun times were had by all and I got the high score out of everyone in our group on some boxing game. Getting there reminded me of why I hate driving through Renton so much, but at least traffic was only bad in a relatively small area. Later on we went to some bar down in Seattle where we watched kareoke all night. This was very fun and I probably would have drank more, save for the fact that I felt crummy all night. I haven't eaten greasy fast food in probably six months, so my body probably wasn't use to the fat filled monstrosity that is the Dick's Deluxe. Though delicious, it will wreck havoc on your digestive system if you aren't prepared. Hopefully my stomach will be use to it by next week, cause I have In-and-Out I need to go to and that stuff is delicious.

The next day wasn't much better. I woke up at my parent's house, drove back up to Bellingham, and then drove with Jon, Hiro, Danny, and Kera up to Richmond Sushi in Canada. It took 2 hours to go 45 miles and we got to the restaurant by 10 at night. Not that the restaurant staff was at fault in any way, but I don't think they were quite prepared for the onslaught of 7 people ordering at 7 plates of food. However, one order wasn't enough. After about 15 minutes the waiter came by and told us that last call was happening. Thinking that we needed more food, Jon ordered another 10 plates. These plates weren't small either. A plate of sushi would have about 20 pieces on it. It was around 11:30 that they finally kicked us all out. We still had 8 full plates of food. Needless to say, I think we represented our country well.

I spent the entire next day feeling hung over for over eating. The next day is when karma got us all back, as we ended up only getting 20 points in trivia this week.

Next time, I will probably write about the party that is coming up. If I don't end up writing a post for the party, I will probably write after I get back from my trip to LA.

4th of July.

So this weekend I encountered Johnny Depp, Michael Jackson's glove, cockblocking, and fireworks. All of these things do sound awesome, and they are. Everything in this post is true.

Friday: I left around 3 in the afternoon to go to bellevue to see my friend Devon who lives in downtown Bellevue. I arrived at his apartment around 5, after which we headed out to walk downtown. We first went across the street to the Taphouse grill. It was there in which I had probably the best chicken sandwich I have ever had. Besides the chicken breast being incredibly tender and juicy, something which is hard to accomplish in my experience, it was also topped with avocado, fresh dark lettuce, and pepper jack cheese. On the side was a tomato and pink ginger onion for the topping. The fries were also done to perfection. The wait staff was also very helpful and friendly. It was also here that Devon cockblocked me. For those that don't know what that is, it is when someone is trying to get with a girl, only to be thwarted by another individual. This interloper is the cockblock. Anyways, the hostess here was pretty cute and me figuring that I would probably never see her again decided to put my phone number on the receipt. However, Devon in his wisdom thought it would be a good idea to cross my number out adn message out, as according to him he though that I had written a death threat on the receipt. Why he thought this was any ones guess. He also thought that I was talking about the waitress instead of the hostess, as he didn't know the difference between the two.

After that incident, we had about an hour until the movie we were going to see started. We spent that time people watching and looking at all the beautiful ladies that walked by. Soon after the movie started which was Public Enemies with Johnny Depp. For a short review, it was a pretty good movie that was a little long in parts. The gunfights were amazing, though Johnny and Christian Bale basically played themselves. After the movie was over we walked back to Devon's apartment were we spent the rest of the night playing video games. Mainly Street Fighter 4 and Call of Duty, which though I have kinda dissed in the past have to admit was a pretty fun game that might grow on me.

Sat (July 4th): The next morning we woke up and went to Denny's for breakfast. It was here that two thoughts occured to me. The first was the fact that no wonder people are so fat. Unless you want to pay 10 dollars for a breakfast, you have no choice but to buy there mega-breakfast with 5 huge items. Granted you are getting more for what you are spending, but what if you aren't that hungry? Also, I got treated with much better service then I am usually use to. Maybe its because we were closer to the staff's age at these restaurants than what they are usually used to. After that, we headed to Best Buy to pick Devon up some movies before I decided to head home. I stopped off at Half Price Books real quick to see what they had, before continuing on to my aunts house for a BBQ. It was family time for the rest of the day and I had a nice juicy flat iron steak. The highlight of the night was the fact that my aunts next door neighbor we estimate probably spent around $10,000 in fireworks. In fact, they were more like the mortars that you would see at a professional show.

