Define "Well Adjusted"

Center of My World

2012-02-14T11:19:00.001-07:00

By Chris Young

Little beads of light were dancin’ off the wall
Reflectin’ off the spinning crystal ball
In a dance hall down in Texas, where time slowed to a crawl
Baby, it’s just you holdin’ on to me in the middle of it all

Oh girl, you’re the center of my world
That place in my universe
To me you’re every dream I dream
The air I breathe, my everything
A ray of sunlight shinin’ down
The point my life revolves around
It’s like I live to love you girl
You’re the center of my world

My whole life changed the moment I met you
And here we are like Heaven only knew
There could be ten thousand people fillin’ up this room
But in my mind, far as I’m concerned, it’s just me and you

Oh girl, you’re the center of my world
That place in my universe
To me you’re every dream I dream
The air I breathe, my everything
A ray of sunlight shinin’ down
The point my life revolves around
It’s like I live to love you girl
You’re the center of my world

A ray of sunlight shinin’ down
The point my life revolves around
It’s like I live to love you girl
You’re the center of my world

You’re the center of my world
That place in my universe

What You Thought Was Real In Life

2011-12-02T00:18:00.000-07:00

So cleaning my room and reducing some paper clutter I stumbled on this poem I drafted about a winter youth retreat a few years back.

A Collision on 5 Bases
Out after out and run after run
All would agree, we were having so much fun.
Who knew late in the game a play would occur
Which would have us laughing out loud for sure.
You see, the red ball ascended high into the air quite forcefully
And those who stood on base proceeded prematurely.
Into the arms of a fielder that red ball did land,
Forcing those on base to return to places unplanned.
For one there was no doubt on base she would stay.
No one would stand in her way.
Full speed ahead she ran toward her target.
To miss this next play would surely be a regret.
With eyes set on her mark she saw the great need
To lower her shoulder and pick up some speed.
From the corner of his eye the situation he saw,
He knew the red ball would be the one to lay down the law.
He took a firm stance and braced himself for the hit
But the red ball would be late and the out would not...sit.
A quick decision had to be made,
For he could not just let this opportunity fade.
At the moment of impact he threw himself theatrically to the snow,
It was the time to put on a show.
Safe at second was the verdict that came in.
Fair enough he thought to himself while rubbing his chin
Because it was worthy of the scene it had made.
'Tis a shame the event was not recorded, for a later date to be replayed.

And Again I Say Rejoice

2010-11-29T15:58:00.000-07:00

Psalm 100

1 Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!

2 Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing.

3 Know that the LORD, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

5 For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.

In You, O Lord, I'm trusting

2010-11-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

Psalm 31:9-16

9 Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with grief, Yes, my soul and my body!

10 For my life is spent with grief, And my years with sighing; My strength fails because of my iniquity, And my bones waste away.

11 I am a reproach among all my enemies, But especially among my neighbors, And am repulsive to my acquaintances; Those who see me outside flee from me.

12 I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel.

13 For I hear the slander of many; Fear is on every side; While they take counsel together against me, They scheme to take away my life.

14 But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.”

15 My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, And from those who persecute me.

16 Make Your face shine upon Your servant; Save me for Your mercies’ sake.

So Sacrifice Yourself

2010-11-13T23:16:00.006-07:00

Rook stumbled forward willing himself to push on through the hallway to his final destination. The surroundings were all too familiar to him. For several months before the prisoner riots he had patrolled these halls nightly to make sure all was in order. The cells he had been placed in were minimum security. They were easier to access, and most of the non dangerous prisoners had been place in here. On the opposite side of the compound the hi risk prisoners were held several stories underground and the ways in and out were more harder to break out of.

Somehow one of the high risk prisoners had broken free and was able to release many of the more dangerous prisoners. No one truthfully knew how the riot started. Rook’s best guess was that someone or a group of people were in league with the prisoners. To make matters worse, an electrical failure occurred the same night as the riot broke out. The main generator and the backup generator had somehow been hit simultaneously. The situation reeked of foul-play. Without camera any number of people could have walked right into the facility and the warden and the guards would never have known the difference. It did not help that all the eyewitness to the riot were unaccounted for and probably dead.

To make matters worse, the enemy had hunkered down inside the maximum security wing of the prison. Lieutenant Smetana originally attempted a full on assault of the prison wing. Unfortunately the prisoners had many of the guard’s weapons and they were starting to use the abilities that had manifested as a result of being sent to this prison.

Rook caught himself as he stumbled to the ground from exhaustion. He attempted to push himself up from the kneeling position but was not nearly quick enough for the guard escorting him to whoever the master was. The man’s boot caught him square in the ribs and sent him skidding several feet away. Lying on the ground he got a good look at the guard. Chuck Rainer was an extremely large white man his neck and arms were covered in all sorts of tattoos. Chuck had originally been a very large man, but it was said that during his time on death row he decided to take the time to exercise every spare minute he had to pass the time. This had continued on ever after he had been “executed”.

“Get up off the floor, and walk,” said Chuck as he grabbed hold of Rook’s arm and lifted to him to his feet. “The master does not have any time to waste.”

“Yes sir, mister prisoner sir,” Rook shot off and then realized that probably had not been the best thing to say.

Chuck’s fist slammed down on his shoulder and sent him back to the ground in a heap. His fist felt like a solid hammer. “Not exactly the situation to be mouthing off in funny man. Open that bloody mouth of your one more time and you might be crawling into the master’s chambers.”

Rook rose to his feet without a word but caught Chuck’s eyes and starred him down. Right before he turned to move on, he hacked a loogie directly in Chuck’s face. This turned out to be a bad idea once again. Chuck moved fast and landed a punch directly in Rook’s stomach.

“Is that all you got, redneck?” Rook said.

Chucks eyes told Rook all he needed to know. The man’s anger was at the breaking point. He was already getting under the man’s skin. Of course he paid dearly for that comment. Chuck’s foot once again landed across his ribs and sent him flying to the ground. This time Chuck ran over to him and grabbed him by the front of his uniform. Rook smiled one more time as he spat blood directly in the man’s eyes.

Well at least I will not go down without a fight. Keep smiling through the pain and he will be livid.

Chuck wiped the blood from his eyes with his right sleeve. Then stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out a pair of brass knuckles. He placed them on his fingers and pulled his arm back for his strike. This…is going to hurt. Chuck’s fist landed square in Rook’s face causing him to black out.

***

Rook woke up lying face down in a pool of his own blood. His ears rang as if he had taken the concussion of a motor round directly in his face. His eyes watered and he could not clearly. The room spun around him as he pushed himself up to his knees. He ran his hands over his face to see what kind of damage he had suffered. His nose was broken and blood was spilling out of it. Other than that the rest of his face was intact.

Rook heard Chuck arguing with a man in the distance. It seemed like “the master” did not like the condition Chuck had brought him in. He shifted his head about trying to get an idea of where he was. A large room with white walls is about the only thing he could recognize. That meant he was in the maximum security lunch room. It was the only room in this wing that of this size.

“Shut your stupid pie hole and give the man a break,” Rook yelled as loud as he could. “I would have done the exact same thing had I had to put up with a lousy punk prisoner.”

“Well well, it looks like you do have a bit of a smart mouth to you,” replied the voice.

“Yah think,” replied Rook. “I think I have bad timing. Come over here and I will spit in your face too.” The man’s voice sounded familiar, but he could not quite put a name to the voice. Hopefully his eyesight would clear up a little so he could know who he was dealing with.

“I would not press your luck,” replied the voice. “I am a reasonable man most of the time.”

“Ok, let’s talk like reasonable men. I assume you reasonably let Rendell to an inch of his life, and reasonably lead the charge that killed a good many of the guards working the maximum security wing of this prison?”

“It is a tragedy I will give you that, but it was of utmost importance. A few casualties are always the cost when a new power must take over. As for your friend, well I put him out of his misery. He will not have to suffer anymore.”

The man hit a soft spot in Rook with his words. A mixed emotion of sorrow and joy washed over him. It was never easy when your men died, but at least he was not in pain. Compose yourself Rook. Show no emotion. This is not the time to be weak. That can wait for later. “So you must be an ‘end justifies the means’ type of guy.”

“It is one of the ways to live, although I also believe in an eye for an eye. One of my men was able to put a knife in the back of Gerald Dain. It seems that your lieutenant just so happened to enter the room at the same time. He was able to subdue my man raise an alarm. My other eyes and ears told me the following interrogations was one of the most brutal he had ever seen. It only seemed right to return the favor with Rendell. I would assume Smetana is just now receiving the CD detailing Rendell’s experience.

Rook shook his head. That is the reason his teams force-fields had faltered. Dain had been the man protecting them. It also gave proof to his theory that several of those helping them were not true friends. Would this man really give up one of his spies so a CD of Rendell’s beating could be delivered back to Smetana?

“Of course now that I have my two of my eyes and ears in your camp I will have to scout some other way. It is a shame, but I figure it is for the best. Smetana’s will need to be broken. He is the only one holding together the resistance. As soon as he is out of the way my plan can move forward.”

Rook laughed a bit too loud. “I have been with Smetana for the last three years. I can recount many stories are unit has been through. I wish you the very best in your endeavors. I only wish I could see the day when Smetana breaks your neck with his foot.”

“Oh no that is where you are mistaken. You see I have read his files. All commanders have a weakness. I plan to exploit his and use it to my advantage. “
Rooks eyes began to focus. He had guessed right about the lunch room as being their location. The tables around the east side of the room had been shifted back to give a makeshift stage. The man in-front of him sat in a comfortable office chair that had been rolled in to the room. The man was wearing one of the guard’s uniforms, and he held in his hand a samurai sword. This guy is trying to make himself look like a king. Rook used all his strength to focus on the man’s face.

