Has it been over a week since my last entry? Shame on me. I’ve been running my regular routine of going to work, but I have also been trying to spend all of my free time more wisely. I’m more active with perusing careerbuilder.com, ajcjobs.com, and a few other places I check from time to time. I have also gotten back into the habit of translating the Jingo Tensei (Vox Populi, Vox Dei) on asahi sinbum for some Japanese practice. For anyone curious, I use JwpCE, an awesome FREEWARE japanese word processor which is replete with a Japanese< ->English dictionary, and more character lookup tools than one man really needs. Whenever I get stumped, I use Babelfish to get me out of tight spots. I check my work with the english version of the article.

I would like to do something similar chinese (and I had actually started to), but there isn’t a freeware chinese word processor equivalent to JwpCE. The closest thing that I have found is zhongwen.com. A great resource for chinese, but progress is *much* slower when I use it for mandarin translations.

In other news… I had some spare hardware lying around, so I’m going dual monitor now. It took a little getting used to, but its very handy. Also, Aaron and his (now ex-)gf, Katie (chopped off on the very left) broke up. I don’t know all that much about them as a couple, but her moving off on her own when it was time for them to move suggests that it was on her mental horizon for a while. No matter, Katie’s friend Natalie-the-dancer ( isn’t really all that hot (or interested, apparently). I’ll live 😉 She has always seemed nice/considerate even in the face of less scrupulous^* co-workers of Aaron and mine. Here’s to hoping that things remain amicable.

-kevin

* – something i heArD thAt soMeone tried with her

I have a new roomate. Her name is Lucy. She has black hair and weighs about 110lbs. Lucy is a Great Dane. My roommate got her from a lady that rescues Great Danes from shelters. She is 16 months old (that is 11 yrs old in dog years), and a total pussycat. Insofar, she does what she is told, and doesn’t bark (unless goaded into it by Freddy, Reed’s mischeivous half-collie half-beagle mix pooch).

Lucy arrived here last night, so I haven’t spent much time with her. She’s already been housebroken and cage-trained, so there probably isn’t much for me to have to teach her. Its been very rainy here today due the remnants of hurricane Frances, so I haven’t taken her on a walk yet. The storm also knocked all the power at the gym out today, so we didn’t hold any classes. Great Danes reportedly need long, daily walks, so that probably means a lot of my time will soon be spent outdoors.

Scooby Doo was a Great Dane. I hope Lucy doesn’t act like him, though… I hate that cartoon.

-kevin

This weekend has been pretty eventful. I had Friday off, and spent most of it traveling to, and participating in a rehearsal-barbecue for Sarah & Tony’s wedding party. I wasn’t in the wedding, but I was invited nonetheless. The barbecue took place at a Lake Allatoona picnic spot about 15 miles north of Acworth! (For those of you who might not know, Acworth is the location of my bible study… which is an hour’s drive in normal traffic). I am not sure as to why that particular spot (Cooper Branch) was chosen… as it was a good 40 minutes from the wedding site… but the timing was poor indeed. The picnic was slated to start at 6PM.

In addition to having to fight with Atlanta Friday rush-hour traffic, there was a lot of extra added traffic on the roads due to labor-day travel, and more notably the evacuation of Floridians due to Hurricane Frances. I did entertain the thought of not going, but followed my heart (instead of rational thought) in the end. I tried to avoid I-75 as much as possible by taking side roads… I ended up saving time that way, but the trip still took 50+% more time than it does in heavy rush-hour traffic.

Sunday I taught a private lesson, went to church, came home, went back to the gym to teach another private lesson (that I had forgotten about), and then drove to Aaron’s place to help him move into his new apartment with Iffy. Moving was a slow process. Aaron hadnt packed much (anything), but he did recruit 3 of us, so he was able to make a dent in the amount of work that had to be done. After the first trip over to his new apartment, I stayed and helped Iffy move things from his old apartment in the same complex to the new one. Iffy was the complete anti-thesis to Aaron’s moving strategem. Iffy started off hot and repeatedly tried to stop moving stuff after 1 or 2 trips (his apt was a 1 minute walk away). Brian McGuiness and I had to bully him around a bit to keep at it for a while longer. In the end, we brought the PS2 over and ordered pizza while I played on Iffy’s bass guitar.

On Monday afternoon, I returned to Amli at Clairmont Rd to help Aaron and Iffy unload and move more of their things. The apartment looks quite homely, but is probably a tad cluttered. As I predicted the previous day, a few things were relegated to the porch, and a few others were given away. The bottom line is that the new apartment can’t accomodate all of their miscellaneous belongings, so it will be interesting to see what goes or gets stored.

