Riftwave.net - Kevin's web log

Ducati held a test ride today at Atlanta Motor World, the Yamaha/Honda/Kawasaki/Ducati/Aprillia (yeah, that’s a lot of brands) dealership in Alpharetta, Georgia. I rode on over at around 9:00AM to sign myself up to test ride one of the 18 motorcycles they had brought out and to check out the open house at Atlanta Motor World.

At ~11:10AM I climbed onto Ducati’s fastest race bike, the 999 Testastretta…. a race-tuned V-twin with a 999 cc engine that puts out 143 hp and 112 N·m (82.6 ft·lbs) of torque that powers the 410 lbs machine. (For those of us not familiar with specs… its a wicked fast crotch rocket). I, and 18 other riders on Ducatis rode on a 20-mile loop with Ducati officials leading and watching over the ride. The particular bike that I rode was quite obviously a bike that has been on a racetrack or two (as evidenced by the wear on the rear tire and the presence of a steering damper). During the ride, I never got to put the bike through all its gears (to do so would probably have meant going speeds where you subsequently get put straight into either a jail cell or a cemetary plot), but I did get to lay on the throttle in a couple of places. Power everywhere… a deep throttle and a seemingly infinite well of torque. The 999 is quite easily the fastest vehicle (except for aircraft) that I have ever ridden.

Having just bought an R6, I am not really in the market for a new bike (much less one that costs ~$17,000.00).

Here is a photo of the bike that I rode right after I got off of it:

Today I got to flex my mighty linguistic skills at work. A fax came in from our French representatives with a question on a piece of equipment, and so I got to call their offices up to answer it. Armed with a phrase that I quickly looked up, I made the call. When the reception answered, smooth as silk I said “Je suis Kevin Wilson de (yes, I do rock).
Then, not five minutes later I was on the phone with the most excited and whiny chinese man I’ve ever met. Our Taiwan representative called to moan and gripe about wanted to get a deal on some prices. Ordinarily a mandarin phrase or two is enough to soothe the sensibilities, but this guy was having none of that. Probably the funniest phone call that I’ve ever taken (except for when our Austrailian rep calls… that guy sounds *exactly* like the crocodile hunter and its everything I can do to not laugh or imitate his accent on the phone

…and its only 10 o’clock! I hope my day hasn’t hit its peak too early.

-back to work

Back in February (around Valentine’s Day), I got a call from a photo acquisition service. They wanted to submit a 300 dpi version of a photo I took of Six Flags over Georgia (and had displayed on my web page) to their client for possible use in a middle school math textbook for Georgia. I sent them a copy of the original photo via e-mail and then heard back from them a few days later. Their client approved the photo and so they wanted to purchase the publishing rights from me! After doing some online searching and finding a guide for calculating freelance photography rates, we came to an arrangement. My check arrived a few days ago

Before any of this happened, a friend of mine once compared me to Peter Parker, the nerdy protagonist who has Spider-Man as his alter-ego. Well, I guess the description was more apt than either of us realized… in the comic/movie, Peter Parker works as a freelance photographer. Hmm… I wonder if that means i’ll be crawling on walls at some future time & place

The photo I took was from my trip there in August, 2004 with Tony, Sarah, and Suzie (Rest In Peace ). Here is a copy of the version in my photo gallery:

I have purchased a new motorcycle and upgraded from the GS500. Its really late, so I will keep this post brief. My new motorcycle is a 1999 Yamaha R6. Rode it home from Lawrenceville tonight (35 min in 49ºF weather). I’m going to try to get a tag for it tomorrow. Here are some photos:

ter>

-kevin
Justified & Ancient.
(and bound for Mu-mu Land)

I might have some interesting news to report tonight. Stay tuned!

Today was a very run-of the mill day. The only extraordinary thing to happen was 3 of my tumbling students getting their standing back tucks on the spring-board at job #2 (the gym). Incidentally, this post’s icon was taken tonight at job#2. One of my students shot it with my digital camera (at my behest).

I have finished painting my bedroom It came out quite nicely…. and I feel like the results were definitely worth the effort and almost worth the money. I learned two things: 1 - All coats (1st and 2nd) of thin paint colors (whites, blues) are best applied with *fresh* (unused) rollers and tins. 2 - Track lighting looks much better reflected off of a dark surface.

I now really enjoy being in my room during the evening. The cool walls give it a very nice ambience. I have 3 daytime photos, but only one nighttime photo of my room so far… I still haven’t cleaned all the clutter out of it from painting it, so better photos than these will have to come at a later date

My day went by alright…. but a special synergy of happenings has ruined my night and put me in a bad mood.
My ‘friend’ Verutzka seems to have come and gone from Atlanta without so much as a phone call, Rumbi (apparently in a bad mood) treated me like a stranger (even though we only bloody chat online), and my attempts to get out and make new friends don’t seem to be bearing much fruit (I had someone cancel on me).
I am pretty frustrated at the moment. The amount of energy I put into my efforts doesn’t seem to have any effect on their inevitable futility.

I finally got sick of my el-cheapo little $2 desk lamp (which i got at a yard sale) with the popsicle stick lampshade that I cobbled together with elmer’s glue, so I went to the home depot and put some track lighting on the ceiling above my desk. This solved my lighting problem, but created another one… the increased illumination made my dirty walls more visible and bright… including the fact that they were in dire need of paint. So it was back to the home depot I went. I chose a shade of almost-blue purple for the walls (Gem). I have put a first coat on 1/3 of the room so far, but I am starting to toy with the idea of putting a lighter blue on one or two of the walls, or some kind of pattern.

Painting is fun, but it is also currently a pain in the ass because I don’t have anywhere to put my stuff while I am doing it. (My room is a disaster area x 3). At $24 a can, paint is also expensive if you choose a wrong color. I’ll run some photoshop simulations to see what colors I end up going with.

After inadvertently leaving my lunch at home today, I was forced to venture out at noon to find something to eat. I wandered about indecisively for 3 minutes on my bike until I decided to at least check out the menu at a Carribbean restauraunt about 1/4 of the way home from the office. I expected to find a very watered down, general menu with red beans and spanish rice or fried plantains being among the most exotic items, but it seems that Lady Serendipity is quite a coy mistress indeed . Much to my delight, I found ox-tail, Jamaican patties *and* cao-cao bread available for takeout! Previously, I had been making a 20-35 minute journey to Marietta or southeast Decatur to find such delights… but now that I realize that Carribbean Fiesta has them, I will be able to drive 10 minutes down the road from home, or 5 min from the office in order to get them. My only lament is that they do not also sell harddough bread and bun (not to my knowledge, anyways).

I got her email today! One of the first friends I made when I came to Atlanta for school. She’s coming back to Atlanta! … but only for a week. Even so, its been a long long time and I’ve missed her being around. Can’t wait to see her again I wonder what we’ll talk about… I hope she’ll have time to hang out more than once

Hurry back, Veru!

Despite a really crappy Saturday…. thankfully, my Sunday did not hold any more direful surprises in store for me. I’ll did brood some, but a trip out and about the Atlanta metro area was enough to remedy some of my ailing spirits. I made my way to Smyrna (one of my old stomping grounds) to run an errand (*cough*buyacomicthatwassoldoutelsewhere*cough*), and decided to visit Valerie & Brannon since I was going to be within 1 mile of their house. Last year, I had promised to take Valerie out for a spin on the motorbike… but she had opted to wait until I had a few more months of riding experience behind me. So, since it was a warm Sunday, I strapped a spare helmet onto the bike and gave her a call to tell her that I was coming on over.
Being a bit nervous, she opted for a quick spin around the subdivision before heading out onto the road. I gave her the spare helmet to wear and off we were for a spin! This post’s icon is a picture of her on the passenger seat wearing my riding jacket. We took a 3-4 mile loop past Cumberland Mall and over I-285. We passed 3 motorcycles and one police officer on the way. I made sure to take it easy since I knew she was a bit afraid since bikes are dangerous. Nevertheless, much fun was had.
Upon my return to her house, Brannon took her place and also got to ride on the back (which proved to be a formidable task for my poor 40 hp motorcycle). Brannon had a few questions about riding in general after his ride. He has been thinking about learning to ride, but wants to wait until he has more time and money to purchase a bike (there is also the matter of a deal he made with Valerie, his wife, about her getting to spend an equal sum of money on any object of her desire ). Ah, marraige

On the topic of motorcycles… I got to ride a 2002 Suzuki SV-650S that a co-worker rode in on today. Apparently it is for sale, and within my price range. I have been looking for a more powerful bike to upgrade to, but am very undecided about which model to get. The SV has a decent bit of power, but I think it inferior to my gs500 in terms of looks. Here is a picture of the the SV-650S that I rode:

Yesterday, a phone call that I got took a turn for the worse. One of my friends whom I have been trying very hard to keep told me point blank that all of the contact had to stop because: it was making her snap at other people, she begrudges any of the time she decides to spend with me, and she doesn’t think I make a good friend (for her). Needless to say, it was upsetting to me. I have noticed a marked definite change in her actions… literally overnight, just before she originally broke off our romantic relationship. For the life of me, I can’t understand why she has this disdain for me. She says that i’m the only person she’s ever wanted to cut off in this way… yet when I ask her to look inside to give a reason she claims that I am the problem. Not anything I do, but the way that I am. I can’t accept that, seeing the way that her actions and her attitude has changed…. and how different she is when even one other person is with the two of us.
I’ve never noticed a hint before of emotional problems, nor this flippant regard for what we’ve shared. Its hard to not be angry at being thrown away despite making your noblest efforts and intentions. Did I make a bad choice? Can her heart be so black, spiteful with conceit?

I’m out of my depth here. There doesn’t seem to be any way to make her come to her senses. Whether she needs to grow up emotionally or lose a few of her friends in the same manner, I hope she can grow out of such a narrow-minded sense of value and priority… and at last be earnest, honest, and willing to work through problems and issues rather than deleting the good with the bad.

Amazing. Here I stand the recipient of her offenses, and yet here I am wishing her enlightenment despite it. Turn the other cheek, indeed.

Today was notable for a few different reasons. First, both of my managers at my job are in Barcelona (the b@st@rds went to SPAIN and didn’t take me! I @#$@# SPEAK SPANISH!!), so the dozen or so phone calls have been fielding in their stead have kept me from completing my increased work load.

Second, one of the engineers I work with took me to have dim-sum for lunch! During my college years, even though I had a slew of chinese friends I had unfortunately missed out on two seperate dim-sum outings due to bad timing and other obligations/priorities. The engineer who brought me to dim-sum’s name is Paul. Taiwanese by birth, he speaks chinese (mandarin), english, and japanese. Only Diego down the hall (german, spanish, english, bits of portuguese and italian) eclipses Paul’s linguistic flexibility. (I guess I come in third with fairly good spanish, basic japanese and even more basic mandarin). Anyways, dim-sum was very yummy. It is a Cantonese custom and means ’snack’ in that dialect . Although i passed on the chicken feet (perish the thought), I did try a few new dishes. My favorite was the various types of baozi (steamed sweet dough dumplings with goodies in the middle!). The icon for this post is the barbecue pork baozi (whose chinese name escapes me for the moment). Unfortunately, during lunch I clumsily knocked my glass of water over with the back end of my chopsticks (embarassing… but they were really long). Nevertheless, I’ll be headed back for some more dim-sum in the near future , hopefully with a friend in tow.

Third, was the weather today! 72-degrees and GREAT riding weather for the motorcycle. I rode it to and from work and then around and about on minor errands and to pick up dinner. I also got to jog at the park near here (East Roswell Park). I put in my mile-and-a-half at a good pace. I started my cooldown lap just it time to recieve a call from the very lovely Natalie Ramsey who was returning an earlier called to inform me that she’d arrived in Denver. I am not sure whether it was the endorphins in my system from the jog, but we enjoyed a really warm conversation and traded a heartfelt pleasantry or two. I haven’t felt like she was a buddy since waaay back in Harris dorm, so our chat left me in pretty high spirits. I hope it endures when she makes visits back to Atlanta.

Good Luck out in Denver, Nat!

Rain on Saturday with a trip down to Atlantic Station (where I met a fellow descendant of Jamaicans). My Sunday (today) was far more memorable. Rumbi invited me to watch a play with her down at on Emory campus. It was one that she was required to watch for one of her classes this semester, but I’m always glad for any time that I can spend with her as company. The play was a classic comedy set in the colonial period (though written and produced in Britain); She Stoops To Conquer: Or, The Mistakes Of A Night written in 1773 by Oliver Goldsmith. We had a quick lunch before buying tickets for the show. Rumbi was a little quiet with me (as she is wont be lately), but I really enjoyed the play and my afternoon out. The basic gist of the plot has much ado about mistaken identity, young love, and social class. The cast was excellent, though I felt that the opening monologue looked a little forced, and the performance in the inital scenes involving Mrs. Dorothy Lumpkin Hardcastle (a character) felt a little off. Rumbi said that she also liked the play a lot, but I didn’t discuss my opinion of the performers or performance with her for fear of any criticism making me seem ungratfeul for being able to see it.

I do hope she soon gets out of the rut she tends to get in with me lately… here’s to hoping!

I feel like this web log is a poor neglected child. The last post I made (*ahem* 3 months ago) had a quick rundown on a few of the happenings and goings on in the time leading up to that post, so I will do the same here.
*Late November: My parents have mov to Lockerbie, Scotland! They will be living there for two years as my Dad works on a project with his company. As a result I am forced to switch cell-phone service providers and finally retire my previous-century’s model Startac in favor of a Motorola RAZR.
*My Canon S410 Elph Digital Camera dies after my attempt to fix the retractable lens problem (very common Canon Elph problem, apparently). 1-2 months later I purchase a Casio EX-S500 as a replacement.
*In January, I got myself swept up in a whirlwind romance with a very lovely and intelligent girl. An Emory senior, at times she seems to be almost as fickle as she is pretty… and so our romance only endured for one month.

Today is a very chilly Sunday (30°) and the 2nd day of the annual Cheersport Nationals Cheerleading Competitionat the Georgia World Congress Center. I attended yesterday (all our teams in first except for coed, whom I did not hear news of), but I will not be returning today. The rest of the day’s plans involve some self study in Japanese (answer pen-pal email, try to transcribe lyrics in “My Back Pages” by the Magokoro Bros), and hopefully a bit of Chinese (practical chinese reader). I also have to make a trip down to Emory to return a scarf…. hopefully that trip will bring more good things than it portends

Iffy had a birthday party yesterday at his house. I met a few interesting folks (art students, I think… but older than me), but then I left about an hour earlier than I normally would have to catch the 2nd/3rd to last episode of Full Metal Alchemist (yeah, i’m hooked). I grabbed a few photos that I might put up later.

