Welcome to another edition of me babbling. I haven't written here in a few days. I don't know why. Nothing much has been happening, but it seems the last few days has gone by faster than normal. Weird.

So, lots of talk still about Hurricane Katrina. Recently I've been reading a couple of things on the internet about people starting to get annoyed of all the Katrina talk. To each their opinions I say. I tend to not read into stuff like this, as there isn't much I can do. It's great that people are donating their money, jobs, homes, etc. But again, like I mentioned before, why does it take such a big disaster to make it happen?

Enough of that. On September 11th, there's going to be a show on the Discovery channel called "The Flight That Fought Back." I guess it's supposed to be about the crew of flight 93 (I think) that apparently saved others doing whatever they did. That's all good and well, however, when the commercial for it says that the show is to recount what happened on that day and what the "HEROES" did, it sort of pisses me off.

I guess the discrepancy comes when you talk about the definition of "hero." This is a hard definition, since everyone has their own definition of hero. I can't really think of a good definition or even a good example for some reason, but I myself would not call the passengers of flight 93 heroes. Answers.com has a list of people that are commonly recognized by heroes (and some not so common like fictional heroes), but obviously I don't agree with all of them. I won't even start to name some of them because it'll just start a big argument. But the bottom line is that the term hero should be reserved for much more than society deems it to be these days.

Going apart from the rather "down" topic, Motogolf.com is almost ready for launch. My brother has put the files and papers for it to become an LLC here in Colorado and once that goes through, it'll open. Probably in about 3 weeks I guess.

I've been working on other projects as well. Hopefully at least one of them will see completion. I need to start looking for jobs as well. Time is nearing the end my boy. I am hoping to do some volunteer time up at RMNP possibly working on weed/disease control (probably a technical terms for pulling weeds) and/or working with elk and stuff on chronic wasting disease. That would be sort of interesting. I will probably start finding stuff in Laramie soon.

A little about the image for today's blog. It's the main character from a Japanese cartoon that I used to watch as a kid. I glimpsed the name somewhere while surfing the web and I miss watching it. Not sure if it's even playing now since it was like early 90s, but yeah, it was cool. If I had to put it in modern comparison, it would be like the equivalent of the X-Men series, I guess, coupled with a little bit of the Addams Family...whatever. Haha.

I guess I will leave this with a little word annoyance (I'm not even sure what the correct answer to this is). How is the name Forrest (from Forrest Gump) pronounced?

I'm an advocate for Fawh-rest...sort of hard to write it in words but like the "fa" from the word "far". This is as opposed to the more popular "forest" as in, uh, the dense gathering of trees in an area. Oh well. Who cares...right?

So one of those songs that I listen to a lot, this time around, is Howie Day's Collide...and the chorus is especially thought-provoking:

Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme
Out of the doubt that fills my mind
I somehow find
You and I collide

Yeah, it's been on the radio a lot, but it takes a few weeks to sometimes really listen to the song, if you know what I mean.

I just got an interesting idea for a gift. I guess this won't be until Christmas time!

I really want a new computer and I configured one for about $400 shipped that'll handle all my needs. Can't get it though, because I have other shit to pay for!

Oh well. Back to work tomorrow.

And one super random thought that's been in my mind for a while. I would pay a buttload of money to have a movie made of me and Laura and our life from a "3rd person perspective". That would be good. Photographs work, but only to a certain degree you know? I need 3-dimensionalism!

P.S. I'm thinking about moving this blog to another location so I can have more control over the design...we'll see about that.

Got back today from spending the weekend at Laura's place in Laramie. I had fun. I miss her but it's only a couple of more weeks, well, maybe more like a few more weeks before I may move up there. It'll be all good. I'm going to send in the app for the graphics designer job for the Cheyenne job probably tomorrow. I really need to get cracking on the Laramie apartments and businesses thing...I think it will work! I just need to get my mind set to it, more so than before. The thing is, my current job is sort of the thing that's keeping me at bay.

1 more month at this job. I can't believe that if I were in Alaska still, I would still be there, until the 15th. Crazy. I think most of my coworkers would be gone, save a few since they started school and all. I wonder how their summer turned out and all that nitty gritty stuff.

Looking back, this summer was a crazy one, for all of us. Me, TJ, Ashley, Laura...maybe not Chris since he's not been really doing much other than school and work. His routine hasn't changed for like years. Anyway, yeah, onto more interesting stuff.

Laura brought back the bow and I have it at my house now. It's pretty cool. It's pretty much the best weapon that I've ever got. ;) I'm going to probably buy some sweet wooden rods, sharpen the tip and get some feathers (okay, maybe not real feathers) so it'll fly straight.

I've been ITCHING to start a website...and put some Google Ads on it. Haha. I've just been reading about how Google Ads can give you a pretty steady income if you have a website with decent traffic. I think it would be cool to run a website with TJ. Once he gets a steady internet connection, maybe he will. We could just have a website were we have our individual opinions or something about anything and everything and people can come and comment on them. Then we can have projects like Cock Eyed. So in essence it'll be like that, but with a journal sort of thing. I think it would be fun. I was thinking of domain names and www.twoguysandanopinion.com is not taken. Haha. Long address, but it's pretty funny. Get on the internet connection out there in Iowa! :)

What else. Just paid some bills, nothing much else. I guess Comcast cable is upgrading their internet service nationwide right now, from the East to West. Colorado should be upgraded within a week or so but yeah, that's cool it's getting faster. Can't complain with that!

Well I'll keep this one a short one. Talk to you later.

P.S. Where's that blog TJ? Haha.

Well, with the ideas and help of Laura, I might have found something I want to do in Laramie!!! (With a part-time job to go with it probably for the beginning at least)

More info later...

...on second thought, I guess I would add something else. The importance of actually doing something when you find something you want to do...I think I really may try and do this. There might not be an opportunity again in the future, you know?

Another day, another day.

Didn't do too much again today. Ate lunch with Ashley at IHOP by my work and decided not to go back afterwards. She came over and scanned some pictures on Chris' scanner, but that's about it. I cleaned my bath tub since it was getting slightly dirty. I'm not a fan of dirty bathrooms. But that went well and I even used some bleach stuff.

Been watching Early Edition, but I think the re-run season started over from the very first episode, so they're the earlier ones and I don't think they're as good as the later ones. It's still good to see/remember how the whole show got started. I didn't realized a lot of the other casts were in it so much in the beginning.

Today was sort of cold in the morning and the high was only like 75 or something. Cool and refreshing day I would think some would think. That was a very poorly constructed sentence.

I didn't go and take pictures of Fort Collins yesterday. I would have, but I got lazy. Taking a picture of everything sounds and is daunting! If only I could hire someone and just get the pictures on my comp without me taking it.

Yeah, that's seems to be about it. I have to fill out this application and send it in to the Laramie Community College by the 12th...I'll probably send it out tomorrow night or something. They'll start screening on the 12th and I wonder if I'm going to have to go up there for an interview. I mean, I would like it, but I don't want to drive up there if I'm just going to be coming back and I'm not getting the job. Yeah, that sounds selfish doesn't it? Well, I'll be going now.

Talk to you later.

This is a short blog while my laptop defrags, and then I'm heading to bed.

Wow, that really was quick. The defrag is done. So I'll be back later!

One more post before I lose the thought. I was watching Early Edition and in one episode, Gary opens this chest whose owner was the previous guy who got the paper. Anyway, the paper inside the chest had one sentence, probably meant for Gary. It said:

"Live your life"

Now, I'm not getting tomorrow's paper or anything, but I thought that phrase was really powerful, in a weird way. This combined with listening to this one song prompted me to write this entry.

Yeah, I guess I don't want to say in 5, 10, 20 years from now, "I wonder what would have happened if..."

Anyway that's all! I'll leave this blog with a message for Laura: I love you! :)

So yesterday I took a trip down to Longmont to lend my Mom Laura's printer because my brother in law won't help her. All went well and she go sushi for dinner, so that was good.

Anyway, a weird and crazy thing happened on the way there. I was turning onto Taft Hill going south from Prospect and an accident happened like, literally a few feet from me. I'll try and explain it (as I saw it or think what happened, at least). I was turning right. I think there was an SUV behind me and you know how if you're ever behind a car and they're slowing down to turn, you might swerve out to their left so you don't have to slow down as much? Well, that's what the SUV did. Keep that in mind. At the same time, there was a car wanting to turn left onto Taft Hill from Prospect, I remember that clearly since I saw him. And if you're ever wanting to turn left onto a road, you sometime go out to the intersection and anticipate a car coming down the road and you actually start turning left before they're out of the intersection...right? Ok, well, he thought the SUV was going to stay in my lane (the right lane) and I think he was starting to turn left...low and behold, the SUV wasn't in his lane, he was swerving into the left lane of Prospect, so it hit the left front of the car turning left.

I heard a big crash and I turned behind me and there it was. The guy in the smaller car was ok, I saw him get out and walk toward the SUV. I'm not sure what he was going to do, probably beat the shit out of the SUV! I mean, it was his fault. He shouldn't have been switching lanes at the intersection. Now I can understand even more why that law exists!

But yeah, for like a minute, I was like, dude, that could have involved me! And then I was listening to trance so I forgot about that. It was just a close call. Makes you think about what might have happened if you were involved. Like, I'm sure I couldn't have been part of that particular accident, per se, but in the future. Crazy stuff.

Laura is doing good I think in Laramie. She misses me a lot and I do too, but hopefully I'll be up there soon. She said people there just drink and all that, but yeah, what's with small places and people just drinking? Can't they just hang out? I don't understand. Laramie isn't THAT small, like 30,000 people, but anyway.