Sun: It was on this day that I had one of the highlights of the trip. We decided to go to the Science Fiction Museum at the EMP. I had previously been to the EMP a few years ago before the sci-fi portion opened. I recommend that anyone go if they are a fan of sci-fi, cause there is something for everyone to see. The first floor served as an introduction to the genre, highlighting many of the subjects that are dealt with, while at the same time highlighting examples of these through different pieces. For instance, they use one of the suits from the ninja turtle movies to give an example of mutation. On the bottom level is where things really got good. The designed the floor to look like an armory one might find on a space ship. In each glass case they had props from different shows and movies. What made it really cool was that the descriptions for the items were written like they were actual piece of equipment, instead of props from a show. They had something from just about every show or movie made in the past 30 years. In the next room they had a special exhibit on Jim Henson, which was kind creepy as they had all the puppets that we know and love, only they were frozen lifeless in glass boxes for all the world to see. It was also creepy realizing that none of these characters have any limbs below the waist.

The EMP wasn't completely pointless however. Outside the building stood a memorial to Michael Jackson. By memorial, I mean the entire sidewalk was covered in tributes written in chalk. There was also some flowers put out for him, though they had all dried up and were dead. Inside however was the real attraction, as they had his jacket and white glove on display. Inside the museum there were signs all over the place stating that photography wasn't allowed. This in no way stopped everyone from posing in front of the display for pictures.

WTF summer

So since summer started Sunday there has been approximately one day in which it has been sunny out. We just had a month straight of warm, sunny weather in the middle of spring, but once summer rolls around it becomes cold and overcast. Not good. It needs to be 20 degrees hotter.

Continuing the summer theme, Tuesday I went kayaking for the first time for my friend Kera's birthday. It was dodgy at first, being as I had never been in one and I almost fell out a few times as I tried to balance myself in the boat, but it all worked out in the end. I had a rough time figuring out the best way to row at the beginning and I fell behind at the start, but after about 20 minutes I got the hang of it.

I might write a review of this movie later, but last night I saw the movie Machine Girl. Basically a real life cartoon, it was Japanese movie designed to be the goriest movie ever. It also featured such things as ninjas, girls with miniguns attached to their arms, and bullying.

I feel sick

My throat is sore and clogged up. I am also achy and tired. I call swine flu. Basically my strategy is to assault my system with all manner of medications such as cough drops, Theraflu, and cough syrup. My throat doesn't hurt as much, though the drugs are making me feel all light.

I had a really good bowl of Pho. Everyone should eat Pho. It is nutritious and filling and good. If you are gonna get it, get the one with everything. Tripe, tendon, all of it.

Also, Warioware is amazing and I won 4 times last night.

We lost a japanese kid the other night.

The other night Danny and I invited our friend Jon's friend who was visiting from Japan out to Reggae night with us, as he is a fan of the music and we thought it would be a fun thing for him to go to. He was fine all night until he started to get tired. While we were dancing, he proceeded to walk off without telling anybody. This lead to us looking for him for 45 minutes before Danny found him. He had decided to find a dark place to hide behind some chickin coops and decided to take a nap.

Also, it is 55 degrees and overcast out. I want it to be 80 again.

Things I have seen the last couple of days.

1. A near riot break out during pub trivia due to the fact that tan and light brown are two seperate colors.

2. According to reggae night at Boundary Bay, guidos exist in Bellingham.

3. You know those pictures that can be either an old woman or a princess depending on if you are holding the picture upside down or not? Well picture that in human form, and instead of a princess or old woman, it would be the person looked like a man or woman depending on what the lighting around them was like.

4. Pescadera's shut down. I am sad. Someone open up another store that can provide me kangaroo and python meat.

5. Sushi is just a tasty as I imagined.

6. Oh, people watching in general at raggae night is just amazing.

7. Alegeant Air has cheap tickets right now. Thinking of going somewhere.

Saturday

So yesterday in I decided that it would be a good idea to go down to the town of Lake Stevens and play Frisbee Golf with my friend Eric. Coming along for the ride was our friend Dave and one of Eric's friends. The course that we played at was 19 holes, though luckily there are many signs pointing the way to the next hole and at the beginning of each hole there is a map showing which way one should go. The course is also in my opinion much more difficult than the one in Cornwall Park. While I can generally get stay at an average of one over par for any particular hole at Cornwall, yesterday I was averaging 2 or 3 over par. This is mainly due to the number of tree's in the course, the odd shape of the baskets, and the overall distance of the holes.