Más tarde….

**PS** I forgot to add:
*Natalie ended her service with the Peace Corps in December. She is back in the States and is moving to Denver in a week to semi start anew/continue where she left off/find the love of her life. Here’s to hoping we can stay close( r) even though you’re going farther away.

Natalie and I (with Valerie) at dinner at an old college hangout (Eats on Ponce)

***Oh yeah…. bigger icons now! 150x150, baby!

By my count, there has been a 3-month hiatus since my last entry. It is probably a bit of a cop-out to chalk it up to being busy… but that explanation is probably closest to the truth. In my 3-month absence from blogging I have:
1. Gotten a regular full time job (I work in sales, but am still working at the gym 2 nights a week)
2. Taken up yet another new hobby…. motorcycling! (I got a Suzuki GS500 about 2.5 months ago). This includes a trip to a WERA bike race where my friend Keith took 3rd in the nation!
3. Found out that my parents are moving to LONDON in about 3 weeks (they’ll be there for TWO YEARS)
4. Made preperations to try to get my life in more general order ( finally got a GA license, etc etc)
5. Been *trying* to get out and make/meet new friends (very little success with this thus far… my experience has been that its a hard thing to do unless you bar-hop or already have a lot friends that introduce you to other people)

I shall expound and elaborate on my adventures since this past summer, but as I type this I am sitting in a Mayflower hotel room in downtown Washington D.C. (I’m here for work, so I haven’t had a chance to visit my old homes in Springfield and Burke), and I have to meet my managers and co-workers down in the lobby in short order, so time is fleeting at the moment.

Photos to come….

-kevin

P.S. YOu know, i might write more if i heard from you guys more often

My weekend was saved from inevitable boredom by Sarah, who called me up earlier in the week to let me know that she had recently arrived in town from her soon-to-be-ex-home in Virginia Beach. The last time I had seen Sarah was at her wedding, 10 months ago. Our schedules didn’t allow us to hang out and catch up until the weekend, so we decided to meet up on Saturday (yesterday) and to start things off with lunch. We met at Aaron & Iffy’s apartment, visited with them for a while and then headed out to Thai Chili for lunch just after noon. Since we both had the entire day to do whatever, I went with her to spend the afternoon looking at and test driving cars. Sarah and Tony are moving to Utah, and she is thinking of buying a Subaru Forrester to replace her ailing ‘92 Honda Civic. The Forrester is so popular out in the midwest region of the US that they actually mark all of the cars up at the dealerships, so checking the prices at a dealership here in Georgia seemed like a good idea.
The first of our two stops was at the Subaru dealership located on Satellite Blvd in Duluth. We test drove an ‘06 Forrester and then an ‘06 Outback. After leaving Subaru, we went to the Carmax off of Beaver Ruin Rd in Norcross. There, we test drove an ‘05 Honda CRV, an ‘02 RAV-4, and a Honda Accord. They didn’t have any Forresters in stock so we didn’t test drive any of them there.

After an exhausting few hours of car shopping, we met back up with Aaron and his girlfriend, Katie and went to the Marble Slab Creamery in Buckhead for some ice cream. The original plan was to go to a Coldstone (which I prefer to Marble Slab), but the directions we had took us to Marble Slab instead. I had a scoop of key lime and one of sweet cream on a waffle cone. Aaron and Katie had plans to head north to Reed’s house for some buffalo wings, but Sarah and I opted to see a movie instead. We decided on “The Island” since I vetoed “Fantastic Four” (seen it already), and “War of the Worlds” (looked uninteresting).
Unfortunately, we sat through about 30 MINUTES of ads before the movie started. The movie itself was pretty entertaining, especially the first half. There was quite a bit of eyecandy (Scarlett Johanssen notwithstanding) and the script sorted of dumbed itself down towards the end, but no movie is perfect (though Spiderman 2″ comes close!).

After the movie I took her back to her poor, beat up Civic with no AC and we went our seperate ways. She’s supposed to be in and out of town for the next month, so perhaps there is more hanging out to come!

I tagged along with Nicole and her new roommate, Shannon to a birthday get-together at a restauraunt in the Poncey-Highlands (El Azteca) last night. It was alright. There were two people there that I hadn’t talked to in a little bit. All the girls there were former University of Alabama cheerleaders, so there were some stares when they toasted the Crimson Tide (I think all of the guys there were former cheerleaders as well, but not from Bama). Nicole and her new roommate are both Atlanta Falcons cheerleaders and get to go to Japan this August with the football team! It seems that almost everyone I know besides me has made it over there at some point or another. One of these days, hopefully.

As for today, I don’t have any plans whatsoever. Its been rainy here, maybe partially because of hurricane dennis which is out and about in the carribbean. Natalie was supposed to fly out to Jamaica tomorrow, but the weather will probably delay her flight. I’d like to call, but her phone is probably already ringing off the hook with folks she’d rather talk to than I. Maybe….

Unexpectedly, today was a pretty full day. After waking up, I made a call to my future place of employment to accept a job offer. Come this Monday I will be working regular full time hours, and cutting my hours at the gym from ~15 hours a week to either 6 or 9 hours a week. I’d like to shoot for 9 hours a week so that it will totally cover my rent, but that would probably mean going in 3 nights a week since I wouldn’t be able to make it up to the gym until 6pm. Aaron needs thursdays as well, so it might not be possible.

About an hour after the phone call, my roommate let me know that there was a trip planned to go hang out at Reed’s mom’s house. Reed’s mom lives up in the country on a ranch close to the foothills around Cumming, GA (yes, that is the actual name of the town). Reed, Erik, Clay (Reed’s brother who is in the army and stationed out in California), Jennifer B + her 3 kids and I arrived there in time to ride some horses (I didn’t ride this trip), ride the ATV, and have some dinner. I even taught/reminded Allison (one of Jennifer’s kids) how to play some chess. Halfway through our afternoon, Keith showed up with 2 of his 4 motorcycles (he races motorcycles)… one dirtbike and one mini-dirtbike. I have only been on a dirtbike once before, on my last trip to Reed’s mom’s place…. but much fun was had as I rode both of them around the surrounding area.

We ended up playing kickball when it started to get dark. The game was called when my roommate pegged a 10 year old girl with a soccer ball to keep her from reaching first base and being safe (yes, she did start crying). There was dessert afterwards, but I decided to head out to avoid getting back super late. I’m trying to keep a somewhat normal sleep schedule to ease into my adjustment to traditional working hours.

Tomorrow, i’m supposed to meet up with Nicole to help celebrate a friend’s birthday. There are supposed to be a lot of cheerleading folk at the party that I’ve met before. More news as it happens, and a few photos after my camera battery recharges!

-EDIT-
Here are some photos from today:

Old Georgia country home…

…replete with porch and rocking chairs

Reed on one of the horses on the ranch

Part of the grounds of the estate

Keith’s bikes that I got to ride around on

Allison and I playing chess

This is the second July 4th weekend thats being recorded in my blog… and I certainly have more on my plate than I did last July. First and foremost is a job offer I received on Friday that I have been considering this weekend. I am going to accept the job and try to start next week Monday the 11th, but that all depends on the conversation I have with my future employer tomorrow. It is a sales job which will mark my half-entry into the field of engineering… makes me wonder if all that effort I put in during college will have been worth it in the end. That remains to be seen, I suppose.

Natalie sent out an email about her status and predicted state of affairs once the Peace Corps flies her over to Jamaica. I’ve offered to put her emails up on a tiny blog to sort of document the time that she will spend abroad. Something simple and easy to update that can serve as a central spot for friends that want to find her contact info, etc.

This has been a pretty lonely few weeks for me. Maybe I’ll be able to hook in with some older friends now that my schedule is goign to be more “normal". (They’d better know some cute gals to introduce me to!)

-EDIT-
I forgot to post a link to the winner of the 2005 Ugliest Dog Contest. According to the story:

He’s so ugly even the judges recoiled when he was placed on the judging table, said his proud owner, Susie Lockheed, of Santa Barbara.

Let me warn you, the linked photo is one snaggle-toothed zombie canine that looks like he just angled off the set of Pet Sematary

It is with a mixture of sadness and veneration that i write this particular entry today. My friend, Natalie is entering the Peace Corps. She has been assigned to my motherland, Jamaica, and leaves this week to start her training. Today, she and a few friends held a somewhat impromptu picnic outing at a local park. I went, thinking I would make a requisite appearance and take leave after a few words of well-wishing since after all, she’s really only moving away for a while (if you look at it from a practicaly standpoint). However, I was surprised because when it came time to say goodbye I felt a lot sadder than I do than when a friend moves away (be it for work or for marriage).

For anyone who reads this space (probably 3 people including myself) but isnt aware of this fact, Natalie is an unrequited crush of mine from years past (college days). As such, our friendship has had a few interesting periods and swings where its been very strong, and other times when it has been pretty weak… including a recent episode where it went from the former to the latter in the span of 3 minutes.

Nevertheless, the truth is that I have a soft spot for my friend (it takes a conscious, concerted effort for me to hold a grudge) and am extremely grateful that this latest parting, though temporary, was on such good terms. It means a bit more to me than I’ll ever admit .

Natalie, good luck over in Jamaica. Remember that the green in the flag is for the countryside, the yellow for the sun, but the black is for the hardship. You’ll be missed in your absence, but thought of (and hopefully communicated with) often.

At his moment i’m in Arkansas headed down I-40 towards little rock. Its summer and again i’m headed to the Songham World tae kown do competition that I went to last year with my pal, Liz. We decided to split the car trip up this year into two 5-6 hour jaunts this year instead of driving 10 hours straight as we did before. Also, thanks to my splendiferous comsumption habits since our last trip, I have some neat toys that i have brouht with me…. which include this laptop (hand for typing log entries, watching dvd’s, movies, listening to mp3’s, transferring photos off of my digital camera or even playing video games), and my portable dvd player.

Currently, it is 12:44PM (eastern time, 11:44am local) and we are about 110 miles outside Little rock. We are headed to the competition arena late this afternoon to watch one of Liz’s instructors test for his 4th degree black belt. I’ve seen black belt tests before (back in my karate days in high school), so it will probably be a fairly run of the mill affair in terms of fun&excitment. I might be surprised though, who knows. More later tonight or tomorrow. I’ll post this from the hotel if I can get a ‘net connection

-kevin

I have really been spinning my wheels (figuratively) lately. My hours at work are slowly being pruned, so it is time to at least find another part time thing (though a good full time gig would be much more preferable). I have been sending the resumes out, but haven’t heard anything at all back. I will have to start making phone calls next week. I apply so much that it is difficult to keep track of all the places I send resumes to. (Monster says almost 300 resume views since 2001) . I still haven’t taken the GRE (as I have no idea what i would study were I to go to grad school).

The only likely thing to come my way is a part time gig doing customer service for a local soft drink conglomerate (hint: its not pepsi). The pay is LOW, but i might have to take it anyway.

Spring is here (and has been for a while) and the roommate, roommate’s other, and I have taken to tidying up the domicile with a little spring cleaning. I’ve lived here for almost 2 years, but just learned that we had an attic that I could put stuff in. In the process of moving some of my boxes from the downstairs storage closet, I noticed a unopened 3d-puzzle that had been sitting in its original shrinkwrap since I moved in. Since noone else was going to work on the puzzle, I decided to open it up and put it together. 700 pieces of foam-backed jigsaw puzzle pieces that formed a victorian style house replete with columns, patios, balcony and bay windows. Adding to the challenge was the fact that the picture on the box only displayed half of the puzzle (you know, the whole 3d can’t-see-all-sides-of-an-object-at-once-from-a-single-perspective thing),.1.5-2 days later, I completed the puzzle. The pooch in the photo is one of my other roommates, Lucy (I call her Lucy-Dooby-Doo)

I hunted around and found other 3D puzzles available for purchase, but I can’t quite justify such a frivolous expense at the moment. Maybe if I ever go away on a trip that will leave me a lot of boring free time, perhaps. I think I’d like to try to tackle the Sydney Opera House next.

East Roswell park is about 0.5 miles from where I live. I had noticed some land/path clearing work that was going on in the park during some of my occasional jogging trips to and from the park… but didn’t realize that they were building an 18-hole frisbee golf course until a few weeks ago when I saw some people playing as I drove past.

So, this past Sunday while I was buying a mother’s day gift at sports authority, I purchased a frisbee-golf disc. Apparently there is only one manufacturer of frisbee golf discs that has a near monopoly on the market, since the 3 different retailers I visited on sunday carried the same brand of frisbee-golf disc. I’ll have to visit I.F.O. (Identified Flying Objects) in Little 5-points to check out some other brands/discs.

My first outing was almost as frustrating as my first traditional golf outing. Many inaccurate tosses and venturing off into the woods. I spent almost 20 minutes looking for my $9 frisbee on the 4th hole. It was lodged in a bramble-patch in a way that the only visible part was the slim profile, making it too difficult to pick out the first TEN times I searched that spot.

I had an ok time (hey, it got me out of the house), but I got tired/thirsty after 11 holes since I hadn’t had lunch that day at all. I plan to return regularly and work on my game since it is so close and so free. Maybe I’ll even convince some people to come play with me one of these days.

I’ve done a horrible job these past 3 months of keeping a blog. In order to increase the frequency of my posts, I will keep them short.

Bought a pool table today. 8ft slate with a ball return. I wouldn’t ordinarily spend money on something like that… but it was VERY cheap, and I figured the gym would eventually buy it back from me since that is where I have put it. Its a HEAVY BITCH. My estimate is ~300 lbs or so. Ryan drove down with me from the gym and he and Scott (i bought it from Scott, a Tech student) helped me load it into a trailer towed by my roommate’s (Erik) Durango. It was quite an operation.

I started authoring DVD movies with my burner. So far I’ve just burned one movie and a clip that I found on the net. I’m supposed to reauthor two clips for Keith, Reed’s roommate.

Jayhawks is being very evasive about giving me my last paycheck. I worked 26 hours the last week while all their workers were out at banquets and goofing off. I might go in with the other guys they have stiffed (amazingly, all the people that don’t work at their gym anymore) on their last paychecks on a small claims court thing. I hate when people involve me in their conflicts. The problem causer is a guy named Brent Halcomb. If you come across him, hold on to your wallet and watch your back.

My aunt’s husband Delroy has passed away. Cancer. It only got diagnosed about a month ago. I had not seen him in years, but I had a lot of interaction with him in my younger years when my family lived closer to Brooklyn. I’ll post a photo if i can find one.