Upon returning home later at night, I met a new roommate of my own (and Erik’s)…. but I’ll wait until tomorrow to write more about that (I’ll make some icons for these last 2 entries as well)

-kevin

My very eventful labor day weekend began with a late morning commute to midtown, Atlanta to tailgate with the old-harris-residents-football-tailgate. The game started at 1:00PM, and so the tailgate started at 10:30AM. I arrived around 11:10 and hung out for a while. Josh had given me his ticket, so I was also able to attend the game. I got a good look at tech’s new varsity squad, but I had to leave the game prematurely before the half in order to make to Tony and Sarah’s wedding.

I drove back to Roswell, and went to buy their wedding gift at the Kohl’s across the street from where I live. Kohl’s is a horrible place to be registered. First, the registry computer at the back of the store didn’t look like it was even on… then after the worker activated the screen for me, it couldn’t find the listing for Tony and Sarah’s wedding even though I put her name in perfectly. After a phone call to a groomsman (Aaron), and more finagling with the registry computer I found the correct wedding, and tried to print out the list, but the printer was off, so I had to reach into the cabinet and turn it on myself. Obtaining the registry list turned out to be much easier than finding anything listed on it in the store. I spent at least 15 minutes wandering around a 20’x20 kitchen area which was apparently designed an organized by an extremely inebriated chimpanze. I couldn’t find any of the kitchen/dinner items on the registry list. Annoyed (and running out of time), I located 3 other items in a different area of the store, which I luckily found fairly expediently (the monkey must have sobered up when it stocked the home accent items). After buying the items, I jumped in the car and sped off towards the wedding in Dallas… gifts unwrapped, running about 20 minutes behind schedule.

I arrived at the wedding just in time to see Tony & Sarah departing the altar (great, just great). Suffice it to say that the Ragsdale Inn (where the wedding was held) is a LONG way down a georgia road with lots of traffic lights on it. What mapquest said was a 9-mile distance turned out to be about 18 miles in reality. This is the second time that site has $#@@’ed up directions. I’m going to use Yahoo!Maps next time.

Sarah and Tony understood, and were cool with everything. The wedding was petite, probably about 30 guests in all. Kirk Bauer was in attendance. I’d gotten to talk to him at the rehearsal barbecue the day before (Friday), it was fun catching up. Also noteworthy of mention was the presence of Eric Wu of www.emotioneric.com fame as best man (yes, i’m somewhere on that site, but I won’t say where) , and Aaron Merritt as a groomsman. Laura Sassman^* (she is married and has a different last name now, but I dont’ know it), an old RA/CA from the dorm. The food was great and the air was festive. The DJ was friendly, if a little bit corny… but his jokes fit the mood (i suppose).

The newlywed couple are delaying their honeymoon until after Tony has more leave time. He’s a naval officer, so he has orders to carry out which preclude their immediate traveling. I guess the upshot is that Sarah Burgoyne-Carl (hyphenated!) will have more time to plan it out.

I told my mom about their wedding later on the phone, as she’d met Tony while he was living with me in college. Care to guess what her subsequent comments were about? 🙂 Ah, moms are so predictable.

-kevin

I got one of the two posters that I won off ebay (I have yet to pay for the other one). A testament to my new-found-fandom, its a poster of No Doubt minus their brass/horns section. All I need to do now is buy a frame for it. I wonder if target has any good prices on poster frames.
I only meant to get this one poster originally… but in the course of my browsing and bidding I saw a pretty awesome looking Gwen poster, so I got it too (its the pink pigtails – rock on!).
NO. I’m NOT a fanboy 😛 Leave me alone! I’m going to go play ‘Spiderwebs’ on my bass.

Poster I just got – RockSteady	Poster I still have to pay for – Gwen

Remember the old Budweiser ‘Wassap” commercials that were such a big hit back in 2000? Well, at the time I was finishing out my last year of school at GT and cheering on the JV cheerleading squad. I stole a few hours from here and there and put this little animation together for the squad website. It was a big hit, and everyone that saw it thought it was hilarous. You’ll need flash player in order to watch it.

I found it while digging around on an old, failing hard drive. The floating Buzz icon for this entry is also some of my (admittedly basic) handiwork. Enjoy!

-kevin

Wow. Almost two weeks since I checked in. Sorry to those of you who peruse/read here regularly (which is approx. 2 people I think 😉 ). Most of the reason that there hasn’t been any spectacular goings on with me lately. I have had a very run-of-the-mill week of work at the gym (though I did work two lock-ins the past 2 fridays)… there haven’t been any job related phone calls or emails… and I haven’t met any new people. I still don’t have much to report, but I thought I should write something for fear of losing my ‘blogging’ habit.