After being firmly beaten. We went out to the teriyaki restaurant located next to the course, before heading off our seperate ways. Overall its was a good course if you are looking for one that is fairly big and challenging.

The next day...

So today I continue on to what happened with me on Saturday and Sunday of two weekends ago. While not as eventful as the previous day, there was still much fun to be had. We began the day by going to the store and picking up some picnic supplies. For this picnic, we would be having homemade potato salad, fried chicken, and lemon bars. After cooking up this tasty meal, we all went down to Lithia Park, the place that looked like the major meeting spot in town. This park is also where the Ashland Shakespeare Festival is held. It was very well manicured, with lots of gardens, ponds, and streams to explore. While we only saw a small part of the park, I guess the rest of it goes up into the hills overlooking the town. After our lunch, Holly, her friend, and I went to see this kid from her school perform in his senior recital. While I didn't think it was bad, they thought it was terrible and mediocre. Afterwards, we went to the most happening place in Ashland on a Saturday night, A frozen yogurt shop. That said, if you are looking for a party destination to spend a night, Ashland probably isn't it.

Sunday was spent driving the 6 hours back up through Oregon. Not much to say except I was dead tired when the trip was all said and done. Before I forget, there was one stop that we made on our way backup. Because my friend Trudy is moving back home in a few weeks, we had to stop by her place in Eugene and take some stuff up for her. It was nice seeing a friend I hadn't seen for a long time and we agreed to explore portland when she is a bit more settled in. It will be nice to do this as we are now both old enough to experience stuff we have only seen on the Travel Channel.

Monday I went to see my Grandparents and check on how they have gotten settled into their old folks home. I talked with them for a little bit before deciding to head home. Going home on Memorial Day was probably one of the worst decisions I could have made, along with taking the scenic way home. While I was able to make it down to Oregon in 3hrs 15min, it took me almost 5hrs to get home. This was mainly due to 3 things.

1.Going through St. Helens instead of Portland. While this is a more scenic route, it is not good when you are trying to get home in a reasonable amount of time.

2. Burgerville taking 45 minutes to get through. While I could have stopped somewhere else, Burgerville is amazing and worth every bite.

3. Taking an hour to get through 10 miles from Lacey to Fort Lewis. No clue why it was so slow. Just people not knowing how to drive I guess.

After this hell drive. I got home and instantly fell asleep on the couch at around 9:30pm.

P.S. For those that were wondering what Grandma's Beef Shack means, it is something Holly's ten year old brother came up with on the trip down. He proceded to yell it out the window at everyone we drove by.

Grandma's Beef Shack

So last Thursday around 5:30pm I got a call from my friend Holly's Mom down in Oregon asking if I would like to come down for the weekend. Being as I am unemployed with relatively little obligations at home. I thought about it for about 5 minutes before I decided to say fuck it and just drive down. After about 15 minutes of packing, I was on my way to North Bend to stay the night before I would leave for Hillsboro, having to be there by 11am if wanted to catch my ride down. At around 8:00pm I got home, said hi to my family, and proceeded to go to bed.

At around 6:30am the next morning I got up to leave. It was a pretty quiet ride down, as I was able to get down to Hillsboro in around 3hrs and 15min. After arriving at my destination, I threw my stuff in my rides van, and proceeded to head 6hrs down to Ashland, Oregon. For those that don't know about this particular place, it is a small town about 10 miles from the California border. For those that haven't passed through, the most similar town I could think of would be Fairhaven if it were bigger. Anyways, the drive across Oregon reminded me of why I like the state so much. While most towns in Washington usually ellicit the response of "huh, thats nice I guess", Oregon doesn't deal in shades of grey. For me, most towns are either very nice places in which one wouldn't at all mind moving to, or complete trash holes that bring about both fear and curiosity. You want to get away as soon as possible, but at the same time you know you want to visit that dilapitated amusement park that is rusting on the side of the highway. Maybe i'm just weird, but I love the fact that from the freeway I could see methlabs in the hills. Well, maybe they aren't meth labs, just people's compounds.