During my travels drivng back and forth to the new gym and running errands in Cumming (yes, that is the real name of the city), I noticed a familiar name in an odd place just off Old Atlanta Road. A Carvel ice cream shop! For the uninitiated, Carvel is a chain of ice cream stores which I frequented in my extreme youth while living in New York City. As far as I know (since I was 5 years old when i used to visit), they are more known for their soft serve ice cream rather than a the bevy of flavors and concotions that coldstone and marble slab specialize in. This morning I got up and drove to the gym to find noone there… so after a little bit of deliberation I decided that it was a prime opporunity to re-live my extreme youth with some Carvel on an early Sunday afternoon. I ordered vanilla soft-serve in a waffle cone (with rainbow sprinkles), chatted a little bit with the owners (who are in fact from New York City themselves… Coney Island in Brooklyn), and then sat outside and typed with one hand on my laptop and my newly acquired confection in the other.

The ice cream cone was just as good as I had remembered, but I don’t think I will make too many return trips because McDonald’s actually has soft serve which is just as good as Carvel’s. It is true that you can’t get a huge waffle cone or sprinkles at McDonalds’, but the prevalence of McDonalds restaraunts are a veritable plague upon this continent… making them much more convenient if I ever need to satisfy my sweet tooth.

This post is coming to you from a table outside the carvel in Cumming/Suwanee, GA. I’m finally actually getting some use out of one of this year’s most extravagant purchases, my IBM T22 thinkpad notebook.

Anyways, on with the post…. one of the instructors I have worked at the gym with for the past few years had his car stolen and then found again in the same week. His name is Ryan O. Ryan started out at the gym while still high school student (at chattahoochee high) doing bday parties and moved on to tumbling classes. Ryan is in to the whole ‘ricer car’ scene. He owns a ‘97 Honda Civic Del Sol that he has upgraded with a body kit and a few other aftermarket accessories. Just last weekend he swung by and tried to convince me to go to a body paint shop in Buford with him. I declined.

On monday, Ryan called and told me that his car had been stolen… right out of the parking lot of Georgia Perimeter where he’d had classes earlier that morning. Ryan’s car (and most other Del Sols) are 7 years old and worth under 5k, which hardly makes them valuable commodidities to hoist on the black market… So it was obvious that his car’s appearance and accessories are what had made it a target in this case. However, some of the more interesting circumstances surrounding the car’s theft seemed a little more than coincidental:

First off… remember that trip to the paint shop that I declined to go on? Well, Ryan had left his car at the shop about 3 days prior to its disappearance to get it primered for an upcoming paint job. Upon retrieving his car from the paint shop he noticed that 3 extra miles had been put on the odometer.

Second, Ryan had an alarm system in his car which is designed to thwart conventional auto theft by locking down the ignition system. Instead of jimmying the key with a screwdriver and sending electric current to the ignition lead in order to start the car and drive it, in Ryan’s car half the ignition system must be rewired (and the security system detached from the circuit) in order to keep the car from turning itself off.

This led him to the conclusion that someone at the paint shop had copied his car key and used it to steal his car. A theory later supported by the fact that the police found no signs of forced entry or ‘hotwiring’ when they later found his vehichle.

These facts were reported to the local sheriffs, and Ryan’s dad made some phone calls to the paint shop in question. Also Ryan put the word out among his friends in the 2 or 3 local car clubs he has been a member of and at the local honda dealership where he used to work… so there were plenty of eyes adding to the heat.

2 days after the first call, I got another call from Ryan reporting that most of his car had been found. It had been abandoned at the side of a road in Decatur about 30 min south of the parking lot from which it had been stolen. Most of the aftermarket pieces were missing, but a few had been replaced, which suggests that the car was hastily disposed of halfway through refitting it for a new owner. Perhaps after the crooks realized that law enforcment had a good idea of where to start sniffing around.

As of this posting, Ryan hasn’t heard anything new back from the police. His car isn’t quite drivable yet because of some of the missing pieces and the fact that there is a copy of his key floating around. Let this be a warning to folks using this paint shop. More news later as I hear it.

The reason I haven’t made a post recently is because I have been extremely busy with work. The gym where I was working, Atlanta Xtreme Jayhawks split. The Jayhawks are doing their own thing in Duluth, reopening under their former name, CDA Jayhawks. The group I am with is opening in a new location in Cumming, Georgia (yes, that is the actual name of the city). The gym’s name is Atlanta Cheer Source.

The past week has been a series of 8-12 hour days doing all manner of grunt work in an attempt to get the gym up and running. The building’s previous tenant was a computer refurbishing warehouse business called Royal Computer. 20,000+ square feet of 16 foot shelves filled with palettes of computer equipment ranging from ancient DOS 1/Sparc equipment to modern laserjets. The first two and a half days were spent taking computer stuff down off those enormous shelves and moving Royal computer out. Tiresome, dirty work. Besides being on the recieving end of various cuts and scrapes, I almost had a shelf support fall on me and had an entire column of shelves fall out from under me while I was about 12 feet up (luckily, I still had a place to stand and hang on to).

After the vast bulk of the work moving Royal Computer out was finished, the work of preparing the facility for the gym to move in started. Painting (lots of painting), caulking, knocking walls down, putting doors in and a lot of general cleaning has been my life for the past 6 days. Today was my first day off since Sunday. What’s good is that the extra hours will help me make up for the lack of hours/work during the week of spring break.

I will add some photos of the gym-in-progress tomorrow. I also have a bevy of other news to report… including a co-worker’s stolen-and-then-recovered car and a hefty tax refund I will hopefully recieve. I’m also toying with the idea of putting a body kit on the 626

March has come and gone. Pope John Paul and Terry Schiavo have passed on, the Final Four is over, and I have worked my last day at Atlanta Xtreme Jayhawks.

I have the week off (spring break), and NCA College Cheerleading Nationals take place at the end of this week, but I don’t think I will be able to make it . None of the people I usually drive down with are going this year and everyone else I have asked about already has plans. No fun in the sun for me I guess . I dont’ have anyone to stay with down there (and don’t feel like footing the bill for a room alone for myself) so it would take a small miracle for me to end up going. I hope one happens, but I think its already a lost cause.

I visited a skate park yesterday. Iffy told me about a concrete skate facility at Pinckneyville Park, which is about 20 minutes away from where I live and about 10 minutes from where I work. I was really surprised that I hadn’t heard of it before and so I went down to check it out and skate, despite not having been on my skates in over a year. I invited Iffy, but he had injured himself at the park the day before and so he didn’t join me (serves him right for going without me in the first place)…. he also mentioned something about him not knowing how to drop in on a bowl. The skate park was a 2-section concrete ‘dry pool’ with a shallow large ‘mini-ramp’ section (with a concrete platform/ramp in the middle), and a much deeper circular bowl section. There were 3 galvanized steel rails sunk into some of the edges for grinding.

As I said, i’ve been off my skates for over a year, so I was rather conservative with what I tried (no front flips over funboxes, as I’ve done before). Wisely [sarcasm], I chose the hardest narrowest section of the pool to drop in on. The trip down was fine, but I almost fell over on the very steep, very sudden upgrade. I find that concrete is a very unforgiving surface to fall on and slide across, so not only did I wear all my pads (helmet, knee-pads, elbow pads, gloves), but I also kept my speed down and concentrated on trying to grind (which I’ve never been very good at). I spent about an hour at the skate facility and plan to return again soon, now that spring is blooming.

I have more news to report like talking on the phone with a No Doubt cover band, recent myspace.com messages, the situation with the new gym and Davis Flip Center, and cousins who are graduating this summer (Marlon from FAU and Jessica from Rutgers), but that stuff will have to wait for subsequent blog entries.

In a previous entry, I alluded to some ‘tumultuous happenings’ at work. Well, two weeks have passed and the plot has probably already thickened as much as it is going to, so I will recount the happenings as told to me.

Almost exactly one year ago (give or take a month or two) the gym (AXA) where I was working was undergoing a mild crisis that started when some members of the clientele (and a staff member) made a concerted effort to draw students to a competitor (Ga) that was had been promising to open a location in the general area. All during this time, we had been steadily absorbing students from a struggling gym (CDA) located close to us. Unbeknowst to most people while this was going on, the owner of CDA approached the AXA owners about fusing CDA and AXA into one.

The situation with the renegade clients and staff member ended with a small group of parents+kids leaving for the competitor (GA, which reneged on their promise of opening a local location). Shortly thereafter, the merger of CDA and AXA was announced. The gyms joined each other during the summer of 2004 when CDA moved in at the AXA location. The staff was effectively doubled, and the new gym was called AXJ. There are/were issues with the transition that I wasn’t informed of, but the original idea was to pair CDA staff with AXA staff. This did happen to some extent… however,in practice, the AXA staff handled the bulk of the instruction whilst the CDA staff involved themselves more with coaching. (Bear with me, i’m trying to stay objective here ) . ‘Ownership’ was split between the single CDA owner and two AXA owners, though no binding contracts were involved.

Fast-forward 2/3 of the way through the cheerleading season. The AXJ owners decide that it had become prudent to house the gym at a location with cheaper rent. The former CDA owner took on the responsibility of finding a cheaper location in the area.

Two months later, an AXA-turned-AXJ staffer revealed a bit of news. The owner charged with finding a new location had secured a lease of her own accord and in a phone intended to recruit this particular staffer and another, she revealed that it was her intention to re-open the gym under the old CDA name, naming herself as the sole owner. Other details of her plan included a job offer (with potential to become partner) to only *one* of the former-AXA owners. The other owner would (hypothetically) work only as an employee. Also, 2-3 AXJ staff (all former AXA-staff… of which I myself was included) would be let go.

At the time this news came out, it had the appearance of a very straightforward (even if slightly treacherous) move for position and control of the merged AXJ gym. The gym had to move in two months time, so it was a bit of a squeeze play. Chapter 6 of The Art of War by Sun-Tzu reads:

“You may advance and be absolutely irresistible, if you make for
the enemy’s weak points; you may retire and be safe from pursuit
if your movements are more rapid than those of the enemy.” .

Whether the CDA owner can be accused of miscalculation or ineptitude is a semantic matter. She not only failed to secure the 2 AXA-staffers she intended to recruit, but she also alienated her current AXJ partners by trying to make an end-run of sorts. Amidst her jockeying for position she overlooked:

“With regard to ground of this nature [Ground which can be freely
traversed by both sides], be before the enemy in occupying the
raised and sunny spots, and carefully guard your line of supplies.”.

The ‘line of supplies’ in this case refers to the gym clientele. Unfortunately for the CDA owner, she coached approximately 20 kids in the entire gym compared to the scores of kids that received instruction from the other two owners 2-3 times a week for an entire year. Even more unfortunately is that a similar situation exists within the staff, meaning that the former-AXA staff is (far and away) better at instruction than the fomer CDA staff (which is part of the reason they were hemorraging kids to AXA prior to the merger).

After the news and some meetings with the CDA owner, the AXA owners decided to run their own ‘black-op’ to break off and away from entanglements with the CDA owner. What has resulted is the taking of ’sides’ by AXJ staff into a CDA and former-AXA camp. Excepting the 2 staffers hired AFTER the merger (who are leaning towards CDA), the split has gone straight along pre-merger lines… which is to the clear disadvantage of CDA. As things currently stand, they have precisely 1 instructor capable of peforming a full and 1 capable of of spotting a n elementary school-aged girl in a full (probably only left-twist only), and its not the same person (which means that the person spotting has no first-hand experience actually *doing* a full).

CDA has taken note of this and are continuing attempts to attract more capable staff to their forthcoming location. A reasonable step to take, but the least of their worries (in my opinion). What they haven’t yet realized (or outwardly ackknowledged) is that the clientele’s loyalty is very very likely to run towards the former AXA owners.

However, only time will tell what will happen with the split and the new gym locations. Both factions are getting set to move out after the final AXJ competition this coming weekend in Biloxi. I was thinking of going, but the attending the last hurrah of a doomed allegiance does not sound like it would make for a favorable road trip.

More news to come later, I’m sure
-kevin

P.S. CDA owner = Kelly, AXA owners = Erik, Reed

Someone told me today that the conversation we were having made them think that I had ‘really grown up’ [since college]. It was a nice sentiment, but in my opinion the compliment was gross in its inaccuracy.

As far as the aforementioned conversation was concerned, I am the same person that I was 4 years ago. I haven’t perceptibly ‘matured’ (as was suggested). To me, the only difference NOW from then is that I have less faith in people’s abilities to put themselves in others’ shoes. Where I once would have withdrawn and trusted others to think things through, I now feel compelled to interject or engage my perspective or opinion.

Indeed, I’d think it has more to do with being more impatient or frustrated than some notion of emotional maturity. I’ll concede that there are different ways to look at it, but I just don’t agree with that one.

Hmm, maybe folks aren’t as perceptive as I gave them credit for either….. :-/

It has always been my experience that as one on ages, one gets better at tasks, games, sports & things like that. However, when it comes to bowling, the situation seems to be reverse.

Saturday night, I went bowling with some of the folks from the Fusion²³ meeting the weekend before. We went to AMF Chamblee Lanes, an out of the way location on the I-285 perimeter. Natalie took point and fortuitously arrived just before a large rush of people descended upon the place. There were 12 of us, so we paid for 2 hours of bowling on 2 lanes. I was niether the best, nor the worst bowler there… but bowling is certainly not one of my natural talents. I used a 10 lbs (light) ball and got more spares than I typically do, but nary a strike in two games. Admittedly, I bowl about twice every 3 years, but I used to get strikes a lot more often as a kid. Go figure. My first game was a 101, and my second was ~114 (didn’t pay attention at the end).
There was a trip to Cafe Intermezzo following bowling, but I opted to regress after we’d finished bowling. Not a bad trip. I’m usually eager for anything that gets me out of the house and my normal sedentary weekend routine.

There are whispers in the dark about a 1-day skiing trip this coming Saturday… who’s to say whether I’ll be on it? I do have skis, but I lack boots, and other handy gear (like gloves).

The singles out bowling in Chamblee Feb. 26. 2005

Natalie gets a spare

The past week and a half has been tumultuous, and next month promises to It is 4:30AM so briefly:

-I was invited to, and went to a Fusion²³ singles event/get together (thanks, Natalie).

-I have a job interview for a chemical sales position in Durham, NC. Cameron has told me that I could find such a position here in Atlanta… which i plan to look into when I wake up tomorrow.

-There are some tumultuous happenings at work. So ominous that the events they prevail threaten to leave nothing in their wake. That job interview I am supposed to have next month might actually prove be part providence and part coincidence.

Next month is going to be… interesting.

As if my recent purchases weren’t enough of a drain on my finances… tonight I made the most expensive impulse buy that I’ve ever made in my life! I bought an IBM Thinkpad laptop! I have long desired to purchase a laptop, but the expensive prices on even older used units have always been prohibitive. However, tonight I was fortunate to catch a listing on git.ads. I purchased a 900MHz, 256MB RAM, 20GB hard drive for $300. The model is an IBM Thinkpad T22. Integrated modem and ethernet NIC.