I did not make it to my bible study this week or to grouplink at northpoint. I still want to be part of a bible study, but the timing feels off right now? I decided last minute not to make the hour-drive up to Acworth. When I do find a new study, it will hopefully be a much shorter commute.

Sarah and Tony are getting married next week on Saturday. I’m not in the wedding, but I have been invited to the rehearsal dinner on Friday. I’ll have to skip work to make it, but that’s alright. I’ll have to buy a gift for them this week too! Sarah has been toying with the idea of not taking her husband-to-be’s surname…. how scandalous! How radically feminist! Hmm, Sarah *did* start her higher learning at Agnes Scott, an all-girl liberal arts school that is no stranger to strong-willed females… but she left after the first year. I imagine that her former classmates would burn their bras with glee to know that Sarah has become an independant womyn, despite her premature departure from the campus. (All Praise Hestia! 😉 )

I only got a few hours sleep last night due to waking up for no-apparent-reason, so i shall digress here and try to take a nap before heading in to work.

This entry is for my dear friend, Roxanne! Roxanne is a long-lost friend of mine from high school days. Back then she used to dance on the pom-pon squad and claim that she had stronger legs than me! (As if!)

I lost track of her when she went off to college at the The University of Memphis, graduated, and disappeared into the ether of adulthood. Luckily, we ended up getting back in contact with one another. Its still been a few years since I have seen her , but she has threatened to drag me to our 10-year high school reunion (which should be coming up in 2005).

Speaking of high school…. Roxanne! I am sorry that I did not take you to the Janet Jackson concert back when we were sophmores! I hope you can forgive me 😉

Also, sorry about taking so long to get that photo you sent to me up on the site.
Here is my 3-picture shrine to Roxanne!

Roxanne as a junior in US history class
Roxanne visiting me during christmas ~1997	Roxanne recently with a tiger cub

I probably have just missed out on a really good job opportunity. 🙁

Monday night I received the following email:

It sounded like a very interesting… almost tailor-made position for me. For those of you who may not know, Spanish and Japanese are my 2nd and 3rd languages of the 4 that I can speak (Mandarin is the 4th). I called Mr. Tanaka (not his real name) the next morning, very eager to find out more about the job and submit my resume for consideration.

I did expect Mr. Tanaka to ask me to converse in Japanese in order for him to gauge my skill. What I did NOT expect was how poorly I understood and responded. It was pretty disheartening, and a little bit embarrassing at the same time. After we were through, Mr. Tanaka thanked me, but did not ask me to submit a resume. I was a little disappointed, but not surprised. My japanese wasn’t up to par enough to be considered for the job. 🙁 …which sucks. I would have performed significantly better were it a spanish conversation (as i’m fluent), but I doubt Mr.Tanaka speaks spanish at all.

Upset about missing out on such a rare oppportunity, I sent Mr. Tanaka an email in an effort to prove that I was at least competent with Japanese… albeit not accustomed to speaking it. (Turns out, I made mistakes in writing that, too).

[ Thanks for my resume.(I meant to say ‘interest in in my resume’, but forgot to put that word in) It is regrettable that I did not understand most of the Japanese speech. In reality it was 2 years ago that I used Japanese. By your reaction the fluency you need is superior to my Japanese. I understood little but learn quickly.] I encourage you to consider me for other future positions. Thanks -kevin

I also attached my resume to the message. This afternoon, i received a reply from Mr. Tanaka:

[ Thank you very much for writing me that email in Japanese. It was difficult, wasn’t it. The differing use is really dreadful, isn’t it? Keep trying , keep studying. Yesterday was fun. ] I know how much it is difficult to master another language… I am having difficulty to improve my English. Anyways, it was quite good to talk to you. I enjoyed the conversation. Regards, MR. TANAKA

And so ends this particular story. If any of you know where I might go to improve my japanese (and mandarin too), then clue me in. Right now it just feels like a useless half-skill 🙁

-kevin

That trip to stone mountain which I tried to organize as a group outing ended up being a meet-up trip to meet up with Liz and Kathryn early Saturday afternoon. Liz was there with some Macon church acquaintances and Kathryn was there to meet with Liz.

I tried earlier (in vain) to plan a trip with a gaggle of friends to visit the park and climb the huge hunk of granite. I sent out emails and invitations about a month in advance, but nevertheless all sorts of problems/excuses started popping up from folks.
I’ll break down the responses/excuses I got from these saboteurs….