After about 6 hours, I finally arrived and suprised my friend Holly with my visit. She showed me her apartment and we exchanged what we had been doing with our lives. After that, I headed down with her mom, stepdad, brother, and friend to watch her wind orchestra recital. For those that don't know what that is, it basically is using trumpets, saxs, and trombones as replacements for things like string instruments. I'd look it up on youtube as its kinda hard to explain without hearing it for yourself. After the concert, we all got pizza and went back to Holly's apartment to watch old home movies and play Wii.

Next time I will explain what happened the next day. Also, explain what they title of this entry means.

The other night.

Thursday night was probably the best night ever. Why? Well for once I wasn't completly grossed out by a dish that involved fake melted cheese. Usually I despise any sort of fake cheese. Even when I was a kid I hated it. For instance, someone would ask if I wanted a ham and cheese sandwich. Liking both of those things, I would of course say yes. However, this was an instinct I soon learned to ignore, as often times these sandwiches would be filled with disgusting American Cheese. It's not real cheese people. It tastes like plastic, which is what it is made out of. This goes for its close relative "fake" melted cheese. This may actually be classified as food, but it is still disgusting. I bring this up because this type of melted cheese was one of the ingrediants of the HUGE plate of nachos that I got at Casa Que Pasa. For those that don't know, Casa is a mexican restaurant in downtown Bellingham. The plate cost about 9 dollers and included chips buried under a huge mound of beans and salsa, topped wit guacamole and sour cream. When I say buried, I mean that it was hard to get to the chips and you needed some sort of utensil to eat the thing. So why did I not mind the cheese this time. Probably because I it was kinda mixed in with everything, so I didn't really notice it. For my drink, I had a Dos Equis. Purely because I had just seen the commercial. After the meal, My group then drove over to the Bowling Alley. The Bowling Alley that was across the street and would have been a shorter trip to just walk over. However, I wasn't doing the driving so I enjoyed the adventure and figured that it would make a good story. The bowling game did not go so well. Let's just say that it was "down there". Hopefully that gives you a good idea of what I was dealing with.

Canada Part 2

So now on to part 2. In this episode find out if Canada has more asian restaurants the Bellingham. Hint, the answer is yes. And asian restaurants they do have... in spades. Seriously, you could eat a one a day for a year and never eat at the same one twice. Hell you could probably do it for two years and never eat at the same one twice. Granted the first place we ate this day was an indian restaurant, a type of restaurant many wouldn't consider an asian restaurant. But you know what? It's doesn't fit to any landmass but Asia so you can shove it. For our Indian "Sunch" Steve, who happens to be vegan, ordered a whole mess of food that included Crepes, Bananas, various kinds of sauces, and other munchies that escape my mind right now. Danny, my other travel companion, ate essentially the same thing. I on the other hand had a delicious mix of Lamb Curry, Coleslaw, Rice, and a type of fruit sauce. All dishes were amazing and a far cry from the deli food that you find at other indian restaurants.

For the sake of continuing on the food topic. I will skip to what we had for dinner, that being mongolian bbq. For those that have never been to a place like this before, think of a buffet where you load a bunch of meat, vegetables, and sauce into a bowl, then giving it to a cook who proceeds to cook it for you and deliver it to your table. Maybe its because I essentially eat this type of food everynight, but for me at least it seemed like the least exciting meal on the trip. However, this is mainly because I like ordering meals that I never eat when I go to restaurants. Hence my love of PHO, because for being such a simple dish I know I would just fuck it up if I ever tried to make it myself.

Interesting food is one reason why I loved going to Chinatown, home of fish drying out in the sun and the worlds thinnist building. Need medicine? Well hope into the nearest pharmacy and order some hairy deer antlers. Hungry? Pick up a lizard on a stick. This was probably my one regret of the trip. While it would have been a crazy story to say that I roasted a lizard I got at a food stand, I was a little fearful of customs stealing it on my trip across the border. Still, if you are a seafood fan and want some fresh catch, come to Chinatown. Chances are the fish will probably still be flopping around in the tray.