Just like Laura said to me, it seems like everyone right now is in a state of limbo, in terms of where they are in their life, what they want to be doing, what they are doing, etc., with the exception of a couple of friends I know. It's a weird time for sure. I've got about a month before my internship is over. Well, at the least paying part. I have to do 30 hours of volunteer, since they couldn't pay me for the entire 400 hours. My boss is trying to set something up where I might help out in Rocky Mountain to finish up the internship. That would be fun.

I'll probably start looking at jobs here pretty soon, probably starting sometime next week. Monday, I finally finish up my root canal with the crown procedure. Oh yeah, I haven't really talked about my tooth, have I? It's been good. It was sore a few blogs ago and I guess the problem was that I wasn't using it ENOUGH...or so I think the problem was. I starting slowly using it and it's all better, so.

I'm curious was TJ is up to and what he's thinking about doing. I also need to get his brother's e-mail address so I can ask him to make me sword! Haha. I actually do want a sword if he can make one. I would even consider paying for it! How cool would it to have a broadsword or claymore or something like that in the room and say to your visitors, if you fuck with me, I'll go King Arthur on you. lol. That was really nerdy, but oh well.

I think that's it for now. I'm probably going to make some coffee with the coffee maker that Laura bought me. It's working great (and it's was only $20!). I've been listening to a lot of new (old?) songs. They're old to the music industry, but they're new to me since I've never heard them. A lot of them are reflective songs and I like that. Well, that's it.

See ya.

Today I went to a work lunch meeting with some of the web people. I'm not exacly sure why I went, since I was hoping they would pay for the food and they didn't, and I really didn't say much because it doesn't concern me, but it was fun to do that with my coworkers. We went to Woody's pizza, which I don't like really, but oh well.

Tomorrow they're having like an ice cream social because one of the guys from DC who's doing the seminar is here and wants to visit the office so that's an excuse for an ice cream social.

I downloaded two good songs today, I think one's pretty old, but yeah. They're good. Tomorrow is going to be a laid back day. I'm probably going to head to work and I'm going to leave around noon and come back. Do my journal assignment for my internship and call it a day. Man, it's been boring.

My brother is really getting into the selling the electric cart thingy. I'm helping out with the website, obviously, and I guess I have 25% equity. lol. The website will be located at Motogolf.com but it's not ready yet. It will be open in a 1/2 month or so. This one's been a learning experience since I had to integrate a shopping cart and stuff since people will need to buy the carts. I guess I'll be doing all the sales parts, like forwarding e-mails and such. We'll see how much money this is going to make.

Another thing I've been sort of working on was building websites for businesses in FoCo. I think I wrote that already, but yeah, I have a template site set up and everything. Just need to find a way to approach this. Gotta think it through a bit more.

Laura is doing good I think in Laramie. She's been hanging out (I think) with her classmates and she starts school next week. Oh yeah, and we've been talking on Google Talk a lot too. It's a lot more convenient than typing, since I can just talk and so can she. I need to get her a headset, though. Then you can just surf and talk and it's so easy. Google is making everything better and they're going to take over the world!

I think tonight I am going to watch Early Edition. I haven't had the chance the last 2 days since I've been working on websites, but tonight is a chill and watch Early Edition night. Should be fun.

Other news? Not really. I've been involved more with the forums than recently...I'm about ready to let it go, for real though. October is when the forum software runs out and I ain't payin' another $85 for renew it. We'll see what the future hold for it. It's been just over a year now. Cool huh. 826 members too! I doubt I'll reach my goal of 1/4 the student body, but oh well.

I'm going to go make some coffee now to get ready for the show. Talk to you laters!

I'm not writing much at all tonight. I'm about to head to sleep. I'm pretty tired. Anyway, TJ's doing good back in Iowa, but he's figuring out what to do I guess. I'm sort of in the same boat, well, getting close. Come October, who knows what will happen?

I've actually been thinking about going to Wyotech, an auto school in Laramie. I was thinking about doing the auto body degree. That would be fun I'd think. I'm not sure how much it costs and everything, but they do have FAFSA and stuff, so I'd probably get grants and stuff. Then I can work at mechanics shops and stuff. That would be fun.

Well, that's about it. I'm tired, so I'll write again later. See ya!

Quick post while I'm waiting for some car videos to be downloaded.

Gloomy little Saturday afternoon. Laura is out shopping for dresses with Ashley at old town. I'm not sure when I wrote last, but since then, Ellen has moved into Allison. I think I wrote that, but oh well. Looks like she's settling in good I think.

Laura start her school stuff on Monday, like orientation or something and the week after I think she starts classes. Next week is sort of busy for me in terms of work, maybe. I have a meeting I'm going to Monday afternoon and Thursday a lunch meeting, well, I'm just really sitting in, with the big web developer from Washington D.C.

Chris is probably going to finish up building his computer tonight. I can't believe he bought that much stuff. That reminds me, I don't think I wrote that yet. $2500! Fucken eh. I could have made 4-5 COMPLETE systems for that that'll play games just fine. I guess that's what the rich does!

I think I'll stop for this blog. Talk to you later.

I just got done watching Early Edition on PAX TV. Such a great show. I then got online and checked out the status on Early Edition and what everyone (if any) had been talking about it. I was on IMDB's site and going through the forums. People were actually still watching and discussing it. I was surprised, so I posted too. Haha. Anyway, yeah, this episode was the one that was posted on the bulletin boards, about how Gary gives the "job" down to someone. Freaky!

And then I wondered how it would be like if I got tomorrow's paper. Would I do the right thing? Would I abuse it by looking at the lottery numbers? I don't know, I'm greedy sometimes, so I probably would.

I wonder if someone "saved" my life up to this point in life, like in the episode. Makes you think if things that are happening in your life is totally random or "nudged in the elbow" so to speak.

Laura is coming down tomorrow to help move Ellen in to the dorms on Thursday. Come to think of it, Chris is coming home tomorrow too I think. Gonna be a full house for the day I guess.

I'm going to head to bed now. Long day tomorrow.

I wonder how many blogs I will reach by the end of the year. 400? 500? Well, I hope it's not 500 because that will be about 1 per day or so (quickly calculated in my head so I could be way off). Been having PB&J sandwiches a lot lately. Cheap and filling! Sort of.

TJ called and I wasn't here to answer it. He was just about to leave for the island. Come to think of it, I haven't used by cell phone in a long time. Sure, for calls here and there, but I never carry it with me anymore. Sort of cool since I'm not always looking at it or fumbling around trying to figure out where I misplaced it and that sort of thing.

Funny thing happened at work today. This morning was unusually foggy, so I turned my lights on. As always, well, not ALWAYS, I left my lights on when I got to work. Luckily Shannon was told that there was a red Civic outside with the lights on, so she came and told me. It was about an hour or so. I'm surprised it lasted that long. Anyway, I go to lunch and come back to see Shannon by the office door, calling someone. She comes up as I get out of the car and says she left HER car light on and the battery is dead. Now, it's not funny, but it's funny, you know? Very ironic. Anyway, I would have jumped the car, but I don't carry jumper cables with me. I should and I don't know why I don't, because it's probably the best thing you can do to keep one set in the trunk for emergencies. All said, one of the IT guys had a set of cables, so they jumped her car and all is well.

It's been cool lately, weather wise. The transition to Fall is coming! I think I already said the same thing earlier, but yeah.

The gist of the blog is to always carry some jumper cables!

I'm listening to an awesome Sarah McLachlan trance track that I wished I've been recording. Anyway, some interesting news.

So that CSUMaps thing? I mentioned it to the guy in Boulder I do websites for and he got all excited and I think we may work on a Boulder version or listings and stuff with pictures. Since he's a cab driver, I was going to hitch a ride and take pictures one day. We'll see how this pans out.

Laura is coming down in a couple of hours to stay the night tonight and tomorrow morning we're going to head to the CSU Oval for a dog show. My coworker is going to be there with her dog and my boss is going to be there as well. Should be fun. Afterwards, we're going to head back up to Laramie, since her Mom is coming up for the day I guess. Dunno what we're doing up there, not sure if I'll go yet or not.

TJ is leaving in a couple of days. Hope he has a good trip and that the experience is a good one. I e-mailed Casey a couple of days ago and she e-mailed back, saying she was doing good and she's actually going to Alaska today to visit friends up there. Ironic? I think not!

Well, I'm doing laundry, so I'll write back again.

It's Friday!

Not much at all going on. Laura was here for the last few days and went home this morning. I might go down this weekend, but I'm not sure. Probably just for Sunday if I can get a ride up there. I have to do another homework journal over the weekend to turn in for my internship. It's already 4 weeks into it! I can't believe it. Time flew by quick, which is bad since that means I'm nearing the end of getting money from work.

I'm dreading starting my next step in my CSUMaps project, which is to take the pictures for my map. Yup, ALL of FoCo, if that's possible at all. Maybe when Chris gets back, I'll make him drive. That's the thing, I would do it now, but the stop and go driving, coupled with the insane gas prices for some reason, don't go together.

I'll write again later.

See ya.

Just a quick thought. In about 3 months, I would have been blogging for 4 years. I don't think there is anything else in this world that has captured the events in my life better than this blog, save my brain and a couple of close friends. One day, probably never, I need to sit down and read through this thing in one sitting to do a flashback on my life. 4 years! I can't imagine that. That's a 1/6th of my life, written on, not paper, but online. Crazy. God knows that I would have never written this much by hand!