Also, this month (february) is salad month! In an effort to shed some of the non-muscle pounds I’ve put on, I have decided to eat nothing but salads for dinner for a month. I had one tonight. It had lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and croutons. Not bad… but I got hungry a few hours later and had a pb&j sandwich. We’ll see if i can hold out for the whole month! Wish me luck!
The purchase has OBLITERATED my finances. I know it is a good deal on a laptop… but its a good deal on a laptop that I didn’t really need!

In other news: I am *extremely* sore and have been for the past 2 days! I definitely over-did that workout on Monday at LA Fitness. My chest has never ever hurt me so much. OW.

Mr.TANKA never called. I guess I spooked him something fierce!

Reed and Erik have been mulling over getting a corporate membership at a (fitness) gym for the employees. In the past few years, LA Fitness gyms have been popping up like gang-busters all over the Atlanta metropolitan area… including a fairly new one on John’s Creek Road in Suwanee where a lot of our students at the (cheerleading) gym go to work out.

To make a long story short, I went with Al, Reed (and eventually Erik) to the LA Fitness on John’s Creek to take a look at the facility and try it out. It’s the first time I have picked up a dumbell/free-weight in about 3.5 years! After a pitiful showing (compared to Al and Reed, who lift regularly), I expect I will be sore in just about every muscle I used yesterday. (I’m already sore in many of them). Exact terms of the corporate membership (and its existence) are still subject to a few factors. It looks like anyone wanting to participate will have to foot their own registration fees, though (probably in excess of $100). I’d better start saving up… between the GRE i still plan to take and that… I might not be able to make rent!

I found my wallet. It was under a computer I was fixing up that was sitting in my room. It was missing for 8 days.

The superbowl is this coming Sunday. I had tentative plans to watch it at a singles event up at Northpoint with Natalie, but there might be an alteration of those plans. No telling what might happen. No big, though. I recall watching the superbowl (and the awesome commercials) with Nat at her apt a few years ago. Much fun was had . Ah, those days of yore.

“Tanaka’s curious return”   He’s back! For those of you that don’t remember, back in August 2004 I recieved an email from MR.TANAKA (not his real name), a recruiter looking for japanese speakers (Click here for the entire sordid tale). Well, last night I recieved this email:

Dear Sir/Madam, Please allow me to introduce myself followed by the job information. I am TANAKA with Management Recruiters- Japanese. I am currently looking for a person with English and Japanese skills. This position is the account assistant, and the company produces paint materials and glues for various industrial materials. The position requires previous administrative assistant as well as knowledge of accounting. The salary is more than 35K and overtime. The company is located in Atlanta area. If you are interested in this position, please let me know by either email or phone call. A phone call is preferable since I can ask you a couple of question. Please feel free to ask if you have any question on either our service or this position. I am looking forward to talking to you, MR.TANAKA Account Executive Management Recruiters- Japanese

Apparently I did not make much of an impression on Mr. TANAKA the first time around, since he has forgotten my name and doesn’t recognize my email address (probably deleted it right after we spoke ). In any case, I sent him a reply email reminding him that he contacted me once before, but to call me tomorrow morning if he wants to speak with me. I probably don’t have the qualifications they are looking for for this particular job, since I haven’t ever done any real accounting… but nothing worse than what happened last time can come of it.

As an aside, I’ve lost my atm/debit card (5 days running so far) and have been trading emails with a previously somewhat-estranged acquaintance. Lets hope it doesn’t come back to bite me as it has before

Word of advice: Do NOT eat any food at the Panda Express located at:
PEACHTREE & HOLCOMB PANDA EXPRESS
3200 HOLCOMB BRIDGE RD. SUITE #650
NORCROSS, GA 30092
PHONE: (678) 969-0028.

After eating some chicken, rice and an eggroll from there last night (~6:45pm), I woke up with food poisioning. A slightly milder case than I have had before (McDonald’s & Burger King), but I am still sick from it.

Being as I only got 4 hours of sleep i got last night, I’ll have to relate the details of my latest goings-on at another time.

One (inner) complaint I have always had about many of my fellow Americans is their propensity to consume. By that, I do mean the materialistic desire to buy/acquire things… but mostly their apparent need to define their identity or individuality based upon what they consume (what music they buy, movies they see, clothes they wear, car they drive, teams whose games they watch). One would think that the content of one’s character, their personal history, ethnicity, geneaology and personal quirks are what set individuals apart from one another. Not to sound *too* much like a geeky-nerd, but the erosion of this more traditional method of setting oneself apart from another is probably the greatest triumph that advertisers and manufacturers of goods could ever hope to attain.

That being said, I very recently made two very frivolous purchases for two things that I probably won’t even have much time to enjoy (guilty as charged!)… though the reasons that I bought them were a little different than a psychologically-driven urge to consume. I got them at really good prices! (That sounds pretty lame, doesn’t it).

My first purchase was that of a ping-pong table (picture is forthcoming)! I was browsing a GT newsgroup where students post ads of things for sale when I saw that someone was selling their full-size (9′x5′) ping-pong table for $50, complete with paddles, net, and two ping pong balls. Any way you slice it that’s a good deal. I arranged to purchase them (easy) and somehow through provenient grace arranged to borrow a pick up truck to transport it (difficult and time-consuming). Here’s the embarrassing part… there isn’t any room in the townhouse where I live for a ping-pong table! There might be except for the fact that there are 2-3 extraneous pieces of furniture in the dining room that nooone uses. As a result, I transported my new ping-pong table to the parents’ lounge in the gym, where it will hopefully keep siblings of students off the floor. I plan to provide paddles and sell ping-pong balls (to cover costs of people stepping on them) so that the table will get use. Reed and I played a game after work the night I put it up there. He’s a big ping-pong fan (and pretty good), so I’m sure that I’ll get to use the table regularly after work should I wish to.

My second purchase is even more frivolous than the first. After subsequently browsing the same GT newsgroup, I arranged to buy a pair of snow skis. It is important to note that I have been skiing the grand total of ONE time in my entire life. However, I have turned down invitations to end-of-year skiing outings and trips due to the cost and lack-of-equipment. I still need boots, poles, and the appropriate pants in order to ski… so for now they will sit in the downstairs closet. The skis I bought are a pair of 195cm Rossignol M46 ‘racing’ skis. I got them for $12. It is true that I have no current use for them, but I couldn’t pass them up at that price! Apparently, the guy I bought them from got them second-hand from a shop/store somewhere. The edges are in decent shape (according to my roommate, who just got back from a ski trip), save a light layer of rust over. Also, the edges do just out past the width of the rest of the skis, so they can still be sharpened. My roommate also said that the bottom surface was in good shape, which made me happy. Maybe I’ll get to use them one day. If I’d already had ski’s a few months ago, then I might have been able to take my friend Sarah Burgoyne-Carl up on her offer to go skiing with her in Colorado where she was living at the time. Pity!

Anyways, here’s to hoping I can curb my spending until after I raise the $$ for the GRE
Here are pictures of the skis and the ping-pong table.

Happy new year, folks. I wonder what 2005 will hold. Its presented one surprise for me already, even after a somewhat slow, unremarkable start. I was told about 3 different parties (I wasn’t sure whether Nicole had invited me to hers or not), but I opted to stay home since I didn’t have a burning desire to party the night away. When the clock struck midnight, I was relaxing in a chair in my room.

The surprise came in the form of an impromptu trip to Piedmont park with my friend Natalie (on the right, not to be confused with Natalie-the-dancer). I was running an errand or two to in Buckhead in order get myself out of the house, and it was such a nice day that I called her to see if she would meet me at the park. Luckily, she was free and met me there about 30 minutes later. Footballs were tossed, and soccer balls were kicked (once again, Natalie proved to be a very quick study). We also sat and watched some bikers, skaters and skateboarders showing off tricks by the front of the park. Its the second trip with her to Piedmont park in about 5 years. It was a good outing, so there’s a fair likelihood of another such future trip.

Other friends that I called were out of town, nursing hangovers from partying, or not answering their phones. No worries, though… in this case all was well that ended well. It turns out that I might be attending fusion at Northpoint, per Natalie’s invitation. Hmm, I wonder whether I would better fit with the early 20’s crowd or late 20’s/early 30’s crowd? I have a feeling its the former even though i’m 27! (dang, i’m getting older for sure… wiser seems to be another story, though).

ETA for fusion is early February. In the meantime I need to make arrangements to take the GRE. 2005, here I come.

-EDIT- I just found out that one of the folks who didn’t answer their phone failed to do so because they threw their cell phone in the water. Deep water, apparently… and on purpose! Heh, having a bad temper can be an expensive habit

I have made it back to Atlanta safely. I left my aunt’s at 6:42AM this morning and checked in at the airport around 7:30. I tried to carry on my bag, but the attendant at the terminal made me check it during boarding. It had developed a small rip close to the zipper. Luckily, the connecting flight home from Pittsburgh was on the same aircraft, so US Airways didn’t have a chance to jack-up my baggage transit.

I landed in Atlanta at 1:30PM and picked up my bag and discovered that the little rip was now a tear that extended 2/3 of the length along the zipper. I stopped in by the baggage counter to:
1. Collect reimbursement for the clothes (~$70) I had to buy while waiting for my bag to get to me in New Jersey (which took 41 hours) .
2. Complain about the damage my bag had recieved between Pittsburgh and Atlanta (i’d borrowed my roommate’s old college cheerleading travel bag for the trip).

US Airways took my receipts andwrote a check for the clothes I bought, but refused to pay for the damaged bag. They said that they did not pay for damage related to the zipper and that my bag seemed overstuffed (which it probably was; as it was 60° in Atlanta, I had packed my winter coat into the bag). I i’m not sure whether the bag can be repaired, or how upset my roommate will be. I know that his mom is something of a seamstress, so she may be able to repair it for him/me.

Speaking of my roommate, he is apparently away on a skiing trip and has been quite busy in my room. I returned to find about half of my DVDR’s missing (~12), and a DVD project open on my computer using a program that he installed in my absence. Heh… maybe i’ll call it even for his damaged luggage!

I will (try to) get photos from my christmas trip up within the week… as well as make icons for the last series of posts that have none.

Its the day after Christmas. This morning my father and my aunt (fraternal twins, by the way) mentioned a news story about US Airways losing 1,000 bags of flying travelers over the past 2-3 days, and sure enough 15 minutes later a short report about it came up on the tv news… only it was 10,000 and not 1,000!

Apparently, US Airways baggage handlers have been having a tiff of sorts with the airline, which led to a large fraction of them calling in sick/taking leave for this christmas season. 10,000 bags were stranded at Philadephia International Airport (which is the same airport I had my connecting flight from). According to the report, 2/3 of the bags had been forwarded to their correct destinations (including mine, i suppose) leaving a mere 3,000 to be delivered. This also helps to explain why I have still been having trouble getting through to get my expenditures (in leiu of having my bag with my clothes and essentials) authorized. My return flight is one-way, but I plan to not-check any bags… for convenience (and just to be safe).

Also, I have finished The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. A short review will soon follow (I am on dialup up here and don’t want to tie up the phone line for too long). Not a bad book. It had some historical references in it that make me curious as to their validity and accuracy. I’ll probably wait until I am back in Atlanta to research it a little bit.

Its 2:12 and I am supposed to be going to the mall with Jessica today, but no word from her yet. I think our 2-3 person trip to the mall has turned into a shopping outing with my sister and Jessica’s mother, Aunt Daphne. Aunt Daphne and Uncle Robin gave me very generious christmas gifts, and I brought them nothing from Atlanta (I did try to shop before my flight, but didn’t find anything good enough to give as a gift). I will buy them something this week and either give it to them, or send it via mail (depending on whether i find something here, or back in Georgia).

-EDIT-
Went to Freehold Mall with Simone, Jessica, and Aunt Daphne around 3′ish. It was moderately crowded. On the way back we stopped at White Castle for dinner. I ate 7 cheeseburgers. On a related note, Jessica and I were talking about movies and she told me that she did like Harold & Kumar Go to White castle, but she did *not* like Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Both flicks are set in Jersey about a pair stoner-pals… so I didn’t understand why she thought that Jay and Silent Bob was stupid. I haven’t seen Harold & Kumar yet, but I plan to grab the DVD on Jessica’s reccomendation. It comes out January 4, 2005.

Merry Christmas! Jessica & Omar came over with their parents to my aunt’s place and we had a very nice dinner. Cousin Earle and his family made an appearance much later at night. I was REALLY surprised to find pansit on the menu! It was actually ‘mae fan’ or something, but I know pansit when I see pansit!

My lovely lovely lovely cousin Jessica lent me a novel to read! The DaVinci code! I started it today and am about 1/3 of the way through it. She is currently reading ‘I am Charlotte Simmons’ by Thomas Wolfe. Its gotten a lot of press on NPR in the past few weeks. I might ask her to loan it to me after she’s finished with it. In the meantime, I plan to lend her ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’ when I get back to Atlanta. I’ll have to hurry, though… she heads back toRutgers halfway through January, where she doesn’t have the time to do any pleasure reading.

Jessica is supposed to drive me to the mall tomorrow. I think my sister might come, too. I have to buy a gift for Nicole for moving my car out of the MARTA lot to save me a little bit of money (more about that later).

News: The bag that US Airways lost was found. They called early around 9:30AM to report that it would be delivered. It arrived here at my aunt’s house at 2:30pm. All contents intact! I was very happy to get my bag, but not happy about being unable to reach baggage service about a refund for essentials that I had to buy.

Today, my folks, aunt, and I all went over to visit more of our family living 10 minutes from my aunt in Howell, NJ. I got to see 3 of my cousins that I haven’t seen in a few years. I think that I might have found a kindred spirit of sorts in my cousin Jessica. She seems to share a few interests/habits with me that noone else in my family does. I was surprised to hear that she was graduating this coming semester! She’s considering grad school. If she goes, then i’ll definitely have to go to grad school as well. (I can’t let any of my cousins become more educated than me! )

I also saw Aunt Marge, Uncle Otto, Arlene & Stacey, Judy, Uncle Robin and Aunt Daphne. Omar (Jessica’s brother) was absent, but he and everyone else is coming over to my Aunt’s house tomorrow for christmas dinner. I’ll be sure to take lots of photos.

I woke up this morning to be told that US Airways had called and said that my bag had been found, and was on its way here to be delivered. That is definitely good news, but unfortunately they didn’t give an ETA, so I am sort of stuck here at the house until it arrives.

Just as well since I didn’t have any Christmas Eve plans anyways.