After Chinatown, we took a bus/skytrain down to the beach. That's right, they actually have beaches and warm weather in the land of ice and snow. A nice one at that. One which people actually want to go to. It was here where you could see just about any type of person you wish. Including one old woman who we met. I honestly have no clue how it happened, but one minute we were walking along, the next being engaged in conversation by this woman. After chatting her up a bit we took a picture of her and she went on her way. After this, we proceded to walk along the beach, through Stanley Park, back into downtown, finally going back down to the beach area. It was here where I had a bit of an inspiration of why Vancouver is sometimes thought of as being a bit more "renowned" then a city like Seattle. It is because Vancouver to me seems to not only have more meeting places, but ways of actually getting to these places. It also seems to be a much more diverse town as well, though I will let wikipedia prove those facts. All in all, we probably walked around 8 miles that day, being as we walked to Stanley Park and back, taking the bus a minimal number of times. I have a number of pictures that I took that day that I have posted to Facebook if anyone would like to look at them.

Oh, before I forget. That night I probably had my most canadian experience of the trip. After we had got back, Steve invited us to watch the hockey game downstairs at his friends apartment. What did this experience consist of? Why watching hockey and drinking beer of course. The only thing that would have added to it was if they were all eating donuts, but I guess you can't be picky.

W00t

I applied to work at Blizzard Entertainment today. It is by a beach. I hope I get the job and never have to see Washington again. Want to see me, you will have to come visit.

Canada > My current whereabouts.

So this past weekend began with a simple enough mission. Go up to Vancouver BC and see the latest Star Trek movie. I will give my review of that later, because it is not the main focus of the story today. Instead, this will mostly be a review of the city I experienced over the past 2.5 days.

The first main experience of the trip was simply crossing into the country of Canada. Maybe the woman at the crossing was new that day, but I feel we were put through the ringer. "What is your purpose of coming into the country?" , we were asked. Thinking that simply saying tourism wouldn't have been a valid enough answer, we replied that we were going to see Star Trek with our friend Steve. "Why are you going all the way up here to see the movie?" asked the guard. Now while it may seem a little pointless to go 40 miles to see a movie when it is playing 5 minutes from your house, what business of it is hers? Maybe someone wants to see it on a bigger screen.

After I passed through the border, it was a pretty smooth trip until we got to a split in the freeway. While this wouldn't have been a big deal if my GPS hadn't been stolen last week, we instead had to deal with directions from Google Maps. While we did eventually get ourselves to where we needed to go, we instead were sent through the city of West Minster and its accompanying forest, instead of through Richmond, which was the city we wanted to go to. After finally getting to our friend Steve's apartment, we were on our way to experience the city. For dinner, I had a platter of sushi and sashimi. It was your standard raw tuna and salmon fare, though it did come with the biggest pieces of BBQ Eel I have ever had. After a filling meal of sushi, the three of us drove up to North Vancouver to see the suspension bridge, the name of which escapes me at the moment. It was at this point where all three of us were spotted by a film crew and will be staring in a movie that is soon to come out. Well, that didn't really happen, but it did look like there was some sort of filming going on.

After the short walk on the bridge, we drove to 30 screen theater in Langly to see Star Trek. Two hours later, I enjoyed the movie. However, my viewing companions weren't so happy. After that, we drove back into Vancouver, got some ice cream, and took a tour around the city.

That is all for now. In part 2, find out why I spent 8 hours wandering around a city.

I got a job offer!

Now lets go over why you would have to be insane to accept it.

1. It was sent as a reply to an email I sent about two weeks ago. The grammar in the email is middle school level at best.

2. The ad on Craigslist didn't specify where the job was located. It turns out its in Chicago.

3. Their "application" is a personality quiz like the type you would find on Facebook.

4. I found almost no evidence this company actually is legit. The only reference to the company I could find on google was the company's official site. The site looked like it was done in geocities.

New Post

So I was on here and realized that I had not posted anything this month realizing that this would probably make people very angry, I figured that I should probably write something. As I am writing this it is approximately 60 degrees outside right now. While I would like it to be 70 like it was yesterday, I figure I shouldn't complain, as it is still nice for this time of the year. I can't wait till it gets to be 85 everyday. I also want feel that I need a bike for days that are sunny and warm. Walking takes to long and at least with a bike you can not only move some what fast, but it also gets you in the sun, resulting in a tan.

Tonight is also pub trivia at Uisca. In case you haven't been following, we have steadily been getting better since we started and now usually get 4th or 5th place. However, last week 2 out of 3 of our regular team mates didn't show up, resulting in a second to last place finish. Hopefully we do better this week. I even got the book that the quizmaster uses to create the questions so hopefully some of the facts are in my mind at least a little bit.