IDENTITIES OBSCURED TO PROTECT THE GUILTY

“I’ll be in Jekyll Island for GSU Cheer camp on the 14th. I have a pre-season game on the 28th. I can make it on the 28th as long as it is early and I’ll have to leave by 2pm to get ready for the game.”	“Not sure if —– & I can go either of those days. We’re busy on the 14th – have a wedding to go to. Then, the 28th I think (?) an aunt & uncle are in town. Depending on their plans, we may/may not be able to go. We were maybe gonna have a cookout or something while they were here with other friends & family in the Atlanta area.”
“I hate stone hill (it’s not a mountain)”	“Sorry for the late response, I have had an insanely busy week. Unfortunately, the insanely busy week is followed by an almost insanely busy weekend… -Hopefully, soon, my life will resume normal speed, and I will have spare time again. Though I’ve been saying that for months now. Oh well. Hope you have fun!”
“can’t. i’m in the uk”

To make a long story short, Kathryn ended being the only one to try to arrange a time to go with me. Since Liz already had plans to visit with a group, we ended up coordinating with her. It was a good trip. I got some good exercise, I got to try out my hiking boots (I wouldn’t reccommend climbing stone mtn in sneakers, you will feel every single pebble and piece of gravel through the soles of your shoe), and I got a blueberry icee to cool me off during my descent.
I took a bunch of photos. I will eventually get them up on the site here. However, I haven’t even finished my Six Flags photo gallery yet, so don’t hold your breath.

Liz, Katheryn & company stayed for the laser show, but I decided to come home instead. I didn’t feel like spending the whole day at the park (and also I didn’t want to miss justice league unlimited). I spent the rest of my day working on Nicole’s web site.

Hmm, I wonder what tomorrow will hold?

-kevin

After an impromptu visit to my cousin and aunt out in Vinings, I headed over to Reed’s house to hang out and watch the guys play some poker. Are you interested in some online casino facts? click to view here and enjoy. For more gaming options, try betting utan svensk licens.

I am not much of a poker player but I want to find out more about the game. I know the hands, the odds, and the general strategy of the game, but I’ve always shyed away from gambling ever since that time during freshman year that I taught a girl in the girls’ dorm how to play poker and she talk me about online casino gaming and I learned a lot of good thinks from goodtaste.co.za… after which she promptly ended up taking all of my pennies. I’m not sure whether I was just *that* good a teacher or perhaps it was me that sucked *that bad*… but ever since then I have avoided playing for money.

Such was the case this night. I came over to watch. The world poker tour with the professional players which is currently shown on television bores me. I dont’ know enough about any of the players to care who wins whose money… but I do enjoy the celebrity poker shows. Those games are a lot more friendly (as they are playing for charity), and there is a lot more banter to make the game more interesting. There are also some pretty odd match-ups as far as celebrities go.

My reasons for not buying in at Reed’s was simple. A burning desire to not give any of those punks any of my hard-earned cash. I’m already poor. I don’t need to make myself poorer by gambling it away! There was one table with 6 people playing 5-card hold’em when I got to Reed’s place. Soon after I arrived, Aaron showed up with his friend Neil. Aaron used to run a regular poker game back when he lived in Home Park, close to tech, so I was interested in seeing how he handled himself. Justin and Ryan, playing at the table, were going off about some bull*** “small straight“-hand that they claimed to have seen on TV (a 4-card straight). It sounded like al oad to me. Aaron, Neil, and I cried foul and so the “small straight” was rightfully disallowed at the second table they set up. Neil, Aaron, Reed and Otis played at this 2nd table.

Watching the game was a lot of fun. Otis went lost a few of his chips at the start, but ended up winning the most at that game… especially after his royal flush. Neil was crazy. I could see his cards early on and he was playing hard on weak hands, probably trying to seem unpredictable and cast doubt for later in the game. Poor Aaron played fairly competently, but got slaughtered time and time again by ‘the river’ (the last community card flopped over). Reed in particular won the bulk of his hands by getting lucky on the last card.

I didn’t watch the game on the original table, but it seemed to me that playing conservatively there would net you some chips if you were one of those professional gamblers.

All in all, not a bad night. I actually did put a dollar in to play a ‘for fun’ game with Aaron and Neil after they’d lost. Neil just barely beat me by 1 pair (I had 2-pair 7 high, he had 2-pair 8 high).

The game is supposed to go weekly, but I don’t know how long that will last if folks keep losing their cash :-). For those unfamiliar with the rules, https://www.bestuscasinos.org/legal/california/ has them up on their site in an easy to digest format.