Well, I'm headin' to bed. Now that I have the TV in my room, I might watch a couple of shows or you know, channel surf until I find something good. I've actually been into the home shopping network and the local channels for some reason!

I found a pretty good trance streaming station to rip for the next few days. I like the music it plays and it's all high quality 192kbps baby.

So that big project at work is being put off for this year, meaning I don't have to develop it. I was looking forward to making stuff that people would actually use, but yeah. I did finish up another thing that I was working on for the last week or so. I sent it via e-mail to my bosses to see if they like it. I'll check tomorrow about that.

Chris left for the next 8 or 9 days I think to head to California. Pretty quiet here actually when people are gone! Laura is coming back tomorrow though, so we can hang out.

I just got an urge to get a new hard drive just for storing music, although I already have that in a sense. I just want a new computer I guess. It'll come in due time.

I'm going to check some job openings and stuff. By that time, Laura should be calling, so see ya laters!

So Laura moved all of her stuff to Laramie today. It was a long day of moving but yeah, we're done. The furniture dolly was actually helpful in making the armoir move quite easily. :P I know Laura, you were right. I think because you kept saying "dolly" I was thinking about the long, tall, skinny kind for grocery stores. Anyway.

Gotta turn in my timesheet tomorrow morning. Another week of work coming up. I'm not sure I'm supposed to be working on the big project that the big boss wants for the coming 4 weeks or something. I thought I should get on that, you know. I don't want to hear come 4 weeks that they need it and I'm like, oh, shit, I didn't know that. But yeah, I'll start on that tomorrow.

Not much news really. It's been quite hot the last couple of days for some weird reason. The house is like, not cooling or something. It's like like 90 or 91. A couple of weeks back, it was near 100 and it felt cooler. Oh well.

I'm running out of things to write, so I'll see ya next time.

Well, TJ left yesterday with his friends. Not really left for the islands, but probably left enough that I won't see him until he gets back. Not sure if he's going to be reading this blog frequently or anything, but if you are, hope you have a great time, better than my trip to Alaska at least!

The last few months have been super fun with TJ, making videos and hangin' out in general. He's been a great friend. More so than others sometimes, but that's another story and probably not suited even for the blog! Anyway, have a blast.

Today at work was funny. One of the coworkers who's really into World of Warcraft reached level 60 on his character, which is the highest level you can get. My other coworkers who also play, bought him a cake and 60 candles as a "birthday". Haha, it was funny. I think he was embarrased since he didn't want to explain the occasion, because it's sort of nerdy, but it was fun. Made me REALLY want to play and get into the game, but I need to build a better computer, which can be done for about $400. Not bad at all. I was doing all kinds of configurations and cutting corners to make it cheaper and stuff. I mean, I'm not going to be playing the most demanding games or anything. A little more research and hopefully I can get a computer piece by piece.

My first post from work since I came back!

Anyway, it was a weird morning today. I woke up at like 3:30am for some reason and wen back to sleep. The next thing I know, I woke up at 8:00 or so, and I was like, WTF? I was looking at the clock, thinking that it was one of those weird movie dreams where people wake up and the world's all different and stuff. But true enough, it was 8:00am...I didn't get it for a while. Laura said that I got up when the alarm went off, at 6:30am and I was trying to turn it off and she turned it off for me. I guess I went to bed. Strange thing is that I remember NOTHING of that occurrent. WTF?!?! I should know if something like that happens. Oh well,

Last night, I guess Chris went and bought a video game and video card to play the game with and his hard drive malfunctioned...so he had to re-format it and now he lost everything on his HDD...haha, I have to say, it's funny. He says he followed the directions, but I have a feeling that he didn't.

I am about to leave for Fazoli's to eat lunch with Laura. Should be good. I'm probably going to have the chicken parmesan again. It's good.

Gotta go!

Wow, another in a few hours!

Anyway, watching the trailer to Rent, coming out this Winter sparked me to write this.

Haha, 525,600 minutes!

But, seriously. A year is a long time. A lot happens in a year and a lot of us know that from experience. I haven't seen the musical yet, but I want to. If it's playing here in town, I would definitely see it.



Ok, so I thought we were going to head out to eat something, but since it's 2 for Tuesdays at Domino's, we did that.

Anyway, back to Rent (which I actually have to pay on Friday!) Yeah, watching the trailer for some reason makes me want to spend time with Laura and friends during the Christmas season. I don't know what it is, but the whole image of people walking down downtown, wearing scarfs, lights on the trees, and perhaps snowing just appeals to me. I like doing that or at least imagining it if it's too cold or something.

Yeah, And Laramie might be a good place to do that too with all the old houses, buildings and I really like the small community feel. I would like to live in a small community someday. I'm not a city person I guess like my brother and other friends that I know.

Oh yeah, another tangent, the other day I was thinking about seeing Crash and when I was out a week or so ago, it was just like Crash, in the sense that the world is a diverse place and we are surrounded by them, and those that "work together" without dicrimination...if you get my drift. My example. That day I ate breakfast, I forget where and got helped by a white person...later that day, I went to go get some school stuff and a latino guy helped me and he REALLY, REALLY insisted that I get a bag for my stuff, but I said it's ok. He was just really nice, not something you'd expect from the way he looked. This was at Long's Drugs. Then I think I ate at Taco Bell or something and another latino person helped me. The whole day was just weird. Don't get too many days with more contact with non-white than white.

Maybe that's what I liked about L.A. The fact that there are so many people, doing their own thing, and although they don't seem like the helping type of person, they do have good in them. People look out for each other, discretely and covertly, if that's makes sense. It's like an unwritten rule. I would assume that in L.A., for instance, Asians will help out Asians more, generally and so forth with the other races...not to sound weird, but I think white people are the least helped or attended to by other races in my opinion. Latinos, black, etc., in my opinion, will help out the white race the least among all races. I don't know. I could be just talking out of my ass, but I know what I know and I know what I've experienced. Hell, my old middle school's demographics, which I found easily, broke down like this, although this is NOT a 1996 census, it's probably still pretty accurate:

"The students come from diverse backgrounds, including 72.1% Hispanic, 12.5% White/Non-Hispanic, 11.4% African-American, 1.5% Asian, 1% American Indian, and 1.5% Other ethnic backgrounds."

All I can say is that I won't find that kind of shit here in Colorado! MOST of my friends, however, strangely as it may be, was white. Maybe just over half. The rest were pretty much latino and Asian. Not quite sure what the 1.5% "other" ethnic background is, but that sort of tells you what kind of area I came and grew up in.

This is interesting, so here's the demographics of the H.S. that I would have gone to if it wasn't for me moving to Niwot:

"78.2% Hispanic, 12.7% White/Non-Hispanic, 7.1% African-American, and 2% Other ethnic backgrounds."

Again, similar to my middle school. Anyway, I just want to say that people are generally good out in the world and although as hard as it may be (even for me), it's bad to judge a person by how they look or act, however cliche or hypocrital that may sound.

Thought I'd write a little something that I was thinking about today at work. I was listening to Big Yellow Taxi by the Counting Crows and two lines of the song is really true in life.

"don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone"

I guess I'm just saying don't take it for granted what you got right now, because in a day, a week, a year, whatever, it might go away, and only then, that's when you'll realized that you lost something. Appreciate what you have right now and hold it tight!

I thought I'd write a blog while I'm waiting for my CD to finish burning. I've been into getting new music the last couple of weeks. I've gotten a lot of them too!

Today I was putting together a makeshift "new computer" from the computer that TJ gave me. It didn't run since it didn't have any RAM, so. I decided to use the case because it was better than mine. More room to work with. All went well. Everything booted up fine, so.

Today was a long day at work. I didn't have much to do, but at the end of the day, the big boss was talking to my boss and I'm going to do this project that needs to be done in the next few weeks. I should be able to handle it! I hope! I don't want to look like a dumbass when I said it can be done. Could be long and frustrating days at work the next couple of weeks.

Laura will be here Wednesday! That's like, 2 days. Then I get "paid" on Friday. Everything with the internship is going good. I missed a couple of points on the last assignment because I forgot page numbers...I saw it AFTER I turned it in on WebCT too, and I was like, damn, that's gonna hurt me. And it did, not much, so that's good. I am worried about my postcard assignment for 10pts. It was to be sent in by today. I sent it last Thursday, so it had PLENTY of time to get there, granted it went ok. I didn't put my address on there, but as long as the recipient is on there, that's ok, right? I never sent a postcard before, I don't think, so I was confused. Oh well, 10 points out of 1000 isn't much. Hopefully that doesn't kill me in the end.

GOOOOOOD! (That was "god" not "good") The burning is taking a long time. 4 minutes left. I've been writing for about 6 minutes now. I just realized that I probably write in my blog more than any other time, combined. If I took all my blogs, I bet it could be a novel. Really. I think there's a place where you can check how many words you've written or something, but I could be making that shit up.

Oh yeah, I have to make TJ a CD of some songs he wanted. I have to do that before he leaves. Well, my tooth is sort of getting better...but I think that's because I'm just making myself think that it's not sore and it's not...if you got that.

I'm going to sleep now...brush my teeth and it should be done. Laters all.

Today was a hot day. It felt hotter sinceI was helping TJ move, but it wasn't that bad. Just walking up and down. Everything fit pretty much into one truckload. Both of us got a load of big gulps (that sounds nasty doesn't it?) at the gas station. I almost died because the Mug rootbeer went down the wrong tube and TJ explained because it was because of the bad root beer brand.