Another thing that more people should do is go to the theater. It makes you more cultured and you will be able to stick your nose in the air, knowing that you are better then the uncultured swine that sticks with theater of the screen (i.e. movies like Fast and Furious). Speaking of Fast and Furious, I plan on celebrating its release by glueing a shitty looking, miscolored spoiler onto the back of it and speading to the nearest theater. Yay Corollas! Anyways, back to the theater. I went to see performance of "The Lost World" and "War of the Worlds". Both plays were based on radio performances of the stories, meaning that there were no props except for the costumes and everyone read from the same scripts that were used during the original radio broadcasts. They were all directed by the Q. I'm sure the guy has a real name, but it is irrelevant of the fact that he is an omnipotant space being and therefore beyond such mortal traits like names.

On the food end of things I have decided what my final meal would be if I ever get a terminal disease or sent to death row. It would consist of a slightly dry Pad Thai, Mandirin Chicken from Trader Joes, and a rack of spare ribs. Maybe a huge plate of shellfish as an appitizer. In fact, someone should get me this right now.

Welp, I don't know what else to write right now. I suppose I could give some theories on sasquatch, but I'm kinda mentally drained right now. I know I say this a lot, but I'd like to write blogs more often, maybe branch out into short articles some times. Also, if anyone knows of some good Alt. History novels or cool sci-fi books I would be thankful.

WTF Snow

So just before I started writing this I looked outside and it was snowing. 20 minutes later and it is now sunny outside. What is this? Can't the weather make up its mind? What happened to the good old days when it was just drizzly and 50 degrees all winter?

Anyways, I now have no job. My last day was Friday and I am now among the unemployed. Though it may seem cool at first not having anything to do, I am already bored. I would like to take a trip somewhere, but I am now faced with the prospect that I have no money to make said trip and that I should instead save what I have in case it is awhile before I can find another job. Not that its gonna be as easy as it might have been when the economy was good, but I figure its best not to think about stuff that you can't control. Hopefully I will be able to get a job that uses the degree that I went to college for. I'm not even against getting an entry level job that paid the same as what I made a Circuit City. I figure then I would at least be able to work my way up.

Speaking of my old job, now that the company no longer exists I feel that I am now able to more freely talk about some of my experiences when I worked their. Especially under liquidation. I might go into more in my next post, but for now I will leave you with this advice. Never expect that you will save anything going to a "going out of business" sale. Everything will be more expensive compared to when the store was in business, no one will give a shit about you, and you can't return anything even if it was broken when you bought it. Don't like it, don't bother arguing, you are shopping at a place where many of the employees relish finally being able to be assholes without repurcusions (SP?).

Anyways, I kinda have a writers block now, but now that I have time I will be able to write more. I'll think of more stuff to write tomorrow and maybe give a Watchmen book review. I would be nice to review something.

Short things from this weekend.

-While in Seattle for my brothers birthday, we came across a sign advertising the "Seattle Mystery Bookstore", of course written in a spooky font. While you think a sign advertising a mystery bookstore in spooky letters would contain books about Sasquatch, ghosts, and other mysterious things, it instead contained nothing but mystery novels like you would find at an airport newstand. Misleading advertising? I think so.

-I found some crack, or at least it looked like crack on the floor of a bathroom in Pike Place Market. I hope the person that lost it gets it back.

-The underground tour is nothing more then a tourist trap. The pictures always made it seemed like you would go deeeeep underground with nothing more then a flash light to guide your way. Instead, you go through crawlspaces that look like they are renovated every six months. Also, you are lead into a gift shop at the end that sells crude bumper stickers. In my experiences, if a place sells crude bumper stickers, it probably fits more into the tourist trap catagory then the museum catagory.

This story makes me sad...

The Final Goodbye: Shea Rests in Pieces

I don't know why, but I will get a little depressed when I hear about famous old landmarks getting torn down. Especially when they are replaced by a parking lot and a stadium named after a bank.

Last weekend..