Casino Img from KU.KU777 – Link KU777

-kevin

Earlier today, I unwittingly broke one of my own personal rules:
-Never, EVER, go to the supermarket while you’re hungry.
Why not? Well, *I* shouldn’t go whilst hungry because I invariably end up spending 2-to-3 times more than I originally set out to.
Just this evening I found myself in this very situation. I went across the street to make a Kroger-run after not having eaten anything all day. My plan was to buy tortillas, and maybe some chicken to make quesadillas (should have cost under $10). I came back with cookies, crackers, cheese, chicken, pork, beans, and strawberry milk at a total cost of $25! (In my defense, the butcher *did* give me half-price on the pork, and it is something I never buy…. so I decided to try cooking some).

Yesterday, sitting at home with nothign to do, as I’d finished finished The Wind-Up-Bird Chronicle, (i’ll put up a short review later), I got in the car and headed to Newton Park. I have passed the entrance dozens upon dozens of times, but I had never checked out the facilities. I was pleasantly surprised. It seems to be about the size ofEast Roswell Park, but isn’t a creepily constantly deserted ghost-town like East Roswell Park is. Portions of their soccer fields were closed, but thankfully there was still a large area with soccer goals open for use. I spent about 15 minutes taking left and right footed shots on the kiddie-goal, and then played a pick-up game witha group of mexican fellows that were there.

I ended my evening with a trip to Best Buy to purchase the No Doubt Hit Singles CD, and No Doubt videos DVD (I would have saved ~$10 had i bought them when they came out). This is the first CD I have bought in about 10 years or so. I hope No Doubt is proud of that fact.

In other news:

-kevin

Six Flags was fun. I finally got to ride most of the three new rollercoasters that I missed, or had been built since my trip during the last century (1995, GT student six flags trip during spring of my freshman year). Batman was probably my favorite, with Superman a close second.

The Batman ride pulled the most G’s i’ve ever pulled experienced on a ride. I could feel my vision start to blur for a tiny instant, presumably from blood rushing away from my head on the end of a loop. Superman would have been a LOT better if we’d stuck out the extra 6 minutes in line and waited for a spot at the front. The line for superman took FOREVER, and it was definitely one of the shorter (if not the shortest) ride we went on. We were in the second row of seats for superman, but we did get front row for Batman (also a short ride).

Fortunately, the first 4-5 rides we went on had short, fast moving lines (10 minutes or less). Superman and Thunder River (which I waited for, but did not ride for fear of soaking my digital camera) were about 30 minute waits…. and it wasn’t even a particularly busy day at the park as it was a Wednesday. I’ll make it a point to never visit Six Flags on a weekend if i can help it; all of the lines would probably take at least twice as long.

I haven’t put my photos from the outing online yet, but when I do I will put them here. One bad thing did happen. I think that I lost a spare CF memory card that I’d had in my pocket. I’m not sure if it fell out in the car or at the park. I only paid $15 for it… but it was a 128MB card, so that’s bad. I’ll probably eventually replace it with a 512 card to avoid having to carry around a spare (and possibly losing it) in the future.

-kevin

This week has certainly been more interesting than the last.

Tonight, as I left the chinese takeout place across the street from where I live, I got a call from Jeremy at 10:01PM. He was stranded with a flat tire on his motorcycle 10 minutes down the highway. He said that he’d already made arrangements to get his bike home, but that ride was an hour away and he needed a lift to a gas station to buy a drink since he’d been stuck for 2 hours already. 30 minutes and a few phone calls later, we finished dinner at a different chinese place and drove back with his girlfriend and his pick-up truck to retrieve his bike from the shoulder of a highway off-ramp. After the tricky bit of getting the flat-tired-motorcycle up the ramp into the truck, all was well, and since he drives his truck everywhere, he like to be covered in case of an accident so he always have a Las Vegas truck accident lawyer at reach just in case he needed it.

Yesterday, an hour after I finished my latest round of monster.com resume submissions for jobs, I actually recieved a call from one of the employers to whom i’d sent my resume. Unfortunately, it was for a web consulting position, rather than a scientific or engineering spot, but its at least a lateral step, if not one in the right direction. My original meeting with the hiring manager was scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10AM in midtown, but I am supposed to get a phone call to reschedule it since the hiring manager won’t be present. Could this be the end of my late nights and hours of free time during the day? I suppose it depends on what the job is like and what it pays. I’m not thrilled at the prospect of fighting rush hour traffic everyday from here. Holcombe Bridge (the exit I live off of) is gridlocked every day without fail. There are other concerns as well, but nothign to worry about until after I’ve gotten all the information I can first.