I found a cool job that might be, well, cool if I got it. It's a recreation maintenance worker for the Parks and Rec division in Laramie. I would be cool with that job...combine what I liked about working at the golf course with my recreation degree. And the cool part is that it pays $25K-$35K a year...FUCK THAT'S A LOT!!! Haha. I would be content, though, really. I wouldn't know what to do with $35K a year. That's like almost $3K a month...I survive on wayyyy less than that right now. Shit, I'd be rich. Back when I had the steady job and going to school, I was getting, oh $750 a month. Imagine, 4 times as much money coming in.

Which brings me to the issue that people I know are "broke" when they're getting paid upwards of 6 figures. I know I can't put myself in that situation and all the expenses, but come on, say with $100,000 flat per year, that's plenty to do absolutely anything. I guess it's not though for some. I don't know get...they must be bad with money or something.

I'm about to sleep soon. I'm tired and another week of work is starting. Though I don't see much of it, I'm going to see a deposit in my checking account on Friday. w00t! By the way, if you're bored, head to http://www.woot.com for some interesting things. Yeah, small paycheck, but a paycheck nonetheless. Something I haven't seen in 2 months I guess.

I'm gonna do a few more internet stuff and I'm off to bed. Later gator.

P.S. Laura gets up here on Wednesday and staying until she moves up on Sunday. I guess we are helping, but yeah, I can't believe the Summer is coming to a close. It wasn't a bad Summer I guess. I've had worse. This P.S. is becoming like another mini blog! Yeah, Friday we are hoping to get a camp site where my boss goes every now and then. Apparently it's right by the lake and it's a great place, so. If we can get a reservation at a good or fairly good spot, we'll go camping. I might get some wood from TJ's place, though. I was sitting there thinking about it for the longest time today. Now I want it. But I'm sure when I'm there, I probably won't. Oh well. Ok, now I'm really done.

So I finally called the dentist to see what was up with my tooth. They were gone for the day...apparently they leave earlier on Fridays. Hopefully they call me back with a good answer.

I was looking in the pantry for something to snack on (yes, I look there even though I KNOW there's nothing there) and I found this little white bag...what was it? It was the coffee flavored chocolates that Laura brought up last Thursday. At that moment, among many moments of course, I got that feeling that I am lucky to have Laura with me in my life and how she does these little things that I notice. This is a precursor to what I may discuss soon, but the simple fact that it REALLY is the "little things that matter" in life. It's the small talk between friends, the silly things between friends (yup, both smart and dumb!), and just knowing the fact that some friends will really always be there when you need them, or even if you don't need them. Big things in life for me? H.S. graduation. Big deal. College graduation? Couldn't have done it myself obviously. I don't know...I just don't seem to remember the big things.

At the same time, everyday things, though they are a little, don't mean a lot either. It's gotta be a small thing, but out of the ordinar enough that I remember them. I won't write examples, but that's what life is.

At this point, I like to use the rocks in the jar analogy.

The jar is life. You fill the jar with big rocks, signifying big events in life...life isn't full yet. You then add smaller rocks, smaller, yet still significant events in life. Shake up the jar and you get a little fuller life. However, with these you can never fill the jar. Finally, you take sand, tiny pebbles in the big scheme of things, but in the end, these are what fill yours jar and your life. Without them, you can't live life to its fullest.

I'm a dork, but that's just a great analogy!

So strangely, my teeth is starting to get sort of sore again...I'm not sure if I should be worried about it or not...I'll wait a couple of days and if it doesn't go away, I might say something the next time I'm at the dentist doing my final crown procedure.

I'm so broke right now...I have $45 on the credit card LEFT. That's right. LEFT. I get paid in 2 weeks, but that's gonna go toward some stuff first. Hopefully I can pay down my credit card a bit before then.

TJ's gonna be leaving for the islands in a couple of weeks. Time flies! I sort of remember when he first came down to the Sumac house with the camp gang. That was what, 3 years ago? That's crazy. A lot has certainly happened during that time.

Um, not really much to say...I had another full 8-hour day at work today with no lunch break. I was working on this programming thing and JUST COULDN'T FIGURE IT OUT. I got pissed. I'm working with one of my co-workers on this and she's great help, but man, I can't stand it. I hope they don't find this blog of mine!

I'm gonna eat something and then head to bed...the routine is sort of back. 7:30 to 3:30...be tired, go to sleep at 10 or 11...wake up at 6:30, start the coffee maker (to make hot water), get in the shower, get out, get ready, make some hot chocolate, head to work right at 7:12 from my house and I get there around 7:30, plus or minus a couple of minutes.

Laters.

Haven't written in a while, so I thought I do. Laura is in the living room watching Star Wars right now. I had a long day of work today...got there at 7:30, lunch with Laura from 1:30 to 2:30 and then until 5 or so. I was actually into what I was doing too, maybe that's why time went by fast.

This past weekend, TJ, Laura and I went camping at RMNP at Morraine Park. It was fun. Kids camping next to us were loud in the morning, but other than that, it was fun. We then went to see Bear Lake to see how it was, since it was my first time seeing it. It wasn't so bad, but yeah, the bad part was that we got locked out of my car in the parking lot...with the car running. I didn't hear my turbo timer and yeah, so, we called AAA and Laura had a free tow on their family account, so thanks to that, it was open and all that within 40 minutes or so and free. Thanks Laura and company.

I am calculating my budget right now...not looking good, but it ain't all that bad I guess...I won't have any spending money, and say good bye to my new computer, but oh well. Life moves on in ways you don't want sometimes.

Anyway, I've got some stuff let to do...then I'm gonna hang out with Laura tonight.

See ya laters.

#327.

I'm writing this from my laptop at my old house in Niwot, listening to some anime music...okay, that sounds dorky, but this one's awesome, right up there with climactic (climatic?) scores found in LOTR and Star Wars and stuff.

Nothing of big news to note. Laura gets back tomorrow, so I can't wait for that. I'm still not sure if she'll be up Thursday or Friday. I've actually worked 8-hours shifts at work the last 3 days (or the first 3 days if you want to look at it). Tomorrow is another story. I'll be working from probably 12 or 1 to 4 or 5. We'll see which comes first. Friday is my first end of the week timesheet time. I should get it signed and stuff Friday. It's going to be, what, 35-36 hours? That's so much! lol. My next paycheck is going to be AWESOME. I haven't had that much money in a while.

So, I am assuming that Aramark isn't going to pay me the 3 training days that I was there. The thing is, I'm probably not going to call since it's like sticking it up their ass asking to get paid when I quit, but who cares? I sure as hell don't. I SHOULD have gotten paid $120 or something after room and board and taxes are taken away, but I probably won't see that.

Gosh, it's 9:38pm and I'm not tired, but it's too early to sleep! I might head upstairs and see what I can scrounge up to eat, but anyway, I might have some great news tomorrow night.

Stay tuned.

New facelift for my website: http://www.csuconnection.com

I sort of have a loyal following back...in the tens, lol. Hopefully I can get it back to what I had it at a few months ago.

Went to Jim's Wings today. TJ called to see if I wanted to go, but I opted out first since I really have no money (i.e. $80 for the next 3 weeks for everything I need)...but then he offered to pay. I felt bad, but I went and got 5 wings. Thanks goes to him.

I still don't know when Laura's coming back, but tomorrow I'm not heading to RMNP. This weekend will be fun. I had an argument with Laura about the price of a U-Haul truck, one-way, renting from here in Fort Collins and dropping it off in Laramie...she said she called and the guy said almost $200...I call BS, but Laura doesn't believe me and says what the guys says is true. I say it can't be that much. So I hop online and run a quote...one-way from FoCO. How much? $96 and that includes 91 free miles. Bam, I win!

Anyway, gonna get Pizza Hut with TJ tomorrow. I will also see my old supervisor as well. Hope he's well. I'm gonna head to bed soon. I was TIRED today. I went to sleep around 12, got up around 6:20 or so. I'm almost getting in the hang of it.

Well my first day of work went ok...pretty much what it was before I left, but that's ok. It seems though that my boss is going to really try and make this "internship" worth while, so that's good. On Wednesday I'm going up to RMNP to do some volunteer work planting plants/trees and pulling weeds and the sort. Should be fun. I actually get paid so it's not volunteering, but yeah.

I also want to get a part-time job, another one (I think I already wrote that), either that or volunteer at the parks and recreation for the city. It would be fun to coach little kids or do stuff with them.

It's weird because it's days like these that I feel good about life and stuff, like I wrote before, even though things are sort of rough in terms of money right now. Days will go by, I guess. My credit card is at like $1720 of $1800...$80 left and I don't get paid until probably the 3rd Friday from now....THAT SUCKS! We'll see what happens. I'll chronicle my "living with no money" here in the blog.

Laura went to a Cardinals game and she text messaged me saying she met Ozzie Smith. lol. She'll be here Friday! Also, I was going to head to Bandimere on Wednesday, but I won't be because I am going to be in RMNP. Oh well.

I'm listening to a new, good single from Lifehouse right now (actually, it's weird how I say new since it's on there latest CD). I'll copy and paste the lyrics for you, Laura. :)

-------------------------------------------------------------------
"You And Me"

What day is it? And in what month?
This clock never seemed so alive
I can't keep up and I can't back down
I've been losing so much time

Cause it's you and me and all of the people with nothing to do
Nothing to lose
And it's you and me and all of the people
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you

All of the things that I want to say just aren't coming out right
I'm tripping on words
You've got my head spinning
I don't know where to go from here

Cause it's you and me and all of the people with nothing to do
Nothing to prove
And it's you and me and all of the people
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you

There's something about you now
I can't quite figure out
Everything she does is beautiful
Everything she does is right

Cause it's you and me and all of the people with nothing to do
Nothing to lose
And it's you and me and all of the people
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you
and me and all of the people with nothing to do
Nothing to prove
And it's you and me and all of the people
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you

What day is it?
And in what month?
This clock never seemed so alive
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, that took up a lot of space without spending much time. Today's going to be a song ripping day. I'll write again soon!