The man had black hair and an elongated face. The uniform he was wearing made him look even smaller than he really was. “Richard Spence, how in the world did a runt like you become the leader of this operation? Seriously, you are no bigger than me, and as we all know Chuck here can give me a royal beating. “

“It is not my size that matters, but the people you know and the tools you hold. I have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. Several years of planning were required to get me here to the place I am not. I have a long time friend who made all of this happen, it was a shame he wanted to run the operation, but a deal is a deal. Brilliant man, but now I have put him in his place; he is no longer half as brilliant as he once was. Roger will still make a valuable secretary.”

Roger Kirkland? He was one of the men responsible for this facility and one of the minds behind the technology used to “execute” death row prisoners and bring them here. I had shared lunch with the man on many different occasions. He could have fooled me, but also seems like he fooled everybody. “I would assume why you have control of the sword you are holding. My guess is it is the one referred to as the obliterator, correct?” said Rook.

“Well it looks like someone has been engaging in a bit of studying,” replied Richard. “I knew I wasn’t wasting my time talking to you. It looks as if you might be useful to me after all.”

“Sure thing Richie, but you are going to have to step in line, cause I am sort of busy right now in my cell.” Again probably not the best course of action to take, but at least I got a laugh out of Chuck.

“Sergeant Daniel Kilbourne, mock me as much as you want. But know this, I have the power to reward you heavily and I also have the ability to make you die a slow and painful death.”

“Terribly sorry Richie, I didn’t realize you were heartless. All this time I thought you were a reasonable man.”

“I am a reasonable man. I will show you my reason now. I am willing to release you for a small price from Smetana. I need the remaining swords that are used in the ceremonial executions. If I get a hold of these then I will release you and all of your friends and allow them to leave my island.”

“You want the remaining ceremonial swords? Well then it looks like you are reasonable, heartless and a complete idiot. Chuck, tell Richie that I am done talking with him.”

“You misunderstood my words for kindness, I…”

“Nope, I fully understand. By the way Chuck, instead of kicking people in the chest when they are down, you should try taking their feet from under them while their still standing. You are a big guy but I have seen your speed and it pretty much good for a man your size.”

Rook look at Richard from the corner of his eye. The man was still calm. He would have to really find a nerve. According to the file he had read, Richard was extremely arrogant. All his life he had wanted to be the center of attention. It all seemed to becoming together. The years of planning must have been to get him here with a good amount of power behind him. Rook seemed to recall that Richard had started killing about a year before this project started. That would put it about the same time the ceremonial swords had become fully operational. It also explained why Richard had turned himself in to the Police with all the evidence of the murders. The man had even had plead guilty and asked for the death sentence. Maybe not acknowledging his presence would drive him mad. It was worth a shot, especially since Smetana had already destroyed the seven remaining ceremonial swords.

“I would let you demonstrate on me but unfortunately I have not the ability to stand,” said Rook. “So instead let me just ask you what kind of ability you happened to pick up when the sent you here?”

Chuck looked as about as confused as a man could be. He look at Richard and then back at him. He opened his mouth as if he were going to speak and then closed it up again. It looked like he was making sure that he would not incur the wrath of Richard. His expression showed Rook that Richard had done something to inspire a state of fear into his men.

“Seriously, because whatever your ability is, it is probably ten times cooler that little man's over here. “Plus you are a really big guy; you could probably take that silly little sword away from Mr. Inept with your bear hands. Look at the man he is a scrawny little twig of a man,” said Rook

“Silence Daniel, we have had enough of your lip. I told you once before, I do not anger easily,” replied Richard.

“I would have to disagree. Chuck, from the way you hold yourself it looks like Richie has a very bad temper. You would not want to say the wrong word and find yourself sitting here in my position would you? Or maybe you would find yourself in Roger’s position. Being forced to scurry around with you head down like an inferior man. No Chuck, you are a man of honor being used as a tool by this scared little man. I read your file, it seems like you were wrongfully accused of killing a cop. Those sentences are hard because the judges just will not see reason.

“If I were a beating man I would have to say that you got the short end of the stick. The jury was handed a fraction of the evidence required to make an honest decision. Don’t you find if funny that the video tape somehow was never retrieved? “

Rook could tell his plan of action was working. Richard was starting to come unraveled. Sure he was trying to play it off as if it was nothing, but the man had started nervously moving his sword around in his hands. It would only be a matter of time before Richard snapped. In all likelihood he was already a dead man. If in his final moment he could create a riff between Richard and some of his men maybe it would give Smetana a fighting chance to be able to quell this rebellion.

“Besides, you don’t look like the type of person that would actually be able to kill a person. I saw the way you beat down Rendell, but you were holding back. A big man like you could have done a lot more damage to a man like Rendell then you did. Which leads me to believe you were afraid not to do as you were told,” continued Rook.

“It is not true, I can kill. The tape was missing because I was able to destroy it first. I try not to…”

Enough of your blabbering Chuck,” yelled Richard. “This man is only trying to sweet talk you. You know full well that you are in the same boat as the rest of us…”

“Pipe down Richie,” said Rook. “You know full well he is trying to give you the run around. You are not all in the same situation, just look at Dain. He was in the same boat as you. Killed a man and was sent to the axe for it. But now he is working with Smetana to try to bring an end to this man’s parade. It only is a matter of time…”

“I am beginning to find you as the smart mouthed fool. You carry on here as if you are the bloody man in charge. You do realize I have the power to make your life a living hell. Tame your tongue before I rip it out of your head.”

“Wow, calm tempered Richie, looks like I hit a soft spot. Your reasonable composure is headed for the door. Besides how could you even think to barter me for some of the ceremonial swords if I am no good to Smetana? He might take it as a slight if I return unable to talk or function properly. Then you will have hell to pay. Of course it is a little too late for that one in the first place.”

“Resilient to the end,” said Richard. “My men will have so much fun men breaking you. But I might just have to break you myself and deprive them of that pleasure.”

Rook suddenly found an invisible arm around his throat. The force lifted him off the ground and held him so his feet dangle freely. He grabbed at his throat with both hands trying to avoid passing out. The light was fading slowly, there was only so much longer that he would last before he passed on. That is why Chuck was so afraid of Richard. Telepathic powers could through a kink in anyone’s attempts to over through Richard. The invisible hand released causing Rook to crash to the floor. He flew up into the air and landed hard on the ground. He had a little time to compose himself before Richard tossed him up in the air again.

“Chuck, do I have to pay Richie you for allowing me to come to his personal amusement park?” said Rook. “How much of my monthly allowance will it be?”

One more word and Richard would go ballistic. Rook could see his eyes widen and his nostrils flare. One more jab and maybe it would be all over for him. Oblivion was a decent name for the sword, but it was made by the same people who made the other twelve swords. In his conversations with the scientists, he had gleaned the truth about this particular sword. It was produced just like the other, but for some reason there was a glitch in the programming. The scientists had not been exactly sure what happened when struck by this sword. The only thing they did know was that it still worked the exact same way the other did. They had several assumptions, but the most popular one was instead of teleporting the person to the Retrieval Zone it transported them to another undisclosed location.

“One final thing Chuck, tell your crazy clown of a leader that Smetana would never trade little old me for anyone of those swords. Anyway, it seems like Smetana has already made up his mind about his next move. You might as well forget about getting your grubby little fingers on the remainder of the ceremonial swords, Smetana will never trade me for them. Your self-righteous and insane plans of grasping for supreme power make me sick. By the way, Smetana had the remaining ceremonial swords destroyed the moment the rebellion broke out. You pathetic attempts will all fail and then you can return to being the trash everyone knows you are,” said Rook while he took one final spit in the direction of Richard.

He had broken the camel’s back. Richard lunged at him as he fell to the ground. A swift left to right stroke from Oblivion cut through his body. A feeling of numbness spread through his body in the exact location where the sword dematerialized while traveling through his flesh. The centralized numbness spread through his entire body radiating outward from the slash. Rook fell backwards as his arms went numb. The feeling climbed up his neck and slowly radiated into his head. His vision went black and his body disappeared from before Richard, Chuck and those in the rear of the room.

A Crack in the Surface

2010-11-11T23:14:00.003-07:00

The sound of screaming woke him from his uncomfortable sleep. Rook chuckled to himself slightly for a moment. This is not sleep, this is a pain induced haze of sleep. He shifted his body from one of the concrete walls of his cell to the other. The left side of his body had cramped up from toe to shoulder. It was amazing he could will himself to sleep in this situation. Then again, he had spent many a night in the uncomfortable cold of the Ural mountains in the last year of his life. Of course there sleep came but for short stints of time. It was amazing how the threat of someone placing a bullet into your body kept you awake more than 20 hours a day.

This situation was different than the situation he found himself in during the time spent in the mountains. There it was kill or be killed, the enemy had no reason for wanting to take prisoners. This enemy was different. This enemy wanted to know about the information he had inside his head. For that fact alone was he still alive. For now he was alive and well in a four foot by four foot cell.

Earlier this week an attack had been made on the opposite side of the prison. A large fire had started burned a good bit of the other side of the prison cells up prisoners and all. He like to think that it had been a group of his buddies trying to break him out of this place. Deep in his mind though, he realized that breaking him out would be the biggest suicide mission concocted in many years. He knew his commander all to well. As much as it pained him he knew that he was only one soldier and the risk out weighed the gain in this situation. Most likely one of the enemy combatants had tried to grasp a little more power than he was supposed to have. That idea did not boad well with those who had taken power. He had seen it before many times in the last month. Not only had the enemy attacked them ruthlessly, but they had also attacked each other.