There is still the issue of getting compensation for the change of clothes that I had to buy (and am currently wearing).

I have made it to Newark safely (thank goodness). The ONE bag I checked (and the bags of half the other passengers on the plane) have not. US AIRWAYS LOST MY BAG ON A DOMESTIC FLIGHT. Apparently, my bags and those of my fellow passengers were not put on our connecting flight from Philadelphia (PHL) to Newark (EWR).

Here is a brief rundown of events:
-My flight (2846) lands on-time at 9:15 despite taking off 30 minutes late. We are forced to wait on the tarmac for 40 minutes while they try to decide what terminal to put us in (F27, our terminal was taken).
-The plane is put in terminal F29. The flight attendant tells us that our bags will automatically be transferred (I ask him again on my way out to be sure). I disembark and immediately walk to the terminal of my connecting flight in time to make it to the middle of the boarding for that flight (great timing). I worry about my bag making it over in time for take-off until the flight attendant announces that take-off is postponed in order to let 10 passengers from a connecting flight make it over in time to board.
-20 minutes later, at 11:40pm I disembark and meet my aunt at the luggage retrieval. We spend 20 minutes watching bags go round and round as a line forms at the lost baggage office (yes, there was a US Airways lost baggage OFFICE staffed with two people…. not a good sign). Half the passengers from my flight end up in the line. One guy traveling with his family was missing FIVE bags/suitcases.
-After an interminable wait in a fairly short lineInformation about my bag is taken, and I am given a record of the baggage claim along with a brochure on the apporpriate numbers to call. It is now almost 2AM. We drive home.
-I am told that once my bags are located, they will be delivered to me at my Aunt’s house. So for the time being, I have nothing except the clothes on my back, my cell phone, and a portable DVD player. LUCKILY, I had not checked my winter coat and hat… but i have no toothbrush or change of clothes… or the PS2 I had packed (which BETTER be there when my bag arrives).
-I spend the next day calling the automated line before I track down the phone number for the lost baggage office in EWR airport and the phone number for Deborah Thompson, the Director of Customer Affairs. The workers in the lost baggage office are curt, almost to the point of rudeness. I call on Mrs.Thompson, but get no answer, so I leave a message on her voicemail. Subsequent web-sleuthing reveals that the one flight from PHL to EWR (which theoretically could have ferried the bags to us) that day was canceled. The reason given was inclement weather, but rain in these areas was light.

So now its 9:26, 22 hours after my flight landed. According to flight schedules, the first flight from PHL to EWR lands at 10:30AM, with 2 more flights throughout the day. So, hopefully my things will arrive. I hadn’t originally planned to check any baggage, but I was forced to after I remembered that there was a small swiss army knife on my keychain (a gift for being a groomsman in Brannon’s wedding). Rest assured, I won’t make that mistake again (or the bigger mistake of flying on US Airways).

I spent ~$45 on a change of clothes for tomorrow and possible Saturday. According to the EWR lost baggage office, in order to get reimbursed I must first contact a LIVE PERSON on the US Airways lost baggage phone system (which has thus far proven impossible as the phone system says it is too busy and hangs up on you), and get it authorized.

A google search on US Airways and lost baggage turned up this gem from a blog (about lost baggage on US Airways) almost exactly one year previous to this date. One of the same aiports was involved, too (PHL).

US Airways SUCKS.

Well, I was all set to leave for the airport at 5:30 in the morning to make my 8:20 flight. I packed the bag and printed up my flight schedule. I was examining it when I noticed that the times were PM instead of AM… which meant that I had to call my aunt (who was supposed to pick me up at the airport) and my old roommate (who was to drive me to the airport) at midnight to cancel and rearrange plans.

It sucks that I didn’t realize the actual times when I booked the flight, but its a good thing I did eventually notice. Besides upsetting my aunt, I would have had to spend 12+ hours at the airport here in Atlanta.

One bad thing that did come out of this is that I’d made plans to visit my friend from elementary school, Beth, whom I haven’t seen in 10-11 years. She is flying out the morning after I leave, so who knows if I will be able to catch up with her, as she lives a little over an hour away from my aunt’s house.

I need to make new plans for getting to and from the airport. Unfortunately, my 8 oclock departure time means that:
1. I will have to get to the airport around rush hour. -I’ll probably have to take MARTA to avoid subjecting my friends to the stagnant gridlock that is the downtown connector during christmas season rush hour
2. I will have to be picked up from Newark airport at midnight, as my flight lands at 11:30pm. I can’t think of an easy way around having my aunt come get me (she lives about an hour from the airport).

The end of year holiday season is here, and my ma, pa, & sis decided to go to New York City to visit my family. For those of you who might not know (or might have forgotten), I was born in NYC and lived there until I was 8 years old. Most of my aunts and uncles still live there.

I opted out of the Thanksgiving NYC trip last year because I did not want to spend 12 hours in the car. I had the same dilemna this time around; I wanted to visit my family (whom I have not seen in years), but I did not want to spend 2 days of my vacation driving in a car with 4 other people (the trip takes 12 hours). After much hesitation, I decided to book a flight. $224 round trip. Expensive, but at least I don’t have to dread the drive home to TN and then to & back from NYC.

My aunt actually now lives in Newark, NJ, so that is where I am flying to. I have one day to pack and make arrangements to get to the airport, get picked up from the airport, etc.

I haven’t been to NYC in a while, so I am trying to find contact info for the people I know that live there. So far all i have come up with is Beth O’Brien (from 4th grade) and Dennis Delima (from college). I have phone numbers for niether person, so odds are that I wont’ get to see them.

I leave Wednesday the 22nd of Dec and come back Wed the 29th of Dec. My parents should arrive late Friday the 24th.

In other news:

-I tried to track down a friend from high school, sort of out the blue. The impetus for the search was a dream I had the night before… which is strange because their appearance in the dream was totally out of the blue, so decided to regard it as an omen. No luck so far, but I did contact the family of a friend of hers from college.
More news later if anything develops.

-The gym staff had a christmas party tonight at the wild wing cafe up in Suwanee. Al and David brought a friend of theirs named Joy, a girl Al cheered with in school. Joy was exquisite. She doesn’t live in town, but that’s a phone number I’ve got to get.

-Arranged to mod a ps2 for a little extra spending $, but the chip would not function… despite having all of the correct wires properly attached. It was a DMS3+ in a V4 gap console… which are apparently notorious for not being compatible. I’ve since come to the conclusion that DMS3 is junk, and v4 gap is NOT worth the effort. The owner is going to try to install a Matrix Infinity per my recommendation.

-kevin

For the past month and a half, I’ve been living a pretty sedentary lifestyle on my days off. For the most part I would sit here in my room, visiting other parts of the house, but not really leaving except to grab food or other necessities. I am not quite as spry and nimble as I know I can be, which I attribute to never ever tumbling or working out/exercising beyond what is entailed in the normal course of my job at the gym.

So, it seemed like a good idea on Monday when I decided to go off into the corner and throw ~25 standing front tucks, 10 back tucks (easier, so I don’t need as much practice), and ~10 front tucked fulls (with a spring board) all within a 20 minute time period. It was good exercise, and upon finishing I could feel that I would probably be sore the next day… but I underestimated to what degree.

Yesterday morning when I woke up and tried to rise out of bed, my back muscles immediately expressed their displeasure with being used before having enough time to fully heal . My glutes, biceps, oblique back, abs, and lower lats were also sore. Apparently it was a much better workout than I knew at the time Moving around to start my day did help, but only to a degree. By time I went into work I was almost as sore as when I had woken up. This made me very picky during stunt class, since it hurt to muscle the girls during a toss when they made a mistake. These girls were all 8-10 years old and probably an average of 45 lbs, so that should give you a clue as to how sore my muscles were!

As a matter of fact i’m still sore today, but its more of a dull ache. I will probably wake up tomorrow with a little bit of soreness left and none at all on Friday (unless i decided to repeat my regimen at the gym tomorrow).

December is here and it has been pretty warm for the most part… which makes it difficult for me to continually wear my santa hat, as is my holiday custom. It is supposed to rain hard and get cold tonight, so maybe the current spring-like weather can be chalked up to an errant weather phenomenon.

In other news, Ryan’s car got broken into on Monday night. A nameless (to protect the guilty) friend is courting the good friend of his recent ex (lovely, eh?). I visited Mama G at her today as part of an errand. She works at a dermatologist’s office a few miles from the gym. She is doing very well, though her daughter Lisa has a lot of stress from friends and school as of late (its finals time).

Also, I’d like to share a story. A couple of weeks ago (the week of the Georgia-Tennessee game, if I am not mistaken), a girl came to the house selling magazine subscriptions. She was a collegiate athlete at Kennessaw State University raising money for a tournament in Hawaii that she and her team were going to take part in during late November/early December. In the course of renewing a magazine subscription (which had about run out), we chatted a little bit and she offered me her phone number. Not abnormal, given our conversation, but it was still a first for me. In any case… my excitement was short lived because the phone number which-I-did-not-ask-for that she wrote down and gave to me was the wrong number. I’m at a loss.

Its not like she needed to chat me up, I had already given her a check for the magazines, and this was just conversation after the fact. Also, its not like I asked for her number, so there wasn’t any pressure for her to leave it with me either. I called it twice at different times to be sure. The person at the other end of the line doesn’t know who ‘Hollie’ is.

Maybe some of you ladies out there can explain the logic of the situation to me. Why would you offer up a wrong number out of the blue?

I give up. No luck with the ladies at all!

-kevin

I’ll ignore the normal sorry-for-not-posting-in-a-while blurb that seems to have become the norm lately on this web log. My birthday has come and gone and thanskgiving is just around the corner.
I haven’t done much translation or GRE studying lately. I have been kept busy with many things PS2, and the start of the cheerleading competition season. The dvd-burner that I ordered just came in yesterday, so I’ve been busy with that as well. Its 3:00pm and I have a lesson at 4:00, so I need to leave the computer to get ready. I’ll post later tonight, time permitting.

I meant to post about this earlier, but procrastinatory obligations kept me from writing anything until now . About 1 week ago, a friend of mine with a modified PS2 got a dual-layer DVD burner. For the uninitiated:

PS2 games come on dvd discs. Even though the game data can be copied onto recordable dvd’s, the game dvds and PS2s have built in security measures to prevent these copied games from working on the PS2. This measure is used to protect their copyright. This same security measure is also (intentionally) used to prevent games from different countries/zones from working on PS2’s from different countries/zones. This method is used to control the market of PS2 games, including controlling prices and restraining availability in different zones/markets. PS2’s can be modified to ignore the built-in security measures that keep them from playing copied games and imported games. The most ambitious way to to do this is to add a ‘mod chip’ micro-chip to the PS2 and integrate it within the circuits on the Ps2’s main board. A similar exploit existed for the original Playstation(which played games on CD), but both the PS2’s inner workings and security system are far more intricate, thusly the mod chip and integration for the PS2 are decidedly more complicated. The first-generation mod chip for the PS2 required the microchip to be integrated at 41 seperate nodes, compared to 4 or 5 nodes for the first-generation Playstation mod chip. 3 years later down the line to today, current PS2 mod chips function with only 17 connections to the main board. These connections are made by soldering wires to specific locations along the appropriate circuit node.

My friend also told me that he had figured out how to use his new burner to make copies which should (in theory) work with his mod chip. In college, a friend of ours had had his Playstation modified, and was able to use it to play games he downloaded from the internet and burned onto CDs. After buying my PS2 about 1.5 years back (on a whim), I’d briefly thought about trying to find a way to have it modified, but never really pursued it because of the difficulties involved with not knowning who/where to look, not having a way to produce dvds. There was also the prospect downloading LARGE 2-3 GB dvd images… a hassle to say the least. Also, my friend with the modified PS2 lost contact with the person who helped him his, so it seemed like a lot of trouble/risk with little potential reward. As a result I didn’t look into it at all.

To make a long story short, my friend’s news about his new toy have changed my perspective.

Obtaining a chip is easy enough, but the installation/integration is harrying, meticulous, and notoriously difficult. All attempts at this kind of modification automatically voids Sony’s warranty and obligation/willingness to repair a PS2. Too much heat or solder in the wrong spot during installation of a chip can break the PS2 badly enough to not function at all. So making a mistake might mean shelling out another $100-$150 for a used-new replacement PS2, which is why a small service-industry of mod-chip installers has cropped up… but installation is expensive. It is typically at least as expensive as a high price mod chip, which doubles (or triples) the cost of modification. The average total cost of modifying a PS2 is around$100, which is enough to buy 5 new, bargain-priced (older) games, or a used PS2

After a bit of research and reading, I have a Matrix Infinity chip on order. I will write about more my PS2 adventures in my (very unused, but passworded) journals category. (E-mail me if you need the password).

Shame on me for not checking my mail. I ended up wasting a GT homecoming football ticket because I couldn’t see the letter containing the ticket which my friend, Josh had sent to me. It might have helped to know ahead of time that it was being sent, but those are moot points (he said that he might or might not send it, but never followed up). Besides the unused (and still unopened) football-ticket-letter, I got 2 flush letters from companies I vaguely remember sending resumes too. I didn’t open them, I just scanned them through the envelope by holding them up to a bright light.

My URL-mate Beth sent me two preparation CD’s for the GRE, all the way from Savannah! Hooray! Thanks, Beth. I can now add it to the list of productive activities to do while in the house (which I am much of the time). This past week i’ve been doing a mediocre job of sending off resumes, so I need to get on it this coming week.

I’ve recently changed up my studying-japanese routine. Instead of translating short paragraphs from the Asahi Sinbum Jingo Tensei for myself (and then comparing them with their english versions, I have been translating jokes from english into japanese and sending them to a person from friendster whom I’ve never met. She is from Japan, so maybe I can get some feedback on my work (its slooow going, 1 joke probably takes me 3 cumulative hours, depending on the length).

Today, I got to Northpoint early in order to see one of my students (from tumbling class) sing in Kidstuff, a church service for children at Northpoint. I went in expecting it to be something of a show, but I was still suprised by how much of a production it was. My student was one of the ~dozen or so kids on stage singing and dancing during the introduction and finale. I was impressed. I’ve put a picture of the stage below (small photo that i had to steal and photoshop-together off the website, hence the wierd perspective/artifacts).

The rest of my day was spent at the gym doing one lesson and covering for yet someone else who was out. I’m trying to save up money to pay for rent during december and january, when the gym will be closed for about 3.5 weeks. Wish me luck!