Okay, the long post.

Anyway, do you ever sometimes get the feeling that all is going to be all right, even if they aren't going to be? Well, yeah, I sort of felt that today. Like my teeth. It's gonna get fixed, yeah, but it costs a buttload...but I don't give a damn! That thought was really hard to write out...so don't even bother trying to decipher what I was trying to write.

My laptop is for the most part done tweaking. Just need to add a few more programs, Word, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop and it's done. Writing and using this laptop reminds me of when Laura and I were at the Sumac house. Yup.

What else. Nothing really, even though I said I would write a big blog.

Here is my proposed routine for the internship time period (if I get the schedule I want)

1. Wake up at 5:30am
2. Take a shower. Get the coffee going before the shower.
3. Out of shower at 5:50am.
4. Read up on news, e-mail, etc.
5. Leave for work around 6:00am.
6. Arrive at 6:15am.
7. Leave at 2:15pm.

I want to maybe get a second job, like afternoon/late afternoon. Heck, even right after my job would be ok. I would love to do newspaper routes, since it's like $400 or so a month, but I can't seem to readily find them like I did back in like 2001/2002.

Well, I just lost the urge to keep writing. See ya laters.

This is my first post from my SCREAMING new (old) computer that I traded with my Mom today. Screaming as in not fast, but that because the fan is always on now since it's not an Intel Centrino processor. Oh well. She seemed to like the new laptop, so that's good.

What's been going on? Nothing much. Tomorrow I start work, almost exactly 2 months to the day that I quit. Seems like just yesterday. I'm not going to make this a long one, but I'm going to write a longer one tonight, but I just wanted to test everything out on this laptop, since it's going to be Laura's in a couple of months.

Laters.

So, what to do tonight? I don't feel like going cruisin', but that could change. I make decisions on the fly and if anybody knows best, Laura knows that I can change minds AT THE VERY LAST MINUTE, literally. Like one time, we said, let's go to Olive Garden. We were driving, as we were pulling into the parking lot, I saw that it was sort of crowded. Bam, I lost my interest to go there...and we didn't end up going there...I forget what we did...come home? Anyway, I just want to thank Laura for putting up with some of the stupid things I do sometimes.

Went to McDonald's with TJ today. We were talking a bit about the movie last night but nothing too important. We were trying to figure out what kind of restaurant was next to McDonald's. Turns out it was Mediterranean (or however you spell it). Looked good though. I love Greek good but I don't even know if Greek should be capitalized in this sentence. But yeah, like Renzios in the mall? It's awesome. The gyros are great and the fries are the best I've had in this city.

But yeah, after seeing that movie last night, I sort of want to go visit California again. I don't know if I ever want to live there again, due to a lot of different reasons, I would definitely like to visit. And I should because if I ask my brother, he'll get me a ticket with his miles for sure since he's been wanting me to come out for months and months. Since he lives sooo close to Beverly Hills, it's interesting when we head out to town to eat or go watch a movie and then get burgers at this small little burger joint that sits in like a median sort of thing. It's like, they pack so much stuff, people, restaurants, and yeah, porn stores in that city. There are more adult dance clubs per street than anywhere else I swear...well, that I've been to.

I would like to visit Little Tokyo again and see some ollllld friends...come to think of it, I wonder if they're even alive? Like the dessert restaurant that we are good friends with. The owners were pretty old when I was a kid. Makes you wonder if they left the estalishment to their kids or something.

I sometimes wonder what my past is doing, if that makes any sense. Like, I wrote before, I sent like 7 letters to my old middle school friends. No answer. One came back returned. But the rest? Either they didn't care to write back (which would make them a bitch, really) or some crazy freak received it, opened the envelope, and is now hunting me down.

One last thing before I go do nothing. The last couple of days I've been trying to keep my cell phone off...it's sort of a weird, calm, relaxing feeling. Everyone should try it sometime if you have a cell phone. I mean, it's amazing how much the cell phone is tangled into our lives. Just to not hear a ringing sometimes can make you very relaxed. I'm sure there are studies or something done where people are conditioned to get in a bad mood at the sound of a ringing phone, or something.

Well, that's it. And yeah, I just read TJ's blog and yes, the people next to him were fucking loud. I was about to kill them and their relatives...really.

Well that didn't last long!

I would write a movie review on Crash, that I just watched, but I want Laura to go see it too, so. I'll hold off on it.

Great movie though.

Unfortunately, this blog is probably going to be my last one until Sunday at least (well, probably not, but hey) since I am pretty much done with reformatting this laptop with a fresh new install of Windows and pretty much factory fresh as it will be traded with my Mom's old (my old) laptop. I'll miss this one for sure, since it's probably a bit faster than my old one and the fact that my old one isn't widescreen and the CPU runs hotter than this, meaning the fan is always on. But yeah, it'll work out.

The good news??!!?!?!! I start my old job on Monday. Hell yeah. Finally. There are some things, though, like they were only able to secure me 370 hours of the 400 hours as pay, but hell, that's ok with me. That's 370 hours that I wouldn't have had. They are paying me my old hourly wage at $11.00/hour, so about $9.50 real money.

I just realized, I wonder if this is going to go into the PERA account? I don't think so, since I'm a student at CSU. I thought I could make millions, haha.

Tomorrow TJ and I are getting Pizza Hut, I think. I don't have MSN installed on this machine, but I'm gonna just use the web messenger. Pretty handy for those that don't want to install it completely. I'm getting this laptop ready for my Mom's use, so there's no high-tech stuff on it. Just a good ol' internet surfin' laptop, although this setup is way too overkill for just that. She'll watch movies and stuff though and the fact that I can hook a TV up to this will be good, although I've yet to test that out. I'm doing that tonight.

What else. Today was and is still damn hot, but it seems like it's going to rain like a mother fucker. It's Thursday isn't it? TJ has his soccer thing tonight. I wonder if they'll play in the rain? It looks like it'll rain in a couple of hours. A chance of cancellation isn't out of the question.

My tooth is bothering me more these days. Like, not bothering like hurting, but just annoying and I can feel that something's wrong in that area, if you know what I mean.

I need to budget out my paychecks REALLY well if I want to avoid this no job thing again. I'm gonna start looking for a job way before the end of this thing. I hope that I can get a good grade on this 5-credit course...A 5-credit A would help me a lot, but since I had one stupid B last semester, my GPA will be like 2.99 or something ridiculous...I should apply for more credits, but oh well. I think I did good enough to raise it that much from a 1.3!!

I'm gonna go watch another movie now. I just watched parts of Cast Away.

Laters.

I'm gonna head to bed, but man, this blogger thing is getting to the point where it's like an addiction when you have nothing to do. Damn! I think I'm on record pace to write more than I've written in 3 years in 1 year.

Anyway, I just wanted to say music is awesome. I thank all those who write and sing songs and make music because they love what they do...not those sell outs who do it just for the money...you know who you are. There are so many great bands on free download sites such as music.download.com that I can't believe it. I know Laura knows what I'm talking about because I made a CD with mostly these guys. They're just as good and most of the time they're better than the mainstream. Damn media gets a hold of them and it just becomes a money making opportunity for the studios.

Oh well, that's how the world runs I guess.

I'll talk to ya later.

If you're ever bored, check out www.engrish.com...it's the funniest place.

Like this image that is attached...so funny.

I just had a personal thought. I think I rely too much on opinions and reviews and ratings and stuff. Like for things like laptops, desktops, movies, restaurants, pretty much anything that it's new I'm trying.

I think it's important to consider that the product or service that you're getting doesn't have to be perfect, but if it's perfect for you (lol, sort of a line from Good Will Hunting). Like, for example, my web hosting is Powweb.com. SOOO many people say they suck and what not. I've been with them for over 2 years now and it's been great. It's just weird that a lot of people take others' opinions and stuff, like, not like it 's bad, since it's a way to get a taste of what's coming, but you know what I mean. I think I'm going to start taking more leaps in terms of buying and experiencing things even though I heard bad reviews or something.

I guess it really does goes to show that whatever the topic, it's different for everyone.

I'm just killing some time until my car video download is finishing up. About 10 minutes, which is just enough time for a good blog.

Went to A&W and to Starbucks tonight with TJ and talked for a couple of hours. It was good. Just stuff about what's going on, what's been going on, and what's going to happen. The usual. Haha.

Laura is leaving tomorrow to go to St. Louis for a bit over a week. And then she comes up here for a couple of days. I can't wait for that. I miss her a lot! I think we were planning something like going to Estes Park or something and getting a place to stay or even camp since we're broke, but yeah, that should be fun. I haven't been with her alone for a while. This Summer has slowly crept along, although it doesn't feel like it to me. I mean, what, 2 months ago already I was in Alaska. Now it's mid July. Crazy.

No word from my boss YET. I need it quick man...if this happens to fall through for whatever reason, I have to dip into my tuition money to pay for a month or so of rent. At least to get me by. I mean, man. I don't even want to think about it!