The book i’m currently reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is great! I find it really hard to put down once i’ve read a page or two (which is why I was up till almost 6AM last night reading it). As much as I enjoy the Harry Potter books, reading a book like this makes the shortcomings of a children’s series like that all the more evident. All i really need now is a place to read. Beth suggested Caribou Coffee, but Ryan from the gym says that noone goes there, and reccomends the Starbucks between here and the gym. I’ll have to try them both I guess… though I might be done with this book by time I get around to it.

Sarah Burgoyne called me up today. She and her fianceé, Tony (old suitemate of mine) are on their way to Georgia (they are going to wed here next month) and plan to go to Six Flags tomorrow. I’m invited (Sarah remembered that I have Wednesdays off). As long as I take care of contacting the web-consulting people then I should be set. Stay tuned to this space for pictures from Six Flags Over Georgia 🙂

I got an email from Philipp Heinickle, whose Spiderwebs No Doubt bass tab I corrected. He writes:

His tab was pretty already mostly correct. He’s also the 4th person to ever contact me regarding a bass tab I did. I actually have an AIM buddy that found me as a result the tab I wrote for Gone by Switchfoot. She’s an aspiring bassist in a praise band. Pretty cool! 🙂 Maybe one day I’ll get to join a band myself.

Update: I got an email from Valerie saying that she and Brannon won’t be able to make the Stone Mtn trip. Their plans include family which means that Natalie might not be able to make it either. Nicole has to cheer the Falcons game that weekend (she’s an Atlanta Falcons cheerleader). That’s what I get for trying to plan stuff :-/

It seems like these entries are starting to become weekly occurrences. I’m afraid of boring the few folk(s) that do occasionally read (i got my first comment last week) this site, which is why I try to wait until some noteworthy event happens. I could just fill more posts with more introspective material (thoughts, wishes, etc), but I’m uneasy with giving everyone in the entire world potential access to such personal meanderings.
I’ll compromise. I’ll put more personal content up more often, but i’ll password protect it so that only folks who 1. Want to read that sort of junk 2. Have my approval can access it. Contact me if you want the goods!

The icon for this entry is an animated gif of Gwen Stefani from No Doubt’s It’s My Life   video (can you guess the lyrics she’s mouthing?). Its a song I play along with on my bass guitar. I spent tonight correcting and re-writing the bass tab for it. You can take a look at the tab right here. I’ve noticed other errors in the bass tab for Spiderwebs, but its only missing a few flourishes here and there, so I’ll leave it for another night. I guess i’ll have to start putting up all the bass tabs i’ve written on my website (only about 4).

Lacking companions to hang out with, today I went to Galyan’s on the advice of the Events section of AccessAtlanta.com to see a ‘Pugmo skateboard demonstration’. It turned out to be a product demonstration of a product that was so lame that I refused to embarrass myself by participating or taking any photos. Its a skateboard that the rider makes ‘go’ by working the deck like the lever on a railroad hand car. The deck sits about twice as high as the deck on a normal skateboard. They were allowing people to try it out. I don’t think it will catch on.
Bored with the demonstration, I ended up buying a book at Borders. I bought The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, which was reccomended to me by sister-of-a-friend, Meg Andrew. I’m going to start reading it as soon as I finish this entry (and play a game of Warcraft 3 perhaps).

There is a gym-wide trip tomorrow to the Lake Lanier Islands. I already know that i’ll probably sunburn a bit if I go (yes, black folks can sunburn and peel). I’m allergic to sunblock, (clogs my pores and gives me a rash), so there’s no way around it unless i cover up. I went last year and had an okay time. The kids are all great, but I feel like I don’t spend enough time around my peers. Hopefully that will change, starting with the Stone Mountain trip i’m trying to put together. I don’t even know where people my age hang out! Sad, eh? Maybe you can tell me… leave me a comment!

-kevin

Wow, hard to believe that I have stayed away from the ol’ web log for a week… but the absence of entries should serve as a testament to the un-remarkableness prosaic nature of this past week (yes, i know that un-remarkableness is not a real word, but ‘mundane’ just isn’t the word i wanted to use). The class load at work has been low, but with the start of the school year and accompanying cheerleading season fast approaching (2 weeks away), I expect the load to gradually double.

I’ve been a homebody most of the week, but I did see a movie yesterday (Bourne Supremacy) with Beth. Also, on Friday I made it to a different movie theater to hang out with Susi and her friends. An eclectic bunch, that group. Most of them are still in school at tech. Susi mentioned that they were all taking a car trip to Baltimore next week for a convention called Otakon. Thats about a 12 hour car trip! I made the drive to MD from Atlanta once (Leila+BrianK’s wedding). Alone, but i had books on CD to keep me sane. I hope they can all get along for that much time together 🙂

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I, unfortunately, have misplaced my atm card. Poor Beth had to buy my ticket to the movie! Embarrassing, I know… I didn’t realize that I did not have it until after I tried to buy something. I’ll have to go order a new one on Monday. They usually take a week to arrive, so its leftovers and table scraps for the coming week! Hopefully, i’ll be able to avoid having to walk into a bank branch and withdraw money.