Although that is actually a quote from the presidential & vice-presidential candidate debates, its also and apt description of what I’ve been up to as of late. I missed church this past weekend because I was asked to help cover a practice/shift for a friend who is out of the country. Another friend is sick, so I ended up going in last week Wednesday as well… but speaking of going out of the country… I have found awebsite forum [www.ithinkimlost.com] that has lots of stories and posts by people in the JET program [www.jetprogramme.org]. Since I’m thinking about going over, (barring my finding a new job/going to grad school) this will be a very handy source of information. The forum doesn’t seem to be as active as other message forums, but I guess those folks are busy trying to make their way in a foreign country and such!

More later today

-Edit-
They ended up asking me to go in to work. Two people were out today, so I ended up with the shorter stick as far as covering classes. Also, the little tykes in the first class I covered decided to hide my sneakers from me by kicking and stuffing them under the coil spring floor. As the temperature has dropped to the mid 50’s due to the rain and change of season…. I ended up going to the supermarket and then home with very cold, wet socks and feet.

I have half a mind to go in on this coming wednesday just to make them condition as retribution, but alas I’m a softy and probably won’t even be upset about the whole thing by tomorrow.

Admittedly, if I hadn’t procrastinated as long as I did then I wouldn’t be in this situation, but….
On October 4 (yesterday, a Monday) I dropped by the post office before work in order to pick up a voter-registration form. The forms were due in that day (so, it had to be filled out and dropped in the mail/postmarked by 5pm). I had been told (by a source who shall remain nameless) that I could pick them up there. I budgeted about half an hour for filling it out and getting it off in the mail. Much to my chagrin, the post office had no such forms. A quick inquiry revealed that the closest place to pick them up was the Buford Library… a library whose exact location I not only didn’t know… but was probably at least a 15 minute drive away through metro-Atlanta rush hour (15 min there, 15 min back = the only 30 min I had).

A quick google search reveals little about buford library’s location, except that it is within 3 miles of the Mall of Georgia, putting it at least 20 minutes away. So, it seems that I won’t be casting my vote in the upcoming presidential election. Pity. Maybe my favored candidate will win. I’ll give you a hint which it is: not Mr. Bush. It will be interesting to see if he ends up carrying this state, though.

In other news, my life as-of-late has been filled with all sorts of nonsense. I got some index cards to start memorizing some GRE words (why not, though if experience is any judge… studying these words will help me on maybe 2-3 word problems/analogies that i would have had to guess on). I’ve been playing NFL Street, a PS2 game that i bought used from blockbuster. I’m not usually a fan of sports games, but 7-on-7 football is tolerable enough for me to enjoy playing. I wish the computer didn’t cheat like a $%#$ all the time, though. There’s always work, applying to jobs (I just got dissed by Hansgrohe, I applied for an intern/part-time engineer spot and they just sent me a letter saying that they’re going with a different candidate… I didn’t even interview for the position at all). Just one step closer to teaching-english-in-japan, or grad school, i suppose.

Speaking of japan, one of my students from the gym is going to Tokyo this coming week (she is half japanese). Also, my friend Dave Lo was just there on a job interview (3d modelling/CGI stuff). Seems to be the hot spot to visit nowadays!

Speaking of the gym, there is a new guy working there. His name is Al. I haven’t talked with him much, though.

I hurt my knee a little doing punch front-fulls onto a folded-up crash mat (to make it softer). No video of it. I’ll try to get Ryan to record one on Friday for you guys.

Sorry about the slim pickings as far as entries.

-kevin

I *almost* walked out of the bookstore with the 2005 GRE study book. Almost.

I started getting ready for the GRE with the 2003 kaplan GRE guide, which was graciously given to me 1 year ago by my old roommate, Brannon (as a moving gift, i suppose). The very first section I practice-tested on was the analytical portion (which is ironic for a reasons i shall reveal). The next step of my plan was to acquire a 2005 GRE study guide.
I went to the store, talked to a clerk who had taken the GRE, and subsequently picked out the Princeton Review’s guide. Everything was hunky-dory until I indiscriminately flipped through a few pages of it. What little I glanced whilst thumbing through was a run-of-the-mill breakdown and explanation on standardized testing techniques. I immediately started having second thoughts about plunking down almost $40 ($35, to be precise) for a workbook 90% filled with information that I already knew. The GRE is already going to cost $115, so I felt that my $35 might be better spent going towards payment for the actual test…. especially considering the fact that I already have a Kaplan 2003 GRE book. So I have decided to do the bulk of my preparation with the 2003 book that I already have (a standardized test is a standardized test… i’ve been taking them since grade school), and to peruse the 2005 book in the bookstore for any changes in the 2005 version of the GRE that I might need to prepare myself for.

As it turns out, the analytical section, which used to be multiple choice, is now an analytical timed essay. This means that I wasted a few hours on my first night of studying with the 2003 GRE book, but it also means that the analytical section will be a complete cakewalk. They rate the essays from 1-6. 6 being ‘ cogent, well-articulated analysis of the complexities of the issue and conveys meaning skillfully‘, and 5 being ‘generally thoughtful, well-developed analysis of the complexities of the issue and conveys meaning clearly. I expect to get either of those scores, though it does seem a bit arbitrary. My writing style has been lost on some of my former English professors, but usually due to their lack of effectively communicating the type of paper they were looking for. A score of 4 is for ‘competent analysis of the issue and conveys meaning adequately‘. I could probably do that in my sleep.

Just tonight I finished the quantitative (math) practice section of the 2003 book. The math doesn’t seem to get any more difficult than linear algebra. I am fairly certain that the testers will make the time constraint for this section a factor to help tweak (increase) the difficulty of this section. To me, it really seems like SAT/high school level material.

So, things are looking OK so far. I’m going to start hitting the vocab soon. I’ll probably start posting a lot more messages to message boards on the net to make my new-found vocabulary part of my working lexicon… but truth be told, i’m not afraid of word analogies either.

Hmm, maybe i’m being to cavalier about this whole GRE thing… have any of you folks taken it? Speak up! Send me an email or leave me a comment!

-kevin

P.S. Methinks there are peculiar things afoot with Aaron & Katie.

I have decided that I should take the GRE and give very serious thought to grad school. I’ve been job searching to no avail for 3 years, and I don’t want to keep wasting time not learning/going forward.

I’m not sure exactly what I want to study in grad school. I am pretty certain that I dont’ want to study pure chemical engineering (what my undergrad degree is in). It’s as challenging as any other major, but I think i’d like to branch out a little bit.

After that, i’ll try to figure out where to go and how to finance it…. but i’ve got to take the test first

-kevin

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:

Hi Kevin, I just called you and left a message. I am MR.TANAKA from Management Recruiters- Japanese. There is one job opening, requring language skills of English, Japanese, and Spanish. Your resume indicates you can speak all of them, so the position is fit with your background. If you are interested in the position, please either call or email me back. My contact is below. I am looking forward to hearing from you soon, MR.TANAKA

Management Recruiters Japanese America’s Premier Bilingual Japanese Recruiters 1800S. Rutherford Blvd., Ste 103 Murfreesboro, TN 37130 E-Mail: —@——-.—

Tel: (—) ***-**** Fax: (–) ***-**** http://www.mrjapanese.com

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.

I am not much of a poker player. 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… 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.

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 .

I just might go again. Just to watch, of course.

-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:

My parents were in town for a ball, but I didn’t get to see them.

I made it to churchtoday , but didn’t run into any friends.

The stone mountain trip is OFF, due to lack of people being able to go due to schedules/previous plans. I might end up going by myself (or with Katie) next weekend, but without staying for the laser show as they are planning to do

The spherion/bellsouth web-consultant position I was up for was given to someone else. I never made it to midtown for the meeting/interview because of having to play phone tag with the lady that contacted me in the first place (guess its back to more searching with monster tomorrow morning).

My shirt that I lost at the gym is gone forever. May it rest in peace, and may whomever is responsible for its absence reap the whirlwind 10-times over.

My POS optical mouse has been acting up. I hate having to spend money replacing things that I shouldn’t have to.

The streetfighter anniversary collection is out next week for PS2. Ah, the memories I have of playing that game through high school and college.

-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.

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:

Hi Kevin! Thanks very much for your correction of my bass tab! When I have time, I’ll listen to the song and check it out again with the help of your tab… So maybe I’ll be able to play it more originally on our next live-gig on 18th august How long have you been playing the bass guitar and in what kind of band do you play? I am 19 years old and I’ve been playing bass for four years. At the moment I have a cover-band that covers mostly rock-songs but I’d really like to have a band writing it’s own rocksongs in the near future… Bye, Philipp (Philipp-Heinicke@web.de)

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

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

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 passed along her email in case I wanted to play kickball again.

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 2 times I have cooked… I have wasted about 2 days worth of leftovers due to my forgetting-to-put-the-food-back-into-the-fridge. An embarrassing (and expensive) 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.

Well, another Sunday bites the dust. The better part of today was spent tinkering around with the web log interface. Here you see the results in all its azure glory. I still have a few things to move around, but I am otherwise currently satisfied with the look. I will eventually add a style selector so that all 1 of my readers (me) can choose.

I got in very late (or early, depending on how you look at it) from Athens, but still got out of bed in time to make it to church. I’m glad I did. I was first spotted and (surprised) by Natalie as she was getting out from the kids group she helps lead. We talked for a little (I stumbled for words like a 2nd grader), and then she left. .
Not 5 minutes later I was spotted by Peter (forgot his last name) one of my old residents from my quarter as a dorm peer leader at Tech. It turns out that he helps with out with the Northpoint kids as well. Sort of a chance meeting, eh? That’s the second coincdence this week centered around Nat… she sent out an group email that happened to have an address with a name I recognized… to make a long story short, Nat is friends with the sister of another old friend from college whom I hadn’t seen in about 5 years. I have his url now, so I can keep in touch.

All i need now is a real job and I’m set!

-kevin

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.

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. 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.

So, I am relaxing earlier during my Friday afternoon, trying to enjoy the last bit of vacation away from the gym when suddenly i get a call from Ryan saying that the gym was in fact open and having open gym today. So, after a quick confirmation call to Erik, I get in the car and drive through Friday traffic (rush hour is always early on Fridays) to the gym. An abrubt end to my short, unpaid vacation.

But enough about work.

Tomorrow Cat and Bryan are getting married! The wedding is in Athens, and I am going to attend… though at the moment I am not sure exactly WHERE in Athens it will be. A few phone calls should clear that matter up. Athens isn’t huge, though it is an hour away via a very very cop-infested highway, 316. I will hopefully have a few nice photos to share with whomever is reading this (only me, i think). The wedding is scheduled for 5:30. I wish I knew of someone else in town that was going so that we could carpool. The two folks that I do know are in the wedding party, so meeting up would not be practical as they undoubtetdly have ceremonial duties and commitments.

Crap. I haven’t chosen any clothes. I might go khaki and black shirt. At Leila and Brian’s wedding, 3 years ago in 2001 (man, i’m getting old), I forgot part of the suit i was planning to wear and was inadvertently forced to improvise with suit pants and a black ribbed T-shirt. It actually worked out pretty well. I could probably get away with my black sneakers, but if Cat reads this and finds out I wore sneakers to her wedding then she will sic her ninjas on me! I’ll choose clothes when i wake up tomorrow… and make sure I have my gift.

This is my third wedding in 2 years and I have yet to take a date to one.

Well, i guess i’d need a date first, eh?

-kevin

Welcome to WordPress. I made the decision to ‘go native’ with the web log. It looks pretty yucky at the moment… but I will start on tweaking the colors and template to my will.

I have no idea how to use half of the features!. This should be interesting! Beth finally put an entry on her blog. I guess we’re in the same boat until one of us figures out what we’re doing.

Tuesday July 7, 2004, 3:23AM

I didn’t run in the Peactree Road Race. The plan was for Reed to call me later the night before and tell me what time to be up to catch a ride downtown. He didn’t call, so I set my clock for 6AM and went to bed. I woke up very drowsily at 6, my sleep-logic asking why I was waking up so early just to tire myself out in the summer heat, all the way downtown no less. Reed never showed up, and so I fell back asleep… missing church in the process.

Later, at 12:22 I left and went to Iffy’s apt on Clairmont Rd for the barbecue… the barbecue which was actually being held the next day, as a very hung-over and sleepy Iffy told me. Oops. I made a very similar mistake last year for a party that Liz threw… only that time it was a 2-hour-drive-to-Liz’s-place-in-Macon mistake. Believe me when I say that A 4-hour drive is a great way to burn up not only gas, but your entire evening and afternoon as well.

Well, I did make it to the barbecue on its actual day (today), and there was a good smattering of folks there. I was pleasantly surprised to see Natalie-the-ballerina there (not to be confused with the Natalie that I saw Harry Potter 3 with). Natalie was there with Aaron’s girlfriend, Katie. We got to talk a little bit and swam around in the pool some. We raced pool lengths, and she beat me 4 times. I didn’t mind. I’m not a very good swimmer, and I was more concerned with how nicely she fit into her swimsuit (The few photos I have of the barbecue don’t do her justice). I didn’t drool or stare though, so I should be in the clear. She and Katie had a friend flying in from Vancouver who is going to be living with Katie and Aaron, and dancing at Atlanta Ballet with Katie and Natalie-the-ballerina for about a month. Apparently Aaron thinks that I’ll like her or something. She flew in tonight. I’ll have to try to drop by sometime this week and meet her. Hmmm, I don’t think i’ve ever been out with a ballerina before…….

P.S. - Played my bass after too-long a hiatus. It felt good to do it. I’m going to learn some No Doubt songs all the way through… and tab The Sun by They Might Be Giants… they always perform with extremely skilled bass players with some good, tough lines.

Saturday July 3, 8:45PM

Well, my week of ‘vacation’ off from work has begun. The gym is closed from July 2 to July 8 for Independence Day.

July 2004
S	M	T	W	Th	F	Sa
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17

I started my week away from cheerleading with, what else? (sigh) A trip to a cheerleading/gymnastics equipment supplier. -More about that later, i’m off to meet Erik and Reed for a shirley temple (they’re having dinner) at Bogey’s and then fireworks.

- 10:45PM -
Back from Bogey’s and the fireworks in Duluth. Predicatbly, traffic did not move a whole lot leaving. Especially with the Duluth police department’s 15-minute-per-direction traffic strategy Well, I’m sure their intentions were good.

…So, on friday I left the house with Erik to pick up Reed at the Atlanta Athletic Club (exclusive meets well-to-do). This accident was blocking our normal route out, so we drove past the river instead and headed to GMR in Lithonia. Unfortunately, we ventured out into Atlanta traffic on the perimter, through spaghetti junction, during rush hour, on a holiday weekend no less. Needless to say, there was lots of braking involved on our trip . We stuck to side roads on the way back via Stone Mountain, stopping at one point to try to get some funnel cake (we were unsuccessful).