This weekend, I went to Seattle to partake in the many films of the Science Fiction and Fantasy short film festival at the Cinerama downtown. All of the films were very well made and entertaining. They are more then I could ever do and many of them would make could feature length films. However, for about 75% of them the classification of "Science Fiction" is suspect. A short about an anthropomorphic hose does not fit into my vision of the future. To the festival's credit, it was advertised as a sci-fi/fantasy festival, so maybe they were trying to fit more into the fantasy side of things. It wasn't a total loss however, as one film about time travel asked a question that I have always asked. Is it gay if yourself from the future gave you a handjob, or is it masturbation. I choose the masturbation. Notes from the Acrid Plain with Burton Hoary, Vol. 7 was probably the best film. I suggest everyone look for it on youtube.


In closing. I had a good time and Devon is lame for not coming to see it. For my friend Jon's interpretation of the events, go here.

Links I came across tonight.

Because i'm so totally web 2.0/social networking, i'm gonna try seeing how easy linking works. Consider this a test for the future.

1. RESPOND TO SOULJA BOY!!!!

First of all, I just want to say that I am very proud of the fine young man that Lil Bow Wow has become. Absolutely nothing is cooler then tatting yourself up with shit no one can even see unless they are right next to you. I for one am very much looking forward to where this feud with Soulja Boy.com is going. Hopefully Soulja Boy can answer back by buying a bigger lambo.

2. This

Letting myself revel in nerdom(sp?) for a minute here, I think this article is amazing and I wish that EVE Online was a lot easier to play. It's too bad that the interface boils down to reading spreadsheats all day, because absolutly destroying an entire in game organization and stealing everything from them sounds amazing. Forget spending 8 hours grinding leggings in WoW, I for one would rather spend that time conning someone out of the life (as in game life) savings.

It's cool because its rare.

During Christmas break, I took a trip to the great state of Oregon. By great state, I mean the 200 square mile area known as the Portland area and its surrounding area. Because I know that most of the 5 people that read this thing have never actually been to the city, I have created a sort of short guide based on what I saw during the 3 days that I was there. Now keep in mind that I have been there many different times before. However, a lot of these times were based on the fact that I had driven down with my parents and therefore didn't have a lot of room to explore on myself. I plan to correct this soon and will write a blog based on those experiences.

I started my trip by taking the MAX train into the city, starting in Hillsboro. For those that don't know what a MAX train is, it is a mass transit train that is about 40 miles long and goes from one end of the city and surrounding areas to the other. It is very handy for when wants to travel the fifteen miles into the city, but doesn't want to deal with driving downtown and struggling with things such as parking. The train is fairly clean, and a round trip day pass is usually around a dollar. The train itself was fairly clean and quiet. Didn't see much on the trip into the city, but being as I did pass by a couple of apartments, I did see a naked dude getting undressed in front of his living room window.

After about half an hour, I finally arrived in Downtown Portland. From there, it was about a 5 block walk down to my destination for the day, Powell Books. For those that don't know, Powell Books is a huge 3-4 floor book store. To give you an idea how big it is, each floor is about the same size as a standard size Barnes and Noble that you would find in any gentrified shopping area of any major city. As an English major and nerd like me, just this short description should show why I would be so inthraled by the place. Want to find books on how to jerk off, why there is an entire section of shelf based on that. Love Sci-Fi? Why that section, plus every type of roleplaying game and graphic novel take up an entire floor. Maybe I just like extremely rare things, but my favorite room was the Pearl room on the top floor. This room is the rare book room and if you have ever wondered how interested you could find something based on the fact that it is in a glass case, well come here ot find your answer. From a first edition Lewis and Clark expedition report, to a text book on the orient from 1495, you never knew that you could be so hypnotized by really old books. While I could have spent much longer browsing, I only had an hour, as I honestly didn't have much time.

After that leaving the bookstore, I spent awhile walking around the surrounding area, though I definatly didn't have any money or time, it was fun to just browse. For those that don't know, Portland has one of the highest densities of bars in the United States. Browse any beer aisle and many of the choices that you see will have a brewery or ale house in the city. In a lot of ways, the city reminds me more of Bellingham than Seattle. It has more of a smaller feel and ther e are a lot more artist galleries and places to eat and gather then Seattle, of which you could probably go broke just looking into the window of a sandwich place. One area that I will have to hit up when I go down there next time is this huge parking lot I found that had tons of food trucks. While many places will have one or two taco trucks, this place had anything from tacos, to thai food, to authentic chinese food. I forget what the place is called, but one place that you should try to find is this authentic chinese buffet I went to a few years back. How autentic was it. Three words; Fried Chicken Feet.