The movie was alright (my review). I couldn’t believe how packed the theater was. Natalie was invited to see it with us, but said she already had other plans. Just as well, since we couldnt’ find any seats! The 9:15pm screening we went to only had seats on the side in the third row. On a tip from another movie-goer, we jumped into a 9:10 screening down the hall. We ended up in the third row again, but this time with decent seats in the middle. The theater and screen was also smaller which eliminated the need to jack up your neck trying to see the entire screen.

Today, I went to church and back. Nothing of note to report. I’ll spend the rest of the day trying to get a trip to stone mountain together via email. Liz said that some of her folks are going there on Aug.14th, so perhaps i’ll shoot for that weekend. I think Nat said something about only being able to make it Aug.24th… i’ll have to check on that, too.

-kevin

To know the most accurate way of becoming a casino expert, you are only one step away from becoming one. Just click here and enjoy! Life has gotten decidedly more uninteresting since the start of this past week. I’m doing better about spending more time productively, but I’m getting the same end result as before; I’m a home-body that spends entirely too much time in my room. Case in point… this weekend got off to a very bland and uninteresting start with work Friday afternoon, followed by sitting around in my room Friday night. (I would have gone to see I.Robot if I’d had someone to take). Saturday didn’t fare much better. I think the only trip out of the houseI made was to the supermarket to make dinner. I sat in, talked to Sarah on the phone (i must have bored the poor girl out of her mind) and re-read Ender’s Game.

It wasn’t a total bust. I did play my bass guitar some, and in my frustration I decided that joining a band would be a good way to get out more. I sent an email to a friend in a band to see if he knows of anywhere that might take a rank amateur beginner bass player (i wont’ get my hopes up too high). I also made the decision to not waste Sunday, and that I would go play some pick up soccer games at Piedmont Park, which is located 20 min south in midtown, Atlanta.

So Sunday I got up, got to church late on account of an impromptu haircut, wasted time at Target and Old Navy, but finally headed to the park around 3:45pm.

It was the strangest visit to the park that I have ever had. I was accosted on three separate occasions by total strangers. I know that its not wierd to meet new people at the park, or the supermarket, movies, other public places, etc… but it rarely, if ever, happens to me. The first person that introduced themself was with a group lounging in the canine section of the park (you’re allowed to take your dog off the leash on 1/3 of the park). We only chatted a little while and I hiked to the soccer fields at other end of the park.

Disaster when I arrived! All the soccer goals were chained up on the edge of the fields, so I took shots at an adjacent softball backstop instead. I was joined by an onlooker who had introduced himself a few minutes before as I was approaching the soccer fields. Soon after, a woman came over to us and invited us to play kickball and so we did. I ended up on a team captained by a ChemE grad student at Tech named Jennifer. Coincidence or karma? She was very friendly and after the game we played some destiny 2 trials of the nine flawless.
So, Sunday ended up salvaging an otherwise dismal july weekend. I came home and played some more bass. I can just about play all the way through “It’s My Life” by No Doubt. The song isn’t that fast, but the fingering is tricky. I’m sure Mr. Tony Kanal could play it in his sleep. I’d like to have chops like that one day, but there is a poor likelyhood of that happening :-(.

Well, another week of work awaits. Back to the job-hunt tomorrow morning. I hope my wireless internet holds up… its been going in and out at wierd times. I think a neighbor may have bought a 2.4 GHz cordless phone or something.

Hmm. Well, although nothing supremely noteworthy has happened in the past few days, I still feel like I should write something for continuity’s sake.

Its the first full week back to work at the gym. As a result of the week off (which I did enjoy), i will have to live like a pauper for quite a while. That means more cooking my own meals. Unfortunately, the last Sunday night after I cooked I wasted about 3 days worth of family dinners due to my forgetting-to-correctly-close-the-fridge-door. An embarrassing mistake :-(.

Other than the gym, I’ve been spending time trying to get back into japanese (I have been trying to translate paragraphs from the Asahi Sinbum VOX POPULI, VOX DEI (An old proverb quoted by William of Malmesbury in the Twelfth Century… The voice of the people is the voice of God). I have also been job-hunting, of course. Its long past time for me to move on and find something, but I have yet to find out what choices or opportunities I’ll have to choose from. A fat lot of good my degree in chemical engineering is doing me. 🙁
From my perspective, noone is even remotely interested in hiring (me at least) an entrly level chem-E. Frustrating.