Stone Mountain, Georgia

The funnel cake shop was closed even though we visited during working hours

The rest of my day was spent trying to clean the W32.Pinfi virus off of my computer (the scan took 5.5 hours to complete). I discovered that I was infected after Warcraft 3 stopped working properly.

In addition to the virus, I found that my one of my DDR dance pads isn’t working (sensors seem to function, but the PS2 won’t recognize it). So, today I went to radio shack and bought a multimeter and some wire. After spending 40 min resoldering/shrink-tubing the cable that I incorrectly clipped , I unsuccessfully attempted to diagnose and repair the problem with the dance mat. The circuit pathways are extremely difficult to probe, due to extreme cheap-ness. A new one will cost $20…. and replacing the circuit board with one pulled from an el-cheapo controller will cost at least $10, plus effort getting the flat circuit paths connected correctly (translation: pain in the ass). I’ll toy with the idea of constructing my own pad, but that’s more $$ than i currently want to spend on a game that should work already.

Can you tell that a chemical engineer did this?

Turns out i’m going to run in the Peachtree Road Race tomorrow with Reed and Otis(?). I’m not in running shape and I don’t have a pair of sneakers properly broken in… guess this means i’ll miss church tomorrow because Iffy’s throwing a barbecue at 1′ish… but i guess we’ll see what happens. Stay tuned to this web log!

Thursday, June 30 3:18PM
I am just getting in from a noon (12:30pm) showing of Spiderman 2, which opened today. Fantastic! I really really got into this movie… the action, stunts, special effects and CGI are all great of course… but its really the effect of the whole story (writing and direction). Even though there are a great many movies I like and enjoy, I am not typically a person that raves over seeing them in the theaters, or goads friends into seeing a particular flicks without some sort of impetus. However, I am going to make a noteworthy exception with Spiderman 2. Go see it… in the theater… bring a date! Its a good date movie! I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but a there are a few surprising scenes and plot lines that fans of the first movie will delight in seeing explored. I don’t want to give anything away, so I will leave my description at that for now. Perhaps I’ll write a full review later.

As great as it was, there are some interesting peculiarities that seem to pervade the series. Maybe they can be attributed to Sam Raimi?
There are the cameos by Stan Lee and Sam Raimi, of course…. but most *ahem* noteworthy is how Mary Jane Watson aka Kirsten Dunst’s shirt invariably gets soaking wet again in the movies, causing her to nip through her blouse. (Not that i’m complaining! Its definitely a rememberable recurrence worth mention ) I couldn’t find a screenshot from spiderman 2 that does Ms. Dunst’s assets justice, so I grabbed a publicity photo from earlier in the same scene, albeit without the level of detail noticeable in the film. -I now own the Spiderman 2 DVD and was able to make the appropriate screenshot- I also included a screen grab from the first spiderman movie. (I just realized that I have the full-screen version, bleagh… I shall have to sell it and buy the widescreen one)

Perky Kirsten Dunst Spiderman (2002)

Kirsten in yet another wet blouse from Spiderman 2 (2004)

I hope you appreciate that DVD screenshot. It took me HOURS to get my DVD player softwave to run correctly in order to get it. I’ll spare you a long explanation, but it has to do with the software blocking playback because my video card isn’t programmed with any copy protection. After very furstrating and exhaustive search, I finally fixed it by finding a way to block macrovision. (MPAA SUX!)

11:00PM - Went to and came back from Acworth. Ran into Kathryn after not seeing her around for a while. She just got back from California.

Site update - well, not my site. I’ve been fiddling with the domain a little bit. It started when Beth contacted me for help with installing Moveable Type(blog software) on the site. I’d read/heard a little about lots of people dropping moveable type due to it not being as free anymore, so I consulted with an online-pal/internet guru and decided to install WordPress instead. As of this entry, WordPress is up and running on Beth’s site, but she has yet to make any updates to it herself. I will probably eventually switch from blogger to WordPress, but not until i have more content up and redesign this web log’s appearance.
One site enhancement I have been unable to implement so far is syndicating RSS feeds/headlines onto my web page. I found a script that does the job, but my host doesn’t have the proper perl modules installed that it requires. I’ll email them about it and see if I can get that changed.

In other news: No new information about my shirt. I talked a little bit about it with Reed. No revelations. I have been offered as many old thunder shirts as I want as restitution. A poor substitute, but seemlingly all i’m likely to get.

Also: My 2 extra batteries for my digital camera came yesterday! I charged them up and tested them and everything seems to work correctly. Now all I have to do is find a case that can carry them along with the camera and 2 extra compact flash cards. I’ve been to Target and Best Buy, but haven’t found anything ideal. Right now i’m using this targus case which is compact enough to fit in a pocket and hold the camera + flash cards, but it lacks the compartments for 2 extra batteries.

Monday, June 28, 2004 11:08AM
Good morning folks! Its 10:13AM Monday. Liz and I arrived in Atlanta 12 hours ago last night from Little Rock, AR. After getting dropped off at Brannon’s house, I spent a few minutes with him and the Ramseys and then finally made it back home at 11.

I made it to Brannon’s friday morning a little before 9AM after a sluggish jaunt through morning traffic. The original plan was to leave at 8:30, but we both underestimated the delay due to Atlanta’s horrible rush hour. We departed from Atlanta a few minutes after 9, westbound on I-20. Our route took us through Birmingham (AL), Tupelo (MS), Memphis(TN), and finally to Little Rock(TN). The longest part of the drive was the 4+ hours through Alabama. The most interesting part of the drive were the low-swooping crop dusters than floated around over the highways in Arkansas. We arrived at our exit in Little Rock at about 6 oclock.

We changed and after arrival and went into town and had dinner at the flying saucer. We tried to attend the opening ceremonies, but were unable to get in to see it because the fire marshall was not allowing any more people inside the convention hall to watch. Liz’s tae kwon do instructor hadn’t contacted her about where to pick up tickets, so we ended up missing out on the ceremony. We ended up playing darts at a pub a few blocks down the street instead.

Saturday morning we went sightseeing. Our first stop was the Old Mill in North Little Rock, across the river. We also visited a comic store (i got a comic there, too) the Little Rock Arts Center, the Museum of Military History, the Historic Arkansas Museum and the Old State Capitol. In our travels, Liz ran about 3 red lights in and around Little Rock ! We also drove past the Univ. Or Arkansas campus and had dinner close to there. We completed the evening with a movie, Shrek 2, at an 18-screen multiplex down the highway from the hotel.

Sunday morning we checked out and went down to the convention center for Liz’s competition. Judging in her ring started at 11:15AM and went through weapons forms, fighting forms, and finally sparring. Liz ended up taking 3rd place in fighting forms in her division (congrats!). Judging finally ended at 12:40. She picked up her trophy, changed, and then we were back on the road to Georgia by about 1:05PM.

The trip home only took about 9+ hours with a bit less traffic and a lot less rain than the drive out there.

So, that was my weekend, in a nutshell! I will put up a photo gallery, and more detailed description of the trip, linked from this log, when time permits. Hopefuly before the end of the week. Until then, its back to my normal schedule, and work at the gym later today.

take care
-kevin

P.S. The little rock photo gallery is here!

Friday June 25, 2004 3:00AM

Well, I didn’t get to bed early as I’d hoped. This is a quick little entry before I wake up tomorrow and embark on my trip to Little Rock. Keith just got back from there (he didn’t like it much) and said the drive should take 11 hours. Lovely. I bought a 6-pack of Mt.Dew to be consumed during my share of the driving. I also burned 4 music CD’s and bought an audio book on tape. I got the DaVinci code. The harry potter books on CD (which i borrowd from Jaime) are the only thing that saved my sanity when I made a 12-hour drive to MD for Leila and Brian’s wedding back in 2001. At least i’ll have Liz to talk to and won’t have to do all the driving. I’m meeting her at Brannon’s at 8:30, so I need to hurry up and get my 4.5 hours of sleep and fight rush hour tomorrow. I wonder if i should take the first driving shift or not :-/ Might be better to split it into 3 hour sets. We’ll see, I guess. Wish us a safe trip. I hope to have a new gallery filled with photos from the trip.

Wednesday June 23, 2004 1:50PM
Just shy of a week since my last entry, but that’s alright… noone reads this thing anyway! Last weekend I ended up driving to Athens with Iffy for a ‘casual party’ thrown by Cat and Bryan (the two in the front), and another couple that are engaged to be married. Iffy was driving, and we took a what I knew to be a wrong turn halfway down 316. Long story short, we ended up driving to Athens through Dacula and Winder, GA and taking the LONG way around the Athens loop. I blame bad signs and mapquest! Erik and Angie ended up making the same mistake due to using mapquest. It usually works okay, but when it misses, it REALLY misses.

I spent my sunday going to, hanging out in, and driving back from Tennessee for Father’s day. My sister and my nephew, Jalen was there, as well as some visitors from Jefferson City. We cooked some food on the barbecue and talked. Lots of driving this weekend, but I surmise that I’ll be logging even more hours in the car this coming weekend. I did some more google sleuthing and happened upon the website for
the songham taekwondo world championships that i’m going to this weekend. I briefly toyed with the idea of entering, but then when I couldn’t find the top to my old gi when i was at home this past Sunday, so I gave up on the idea. I’m waaaay out of practice anyway.

My trip this weekend means that I will miss open gym/work this Friday. Boo-hoo
Working at a gym isn’t bad, but its certainly not my calling. Nevertheless, check out this clip of me doing some horrible front fulls off of one of our tumble trampolines. (Ok, maybe not that horrible, but i can usually do better). You might need the DivX codec in order to view the clip if you don’t already have it, but the animated gif thumbnail should still work without it (snazzy, eh?) DivX makes a pretty good video player as well. http://www.divx.com.

Fun with the tumble tramp and crash mat at work tumbletramp.avi (2.0MB)

Fitness Nicole is now up! After I hook Nicole up with an html editor (and figure out how to use it so that I can teach her how), we should be good to go. I use notepad, and so am not familiar with the ins and outs of WYSIWYG editors… though I *have* used them to do quick screenshot-type page grabs for dynamic external sites (check my previous entries for examples). I’m going to give her Mozilla composer… but only if it can handle ftp’ing files over to the server. (Makes it easier for her to jump right in)

In other/older news. NO WORD on my shirt. I haven’t brought it up with Kelly in about a week. She claims that she left it in the back room/office after she picked it up and doesn’t know what happened to it. I asked Daniel if anyone had given it to him (per a rumor i heard), but he hasn’t seen it. Time to make some more trouble i guess. I have my doubts about finding it this long after it disappeared, though.

Thursday June 17, 2004 2:45PM

My roommate took care of the cable stuff, so net access is back to normal.

I spent about 4 hours over at my Aunt’s house last night fixing Shawn’s computer (a P3-450 that I gave him a few months ago). He somehow got a virus on it. I’m 90% certain he got it via email since he was using Outlook Express as his email reader (after i made pains to delete it when i gave it to him)… and it seems to have been a pif virus (natal!.pif). About one hour was spent trying to find/install drivers for the DSL modem (which was already working without my realizing it) via Bellsouth’s horrible flash-driven install program (which crashed and hung every time i used it). The computer was still acting wierd, so I might have to do a fresh install on it sometime soon in the future.

After I got home last night, I looked up some camera reviews on the net for the S410 I ordered. THEN I decided to try and find some reviews on the company/reseller that I ordered my camera from (fotoconnection.com). I was not ready for what I found.

Those are absolutely *the* most horrible reviews I’ve ever read about anything on the net before. Those are just a few of the reviews, and there were many many more, the vast majority of them scathing. There was a whole other site filled with reviews that were just as bad.

Needless to say, I did not have a good feeling about my purchase, and was worried about when and what condition my camera would arrive in. I decided to call in the morning when I woke up to inquire as to: 1.Why I hadn’t received an email following my purchase 2.Whether the camera had shipped. I had my doubts and planned to cancel the order if it hadn’t shipped yet. (I even had a nightmare that night about having to negotiate with customer service to cancel the order and get my money back).

The next morning (this morning) at about 10AM, I called and asked about my order. The sales-person told me that not only had my order already shipped, but it was due for arrival later today! He gave me a tracking number and sure enough, that was indeed the case. At around 1:05PM the DHL guy handed me the package with camera … a whole 4-5 days ahead of the promised arrival date. Nice! Also, with all the proper accessories in the box that it is supposed to come with.
I just got done taking my first picture with it, but I have to leave for work at the gym soon. I will post it with this entry after I get back tonight.

Friday 1:52AM
Not too bad a day at the gym, I ended up taking some video with the camera as well. It records in uncompressed AVI format, so I am going to recompile the 22 second clip with a more compressed format. Here are the picture and video:

First photo: My PPG poster 1704x2272 (888KB)

First Video: Rewind Stunt 320x240 1.78MB

Not too shabby, eh? It was a pain in the but finding a converter for the avi file. I won an auction for two spare batteries on ebay for my camera, but the seller is trying to tack on a $4 insurance charge. That doesn’t seem like much, but besides the fact that they DID NOT say anything about this surcharge via email (when i inquired about shipping costs), and the fact it wasn’t listed or referred to in any way in the auction, and taking into accound that the the grand total (shipping included) is only $13.48… I don’t feel like I should pay it. I guess we’ll see what happens. I’ve already gotten 1 non-payer bidding warning, this might make 2 (3 and you’re out).

My next task is to find a small case for it that will fit in my pocket and hold a spare battery or two.

-kevin

Wendesday June 16, 2004 12:29AM
This post is being made via a pirated wireless connection! I woke up this morning to find out our cable modem internet access wasn’t working (DNS worked, but no packets or trace routes would). After inspection of the hardware here, a quick chat session online with comcast support (also via the pirated signal) revealed that our account has an oustanding balance (60 days past due). My roommate handles that stuff. Luckily, one of our neighbors has DSL and and Linksys router without any encryption, which is how i was able to: 1. Buy my camera 2. Find out why our internet didn’t work 3. Post this blog

Well, I did it. I went ahead and ordered a digital camera. The Canon Powershot S410 from FotoConnection at a cost of $319. All the ebay auctions I had been following ended around that price. The Best Buys/Compusa/Circuit city stores all carry the exact same camera for $399, so I should be able to easily recoup my investment if I have to farther along down the line. It came down to a choice between the 4MPixel S410 and the 5Mpixel Sony Cybershot W1, which was $349. In the end, I decided that taking 2592x1944 (5 MPixel) shots vs 2272 x 1704 (4 MPixel) wasn’t enough of an incentive to negate the s410’s compact size (which is what attracted me to it in the first place). Instead of the 640x480 movie mode, I get 320 x 240, which is alright by me. The 128MB memory card I ordered with teh camera will also give me a little bit more mileage with a 4MPixel. The total was $386, which included $17 shipping from Great Neck, New York. They said it would get here in a week (which means 1.5-2wk, i bet). Hopefully it will arrive in time for my trip to Little Rock!

