I am a bad blogger

I am very, very happy about my new black socks.

The bus tunnel is open again. It gives me a very strong feeling of nostalgia being down there - it feels like it has been forever.

The social scene is as expected (crazier than ever). A lot of acquaintances becoming friends and more, and having new hideouts around town where I can feel at home are always appreciated. There will always be turmoil and a healthy dose of pain once and a while, but thats just a part life and is to be appreciated in its own way.

I have played more dig-dug and pacman in the last week or so then I would have ever thought possible since the old atari console. Awesome.

Public art is my new obsession. It is off to a good start as I have been doing a lot of rock stacking and sculptures on the beaches and river shores of Washington state. It is a very satisfying and fun activity. Golden gardens (hopefully with a bon fire) will be the next target - hopefully sometime soon.

FIRST is ramping up again and its about time! There is plenty of work to do, and I am excited. There are new people in my life though who I think don't yet understand that I disappear for 6 weeks every January. It will be tough as usual, but I have survived alright so far ;) I am glad to hear the LHS program will survive, and it looks like we will be starting some lego league teams in the future. Yay!

Thank god!

I found a reference to a Shannon Jex on facebook doing the rounds to find some old friends. Thankfully it was not what I had feared!

Overheard conversation...

"So we updated our drug panel, retroactively to July 1st... so if you have any suspicion that someone is using those kinds of drugs you can go ahead and have them randomly tested, again"

Thought of the day...

Privacy is not about hiding a wrong.

and

It too damn hot. Seattle with a high in the upper 90's? WTF!

Birthday

Thank you everyone who made my birthday special. I really appreciate it!

- your 24yr old friend.

Sheesh!

So I went to applebees for lunch today. Turns out they open at 11am which was when I was planning on getting there. So when I arrived they had not yet opened with a numberr of people waiting out front.

Anyway, this black women comes to open up (like 11:05 at the latest) and opens the doors for the people to come in. Upon showing up but before she would have been within range, one person of an elderly couple also waiting to get in makes this comment. "I guess there is white time, and I guess there is nigger time"

I wanted to cry. How do people like this still exist in this country? I guess it takes time for these people to die off, but they are living a bit too long on my social security payments eating from the senior menu at applebees. I just hope their kids are intelligent enough to break the cycle of this mindless racism and bigotry.


People know where this is from, right?

I survived the midwest.



I am 24. It is official, I am in my mid-twenties.

I love my apartment. The money thing might get old, but having it just as I like it is wonderful.

Of course I miss val, but the social scene has picked up a bit lately.

I love board games. 10-4-3 settlers game and 3 player TI pwnage :) They want me to start playing the games they are better at, hah!

Morning Commute

So I was waiting for the bus in capitol hill at 620am this morning when a nice looking young woman drove by in her bmw. Down the street about 100ft she pulled over, got out and walked up to me. She offered me some religious booklet for something to do while waiting for the bus. I declined and she happily went on her way getting back into her car and driving off. Despite the usual obnoxious interaction with anything to do with religious propaganda, this was quite pleasant.

Further along my journey, waiting for the bus downtown I have noticed a lady that is there frequently at the same time as I am. She walks over, stands directly in the middle of the local puddle that has usually developed and proceeds to splash water onto her shoes. It has an endearing quality to the whole action, kind of a child-like innocence.

Also in unrelated news, I watched the new Michael Moore movie, SiCKO. I recommend it, but be warned it made me want to move to Canada, or basically somewhere other than here.

End of an era...

quote from work

"Optimism is just a lack of information"

How can I talk about my life? The words would fail so miserably. Words are a failure, and everyday I am reminded of this. I am stuck in this cycle of complex decisions and life reflections.

I need someone where words do not get in the way. It has been too long since I had this existence. Nothing in my life seems to be outside of the context of this, my ultimate goal.

Val is moving, I am graduating from UW, I am quickly approaching my first real full time career type job (in Renton), and I am possibly looking for what may be my permanent residence for the next couple years. End of an era.

People are my life, and also my weakness. They are my addiction, and it pains me to see how successful people are at making themselves unhappy. People think that certain types of unhappiness and dissatisfaction are beneficial in life, that it is some necessary sacrifice to be truly happy. I think that this is tragic, and because it is a minority opinion that I have that this is absurd, I am punished. Despite my most thorough efforts I have yet to sway any one's mind on the matter. People breaking up, cheating on each other, getting hurt. There is no reason for any of this.