Maybe the reply emails i’ve sent to far-away friends Leila and Roxanne, whom I haven’t heard from in a while, will take my mind off it.

Imagine owning a business that delivers amazing experiences and never actually taking part. After 3 years of owning Frontline and never playing Airsoft I decided to try it out and then let the world know my opinion. I have played paintball for over 20 years off and on so I knew my way around the field but I have to say it was an amazing experience. It was a nice winter day but still cool. (-4°C) I grabbed one of the Frontline Rentals, loaded up 2 high capacity mags and hit the field with my team for the first game. My preconceived ideas were that my reckless risk taking style of paintball would not match well with the more strategic and defensive style of airsoft. I was apprehensive about getting hit by airsoft snipers or other players not calling themselves out when they got hit. I was also a little concerned that the rental equipment would not stand up. Boy was I wrong on all counts.

Observation 1 – You can take chances with Airsoft and be rewarded

Airsoft balls do travel further and straighter than paintball but that works both ways. We played the D-Day field twice and both times the attacking team won. I found that with suppressive fire and pushing the field, players could advance and take the objective. Building clearing and moving quickly on the field is possible and the way to win the game. (Just be careful not to hit one of your team mates when they advance too far cough..cough Tilley)

Observation 2 – Getting hit is obvious and does not hurt.

This was a big one for me. I imagined that because of the higher velocity of the balls they would hurt. I know on bare skin they can, however, with only fairly light clothing there was no ouch factor at all. That being said it was obvious when I was hit due to the impact and sound of the balls hitting me. A great combination. I imagine with a heavy pack I might not feel the balls but I think I would hear the distinctive sound of the balls.

Observation 3 – Players do call themselves out.

There seems to be an unwritten code that all airsofters follow. In paintball because the ball actually has to break to count this introduces an element of impact without being eliminated that is not present in airsoft. If you hit someone they are out and the players call themselves out every time. Great sportsmanship.

Observation 4 – Equipment is reliable but is affected by the cold

Among our group there were some equipment issues. I had not factored the effect of the cold on my battery and I chose a gun that had a small butterfly battery. It performed pretty well but I could tell it was straining to be able to shoot and other players told me my battery was dying. In hindsight I should have grabbed a rental that took a brick battery and if I had my own gear I would have a LIPO battery for the cold. I played for 2 hours without any incident.

In conclusion, this will not be my last Airsoft game. I really enjoyed the playing style, equipment and the great group of players. I now have a new appreciation for my customers and the sport. I just wish it had not taken me so long to try it. Get out and play in 2016. You will not regret it.

This entry is backdated 24hrs
Catherine Peisher is now Catherine Knight. The ceremony took place at the Milledge Avenue Baptist Church in Athens, Georgia, July 10, at about 5:30pm.

Alex was the best man. My old roommate Chris (Cat’s brother), Michael (also Cat’s brother), Iffy, and Bryan’s brother (whose name escapes me at the moment) were the groomsmen. The only bridesmaids of Cat’s I had met before were Geetha, Nikki, and Jenny (maid of honor). The reception was held at the Terrace Room of the Georgia Botanical Gardens. There was a 4 piece jazz band (replete with upright bass), an open bar (too bad i dont’ drink!), a tiny dance floor and seating both in and outdoors. Not super big, but not small either; a well-sized party. Celebrate your Atlantic City bachelor party on this location where you can have as much space as you need to host an amazing event.

The biggest surprise of the day was the attendace of Susi Rathman! Cat’s old suite-mate from the dorm whom I personally believed had tripped, stumbled and fell right off the edge of world. Noone (except for Cat, I guess) had heard from her in about 2 years but she brought the one most stunning wedding gowns in atlanta I’d ever seen for Cat to wear. Also in attendance were Eric, Angie, McGuiness, Sara (Alex’s girlfriend), and the indomitable Josh S (who knows a bit about falling of the edge of the earth himself). The reception was fun, but a disturbing trend has seemed to develop as a friend of mine at the wedding declined to add me (or anyone else) to her dance card. I was denied the same privilege last year by another friend at my old roommate’s wedding last year: that ceremony’s maid of honor. Hmm, my breath is ok and I don’t have any illegitimate children… what gives, ladies?

After the reception, I went with the bridesmaids and groomsmen to Nowhere Bar in downtown Athens (I dont’ usually hang out in bars). There was a little more red, black, and bulldog pictures than I am used to, but it was on okay way to close out the wedding trip. I left Athens at around 2AM and made it back home a bit after 3 in the morning.

Not too bad a Saturday at all.