Hmm, i probably overreacted yesterday about my lost t-shirt. It is a t-shirt, after all. I talked to Kelly, who wasn’t sure what happened to it. She thinks it was put into a box somewhere, but didn’t make much of an effort to look for it. I tried to track her down after the last class tonight, but she had already left. No matter. I’ll bug her about it everyday till revelations are made. Speaking of things missing from the gym…. Adam said that someone went into his car and took $25 out of his wallet, and his checkbook! He always parks it right by the side of the building. Looks like I won’t be leaving my doors open anymore.
Also today, one of the mom’s brought in a kitten that had been rescued out of a sewer! It had a gaping hole in it’s neck where the vetrinarian had removed a worm from it. Sad, i know. The mom was a little squeamish about applying an ointment to the area, per the vet’s instructions, so i held the little bugger down and squirted it in there (I imagine it was an anti-biotic to prevent infection). Poor guy was mewing from discomfort, but i was glad to help. It sure made me hope that *I* never get worms. You won’t soon catch me going barefoot or running around in a sewer!

I got an email today saying that a friend of mine that runs my bible study is in the hospital, so I am going to visit her tomorrow. I also got a call from my cousin whom seems to have managed to delete the MBR (master boot record) on the computer I gave him a few months ago. I’m heading over there tomorrow to try to get it up and running. Since bible study is now cancelled, i’ll have all night to fix it i guess.

That is all this episode. Time to enjoy my new state of poverty after shelling out almmost ~$400 on a toy i don’t need . At least i’ll have some awesome pictures for the website!

-kevin

P.S. Yahoo just upgraded everyone’s email to 100mb (can you say ‘worried about gmail’?). Nice upgrade, but who cares. Pop access would be better, but they still want to charge $20 a year for that. Thank goodness for yahoo! pops

Monday June 14, 2004 11:26PM
Bad mood. Someone took/misplaced/threw out my shirt at the gym today. Everyone I asked said that Kelly (one of the owners) had it and was asking people whom it belonged to. Noone asked ME even though I had it on for almost an hour when I arrived. I discovered it was missing at the end of the night when I was gathering my things to go home. Kelly had already left. 3 calls and one voicemail have produced no revelations as to the whereabouts of my shirt. It better not have been thrown away. They already threw my sneakers away 3 months ago with the lost-and found clothes, which were tucked away in a corner at THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE GYM AWAY FROM THE LOST AND FOUND CLOTHES. Noone reimbursed me for them. They cost $50. That is a whole day’s work for me. Noone has admitted to taking them. They even tore down the missing flyers i put up for them. Remiss doesn’t even describe that attitude for their liability. If nothing ever comes of my shirt, I just might haul them into small claims court. If i charge them for the missing items and court fees, i bet that will put a halt to throwing my belongings away. I hate to take my friends to small claims court, but they aren’t comporting themselves as ‘friends’ in this situation by their relative actions and inaction.

I guess i’ll decide tomorrow after I talk to Kelly and find out where my shirt is.

-kevin

Sunday June 13, 2004 10:21PM
Well, it would have been nice if someone had let me know that the gym
(i currently work at a cheerleading gym… why don’t you hire me? so that I can use my degree?) was closed today. That way I could have saved a 30 minute round trip up there and back. I was worried for a little bit about having to return later for a possible private lesson, but that lesson was later canceled via a phone call. Problem solved, i suppose.

I used my new found free time to drive to Sam’s and pick up lasagne to eat during the week. Didn’t have my membership card with me, so I had to spend about 10 minutes in line getting a temporary one. While there I checked out their digital cameras. Their prices aren’t bad, but not great either. I thought I’d found a deal when I saw the Fuji FinePix F700, a seemingly 6.2MPixel camera for $357. Too good to be true? After some digging on the net for camera reviews… apparently there is a bit of controversy and ‘creative marketing’ at play here. From a review at Digital Camera HQ.com:

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The Fuji FinePix F700 is billed as a 6-megapixel camera, but is it really? Even though the camera can create 6-megapixel images with its new SuperCCD SR sensor, the sensor’s dual pixel design (3.1 million pixels for dark areas and 3.1 million for bright areas) have prompted many reviewers to point out that in reality the F700 is just a 3.1-megapixel camera. This controversy aside, the camera produces top-notch video and offers impressive speed.

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Hmm, and to think I was falling for that nonsense! The movie mode is nice (30fps @ 640x480 no sound, 320x240 w/sound), but I am going to keep looking for a cam that is at least 4MPixel for now. I’ve asked Aaron’s brother in Japan to check on prices on the Canon s400, s400, and Sony Cybershot W1. If i can get any of those for around $260, then I’ll buy (not too likely).

Today was my first foray into the Northpoint Church singles ministry. Today was an introductory meeting called GroupLink where they try to match you up with a weekly group of 6-8 people (by gender). There were about 250 people there(!). Even the staffers were surprised at the turnout. It was a little bit daunting, I sat at the Roswell Area table and struck up a conversation with a guy named Kirk. After they split the men off and had us mingle around to link up with groups, I was recognized by a very old friend. *Another* guy I started college with! Justin Craig (see my 6/5/04 Movie outing entry for a similar event). Justin recognized my face, but couldnt’ remember where he knew me from. As soon as I jogged his memory we chatted about church, school, what we’d been up to (he is going to seminary in Dallas, TX and is in town over the summer), and old friends from school. I’m going to put him in touch with his old roommate from that 1995 summer quarter, Bert Reeves. They lived right next door to me on the first floor in Howell dorm. My most vivid memory of them is the arguments they used to always have, and Bert standing up on a chair and announcing that he would become someone’s boss after he graduated .
Besides Justin, I only talked to one small groups person there. I’m don’t know how much I want to start a new group, but I do know that I don’t have a burning desire to leave my current one (even though my attendance gets spotty at times). I would do two of them, but I don’t have the free time in the evenings to do that (due to my job at the gym). I’ll talk it over with David and solicit his opinion on Wednesday.

-kevin

P.S. I made the web log entry titles visible. I didn’t even know they were there before! They had been set the same color as the background due to an oversight by yours truly. Enjoy them in their dark-purpleness.

Saturday June 12, 2004 7:16PM
Geez! I just spent about 15 minutes writing the next entry only to have a shitty website(http://www.atlantapropercussion.com) crash my browser, and hose all the text in the form I was using. Your site has to suck pretty bad if it can crash Mozilla 1.7RC2. I won’t be visiting there again.

Well, here we go again… I’ll use notepad this time and just paste it….

I am sleepy from my lack of sleep last night, and the 2 days of free time spent working on the website. Namely, this new and improved web log, which is much improved over the old version. After doing a few entries under the old one, I was quickly growing weary of typing in the same tags and links every time I made an entry. I use notepad to create all my css and html, so you can imagine how repetitive it can get. After a quick bit of web sleuthing with google, I happened upon blogger, a popular but previously-unknown-to-me blog (web log) site. Blogger lets you create and maintain your own web log off-site! For free, even. It also allows you to totally hack up and change the CSS and html template used to generate your blog!
So, my free time in the past 2 days has been spent adapting my original blog page design and adapting the blogger CSS accordingly. In the course of figuring out how their template worked, I did happen to pick up a few handy CSS tricks. The result is what you see before you. One drawback to blogger is the inability to properly import old entries into their system. As a result, i’m using a partially hand-coded workaround to display the old entries. This one will be the first properly dated ‘current’ one.

Besides poking around on the web, I’ve been making a few plans here and there. Tomorrow, I plan to make my first visit to the singles bible study at Northpoint church. I attend service there, but usually watch from the hall as a result of arriving late (probably not a viable option with the bible study). Then next weekend there is a wedding shower of some sort in Athens, and also a trip home to Knoxville for Father’s Day. The weekend after that I have been invited to watch a friend compete in the ‘World Tae KwonDo tournament’ in Little Rock! How awesome is that? I’m excited. We will do some sightseeing as well, but I don’t have all the detail yet. I’ll have to borrow a digital camera for the trip. I haven’t been to a martial arts competition since 1993 or 1994 when I was competing. Tae kwon do tournaments are a little different though. Tae kwon do schools usually hold their own competitions separate from other karate schools due to different rules. It should be an interesting trip.

Today I went to Dirt Cheep Music and Atlanta Pro Percussion (the aforementioned crappy website) with Aaron and his girlfriend, Katie. Aaron was looking for new triggers/pads for the electronic drum set that our friend Iffy gave to him. New ones cost about $100 at Atlanta Pro percussion, but Dirt Cheep Music had some used ones for $20 apeice! They were drum practice pads that someone had opened up and converted into electronic pads by putting triggers inside them and running a line back out. Pretty ingenious. I’ll put a picture up of them when i get my hands on a camera.
I’m going to spend the rest of the day tidying up and maybe heading to the park to exercise off some of the dinner i ate (1 lbs cheeseburger from Cheeburger Cheeburger (not good for me, i know… but its my only meal today). Then i’ll have to job hunt since I haven’t had a chance to yet this weekend.
Ah, it will be nice to copy, paste, and then post this to my website with one click of the button

-kevin

Thursday June 10, 2:41AM
Bah. Up too late again. Welcome to the new web log section on riftwave! Nothing fancy, but it sure did take me long enough to play around and piece together what I wanted. Orange and green… I have *no* idea how I ended up with those particular colors, but it looks like it will work (for now, anyways).

Eventful past few days for me. I most of this past weekend with my Brannon, Valerie, and Jake. A very nice change from staying cooped up in my room communicating solely via IM (I REALLY need to get out more, its no wonder I rarely meet new folks). We played Balderdash (Brannon won), and watched Princess Mononoke (as well as the 3rd Potter flick). There was a trip to whitewater on Sunday, but I *thought* that I had to teach 2 private lessons at the gym so I didn’t go. None of my lessons showed up, though.

Blame the lack of web page updates on this Jedi Academy video game I’ve been playing. Its also the reason my sleep schedule has gone awry, but that will be fixed as soon as I finish this entry and upload the new changes to riftwave. No, still no photo gallery design/layout, but I did make that groovy fixed-position header with cross-faded pictures! Not much, but its my first attempt at a photo-collage (yes, i used photoshop, doesn’t everyone?).

I have decided that I want one of 3 digital cameras (since I have none), which would be very helpful since I’m going to have a website. The Canon S400, S410, S500, or the Sony Cybershot W1. They are all rather expensive . Maybe i’ll catch a break on an auction or refurb model.

In other news, I did not make it to my bible study today in Acworth. I submitted 3 or 4 resumes to what seemed to be potential leads for lab tech-type jobs. Its not chemical engineering, but its a step in the right direction. I also talked to Liz and Sarah a bit via IM. Its hard to catch Liz because she keeps opposite work hours from me, and actually has a life away from the keyboard . Josh, if you are out there… sorry about the percieved ommision, man! I have rectified the situation in the Pals Photo Gallery, even though there was already a pic in the Other Photo Gallery. How about an IM or an email one of these days?

P.S. Starcrossed, the season 2 finale of Justice League was great! Its rare that I enjoy a movie as much as I did watching the 90-minute episode on Saturday. Definitely check it out if you’re a superhero fan.

Saturday June 5, 12:45PM
Greetings! I saw the new Harry Potter movie last night (The Prisoner of Azkaban) with some friends. Natalie, Valerie, Brannon, Beth, Jake (who was in town visiting for 5 days), Anna (a friend of Beth’s), and Dawn (a friend of Natalie’s). I think everyone enjoyed the evening, even though the interaction was a little disjointed due to having to eat at 2 tables and take 2 cars. I ended up speaking with Jake most of the time. Even though he lives in Tallahassee, i see him more often than I do Beth and Natalie. Peculiar.

Whilst in line for the showing, I saw two faces that I remembered from school. Laura Brennan, and Shonda Gaskins, who started school the very same summer quarter I did. We used to hang out a pretty fair amount back in ‘95, but our paths diverged big-time after fall quarter started.
A little chatting was done. Laura was even taller than I remembered, but she and Shonda still had the same amiable and personable qualities I recalled. Curious that I should run into them. I had just been wondering about another friend I met that same quarter… but whose email I have, so I can keep in touch.

No sweeping site changes to speak of. I added Verú to the pals photo gallery and uploaded my resume. I have also decided to make a seperate page/section for the web log, though I will still keep an abriged version here on the front page. The expanded version will have visual aids and even more juicy (boring) info! Yipee

Its been two days and I still haven’t nailed down a design or much content for the website. If this web log gets much larger i’ll have to dedicate a section for it instead of just encapsulating it in a tiny div.

You may or may not realize that much of the CSS i’m using here was pilfered/inspired from CSS/EDGE by Eric Meyer. A great site to learn some flashy CSS techniques. (My implementation is that of a layman, unoriginal and rough around the edges).
Maybe i’ll pass this url around and see what people think of it so far. I really hope i make a layout decision for the photo galleries

Oops, haven’t written anything in the journal for over a week! Turns out that the photo gallery was the first thing to go online, albeit unformatted. I still haven’t decided on the best way to display the pictures and navigation menu, but i’ll try to come up with something this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, its memorial day weekend. Today I went to Target looking for those cheap t-shirts i passed up last week. I also helped Valerie+Brannon+The Ramseys paint the stairs. I would have stayed longer, but I had to get to Aaron’s apt to feed his cat, and put his new drum set together (that iffy game him). After doing that I got distracted playing SimCity4 for about 40 min and then came back to watch the best episode of Justice League i’ve ever seen. Not a bad day… though i’m unsure as to whether the gym is open tomorrow or not. I have private lessons tomorrow, so they might not know? I’ll have to show up just in case :-/

Hurrah! The domain finally kicked in and started working late last night! I guess this means i’d better get to working on the websites! I think i’ll start with the photo gallery and my older web-pages from college and work from there. My old Deity comic site is already up. (http://deity.riftwave.net). Incidentally, that comic is where I got the idea for the domain name.

Updates will probably be very slow, I have a small gaggle of trivial tasks to complete at the moment… though admittely half of them have to do with this new website… and there is work of course (which I have to leave for in 4 hours). I need to start waking up earlier than 11 (and find a better job, etc..) Stay tuned to my friend’s site as well. http://biftec.riftwave.net. I have no idea what she’s going to put on it; maybe her portfolio.

Ah, I finally have webspace to call my own again. A wiser person would probably have created a website FIRST and subsequently put it online, but not me (apparently). The domain name still hasn’t been fully processed, but that should be up and working within 2 days. In the meantime, i’ll have plenty to do, like setting up accounts/access for the person i’m sharing the site with. Who knows if this blog will even make it onto the page.