And then I was thinking about the rest of my life and how Laura and I want to travel. I don't think we even need a house, well, okay, maybe a small house to come back to every once and a while, but we want to travel a lot. Some of the places that we want to visit are Tibet, the Great Wall of China, Easter Island, Oak Island, Madagascar, Moorea, Stonehenge, Alaska/Denali, and Egypt. There are other places I'm sure, but those are the top ones for sure. That would be so fun. I love going to places that have meaning, mysterious or otherwise...like, take the US...it really doesn't have a place with big meaning, you know? I mean, yeah, it does, but you know what I mean. Pyramids, the Moai, there isn't a "mysterious" place in the US, aside from Area 51 and stuff. The US is such a young country that it doesn't have the great history that we like, like Rome and Paris. Their history is sooo much cooler than ours. Japan too.

90% done with the download. It was a huge file too. But anyway, I wish Laura a safe and fun trip and I can't wait to see ya when you get back and hopefully I'll be working by then so I can buy something for you. Haha.

Laters.

I'm bored again. My boss is contacting CSU about what they can do for me in terms of hiring me back...I guess that's a start.

I'm trying out Picasa from Google. http://picasa.google.com/

This thing is amazing if you like to deal with photos and stuff and organizing them on your computer. Right now it's searching my entire computer for pictures and organizing them for me. It's pretty sweet if you have a lot of pictures and sometimes it'll find pictures that you never thought you had!

Google is awesome once again.

1. My old junior high school

2. Recreation/pool center - used to swim there and took field trips there

3. Elementary school where I and a few others used to volunteer

4. Best friend's house

5. My house

6. My elementary school

7. My brother's best friend's house, went to school with his little brother

The circled building in the middle image was where my sister worked for a bit and our family were great friends with the owners. We got a lot of desserts there and even a few years ago when we visited, they remembered us, naturally, but yeah...well, IRONICALLY, 2 stores down to the right in that same building was where my Dad worked, a golf/tennis shop. I hung out there a few times too and that's where I got my first clubs. Weird how everything is occuring in a small radius.

The last picture is my japanese school (the big building with the parking lot, duh). Had the festivals in the parking lot and had garage sales in that little front grass area.

I was just watching the trailer for The Talented Mr. Ripley since I've always wanted to see it. I always remember that line where he says:

"I've always thought it would be better if I was a fake somebody than a real nobody."

How true do you think that is? Interesting little quote huh?

I just thought I'd post a picture that I took when Laura and Ellen and I went to Horsetooth reservoir. :)

Recently, like the last 2 days, I've been messaging Amanda, Chris' old gf on www.hi5.com since she is on there. You should check to see if you have any friends that are on there. I found out that I have a few that I didn't even know about! Just like www.classmates.com I guess.

Anyway, she lives really close to Laura's sister's place and I guess she used to deliver pizza around the area too. She's even thinking about moving near there! It's crazy.

Do you ever wonder if your friends are interconnected indefinitely? Like no matter what happens, in the end they are pulled toward each other? Maybe, I don't think it's true, I just thought it would be a cool theory to write here. Haha.

So the last couple of days I had some trouble with FireFox and I finally managed to delete everything and install it again and voila, it's healed. The good news it that now the Blogger shows the correct number of blogs that I've written. This will be my 311th blog. That's cool to know since it was pegged at 254 for the longest time.

I thought I would have word from my boss by today, but not yet, unfortuntately. Dammit!

I made cake last night and I am eating it like a meal since I'm too broke for real food. Haha, it's like going to McDonald's or another fast food restaurant is like "splurging" now. Makes me wonder what people and families with real problems feel like everyday day.

I was looking at some of the new movies coming out for 2006 and there's an impressive line-up, at least for me personally. Here are some of the ones that caught my eye which are guaranteed 2006 releases:

Mission: Impossible 3 - I may like this, I don't know, 2 was worse than 1, so yeah
X-Men 3 - I can't wait for this one!
Cars - Not really into animated movies
Pirates Of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - A sure watch
The Da Vinci Code - Have you read my Da Vinci-reading blog???
Superman Returns - Nope
Ice Age 2 - Perhaps it will be good, dunno what else they can do
The Italian Job 2 - I will watch this

So that's my next year's picks. This year, I'm probably only waiting for Chronicles of Narnia and Night Watch (an awesome looking trilogy).

What am I gonna do today? I don't know. It's so boring. I want to work, but now I don't think I can push my employment. Argh. Bad situation.

Anyway, hopefully I'll report back soon with some good news...luck hasn't been with me lately.

Check out all the Price is Right games...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Price_is_Right_pricing_games

Man, I'm so bored. And it's hot out. I think I'm gonna help TJ consolidate some of his computer parts into one, but I'm not sure yet.

I'm starting to finalize what parts I'm going to buy for my next new computer. It should be pretty good and it will last for a couple of years at least. As long as it plays World of Warcraft, I'm happy!

EDIT: Ha, I just cut my own hair, lol

I'll just keep adding to this one.

A website that I frequent (and a very good website in my opinion) posted a couple of articles. Here is the original:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/7/3/491/18474

Some girl is missing. This guy writes about how much coverage this girl is getting and all that and that he doesn't give a fuck.

Here is all the hate mail that the site/he got:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/7/8/141115/2706

So, back to the article. Personally, I don't think I've really read or heard about this girl. Maybe a glimpse on Snopes or something. Anything, is it bad that I sort of agree with that guy that wrote the article? I mean really, why is she getting so much attention, and not other pressing issues? Sure, a life is a life, but how is hers more important than other missing children? Is it the money involved in the background? There is a website that says there's a $150,000 reward for information. WTF??? They must be pretty damn rich. Is she because she's white? Because she's slightly attractive? Why send a fucking Navy dive team to look for her? I also read somewhere that Holland is sending fighter jets to search for her!??! WTF!??! I doubt the media would give a fuck if it was another race. Frankly, I haven't seen the media cover an ugly, Mexican girl or boy before (no offense), at least not at this kind of level. I mean come on, just like Jon Benet...she was just another girl like any other, like my niece, for instance. Who fucking cares if she was a "talented", pretty girl. Why so much coverage? I think the values of the US and the US media are just not in the right place these days.

Here is another article that state a similar thought:

http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2578582p-9013209c.html

Anyway, I think I'm done with this rant. From the pictures I saw of her mother and father, they look like snobs who only care about one thing right now. :/

Let's do a quick (well maybe not depending on how fast I can type) blog. Went cruising tonight. It was more fun than normal. Lot more people and there were some people there that I haven't seen in a long time. One of the people that were there was Kellie. Yup, the first person I met from when I started the forums. Haha, we're good friends and all. It was nice to catch up. Met some other people...and then this fucking cocky, idiot guy came and I instantly didn't like him. We went for a lap and the best thing happened. He got pulled over. Fuck yeah, but it wasn't a ticket, just a warning. Ticket would have been better but oh well. That's about all tonight. Saw another good friend of mine. His girl is 4 months pregnant and he's all getting excited about the baby boy. It was just fun to chat about that kind of stuff (is that weird???). I guess it's kicking really hard already and we're like, yeah, he's just getting ready to work on cars! (He works on cars too) I dunno. At that point it felt like "grown up talk", if that makes any sense. We don't talk about school or anything. He talked about his new job, asked how my car was, I asked how his car was, but we're all busy paying bills, taking care of ourselves and the people we hang out with and care for. Yeah, it was just mature talk, lol.

So yeah, my old boss said she talked to the big boss and he said it was fine to hire me back for the internship. Good thing I had good relations with both! I e-mailed back yesterday, but I think it was too late since she might have left the office. She has Fridays off, so hopefully Monday I'll get an e-mail back and I can start next week.

Ahhhhh, money...wait, I'm assuming, but I hope I get paid the same amount!??! Either way, I don't care. I'm pretty much pushing the limits of my budget already. A few more days and I REALLY can't pay ANYTHING. My credit card is $1700/$1800 and although I have a grand in the checking account, that's for tuition. This is probably the closest call I've had to being homeless! lol

Well, other than that, pretty uneventful day, besides eating lunch at Pizza Casbah, where TJ and I saw a lucky kid being nanny-ed by a hot girl or could have been his mom, who knows.

Next week I'm going to swing by my Mom's place and give her my laptop and get my old one back. This one's a lot better, like I said, so I'm just switching so she has the better one. The least I can do.

My tooth was overly annoying today, like I felt it more...I gotta get it fixed soon. Really soon. The thing that sucks is that I'm already budgeting out my paychecks from when I start working. Basically it's already gone, if you know what I mean.

Say I get paid my old wage of $11/hr, in reality really $9.50/hr. 400 hours times $9.50 is $3800 total. That is until mi September or so. So, how am I going to allocate this? I don't know. I have a few main bills to pay. Car insurance starting August @ $125 or so for 4 months, $75 for phone bill for each month (yes, if you're wondering why I'm paying so damn much, I pay for my Mom's too), credit card is at $1700 and rent at $330/month with $80 or so in utilities every month. I get say $700 a paycheck, rounded down. It seems it's do-able and it is, but man, I just can't buy what I want, you know. I want a new computer, but that'll probably wait a month or two. I want to primarily get this credit card down to at least half and my fucking teeth fixed, which my Mom might help out, which would be good. After that, I need to find yet another job, like a real one to start my career in! That's scary if you think about it.

I think on that note, I'm going to take off and head to sleep. I'm tired.

Laters all.