The screaming had not stopped in the minutes the last few minutes. His eyes focused on the source of the noise that woke him. Across the hall one of the prison guards had decided to make a little sport of the man in the cell. The prisoner was tied to a chair and was taking one of the most ruthless beating he had ever seen. He wanted nothing more to go over to the guard and drop a bullet into the back of the man’s head. Though Rook looked calm on the outside, his insides were in a violent rage. The unfortunate prisoner in the other cell wore the same dark green uniform he did. Though he could not read the name on the uniform through the darkness he recognized the soldier as Private Joseph Rendell. Rendell and he were the only two out of the five man scouting party that had survived the onslaught of enemy troops. The three other men, Privates Gregory Hammer, Christopher Nelson, and Jonathan White, had been killed during the conflict.

It had been a week since they were captured. Something must have gone extrodinarily wrong on the planning end of there mission. They were supposed to have been in and out of the hostile territory in ten minutes flat with a hostage that had been taken by a spy in the enemies camp. It had to have been a trap all along. He and his men had been sent as replacements for another squad at the last second. His commanding officer was supposed to lead this high profile hostage out and back to their base. He and his squad had been caught in a six hour crossfire the night before. Though they had only lost one man the entire squad was pretty much useless for the mission at hand. Plus the forcefields that were ment to protect him and his men for the duration of their mission had suddenly been lost right before the prisoner exchange. Maybe the death and capture of him and his men hand allowed for the mole in their organization to be located once and for all. If the mole was captured then the loss of five men in the big picture was really not that bad. Never the less the pain of the whole ordeal remained with him. He had lost 3 good men and Rendell would probably not make it that much longer.

The beatings continued for another minute or so. Rook repressed the urge to break down. He could not fail in this task. If he broke down then more people would die. It angered him the enemy took this approach to try to crack him. He must be strong for his fellow soldiers. He had to be strong first for those who still lived to fight another day, and he had to be strong for those who had passed already. He would not let those men die in vain. They were already heroes in his mind.

Rook focused on his own condition and tried to block out the screams of his soldier. He looked down at his own shivering body. His uniform had been drenched by the pale of water the guards had thrown on him earlier this evening. He could not block out the cold that swept over his body. He was surprised that he was still in control even though his entire body was shaking violently. He tried to squeeze himself further into the corner of his cell. Maybe that way he would be able to get out of the wind that blew in from the window up to his right. After a few minutes of failing to get out of the way of the wind he finally gave up trying to move. The only thing he could do to remain warm was to curl up and force it out of his mind.

It was hard for him to think of happier times back in his youth. For some reason all of those fond memories he had seemed like a lifetime ago. They were almost beginning to feel like someone else’s memories. Memories he only knew because he had heard stories or watched them in a movie. Then a memory formed in his head. It must have been partly a muscle memory because he found himself sitting in a frozen foxhole with two of his buddies back when they were fighting deep in the Ural Mountains during the winter. Snow lay all around him and he sat there shivering just like he was doing now. He remembered talking the first shift while his other buddies slept. Back then he had been the rookie private. The men had started calling him Rook because of a misunderstanding that had happened around that same time. He laughed again, how would he have known that that nickname would have stuck with him all this time. Many of the kids around him now had no idea what it meant or the story behind the name. He finally got fed up with explaining the details of the day. The funny thing about that was his men started making up stories of their own about the origin. Most of the stories were able to generate a good laugh. He could probably collect all those stories and fill up a good long book.

The transition between being awake and asleep blurred to the point of oblivion. Rook could not honesty tell which category he fell into. He hoped that right now he was asleep and just dreaming. Maybe he would wake up and this whole situation would be just a dream. Or maybe it was real, whichever way he hoped he would be able to make it through the entire night. It was not long before he was able to fall asleep again.

It was not screaming that woke Rook up this time but the sound of a familiar voice. His eyes opened slowly, he was still exhausted and could not tell exactly how long he had been asleep. To him it seemed like hours but for all he knew it might have been fifteen to twenty minutes. It was still dark outside but the wind had stopped blowing. He felt a little bit warmer than before. He focused his eyes in the direction of the sound. He saw the outline of Rendell in the cell opposite his. The soldier had his head slumped forward staring intensely at his own feet. It seemed like the most relaxed position the man could have been in for his condition. Even through the dark Rook could see the bruising that had begun to form from the most recent round of beating.

“Did you hear what I said sir?” repeated Rendell.

“Sorry Rendell, I did not hear you,” answered Rook. “Could you repeat it for me again.”

“When you get out of this mess and back to the mainland would you tell my parents what kind of soldier I was?”

“There is no need for that soldier. We will be out of here in no time. I am sure Lieutenant Smetana is devising a way to get us out of here this very moment.”

“Sir, I understand you are trying to boost my moral here but your words are all just snafu to me. It would be stupid for them to come and rescue us. Hell, they probably think we are already dead. Either way, the situation does not look very good for either of us at the moment, me especially. I am surprised I made it this long to tell you the truth.

“I am honored sir to have been able to serve under your command for this short amount of time. Once the prison riots started I realized that many of us were probably not going to make it out but in body bags. I was relieved when Peter and several of the other prisoners joined our fight but our enemy seemed to grow stronger by the day.

“I guess that is what happens when you use death row prisoners as your guinea pigs. Seemed like a good idea at the time, since nobody would actually miss them. I still hold to the fact that this whole mission was on bloody mess. The warden probably should have gotten my foot straight up his hind quarters.”

“I think we all shared your views after the prison riot,” replied Rook. “As a matter of fact, I think the Lieutenant thought that point of view even before the situation hit the fan. Somehow he anticipated something like this happening. He raised quite a storm with his commanding officer. The man just would not listen to him. So he took what he was given and made the best out of it.”

“He would be the one shining star out of this whole snafu bloody mess. He is probably the only reason we made it this long.”

“Too true,” answered Rook. This mess isn’t the first mess I have been in with Smetana though. It seems like he always got the short end of the stick because he was that good. But men followed him because he was different from the rest of the army leaders. Many soldiers would gladly have died fighting for him. Now it seems like we get that same privilege.

***

Morning finally returned to the cell Rook was in. He awoke to find himself in the opposite corner of the cell leaning up against the cold metal bars. The sun was shining in through the window ever so slightly. The glimmer of sunlight brought a faint hope to Rook that everything would work out to be alright in the end. Maybe the words he had told Rendell had not been full of bull as he thought when he spoke them last night.

“Looks like the dawn brings a new sense of hope Rendell,” said Rook

Rendell made no answer so Rook turned to look into the cell across from him. Rendell was nowhere to seen. An empty chair stood in the center of the of the cell. The chair and the surrounding area was covered in blood. The sight killed Rook a little bit more inside. He had to pull his eyes away from the site and returned to look at the window. His shaky hands covered his eyes to hide the tears trickling down the sides of his dirty face. His shaky hands slipped up into his dark black and greasy mess of hair and grabbed hold of it tightly. Pain and frustration ran through every ounce of his tired body as he slumped a little further down into the corner of his cell.

Memories of last night flooded to his head. The guard had returned a short period after their conversation with a baton. The guards first swing of the baton had landed on the side of Rendell’s left leg. The sound of his leg shattering had been bad enough but the yell of broken humanity that followed vibrated to Rook’s very core. The beating had not stopped there. A myriad of more blows landed in various places around Rendell’s body. Each strike brought more physical pain to Rendell and even more emotional pain to Rook.

Rook had slumped into a ball and rolled a rolled across the floor to the position he found himself in currently to avoid having to look at how much pain Rendell was going through. The sound of bones breaking with every other strike was hard enough to bear alone. Rook could feel himself slipping away mentally from all he knew. Was this the act that would both kill one of his men and break down his defenses. I must remain strong, strong for those who have died before, and those who still fight on. I will not break. No matter how much repeated this line, despair rolled over him and he collapse from mental anguish.

He had heard the guard leave the cell and walk back across the room to his post. Behind him he could here Rendell’s strenuous breaths. Each one sounded more painful than the one before. On occasion he could hear Rendell spitting and choking on his own blood. The feeling of nausea and despair rolled over him once again. He could not even bring himself look over his shoulder.

“Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD; Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications,” said Rook as he collapsed one more time.

***

By all account it was midmorning from the light coming in from the window of Rook’s cell. Rendell had not returned to his cell since he had awoken from his sleep. He was able to block out some of the pain for now but he did not think that would last very long at all. His energy felt sapped and he could not bear to face the empty cell. The entire morning he stared blankly at the wall. His mind was blank accept for the occasional memory of a dead soldier he had passed during his stint in the Ural Mountains. The man had been standing next directly in front of a grenade the moment before he moved from this place. Shrapnel had disfigured most of the front of the man’s body. Blood stains and small wads of the fabric that had once composed his uniform were all that was left to most of his chest. The man’s face had caught his attention because it had somehow been unscathed by the blast. The look of horror was nowhere to be seen in the man’s wide open eyes, but it was a look of serenity. He had never understood how a man had look so calm even in death before. As he continued to look at the dead man, his image changed into that of Rendell and pushed himself up into a sitting position. Rook stumbled backwards out of shock and smacked his head against something solid. His mind refocused and found himself sitting once again looking at the wall of his cell.