In other news, I saw a girl from high school that I had a big crush on back in the day. She is now happily married, but looking better than ever heh. I believe she was Mormon though, so I probably had a slim chance at best :) I have been given an opportunity to bring back some old memories lately and have still managed to make some small fool out of myself. Oh well, better than inaction.

Anyway, lets push things forward.

A new...

So it has been a long time. Updates to come.

Otherwise, I am in awe of this:





The image link might not last that long, so enjoy while it lasts.

So sore...

Busy as hell

If I wasn't still recovering from the flu or whatever it was that I had I might have better survived this weekend, but overall I think I did alright.

Friday was Val's performance which was pleasant. There was a number of more technical ballet pieces that was a refreshing from more of the modern style pieces that tend to dominate.

Saturday was going to be a show at Neumo's and then the 300 at cinerama. It turned into taking an extended (but much needed and appreciated) nap until heading downtown for the movie. Sure the movie was cheesy, had gratuitous nudity and completely transparent plot lines but it was a good action flick. Racist? I'm not sure that was the intent, but some people seemed to have some problems with it. I didn't take it that seriously :)

Sunday was again a day to play catch up. Got some sleep, did some laundry (eventually) and pretended like I was ready for this week. Compline was actually a very nice end to the weekend, as it usually is. It was very calming and a great time of introspection. At St. Marks they have pictures of people and war torn Jerusalem. Some very powerful and sad imagery. I overheard a father trying to explain to his what must of been 8 year old son about genocide. I just about lost it.

I am not even going to attempt to claim I am ready for San Jose. Maybe it is better that way.

Sometimes change is hard, but necessary. Not everything in life is easy, and this is what I must force myself to understand and believe.

Sick...

well or so the theme seems to be over the past couple days. I have not been this sick in a while. It is not all that bad - it is letting me take care of some business and clean up the apartment some. If nothing else it gives me time to think.

It feels like life is cyclical, as usual For some reason I believe that this time around I am in a good position to make the right choices, instead of letting things just continue as is in the safety of the known and my own inaction. To be or not to be lol.

The prospect of moving is coming closer to reality, and I am excited. Worried? Maybe a bit, but for some reason it just feels right. There are bigger things I worry about. I secretly love to move. It is a new start. A new opportunity to reorganize your life. How often do you get that kind of chance? It is similar to rearranging your living room or something. I knew few people can appreciate the appeal of things things (as they are also usually a general pain) but they are almost therapeutic for me at times. Just like reinstalling my computer :)

Speaking of computers, I have officially bought a apple product. No laptop or anything, but a airport extreme base station. I was fed up with the last two network routers that I bought, and the airport has the ability to host hard drives and printers on the network through a usb hub. This in addition to the 802.11n support made it unlike anything else on the market (and also exactly what I needed). Unfortunately it doesn't support NTFS which means I have to find a way to dump my two portable hdd's which also unfortunately nearly full. When all is said and done it should be awesome, despite having to admit that this post, as well as all of my online presence is now flowing through mac hardware :P Sabrina is tapping her fingers satisfied in step one of her evil plan to convert me. Just one thing to say, not until I have unlimited disposable income!!! :) Oh, and when you go to their store, they will email you a receipt instead of printing one out. How cool is that?!?!

I am starting a co-ed soccer league soon. Despite being in horrible shape, I am really excited. I miss soccer a lot. A lot a lot. Oh the pain, I can almost feel it now.

Anyway, plenty more contemplations in my future. I remain optimistic.

So much to say

There is so much to say, and I don't think I have the energy to say it all. It will be a picture post.

Portland was great. We did well - better than any team I have ever been on. It was exhausting and fun.





Our kids are great.




I went to a party in Bothell. It was suburban, but it was fun.











Need I say more?

Critical!

Question is, what symbol is so critical?

lol John Mayer

Here is one of John Mayer's jokes: "Everyone thinks Brad Pitt has it great because he married Angelina Jolie. I think he has it terrible, because when Angelina Jolie is giving you a blow job, what do you tip your head back and think of to help you finish? You have nothing left -- just Jesus on a polar bear in the middle of the snow, saying, 'You greedy motherfucker, I've got nothing for you.'"

Done

And so I am done with my 5th build season of FIRST. This year was the best ever. More support, better mentors and kids, and a better robot. This I feel is our best chance of being in one of the top spots at Portland especially, and hopefully San Jose and even Atlanta. I get my life back now, yea!

Also, at Sun Liquor they have fresh grapefruit greyhounds - omg so tasty. Now I fear I have to go back again, and again.

I need to make a list to clean up all of the loose ends my life has acquired over the past while. Soon things should be back to normalish.

yikes

soon to be 7 days left...