Wow, so I just had a rush of old time memories. I was playing with Google Earth (of course) and I was looking up where I went to Japanese school on Saturdays from 9-12:30. Man, I can see the McDonald's that my Mom and I would go to before going to school and her dropping me off. She would go to L.A. to Little Tokyo for the time that I was in school. Come to think of it, I can't believe she did that every Saturday. I don't think I can keep myself busy for 3.5 hours. Really. I think a couple of times she went home, which was incredible because it took about 30-40 minutes to get there. I now realize how much work it was to take me there and pick me up, all while I just sat in class, had recess and didn't really challenge me, since I started at elementary up through junior high-level japanese. I can't thank her enough. I wish I could with the lottery so I can give some money back to her. The least I can do while I will always be in debt. We would sometimes even go to Little Tokyo AFTER my school, so I have no idea what she did during the time I was at school. Sometimes I wish I would have known a few more things than I did while I was a kid, like what went on and stuff. Things like how it was so that I had so much fun. What it took my parents to give me the life I had.

Back to the schooling thing, it was cake. Hell, I already spoke it pretty good. I just had to learn some writing and reading. Cake I tell ya. Anyway, more memories. The center would have annual festivals and stuff. That was FUN. I would volunteer to run some of the booths and stuff. Man, I just can't express this in writing. It was fun. Each year it switched off from a festival to a sports/game event thingy. The festival was the best, though. Lots of people came, mostly japanese and play games, watch shows, go through vendors and booths and such. It was from like early afternoon until sundown. Man, I can just put myself in that time.

These are the times when I wish a time machine existed. Not to go back, get rich, mess up the current timeline or anything, but to just "invisibly" relive my childhood and see my old friends again. Perhaps in the future.

And then again, the thing is, I sent about 7-8 letters to my old friends that I found their addresses online. One came back saying there was no person of that name and the others haven't written back. I wrote them letters, yeah, but come on, it was like a month ago. At least write back, e-mail or call or something. These were good friends too (or so I thought, if you want to reference one of my older blogs). One of them was my best friend through elementary and junior high. The last I saw him was like, 3 years ago I think when I was in California.

I don't know, I always thought that some, at least a couple, of my friends would keep in touch you know. I wonder how many actually think what I'm thinking now? Do they even remember me? Mysteries of our lives huh?

I'll just end with a few more "I wonder..." questions. I wonder what my dad is doing right now? I wonder what my middle school best friend is doing? I wonder what all my other friends are doing? I wonder...if my life is the best that I've been able to lead? I think so. Despite the what ifs of my life, if I could do it over again, I would and even if I had prior knowledge, I wouldn't change a thing. Who knows what a small change during my elementary school years would do to my current life.

Which brings me to believe some things about life. Is it predetermined? I think some parts are. Some parts are chosen and decided by you. Of course, I think the fact that we don't know what parts constitute what part is the best thing in life. The spontaneity, the mysteriousness, the discovery of it all. What happens after I die? Now that's a hard 5-word question. I think we just re-do our lives again, like a CD on repeat, or something. I truly have no clue what the afterlife, if there is one, brings someone. Is there heaven? Hell? Purgatory? Do we come back as the other gender? An animal? An inanimate object? (That would suck to be a rock, hoping to get thrown and skipped...and then settle on the bottom of the ocean) I don't know, coming back as a different person would be cool.

Anyway, this is a topic that I can talk and write about forever, so I'll stop for now. See ya.

EDIT: Holy shit this is funny! http://www.ebaumsworld.com/flash/bubblegirl.html

Here I am at it with Google Earth again. The picture is my old house, from which I lived through 1st to 8th grade...or was it 3rd to 8th. Whichever, I spent a lot of my time there.

I guess Blogger images isn't working right now. I'll add it later.

Another day of doing nothing much. Had lunch with TJ. I haven't talked to Laura, but it looks like they're not coming done tonight. Maybe they might, who knows.

The guy at the Lakewood office for the city's parks and recreation called today to ask for my resume and I sent that just now. It seems he's interested, but he's going to look at that resume and get back to me in a couple of days. The thing is, it's another period of weirdness since I already asked my old boss to see if I can get hired for the summer, and now this. I would rather take my old job back, make that an internship, finish up this school thing and then move down to Lakewood to get myself into the field of parks and recreation through this job, so not really an internship, well, I guess it is an internship, but not school-wise. I don't know what's going to happen. We'll see what happens at the end of the week!

We were also seeing if we could rent out a boat for the day sometime late this month before T.J. goes out of the country...well, I don't know if it's out of the country, I guess not, but anyway. Boats were like $200 or so for the day for a 4-5 person, or however many they fit. That would be fun. The thing is that you can't rent it overnight, which would be awesome, but I guess that privelege is reserved for the rich who can buy their own boats and keep them there.

UPDATE: I just got a call from Laura and she said that they are leaving now for Fort Collins, so around 6:45 they should be here. Well, I guess I might go clean up the house a bit, even though it's pretty clean, to make it welcoming.

Laters.

Oh, my old website, partly, is back up. http://www.csuconnection.com. Har, har.

Happy 4th to those that celebrate it. I went down to Laura's sister's house yesterday and spent the night. It was fun, although this afternoon was sort of boring. Everyone except me, Laura and Ellen were doing yardwork. Anyway, light some sparklers and a flower bomb or whatever it is. Maybe next year we'll go big with the fireworks. Man, I can't even begin to think about a year from now. I think a lot is going to be different. Laura will be finishing up her first year of graduate school, I should hopefully (haha) be done with school in like Fall, and hopefully getting myself into a career. Who knows what everyone else is going to be doing. I really have no idea.

So some other news. Late last night, I couldn't sleep at like 10:30 ~ 11:00 since I always stay up late, Laura suggested I read the Da Vinci Code. I was like, nah, that's ok. She kept insisting and started reading the first couple of pages (the prologue). I was like, that's sort of interesting, so I started to read it from chapter 1 at like 11:10 or so while Laura tried to get to bed. Bad idea Laura!!! I started reading chapter 1, finished it. Chapter 2...then 3, then 4 and next thing you know it, it's 2:00am and I'm on like page 200 or something. I was literally hooked! I think I kept waking Laura up every hour or so since I would shuffle and get in a better position to read. Anyway, yeah, so let's continue the story. I read for another amazing 3.5 hours to about page 430 or so and finally put down the put at 5:30 since it was getting light out and everyone was starting to fricken wake up. The book is about 600 pages, I might add. So, I literally can't remember when I fell asleep, but I woke up around 9:45 or so. I got up and felt a bit tired, but I had to finish the damn book! I picked it up and continued reading. Finished in the next 2 hours and closed the book at roughly noon. I haven't read a book like that, albeit in 7 fricken hours, well, ever! I like it. The cool thing about the book is that I like the cool conspiracies and stuff that was in the book. I had actually read about some of the stuff in my spare time, about the Holy Grail and the true identity of it and stuff. In conclusion, it was a good book, went by quick, obviously, and I would recommend it.

I think I am going to sleep well tonight! Laura and Ellen might come up tomorrow or on Wednesday for a few days to hang out up here. That's cool. Well, that's really all. I'm still broke and hope to hear from my old work this week maybe. If not, I'm fucked in the ass! And I have no gas.

Laters. I gotta work on a website project...might start CSUConnection back up if I can get this figured out and working! Hundreds of videos at your fingertips.

So I was going to head down to Denver to see Laura and spend a couple of nights there tonight, but I called and called and she never answered, so I didn't end up going. I am going to down tomorrow, though.

It was weird today. It was windy most of the day, but for a total of an hour or so, in 30-minute periods, the winds kicked up a fuck load to like, I swear, at least 50+ mph. The screen on my room window was freaking out and the doors were about to bust open. I guess that's a mini hurricane huh? I was driving around later tonight and there were tree branches everywhere. Crazy stuff. Imagine combining that with some good sized hail and you got yourself a fucking army!

I was going to do an autobiography of myself (I guess that was redundant to say "of myself) but I decided to hold off on it for a few days. I wrote one a while back, but it got lost into cyberspace.

I'm about to head to sleep soon. July 4th. Ah, the day where I doubt anyone cares of what it really signifies, they just want to see some fireworks. Bleh.

I always wonder...why do Americans and everyone else, I guess, that isn't Japanese, pronounce karaoke like "carry-okie"???? WTF mate!??!?! I never understood it...I don't even want to see the first person who pronounced it that way. I guess it's hard to say "ka-rah-oke"...the last part isn't "okie", it's more like "okay".

Arg.

So I want to ask those visitors out there. What makes a good friend? I'm sure you'll throw me the usual. Loyal, honest, dependable, blah, blah. So then, tell me, what differentiates a friend from a good friend from a great friend from a best friend? Then the fine line gets even thinner and harder to explain. There's always that joke/saying of who is your best friend from among your friends (probably not the right saying, but it's close and it takes care of the idea):

"A good friend will bail you out of jail. A best friend will be sitting next to you in jail."

How true is that? I would fucking hope that my best friend wouldn't get me in jail in the first place! But then again, that's my opinion. Next would be the one bailing me out and last would be the one sitting next to me, leaving me no outs.

Oh well.

Went climbing today. Took some cool pictures. I might go back there with Laura sometime next week if she comes up. I'll have to send my pictures or give them to TJ. They're on my laptop now and I would put them up online, but they're pretty big files, so it'll take forever on dial-up.

Among other things, I downloaded a buttload of old TV show theme/intro songs. Some 300-something of them. It brought back some memories of the shows I used to watch. Some of the more watched shows would have to be The A-Team, Saved by the Bell, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Star Trek: The Next Generation/Deep Space Nine, Full House, Knight Rider, Family Matters, Hercules (haha, yup, actually a pretty good series) and 21 Jumpstreet. Lesser ones include Charles in Charge, Growing Pains, Who's the Boss, Airwolf, Family Ties, Unhappily Ever After, Xena, and let's say Magnum P.I. Some shows that I've never really watched at all (only a few minutes or something at a friends house or only if that's what they wanted to watch even though I really didn't) was The Simpsons, Seinfeld (though I got sort of into it, but not really), all the stupid ass reality TV shows that are certainly scripted no matter what you say, and I guess all the other mainstream shows that elicit the response, "What, you've never watched that before??? You've got to, it's so good." Yup, thanks, but please don't tell me what to watch!