Slowly he turned rolled forward into a crouching position. As cautiously as he could he willed his body into the standing position. His entire body was numb from sleeping in a curled up ball all night. He had to lean against the bars of his cell to steady himself. Once he felt comfortable his feet could support his weight he began to turn to face the scene he had been avoiding this entire morning. The chair remained in the center of the cell. A few drops of blood were scattered all over the chair. Most of the fresh blood was on the floor surrounding the chair. The site of the cell made him puke what little evidence of food that remained in his stomach out in front of his body. Suddenly all the image and conversations from the night flooded his mind. Tears ran down his face as he stood there silently staring at the cell. Holding on to the bars of the cell with his left hand he used his right sleeve to wipe away those tears.

The dead Russian soldier was lying in the middle of the cell when he looked up. The man once again shifted into the image of Rendell and sat up. Rendell then stood up and walked to the edge of the cell. His body began to change once again but this time it was a brutally bruised and battered Rendell. The man’s blue eyes stared him down blankly.

A noise in the distance caught Rook’s attention. His eyes shifted from the illusion of Rendell to the guard walking down the prison hallway. The large blonde haired man flicked his wrist and the cell door opened inward slamming into Rook’s body and sending him to the opposing wall. The man walked in and grabbed his shoulder and pulled him out and down the hallway.

“The master wants to see you now,” he muttered under his breath.

Our Song

2010-07-08T09:26:00.001-07:00

The Spill Canvas

Be kind when you rewind the story of how the two of us
Sometimes you wish it was a little more mysterious
When you look at me with your cinematic eyes
I wanna play the part but I forget the lines

I do it all the time
I never get it right

One day when you replay the slideshow that we know
Pictures won't show villains and heroes
It's just me keeping time with you
Butter knife's dull but it still cuts through

We never were
We'll never be

Strangers kissing in the pouring rain
Chasing after your leaving train
But we know that's not how our song goes ohh
You're a waitress in a cocktail bar
And I'll save you cause I'm a big rock star
But we know that's not how our song goes
It goes like this

You didn't like my friends and your mom didn't trust me
I thought I was slick but my moves are rusty
Bought you a 12 pack and promised you sushi
Sorry if I wasn't straight out of a movie

We never were
We'll never be

Strangers kissing in the pouring rain
Chasing after your leaving train
But we know that's not how our song goes
You're a waitress in a cocktail bar
And I'll save you cause I'm a big rock star
But we know that's not how our song goes
It

Be kind when you rewind the story of the two of us
Sometimes you wish it was a little more mysterious
When you look at me with your cinematic eyes
I wanna play the part but I keep messing up the lines

We never were
We'll never be

Strangers kissing in the pouring rain
Chasing after your leaving train
But we know that's not how our song goes ohh
You're a waitress in a cocktail bar
And I'll save you cause I'm a big rock star
But we know that's not how our song goes
It goes like this
It goes like this

One Day Too Late

2010-07-06T10:02:00.001-07:00

By Skillet

Tick tock hear the clock countdown
Wish the minute hand could be rewound
So much to do and so much I need to say
Will tomorrow be too late

Feel the moment slip into the past
Like sand through an hourglass
In the madness I guess I just forget
To do all the things I said

Time passes by
Never thought I'd wind up
One step behind
Now I've made my mind up

Today I'm gonna try a little harder
Gonna make every minute last longer
Gonna learn to forgive and forget
'Cause we don't have long, gonna make the most of it

Today I'm gonna love my enemies
Reach out to somebody who needs me
Make a change, make the world a better place
'Cause tomorrow could be one day too late
One day too late
One day too late

Tick tock hear my life pass by
I can't erase and I can't rewind
Of all the things I regret the most I do...
Wish I'd spent more time with you

Here's my chance for a new beginning
I saved the best for a better ending
And in the end I'll make it up to you, you'll see
You'll get the very best of me

Your time is running out
You're never gonna get it back
Make the most of every moment
Stop saving the best for last

Some get Made, and Some get Sent

2010-05-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

Amtrak Indy Part Two

I have spent a good majority of my time on this trip relaxing in the lounge car. There are two different types of seating in the lounge car. They have several tables with booth seats around them and they also have open seating composed of captain chairs and love seats. The open seating section faces the windows and have the ability to pivot close to 180 degrees. The final perk the longe car has to offer is the electrical outlets which line the walls.

Since the battery for my computer is not nearly as good as it used to be, the outlets in the lounge car were most beneficial to me. I opened my computer and started to write down my thoughts about the trip so far. Unfortunately for me, I do not have a wireless internet connection and I can not upload from my computer directly to my Blogspot account. I spent the next hour or so trying to figure out how I could sync my computer to my Iphone and transfer the document to my phone. This way I would be able to skrit around the need for a wireless connection. I was excited when I located a program that would allow me to complete this task. I was able to download the program to my Iphone, but I still needed a Internet connection to download the second half of the program to my computer. The work around had failed for now but I am confident I can get it working when I locate Internet access. Until that time I have been forced to type my thoughts directly on my Iphone. This turned out to be a blessing because it gave me an opportunity to edit my original write up.

As a side note, while I was trying to find a work around for the lack of a wireless Internet connection, I remembered how my good buddy David just purchased the HTC Incredible. As he explained all the cool functions the phone could provide to it's user, one of them stuck out in my mind. The Incredible has the ability to become a WiFi hotspot. This function would have been very helpful to my current situation. A shame but I think I will survive.

A Good Idea at the Time

2010-05-27T23:00:00.001-07:00

Amtrak Indy Part One

Eighteen hours on board a train headed out to Indianapolis for a small vacation over the Memorial Day weekend. Seems like a large amount of time to spend traveling especially since the small vacation consists of only three actual days in Indy. I will end up spending a vast majority of my time to my destination, but I look at it more as an adventure. Of course this adventure turns out to be more fun when you find out that the eighteen hours only take into account the journey between Denver and Chicago. After a layover in Chicago I will have to jump on another train and ride five and a half more hours to Indy.

I am currently four hours into my trip and so far it isn't to shabby. I figured if I brought along my laptop, a few books, paper and pen, and my Iphone, I would have plenty of entertainment to keep me occupied for the total 25 hours of this trip. Considering that i am easily entertained i have every confidence in my ability to keep myself occupied. It is the return trip I am a little worried about. For now, I will put this though out of my mind and focus on this the first leg of the trip.

Stepping on to the train and finding my seat was easy enough after receiving a little bit of direction from some one of the conductors. We were placed on Car 316. This car was not marked because it was in the process of being attached to the rest of the train. Which explains why the man with the bright orange construction vest was standing on the tracks between the last two cars. A blast of warm air greeted us upon entry to the train car. The other passengers were throwing the word sauna around to describe the environment we found ourselves in. My assumption of this sauna was that it had been sitting under the mid 80 degree Denver sun all day. Thankfully after several minutes in the sweat box the air conditioning kicked on and allowed us a more bearable environment. About the time the we passengers were in the comfortable environment, the conductor got on the PA system and informed us our toilets were non-functioning. He assured us they had a man in Chicago who was quite capable of fixing our bathroom. Well there was no need to worry since the bathrooms in the other train cars were in full working order.

Several minutes later, our train pulled out of the station and began it's trek to Chicago. Thus began my great adventure.

The Saltwater Room

2010-02-27T00:13:00.000-07:00

By Owl City

I opened my eyes last night
and saw you in the low light
Walking down by the bay, on the shore,
staring up at the stars that aren’t there anymore
I was feeling the night grow old
and you were looking so cold
So like an introvert,
I drew my over shirt
Around my arms and began
to shiver violently before
You happened to look and see
the tunnels all around me
Running into the dark underground
All the subways around create a great sound
To my motion fatigue: farewell
With your ear to a seashell
You can hear the waves
in underwater caves
As if you actually were inside a saltwater room

Time together isn't ever quite enough
When you and I are alone,
I’ve never felt so at home
What will it take to make or break this hint of love?
Only time, only time

Can you believe that the crew has gone
and they wouldn’t let me sign on?
All my islands have sunk
in the deep, and I can hardly relax
or even oversleep
But I feel warm with your hand in mine
When we walk along the shoreline
I guess we’ll never know
why sparrows love the snow
We’ll turn out all of the lights
and set this ballroom aglow

So tell me darling, do you wish we’d fall in love?
Yah all the time, all the time
Time together isn't ever quite enough
When you and I are alone,
I’ve never felt so at home
What will it take to make or break this hint of love?
Only time, only time

When we’re apart whatever are you thinking of?
If this is what I call home,
why does it feel so alone?
So tell me darling,
do you wish we’d fall in love?
All the time, all the time

Time together isn't ever quite enough
When we’re apart whatever are you thinking of?
What will it take to make or break this hint of love?
So tell me darling,
do you wish we’d fall in love?
All the time, oh all the time.

Remeber What You Told Me

2009-09-07T12:47:00.001-07:00

Random Thoughts of the Day:
1. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

2. More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

3. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

4. I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

5. Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

6. That's enough, Nickelback.

7. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

8. The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

9. Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

10. There is a great need for sarcasm font.

11. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what was going on when I first saw it.

12. I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

13. The other night I hit a new low at an open bar. I had already hopped on highway blackout when, inevitably I had to find a bathroom. Eventually I decided it was probably on the other side of the bar so I tried to walk over there, but ran into a guy coming the other way. We played that, Both go left, Both go right game to no avail, so I finally put out my hand to guide myself past and that's is when I realized, yup, that's a mirror I just tried to walk through. And the guy on the other side is me. Even cats can re cognize their own image. >

14. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

15. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

16. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

17. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.

18. A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

19. Was learning cursive really necessary?

20. Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say"..

21. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

22. Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

23. My brother's Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, "Cuz we beat you, and you hate us." Classy, bro.

24. Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

25. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

26. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

27. Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

28. What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

29. While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

30. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

31. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

32. I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

33. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

34. I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."

35. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

36. Bad decisions make good stories

37. Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

38. Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

39. If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

40. Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

41. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

42. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

43. There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

44. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

45. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

46. I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

47. While watching the Olympics, I find myself cheering equally for China and USA. No, I am not of Chinese descent, but I am fairly certain that when Chinese athletes don't win, they are executed.

48. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Argh!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

49. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

50. When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

51. I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

52. Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

53. As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

54. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

55. It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

56. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

57. I think that if, years down the road when I'm trying to have a kid, I find out that I'm sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college.

58. Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

59. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

60. My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the do I respond to that?

61. It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

62. I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

63. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

64. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

65. The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat person before dinner.

Will You

2009-06-19T19:38:00.003-07:00

It has been a little over a year since Mitchell Marsolek was taken from the earth. I took the opportunity to visit the site of accident today and found a memorial had been set up. There are many ways I could describe Mitchell, but right now I am short of words. Instead, I would like to share a little of Mitchell's personality through his own eyes.

Misname
By Mitchell Marsolek
03/03/03

It occurs to me that sometimes people don’t come up with the best ways to do things, like spelling cough, dough, and rough all the same except for having a different first letter, and yet they all sound completely different. I could come up with a hundred ideas that are funny like that one. But here is one that I have been contemplating for awhile, and I may require all the space I can use to put it out there in the open.

Mushroom and Marshmallow. Who named them? Obviously, the mushroom was around long before the marshmallow, but it still seems an odd name for a fungus. Well, being just at the turn of the millennium, as we are now, I think it’s about time we fixed this little bugaroo.

The Mushroom, a strange little fungus that goes good on salads and pizza When you look at its name, what does it say about the semi-tasty topping? Well, if I had never seen a Mushroom before, or heard of one for that matter, I would assume it to be some sort of new age construction method, mushy-type rooms perhaps. That’s a little far out there of course, but let’s say that I assumed it to be food. The first thing that would spring to my mind would be some sort of soft, almost mushy, squarish object. The mushroom, even though it has been used as such in various cartoons, does not take an obvious overall appearance as being some sort of room.

What about the Marshmallow? What is it? Some sort of sugary treat that kids like to roast when they have campfires. Other than that, I really don’t know. But the first thing I think of when I look at the name is something to do with a ‘marsh’. I don’t have the foggiest clue what the hell a ‘mallow’ is, but I’m pretty sure I could find it somewhere in a swamp-like environment. The first thing I picture is some sort of green seaweed-like moss. Not at all becoming of a cute and cuddly, white sugar-loaded cylinder-like a marshmallow.

It’s obvious, that somewhere along the line, somebody got the names mixed up, and convinced a sufficient number of the people of the surrounding society of his absolute correctness, that the misname spread like wildfire, and before the end of the year, everybody had become accustomed to the odd names; leaving the name switching out of any sort of record of documentation, making us, the people of the future, to be utterly uninformed and completely in the dark of the terrible situation our two food things had come to be in.

The obvious solution is to switch the names, or at least use a combination of the names to designate the confused and bewildered edibles in a more proper and understandable manner. The easiest and clearest combinations of names – should the plan of just switching the names outright turn out to be considered too disastrous –are the Mushmallow (for the marshmallow, because it is somewhat mushy, but mallow gives a light and fluffy sound to it, like parfait!) and the Marshroom (quite obviously for the mushroom, because the marsh gives it the idea of a place where mushrooms are extremely likely to grow, and room, because of the fact that, in a sort of new age way, the mushroom could look sort of like a house).

If we act now, we can right this terrible evil, and save the universe the pain of being reminded every time we go to the grocery store, of humanities ugly failures in its ability to do things that make sense. At least, if we failed to learn anything from this dire mistake, we would always have the knowledge that we, as a race of beings, made up for one of its glaringly obvious wrongs, and righted it.

Easier Said Than Done

2009-04-11T22:47:00.003-07:00

Hitting the snooze button always feel great. It gives you a few more minutes to hang on to the sleep you think you need. The blessings of the snooze button however can become the devil in disguise. As I have come to realize, when nothing extraordinarily important (i.e. church or work) stands between my comfortable position of sleep and the groggy state waking up in the "early" morning, it is difficult to find the motivation needed to start the day. I need to be awake and out of bed by the time my cell phone alarm has sounded for the fifth or sixth time or all is pretty much lost. At this point my phone has become a little green devil because the alarm shuts off entirely.

An hour and forty-five minutes later I awake from my slumber as I turnover. My eyes are open but not alert. They still have the sleepy haze surrounding them on every side. The time has come where I can no longer afford to stay in bed. I shift around to check the time on my wristwatch and notice that the minute hand is on the 45 minute mark. "Awesome, I like the beginnings of hours," I think to myself. "They are nice round numbers and easy to start things at. I can sleep for 15 more minutes."

I would like to direct your attention to several facts of life. One...Your alarm clock has been shut off. Two...Your wristwatch does not have an alarm on it. Three...The house is empty, thus there is nobody around to drive you from your slumber. And Four...Your mind knows that you’re tired body will listen to its lies. Do not listen to this voice, it is a trap. Well it looks like the mind is unwilling and the body is weak.

Fifteen minutes later I roll over again and repeat the process of looking at my watch to check the time. At this point my minds slips into the twilight zone because I know for a fact that the fifteen minutes have past but my watches minute hand is still on the 45 minute mark. That is when I realize the hour hand has jumped one number. "An hour passed, yes now it is time to get up." But then comes the moment of truth, because another thought floats across my mind. "Awesome, I like the beginnings of hours," I think to myself. "They are nice round numbers and easy to start things at. I can sleep for 15 more minutes."

Hold on a second. This line sounds vaguely familiar, are you really that gullible? Would you really fall into that trap again and repeat the prior paragraph. The sad truth is that yes, it has happened on several occasions before, but not today. I am three hours late and my day needs to begin. So I push aside the devilish thought and roll out from underneath my covers and stumble down the stairs. Victory has finally come, but at the price of starting my day three hours late.

Make This Go on Forever

2009-02-12T17:39:00.000-07:00

I enjoy a large variety of music from classical to heavy metal. It really depends on the mood I am in when listening to music. I have been curious about what songs I listen to the most. The great thing about my Ipod is that it tracks how many times I have listened to any particular song. Yesterday, I reset this play count on my Ipod. Over the next few months I am going to let the play count run its course and see which songs are my favorite.

The Worst is the Waiting

2007-09-08T23:40:00.000-07:00

Recess had finally come. For Charlie it was time to put every thought of learning aside and have much needed fun. As quickly as he could he put on his heavy coat, hat, and gloves, and dashed outside into the snow. He could see many of the fourth graders already on the playground. They always were out first which meant they always claimed the coolest playground equipment for themselves.

The cold wind bit at his face as he ran across the soccer field to the playground. He was happy it had snowed on Saturday. He and Tommy had spent the entire day sledding down the hill in his backyard. The only bad part was that Tommy had caught a cold and had spent the last two days at home in bed.

Andrew was standing behind the swings waiting for one to open. Charlie made his way over toward him. All the swings were taken by the fourth grade girls. They normally would stay there until recess was over.

“You probably will not get a swing,” said Charlie. “This is our short recess.”

“I know,” replied Andrew. “I was hoping since it was cold someone would want to play on something else.”

“Is James here today?” asked Charlie.

“He was out the door before me, but I have not seen him on the playground,” said Andrew.

One of the girls on the far side of the swings jumped off and raced over the join a group of girls at the merry-go-round. Andrew saw the sing open but did not make any move to use it. Charlie was about to tell him the swing was open when Andrew cut in.

“I do not see Brian or Jared on the playground either,” said Andrew.

Charlie remembered James telling him a month ago how the bullies in his class had started roughing him up a little. James never talked about being picked on after that week. Charlie assumed the bullies moved on to other children.

“If James is with the bullies, I think I know where we can find him,” said Charlie. “Quick, follow me.”

Charlie led Andrew to the far side of the playground to the temporary classroom where they had art classes. Behind the building they saw James with Brian and Jared. Jared had James pinned to the ground by his shoulders. Brian had pinned James’ legs. Brian whispered something in James’ ear. James shook his head back and forth to say no but Brian was not about to take no for an answer. Brian’s right fist slammed into James’ stomach.

Charlie picked up a handful of snow, packed it tight, and let it fly. The snowball struck Brian in the left temple. Brian turned to see who had thrown a snowball at him. As he did a second snowball caught him square in the face. Another snowball hit him in his shoulder.
James was able to wiggle free from Jared’s grip when Jared reached down to grab snow of his own. He was also able to free his feet from underneath Brian. Brian tried to grab hold of James’ ankle but could not hold on with one hand. In the process of wiggling free James connected his foot to the lower side of Brian’s right jaw.

The whole situation turned against the two bullies. Brian fell to the ground holding his jaw and screaming at the top of his lungs. Jared turned to run away from the scene but was stopped by Mrs. Crabapple. Charlie and Andrew dropped their snowballs as fast as they could but it was too late.

“All five of you boys come with me,” said Mrs. Crabapple.

“But Mrs. Crabapple, James kicked Brian in the mouth really hard!” exclaimed Jared.

“That is not your concern at this moment. We will deal with all of this right now,” replied Mrs. Crabapple.

They follow Mrs. Crabapple across the outer edge of the playground and into the school building. They walked down the halls past the classrooms and the cafeteria. All of them knew there was only one office on this side of the school. They made one quick stop at the nurses’ office to drop off Brian, and then continued on to Principal Bradley’s office. Mrs. Crabapple sat the four remaining boys sat down on the chairs outside the principal’s office and walked in to talk to Principal Bradley.