After about three hours of walking around, I had to leave. While I didn't even get close to seeing everything that I wanted to. I got enough of an idea to what I want to go to next time i'm in the area, which is hopefully soon.

Last night...

I heard a scary sound outside my window. It sounded like a baby was being attacked by a dog, while someone was having sex at the same time. When I looked outside there was no sign of anything happening. It was not a dream cause I was awake when it happened. Thoughts anyone?

This will probably make me sound conceited.

One of the crappy things about really slow days is that often times long periods of time will go by without anyone to help. It is during these times that I am left with my thoughts, which can be a very dangerous thing sometimes. Dealing with this small number of people, what is my conclusion. If you want to experience the life of some of the people that come into my store, punch yourself repeatedly until your eyes start to bleed. No look at yourself in the mirror and picture what your life would be like if you didn't look like shit because you just beat yourself up, but because you take shitloads of crystal meth. Congratulations, you now have an idea of the calibur of individual I deal with. Think the mindset of Joe the Plumber with intelligence of Terri Schivo even after they pulled the plug (For those that don't know who she is. She is the woman who was kept alive for 15 years through machines while she was brain dead).

For example, today a woman came up to me and asked if my name was Justin. While this may seem simple mistake, my coworker had just gotten done not only telling her what my name was, but I was wearing a name tag. Later in the day, another individual came into the store just so he could bitch to me about why we were going out of business. Now I don't know about you but I certainly don't have the time walk into random stores specifically to gloat about how they are going out of business. Of course a middle age man who has that sort of time probably is unemployed himself, in which case congrats asshole, you win for most ironic insult of the day.

Not that this is anything new. Lord knows these types make up a big part of the country, not to mention the weekly occurance I seem to have of old men attempting to molest me in public places. Yes, I know that people are physically closer in the old country, but I'm pretty sure that rubbing my shoulder isn't normal anywhere. Anyways, I feel that this sort of braindead coast through life is scarily normal in this day and age. To me, a lot of people seem to where their ignorance as a badge of honor. They are proud of the fact that they have been able to get through life being hopped up on drugs, both legal and illegal 90%, and are proud that they are unintelligent. I can't tell you how many times someone will be buying a computer and tell me that they don't have time for "that computer nonsense", but will act like they are fine with buying another one because they fucked the last one up.

Well, I guess I have to wrap this up, lunch ends in 4 minutes. In closing, if you are able to get to this blog, you are already smarter then 90% of most people. Don't let anyone call you stupid because the fact that you were even able to open your web browser shows that you are smart.

Random Thoughts

Just because I don't feel like writing structured paragraphs at the moment, this post will be in list format...

I am thinking of downloading windows 7 just because. I can't justify actually doing it and I know I would play around with it for maybe five minutes at most, but it just looks really cool.

Why do people who admit that they know nothing about computers think that everything you tell them about how they will get a virus if they don't get anti-virus software is a lie.

Why does good healthy food have to be so expensive. Maybe this country would be a lot healthier and feel better about itself if people ate better. Hence, more people need to shop at farmers markets. Seriously, at least here in Bellingham it isn't anymore expensive then if you were to buy it from the supermarket and often times it is even cheaper. Plus if people at healthier maybe they wouldn't be so pissed off all the time.

There is a good chance that I could be out of the job Friday. I will explain once the week ends but lets just say a vacation could be in the plan very soon.

You have no idea how glad I am that Joe The Plumber keeps being drug out beating like the dead horse that he is. Seriously, he is a real life version of two girls one cup. You hate him, but wish he would never go away. He has provided more comedy in the past few days then almost anything else.

To break the fourth wall a bit here. I like writing this blog, but my ADD makes it hard to keep on one subject for too long and these posts often end up being shorter then I or anyone else would like them to be. If anyone has some tips that would be great.

Actually, maybe its because I still think of it as homework in a ways. I mean I just spent the last two years doing nothing but writing for school. Maybe this casual stuff is exactly what I needed.

Well there you have it. There are the thoughts that are running through my head right now. Feel free to reply if there is any subject that you want me to expand upon.(sp?)