This no job thing is sort of starting to suck. I really hope that my old boss can get me a summer job. I don't care if it's fucking janitorial. I just need a job. I need to get this fucking internship done with. And this tooth thing is just fricken annoying as well.

Sometimes, things are going great, sometimes they're not. Why is it that you remember the bad things? Why do they stick out more? Weird huh.

This is a long blog. Sometimes I wonder how humans are weird in that they are really writing and talking to no one. But it's weird in the sense that these are things I probably wouldn't talk to other people about unless I HAD to and it's totally not my way of talking. I'm sure everyone else does, but I have a completely different way of talking on the internet.

Another thing that I have to worry about is my forums. It's been up for almost a year and it's gone great. I think next semester will be even better, but yeah, I'm done with it and I need to find someone who'll take it over. There have been a few people who said they'd pitch in for the license to get the vBulletin forum software, so that's nice of them. Still, I need someone who'll oversee the forums or I'll probably have to end up watching over it now and then. If it's not watched it'll blow up for sure.

That's it for tonight. Oh, and the picture I uploaded is one of the ones taken tonight. TJ took it. I like that one!

So I like this image thing, so here is another pic. This one I took myself just outside the backyard. It was an awesome sunset and I was glad I took it.

I just got back from watching War of the Worlds at the Westminster theater. Well, it's not as great as I hoped to be, but it was an ok movie I would say. I saw a lot of similarities between it and Signs in some parts. So yeah, I'll give it a B, not bad, but not the best I've seen either, especially from the Steven/Tom combo...wait, have they done others? Nevermind that. However, I am liking Dakota Fanning more and more. She's gonna be a great actress when she hits her prime...or maybe it's already her prime? lol, knock on wood. I'm probably gonna go watch the movie Dreamer with her and Kurt Russell. Looks like a good movie. And the trailer for King Kong? Well...I probably won't see it, however, the Chronicles of Narnia trailer is awesome and I can't wait for that.

Tonight was weird. It was like a gathering of lots of friends, and weird combinations at that. Laura, Kelly, Ellen, T.J., Ashley, Amy, and me. Not a group that gets together often. It was fun though.

And then when I was driving back, there was this one stretch of road where I was going about 80-85, fluctuating and from the left hand lane two cars are going pretty fast. As they pass, they are cop cars. I was like, hmm, they must be in a hurry. I thought they would pull the guy in the left lane over who was just chillin' in that lane going like 85, but nope. I'm sure they have better things to do like go home and sleep.

Ohhhh, and my tooth? Fuckin eh. I have to get a root canal...well, I don't HAVE to. I guess I have a choice of saving the tooth by doing one or pulling it out. Haha, my Mom was like, just pull it out, it's just a tooth. Truth is, for $1700 for the whole procedure, taking it out is the much cheaper way to go. I don't know, I'm sure it'll be fine, though. Just have to tough it out with the temporary seal for a bit and then save money for this shit. Really, the blame is on the last dentist who supposedly FIXED the cavity that was there before. I guess they put a base of something to cover up the nerve from seeing the outside...if that made sense. Anyway, there was a hole in that base and my nerves were dead, I guess. Fucking dentists. I should kill them. That's another story.

So, I'll know next week if my boss can talk to some people and get my old job back for the Summer. Next week! Money is getting tighter and tighter man.

Gotta hold up for a couple of more weeks and hopefully, my boss can work some magic and give me another chance!

Well I'm off to the dentist in 20 minutes or so...I guess I'll let you know tonight if it was a root canal and if the movie War of the Worlds is good!

I just wanted to test out the new Blogger Images thing...ha! It works.

EDIT: I guess Fark doesn't allow hot linking. Pooey.

So I've been playing a lot today with the new service that Google came out with (yeah, who else?).

http://earth.google.com

This thing is amazing. It's just like being there and the ability to tilt to the level of the ground is awesome. I think this is the next generation of directions and looking up things on the internet. Anyway, for like $20 you can buy a version where you can hook up a GPS to it and it shows up in the program where you are. That's awesome! That's for sometime in the future.

Now onto job stuff. I e-mailed my old boss and she's going to talk to some people to see if I can be hired for the internship/summer. She's on vacation, so it'll be late next week...but man, I hope this goes through because that's about what I'm hoping for...I guess I can work at fast food, lol, but anyway...ONLY if I really have to I guess.

Back to playing more with Google!

Yup, just switched to a simpler layout...told ya SOMETHING had to change! :)

So it's really bothering me that my blog count is "stuck" at 254 even though I have a few more than that. Yes, it's a small problem. Anyway. I just put on some streaming classical music as a backdrop to my blogging.

So, what's been up? No money is what's been up. Just to recap. I still have no job...not one in sight...well, I sent an e-mail to my old both and she said that she'd generously try to help me out. If nothing pans out in the coming days (yeah, to me, like in the coming hours???), she would talk to some people to see if they can hire me back for the internship. Gotta tell ya, networking is key in the real world huh? It's all about favors and returning favors I guess.

And now, to the money thing. I think I'm going to have to do weekly house rent to Chris' parents, since I don't really have money for a whole month. Hopefully I'll have everything sorted out by the next 2 weeks, tops. So, and then yesterday I have a flat...great. I went today to Discount Tire to get 4 new tires...the CHEAPEST ones they had. $30 a tire. Now, I probably didn't need to get all 4 changed, since I don't really care if my tires are bald. Hell, if you think about it, in the summer, bald = more traction! :) Anyway, $120 for the tires and all these installation fees, taxes, blah, blah adds up and the 'real' total is $180...great. My credit card is at $1700 of the possible $1800...woot for me! I'm fucked!

I just want to get my internship done with so I can just find a job, any job. Going off on a tangent, I took off the hubcaps to my car and dabbed a little spray paint action to the rims...I think they look better...or maybe it's worse? Hell I don't know. I just like change, whether it's good or bad. I don't think I can ever live with at least SOMETHING in my life changing constantly (of course, besides Laura, lol). I changed my room a couple of days ago too. Now my small room is my office and the big room, which is quite empty, is my bedroom. It's weird, though, that something has to change or I get REALLY bored. The next thing? Who knows.

I've been wanting to sell my laptop too, so I can build a good desktop to play games on. Tough to find people to buy it, though. We'll see what happens in the next few months. I would like to ideally keep my laptop AND have a new desktop. I planned out what I'm going to get and it comes to about $550 for a nice, high-end desktop. Not too bad. I walked into Computer Renaissance the other day to check out their computers...man are they overpriced! I mean, there was a computer almost exactly like the one I'm going to make, just that mine actually has more RAM and a better video card and theirs was priced at $899...and then I was like, maybe I should just make computers and sell them. Worth it to me. Buy parts for $550, sell it for $650, make a $100 to do something fun and productive.

Well, that's it for now...I don't have any more news to shed...HOPEFULLY I'll have some job news soon.

Oh yeah, Wednesday I have a dentist's appointment to fix my chipped fillings/tooth...and I hope to god that I don't have to get a root canal...not for pain's sake, but for money's sake!

I think my post count hasn't been rising for the last few blogs. Anyway. I made this earlier today because I was bored.

http://www.voipnuke.com/uploads/NatureSlideShow.wmv

It makes you think how beautiful the world is with all the old buildings, ancient cities, tropical places, and just imagine the hundreds of locations around the world that we've never even stepped foot on or haven't even seen yet.

Among other news, I didn't get the Hilton job, but that's ok. I'm one of the last two candidates for the Marriott job and I haven't even gotten a reply from Embassy Suites, which I would like to hear from, but who knows. I'll know about the Marriott job FOR SURE on Monday...50/50 chance I guess. The pay starts at $7.50...which is sort of low...ok, really low, but oh well. You get what you get. The pay at the Embassy Suites is awesome, but oh well once again. I'm going to e-mail them to see what the status is.

Laters all.

I stumbled upon this (literally, but I don't want to explain that) and it just makes ya think, you know? I've seen this thing before, but it was for a population of 1,000. 100 works even better I think.

http://www.miniature-earth.com/

Just click the language you want to see it in.

I guess you could say that I'm in the MAJority. ;)

And then you realize, in the real world, how well you actually are compared to other countries. I don't know if I'll ever be able to escape taking things for granted, as that is how I was raised and that is how the environment I was raised in, was raised...although I can't speak for everyone.

I then sometimes wonder what life would be like if I were to be born into a MUCH more unfortunate life. Living in South America, Africa...I would be that those people who are very unfortunate have a much better understanding of life. Life without money, life without daily hassles, and perhaps, life to a more simple degree...just looking out for one another in the community and living. They don't have greed. There's nothing to greed over. They don't have jealousy (well, maybe). How can you be jealous about a car or a big screen TV when you have no roads to drive it on or no wall to put up the TV on. However, I have to say I'm sure they have dreams and goals, just like any of us...just a different kind. We dream of getting rich, getting famous, living a well-off life with family, kids, a steady job...they dream of surviving to the next day. They dream of perhaps the chance in the future that they will be taken out of their situation. Maybe they want to be...maybe they don't want to be. If I were in their shoes (well, more like sandals) I wouldn't want to be given the chance to live in grandness...it would just ruin something that they have that we don't. I'll let you guess what that is!