Charlie sat for what felt like hours. The whole time he was making up different excuses for his actions. He had been down to Principal Bradley’s office a few times before, but not for being disciplined.

The door opened and out walked Principal Bradley with Mrs. Crabapple. He called Jared into his office and shut the door. Charlie could only imagine all the lies and excuses Jared was telling the principal about them. Jared was the type of kid that would say anything to keep himself out of trouble.

After a few minutes, Principal Bradley opened the door to his office. He escorted Jared out to the hall way and called the three remaining boys into his office. Charlie, James, and Andrew each took a seat on one of the chairs facing the principal’s desk. Principal Bradley did not waste any time getting to his point.

“I am extremely disappointed with you boys. Especially you Charlie, you should know better than to act like this. You should be an example to the younger children, not join in their fights. Do you have anything to say for yourself?” said Principal Bradley.

Charlie lifted his head to look around. Andrew’s eyes were looking down at the ground. James eyes were in the same direction; however he was also holding his stomach in the spot he had been punched several times. He looked up and caught Principal Bradley’s gaze. A lump formed in his throat for a moment.

“Andrew and I noticed James was not on the playground. We found him behind the art room being held down by Brian and Jared. We saw Brian punch him twice in the stomach before we did something. All we were trying to do was help our friend,” said Charlie.

Even after Charlie pushed his words out of his mouth, he still felt the Principal Bradley’s stare. He looked at the floor so he did not have to see any part of the principal. The lump in his throat now felt like the size of a golf ball. He hoped the few words he said would be enough to get them all out of trouble. Deep down though he was pretty sure they would still be in trouble.

“I should punish you guys, but I am not,” said Principal Bradley. “Promise me next time you will tell a teacher instead of taking matters into your own hands.”

“We promise,” said Charlie and Andrew.

“You may return to your classrooms,” said Principal Bradley.

A sigh of relief passed over Charlie. The lump in his throat started to go away. His first trip to the principal’s office had not been as bad as it could have been. Still he hoped he would not have to visit the principal like that ever again.

I Need a Little Room to Breathe

2007-06-11T15:20:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since my last blog post. During this time of absence, I have been busy organizing my online life so it is not quite so complex and broad. Rather I am pulling together all my resources and making myself more productive. To make myself more productive, I have been contemplating which internet communities I should hold on to and which ones I should get rid of. As of April, I was associated with a handful of internet communities such as Myspace, Xanga, Facebook, and Blogspot.

Myspace was one of the first internet communities I signed up for. I enjoyed my Myspace account because it was an “all in one” type of sight. It gave me the opportunity to post a great deal of my interests, create a blog where I could post my random thoughts, and it gave me the opportunity to befriend and keep in touch with many different people. Not to mention I could place one of my favorite songs on my website. Myspace also gave me the opportunity to mess around with the html layout of the page. I spent long hours fidgeting with code to make my Myspace page totally different from everyone else’s. Myspace’s downfall was the constant and blatant sexuality connected to it. It was bad enough that all the advertisements were focused on looking for “sexual love”. Worse, I believe were all of the slutty girls attempting to befriend me. It got so bad I finally put up Bible versus on my profile page. This limited the slutty friend requests for about a week. In the end the open sexual contend persuaded me to cancel my account.

Xanga was nice because it narrowed the website down to one particular purpose. This blog gave me the opportunity to place my thoughts once again in an organized manner. I also liked the ability to subscribe to other people’s blogs. For me, the downfall of Xanga was the ability to get my friend’s blog posts sent directly to my email. In the end I keep it open to make an occasional comment about a friend’s blog.

Facebook was introduced as a competitor to Myspace. For the longest time I did not have a Facebook account because the website did not support my school. My Facebook account started off small and was almost avoided a good majority of the time. In the recent days it has become one of the most used accounts due to the large amount of acquaintances I have on it, and the vast amount of upgrades that have been added. I enjoy the ability to upload pictures and link them to all of my friends. I also enjoy the many different ways you can communicate, whether it is through messaging, commenting on a friend’s wall, or commenting on a friend’s picture. I greatly appreciate the ability to import a blog into the note section of the website. Most of all I am thankful for the lack of slutty advertisement that can be found all over the internet.

Blogspot (blogger) for me easily trumped Xanga for many different reasons. Like Myspace, Blogspot made it easy for me to tweak the html coding to add a plurality of different widgets to make my blog create a more personal feel to it. I still take the opportunity to fidget with the source code even after they upgraded to enable non-html users the ability to make their own personal adjustments. Blogspot also enables the user to have multiple blogs under a single account. This way I can organize my random thoughts in one blog and use a different blog to focus on my literature related writing.

To tell you the truth, these four internet based communities are only a minor portion of what is available to us. I personally have several other internet communities that I visit every once in a while. But on the whole I am quite content to focus myself around Facebook and Blogspot in the future.

I have a Remedy for Your Insecurity

2007-04-07T00:51:00.000-07:00

Name: Alexander Greene
Birthday: 19 May 1984
Birthplace: San Fran, CA
Current Residency: With my parents
Height: 6 foot
Body Type: Athletic
Eye Color: blue and green
Hair Color: Darkish Brown
Right Handed or Left Handed: Right Handed
Your Heritage: Irish/English/German
Your Best Physical Feature: My Hot Body :-)
If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? I'm content with myself
What shirt are you wearing: My CU Buffs shirt
What pants are you wearing: light blue denim carpenter jeans
What shoes are you wearing: Reeboks
Your style/trend you follow: The sale rack in the back of the store type

Thoughts on Relationships
Do you think you are Attractive: Are You Telling Me I'm Not a Pretty Guy?
In the past month have you gone on a Date: I would have to say...no
Single or Group Dates: I would prefer single dates, but either way would be fine
Have you Been in Love: It is Better to Have Loved and Lost, Then to Never Have Loved
Do you want to get Married: Maybe, When I Locate an Acceptable Woman
Does she have to have a good lookin bod: Of course, among other things which are just as important
Where would you like to go on your honeymoon: Well Hawaii, or on a cruise, or to Australia, or to the moon, or to italy, or to the motel six on Havana.
How many kids do you want to have: I am not entirely sure I can answer this correctly quite yet.
Boy Children's Names: Markus, William, Andrew
Girl Children's Names: Marie, Olivia, Katelynn

Your Goals
Goal You Would like to Achieve This Year: Get a entry level electrical engineering job
What are your future goals: Get a good job, get married, have kids, grow old and die, oh wait and become supreme dictator of the world

Your Food Groups
Your Favorite Dish: Jay's Spaghetti Sauce
Your Favorite Restaurant(s): El Lucerito's, Johny Carino's
Your Favorite Fast Food Restaurant(s): Chipotle, Wok and Roll
Your Perfect Pizza: Little Ceasars Pepperoni
Your Favorite Soda: Mountain Dew
Your Favorite Sports Drink: Jagged Ice Powerade
Your Favorite Alcohalic Drink: Sake Bombs
Your Favorite Junk Food: At the moment Caramello
Last thing you ate: Taquitos with rice and beans

Some Random Questions
Your Weakness: Not Paying Attention to My Surroundings, talking to women
Your Fears: That I Will Die an Old and Boring Person in a Crappy Nursing Home
Overused Phrase: Like...Um
Thoughts First Waking Up: I really need to get a different job
Your Bedtime: When Exhaustion Takes its Toll
Your Favorite Shakespeare: Twelfth Night
Your Most Missed Memory: My Early New Year Eve's Parties with Dave
Your Best Words of Encouragement: I Have not Yet Begun to Fight
What Inspires You the Most: Calvin's Snow Creations
Favorite Sport(s): Football, Hockey, Lacrosse
Your Favorite Sports Team: Colorado Buffaloes
Do you Swear: At Times, unfortunately
Do you Smoke: Just Say No to Death Sticks
Do you drink: occasionally
Do you Sing: Yes, But I am a bit tone deaf
Do you Shower: Why, do I smell funny?
Do you want to go to College: I really do not think i am up for it
Do you believe in yourself: Focus Alex, You Can Do This
Do you get Motion Sickness: Somebody, Please Tell the Room to Stop Spinning
Are you a Health Freak: I Try to Squeeze a Healthy Lifestyle Into My Semi (cough) Unhealthy Lifestyle
Do you get along with your Parents: Most of the time
Do you like Thunderstorms: Behold, The Great Power of Lightening
Do you play an Instrument: I have a little skill on the Piano
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol: A "Black Russian" packs a real punch
In the past month have you Smoked: Once again, say no to death sticks
In the past month have you been on Drugs: Clartin is my friend
In the past month have you gone to a Mall: I recently went out and bought a new pinstriped suit
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos: Can not say I have ever accomplished this feat
In the past month have you eaten Sushi: If It Does Not Touch the Pan, It Does Not Touch the Man
In the past month have you been on Stage: I play an awful Hitler
Have you ever been Dumped: dumped is such a dirty word, but yes
Number of things in my Past I Regret: Hmmm, I Can Name Quite a Few, especially two things very recently
What is the Craziest thing you have ever done: Aussie repelling with David and Josh
In the past month have you Stolen Anything: No, Its Been More Than a Month Since My Last Heist
Ever lied through your teeth: I am a terrible liar, this being a good thing
Ever been Beaten up: In Jr High
How do you want to Die: A High Powered sniper round to the head, quick and unexpected
What country would you most like to Visit: Australia
What do you want to be when you Grow Up: Irrelevant, I'm not Going to Grow Up
What time did you wake up today: Later than I would like to admit
Name something you can't wait to do: Snowboarding
What 5 things would you do with $1M: Pay off school loans, travel a bit, build my housing community, put some away, and blow the rest on whatever i felt like
Favorite Season(s): Winter - SnowboardingFall - Football
Most Visited website(s): Gmail, Facebook, Yahoo Sports - NCAA Football, Blogspot, Myspace
Someone who gets on your nerves: Rick (4-1)
Last person you text messaged: I am not sure because my phone does not record outgoing messages
If someone you hated died, what would you do: Dance the Can-Can?

Return Someday with Red in your Eyes

2007-04-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

I don't Wanna Come Down from This Cloud

2007-03-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

Once again I have given into the Madness that comes with the month of March. This year I was able to follow more college basketball than before thanks mainly to my road trip at the end of February. Combined with the knowledge from the experts at Yahoo and Espn I have more confidence this year than I have had in the years past. This year I submitted my bracket to yahoo and to facebook, and at the end of the first round I have found myself at 75% with my picks.

These last two days I have found myself stuck closely to the television, radio, or internet for more hours than I would like to…well actually I already have admitted to.

(1) Florida - 112 Vs (16) Jackson St - 69
(1) Ohio St - 78 Vs (16) Central Conn St - 57
(1) Kansas - 107 Vs (16) Niagara - 67
(1) North Carolina - 86 Vs (16) Eastern Kentucky - 65

All Number 1 seeds were victorious, which sort of is a no brainer, but I for one would have liked to see and upset here just because it has never happened. Yes of course it would totally mess up my bracket, but I would be ok with that.

(2) Memphis - 73 Vs (15) North Texas - 58
(2) Georgetown - 80 Vs (15) Belmont - 55
(2) UCLA - 70 Vs (15) Weber St - 42
(2) Wisconsin - 76 Vs (15) Texas A&M CC - 63

Texas A&M CC came out strong against the Wisconsin team and kept in good pace throughout the game.

(3) Texas A&M - 68 Vs (14) Pennsylvania - 52
(3) Pittsburgh - 79 Vs (14) Wright St - 58
(3) Washington St - 70 Vs (14) Oral Roberts - 54
(3) Oregon - 58 Vs (14) Miami (OH) - 56

The upsets in this column come few and far between. Right now I am beginning to wonder why I chose Wright St and Oral Roberts to win. A better guess would have at least been the other two teams. Pennsylvania seemed to match up closely with Texas A&M up until the last 5 minutes of the game, and Miami OH was even closer. Next year I think i will only pick one upset from this group, if any at all.

(4) Southern Ill - 61 Vs (13) Holy Cross - 51 Vs
(4) Texas - 79 Vs (13) New Mexico St - 67 Vs
(4) Virginia - 84 Vs (13) Vs Albany - 57
(4) Maryland - 82 Vs (13) Davidson - 70

At the beginning Maryland seemed to be having trouble scoring and defending Davidson, but pulled through to give a decent win. The most exciting game in this group would have to be the Texas game. New Mexico St came out strong and look as if they were determined to upset.

(5) Tennessee - 121 Vs (12) Long Beach St - 86
(5) Butler - 57 Vs (12) Old Dominion - 46
(5) Virginia Tech - 54 Vs (12) Illinois - 52
(5) USC - 77 Vs (12) Arkansas - 60

It is sort of funny because I chose Illinois to beat Virginia Tech, but was messing with my picks early thursday morning on facebook. It was funny because facebook has an option where you can randomly pick your bracket. I did get a good laugh out of the random picks because it picked Wright St and Oral Roberts to be in the final game. After goofing off for a while I set all my picks back to the original ones except for Illinois. So the last minute Virginia Tech win actually benefited my bracket in the first round.

(6) Duke - 77 Vs (11) VCU - 79
(6) Louisville - 78 Vs (11) Stanford - 58
(6) Vanderbilt - 77 Vs (11) George Washington - 44
(6) Notre Dame - 64 Vs (11) Winthrop - 74

I can honestly say that the four 6-11 games I picked correctly, two upsets and two higher seed wins. I caught the last part of the Duke, VCU game hoping all along VCU could pull off the upset. Unfortunately, I arrived late to the thursday night bible study and had to turn off the game with a minute thirty left in the game.

(7) Boston College - 84 Vs (10) Texas Tech - 75
(7) Indiana - 70 Vs (10) Gonzaga - 57
(7) UNLV - 67 Vs (10) Georgia Tech - 63
(7) Nevada - 77 Vs (10) Creighton - 71

In picking all the 6-11 games correctly the 7-10 games turned out to be a disaster for me. Originally I picked Georgia Tech and Gonzaga to pull the upset here. Texas Tech for me was the last minute change of heart. It was like "Of course Texas Tech can pull it off". No, no I should have stuck with my original pick of Boston College.

(8) BYU - 77 Vs (9) Xavier - 79
(8) Arizona - 63 Vs (9) Purdue - 72
(8) Kentucky - 67 Vs (9) Villanova - 58
(8) Marquette - 49 Vs (9) Michigan St - 61

Even though I favored BYU in this bracket I chose Xavier because they had a good shot at taking out Ohio State in the second round, and as you can see from my previous picks, I am very upset oriented.

Overall in the first round I picked around 75% correctly depending on which bracket you look at. So far I am in good shape. Every incorrect pick I also picked to lose in the second round. In the long run I still have all four of my final four teams. Maybe next time I will not pick so many teams to upset, but then you never know because there is always the probable possibility I will pick next year bracket even worse.

Love, Love, Love is all You Need (roadtrip part 2)

2007-02-23T17:54:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Clay Center about an hour before the Valentine's Day Banquet. Even though I did not have a date to the dinner, I was able to enjoy myself fully and meet several new people from the KState area.
The meal several course consisted of a small gelatin heart with whipped cream compliments of Emily. A main course of chicken cooked with bacon and a few other things I can not recall, twice baked potatoes compliments of Matt and garlic bread. The meal ended with a brownie dessert covered with chocolate frosting, raspberry sauce and several chocolate crumbs.
After dinner the group was entertained by some of the youth with several different impromptu skits, ranging from a mock news room, to story time with idea filled children. I even was pulled into the news skit as Sports Time with Hitler. Although, I came across more as a disgruntled German complaining that Americans did not watch true sports like soccer.

This Wait for Destiny Won't Do (Roadtrip part 1)

2007-02-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning came around and i finally got about the road trip I was planning for so long.
It was a very interesting 7 hour trip to Clay Center, Kansas. On the way I encountered a large group of suicidal birds sitting on the highway. Of course they would fly away when i got close to them but it is a bit odd to have fifty or so birds flying a couple of feet away from your car. Since i was traveling at a high velocity of hmm... well a high velocity, i try to ignore the idea of several of them flying straight into my car.
After being in the car for several hours I begin to amuse myself by making jokes about certain things I see on the road. So when I saw a billboard with a picture (idol) of Jesus right before Kansas mile marker 165 I thought to myself, "Jesus appeared to me while driving eastbound on I-70."

Hot Blooded, Check It and See

2007-02-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

I went up to Winter Park last friday and did some serious snowboarding. This time I rented my snowboard down in denver, so i got a better snowboard for a lot cheaper. The board had a smaller width but actually had the strap in boots, instead of the step in locking boots. Although it took a few runs to get used to the board, the set up enabled me to carve a whole lot better than before. Iin turn I was more confident to go faster, and to attempt some sweet jumps. Dave and I stuck to several blue black diamond runs on Mary Jane, and Cramner for a good majority of the day. We rode Mary Jane so hard by about 3:15, I had ttrouble even making it all the way down any given run without stopping and taking a fifteen second breather. It was a good day of boarding, and the best part is I still have two more days on my 4pack.

When Your on a Holiday

2007-01-26T23:04:00.000-07:00

Right now is the perfect opportunity for me to take a vacation i have been thinking about for a while. You see i have always wanted to take a road trip across the country but i have never been able to because i have had prior commitments. Since i graduated from college in December i have had the opportunity to look for a full time job in my field of study. It was not until last week while talking with my aunt Pat where i was given the advice to take a vacation before settling down into the "real world". After thinking about it i decided to take my road trip.

So my preliminary road trip plans are below depending on weather conditions:
Eastern Kansas Feb 2nd - 5th
Lafayette Indiana Feb 5th - 8th
Beaver Falls Pennsylvannia Feb 8th - 11th
Lafayette Indiana Feb 12th - 14th
Eastern Kansas Feb 14nd - 16th

Don’t Hold Me Up Now, I Can Stand My Own Ground,

2006-11-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

Today is the opening of Denver's southeast light-rail corridor. A very exciting time for me because I now can ride the light rail from Nine Mile (I-225 and Parker) all the way to school. To celebrate this monumental occasion I decided to test out the new system. The following is a report of what I learned from today's travel.

I parked at the Nine Mile park and ride and walked to the new light rail station. Being the first day, and considering it was a day of free rides not all the time slots were run. With the spare time I had, I took the picture to the left of Parker Road and I-225 Northbound. After waiting for a half an hour, I boarded a G-line train headed to Lincoln Station.
The train was packed with people, although it was not out of the ordinary. It reminded me of riding the C or D lines during peak traffic times. Out of habit I decided to stand up at the back of light rail car. Meaning I stood in the stairwell a good majority of my ride. This was ok because I am used to standing there.

It was great fun to ride along side of the traffic on I-225. Every once in a while while the train was passing a vehicle on the highway you could see the driver, and passengers turn and stare at the passing train. At the fist I-25 station a good majority of the people got off the train to transfer to a northbound train via I-25, but I continued southbound taking in the view of the tech center and Park Meadows mall.

I found out that the Light Rail was not without flaws the first day running, since we could only ride the I-25 corridor from Lincoln to the Broadway Station. H line from Nine Mile to Downtown denver was not running at all, however with the portions which were open I was able to traverse the entirety of the new Southeast Light Rail System.
As you can see, riding past the Gates building was also yet another highlight of this ride, and seeing as I am finishing this post on the 22nd of December, I am happy to say, the H line from Nine Mile to Downtown Denver is awesome for going to work the mornings I can drag myself out of bed in time.

We Got Steve Outside Carrying a Full Pack.

2006-10-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I went to work bright and early and found out that it was my easy day. Yes my main obligations included giving the hut attendents breaks, and picking up the trash from all the huts, and count room.

If you did not already know, the huts that actually need a break person to cover them are the one that really do not get any business. So I gave three breaks, two of which turned out to be a half an hour nap each.

But the best part of the day came when I finished my trash run. Since I had a great deal of time between trash and countroom I became rather bored. Since I had use of a golf cart, and it had just recently snowed the day before, I unfolded a a trash bag and collected snowballs throughout the day. From here I proceeded to start my drive by snowballing runs. Now I will have to admit I would get into a great deal of trouble if I targeted any random person, or the campus police (who I really would have loved to target), so I targeted my fellow coworkers, or their huts. Yes fun times.

Its Now or Never to Decide

2006-10-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

Fall has come around once again and it is time to behold the great and beautiful creation God has put on this earth. So I have captured this creation with the help of a sponsor, my LG camera phone.

Enjoy

It's on Your Face, is it on Your Mind

2006-09-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

So today I took a little run, and instead of describing it to you in words i thought I would just give you a picture.

Basically, I ran this route with a few minor changes due to the fact that I ran on the cherry creek path, and google map does not register bike paths cause you can not drive a vehicle on them.

Distance for the journey according to google is 10.8 miles. It took me an 1:45 (one hour fourty five minutes).

Responsibility, not Quite Yet

2006-09-04T21:38:00.000-07:00

Over this weekend I came to the realization once again that living is very expensive. At my position I have already massed up vast amounts of debt from my college education, car repairs, car insurance, credit cards, and that money I have borrowed from my dad. Then comes the Responsiblility aspect which makes it difficult to choose between doing the things you should do and the things you really want to do. Unfortunately, yes it means backing out of certain plans, because you can not afford to pay for the gasoline to make a trip a across the great state of Colorado. Instead, I sit at home and pay off bills, before having loads of fun wastign my free time on Myspace, and Blogspot.
And if you think things are bad now, you must realize that life only gets better - - ie. more complicated. Although we have a bright shining light at the end of the tunnel that reminds us all that sometimes the good things are worth the wait, hopefully anyway.

Cause I'm in Too Deep

2006-08-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

I finally did it. I took my bike on the "short" test run I had been planning. Yet it turns out this "short" test run was a ride from my house in Aurora up to my church on 112th and Sheridan Blvd, via downtown Denver. Now I did not track how many miles the ride turned out to be but I will tell you that in a car the distance is approximately 25 miles. Now most people would not think of this a fun time, but in my own little twisted mind it was one of the most enjoyable, and daring things I have accomplished since Aussie repelling. I will have to say though that Federal between 56th and 72nd is one massive hill, and so is Lowell between 80th and 82nd.

I'm not Messing, No I Need Your Blessing

2006-08-24T23:02:00.000-07:00

It is funny how an action you take can change an event several years in the future. I will confess the action I took was because I foresaw this instance. Anyway, Wednesday I was running late for work, so I parked in a closer parking lot and ran in to work. Everything was good until that night when I started looking for my Ipod and I could not find it in its normal spot. After looking in the other spots I normally have my Ipod, I realized that I did not have it in my possession. Looking at the fact I already spent a lot of money this week on tuition and my truck I was not looking forward to slapping down another hefty sum of money to get a new Ipod.

That was when I remembered the precaution I took the day I bought my Ipod. Engraved on the back of my Ipod was my name and my email address. It was a long shot because anyone could cover the engraving up and rightfully keep my Ipod. So I put the entire situation in God’s hands.

Today after things had quieted down at my job; I jumped on the internet and checked my email. There in front of me was a message from some random person saying:
I found your green I-pod in the parking lot at Metro campus. It was under the tire of my car.
Along with his phone number and the times he was free on the campus.

I'm at the Edge Feeling the Sweat Drip From My Brow

2006-08-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

I pulled out my bike this evening after school. The two bike tubes I had bought to re-inflate the flat tire so far have seemed not to be needed, but as hard as I rode my bike in the past they will come in handy in the distant future. With all my efforts I was able to get my bike back into a riding order with the exception of a few minor defects:

1. My third gear has a hard time engaging, but will be fine since I really do not switch the gears away from the second gear.
2. The back wheel is a bit misaligned, it is a little odd to look down and watch the tire wobble about.
3. My real problem seems to be the brakes. The front brakes need to be adjusted because they do not work at all. The back brakes lock up every once and a while, but after readjusting the setup I was able to get them in working order.

In the next few days I intend to take it on a good test run, hopefully nothing to devastating happens to my body during the tests. I have confidence in my bike.

No Time to Search the World Around

2006-08-05T03:46:00.000-07:00

I realize I have not finished with my expose on my entire Covenant Heights experience, but I must confess I was a little busy this past week preparing for my brother's wedding (8/3/06). Being the best man, I had to prepare the toast to the bride and groom. In preparation for the toast I was told a few important things:

1. You are speaking for the entire family.
2. Do not say anything extremely retarded.

So besides these two limitations I was free to make up my own ideas. For all of you who actually know me, I tend to lean to the lighter side of life, so this was somewhat of a challenge. Well I would like to report, I pulled the entire thing off without a hitch. Only at the beginning and the end of the toast did I realize how nervous I really was. When I finally got to the toast, I grabbed the glass of Sparkling Cider in front of me and held it up only to see my hand was shaking quite a lot.

The wedding ceremony altogether was short and sweet. The reception went beautifully. The bride's father and my toast went over well. Brendan and Hannah's first dance was to You and Me by Lifehouse, and Brendan sang the entire song to her while they were dancing. Hannah and her father danced, and then the floor was opened up to all of use unimportant people.

Taking Waltz lessons turned out to be sort of stupid because we actually did not use them on the dance floor, but I am glad I had the opportunity to learn for the future. I did however dance with a variation of the waltz, and occasionally would just add my own moves wherever I could.

Thy Wondrous Works Declare That Thy Great Name is Near

2006-07-31T21:59:00.000-07:00

Preaching
Pastor Selvaggio led the preaching at the conference with the topic of Worship. He used Dueteronomy 12:1-14 as his main reference for the topic. A few of the points which came out loudest for me were:

1. God has set up the standard for how we are to come to him in worship. Any other way is displeasing in His sight.
2. Worship has no practical purpose. It is not an means to an end, but in fact in an end in an of itself. He contrasted true worship to the false worship of the Old Testament where the people worshiped so in turn the gods would enrich their lives in positions, or possessions, etc.
3. God set up a place of worship which was a type of Christ. Now since Christ has fulfilled his part in our salvation we can worship in him.

Discussions
The CY discussion time was lead by John Duke, an elder from my home congregation (Westminster RP). Lots of participation in discussion lead to some good debates about the different topics brought forward, such as accoutrements, psalmody, dispensationalism, and many more. All in all, I enjoyed the time spent searching in God's word. I believe it was a valuable time of growth.

I was Glad to Hear Them Saying, "To the Lord's House Let Us Go."

2006-07-31T21:02:00.000-07:00

So I just got back from a wonderful week at Covenant Heights where we were able to participate in worship to God, fellowship with the saints, and experience a whole range of activities. Instead of writing up one large post telling you all about my experiences, I have decided to split them up into the following catagories:

Preaching/Discussion
Singing
Devotions
The Plethora of Activities

Also I have Pictures of some of the camp activities at my Photobucket account.

Eyes on the Goal

2006-07-21T16:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I did a little cardio excercises, in the form of running stairs. The work out group was determined to make it up and down the side steps (approx. 3 flights) of Magness Arena fifty times. I would have to say our goal was set a bit high, but we did end up running the stairs 25 times. Around the 10th time up the steps my body just wanted to give up and sit down. If it were not for Chevelle, I think I would not have been able to accomplish this feat.

I Don't Want Your Pain

2006-07-19T12:12:00.000-07:00

Wear Sunscreen
By Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune

If I could offer you only one tip for the future sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice, now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Never mind you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me in twenty years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don’t worry about the future, or worry but know that worrying is as affective as trying to solve and algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never cross your worried mind, the kind that blindsides you at four p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you. Sing. Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours. Floss. Don’t waste you time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead sometimes your behind. The race is long but in the end it’s only with yourself.
Remember compliments you received, forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this tell me how. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch. Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at twenty-two what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting forty-year olds I know still don’t.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they are gone.
Maybe you’ll marry maybe you wont. Maybe you’ll have children maybe you wont. Maybe you’ll divorce at forty, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your seventy-fifth wedding anniversary. Whatever you do don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.
Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.
Dance. Even if you have no where to do it but in your own living room. Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do not read beauty magazines they will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past, and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle for the older you get the more you need the people you knew when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths. Prices will rise, politicians will philander; you too will get old. And when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young: prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re forty it will look eighty-five. Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than its worth. But trust me on the sunscreen part.

But We've Lost to Much Blood

2006-06-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

So we are getting ready for The CY Retreat at Camp Curry this week. One more day and we will be headed out for a weekend for of fun and excitement. What a way to finish of a week, whcih had a few unnerving surprises.

To Them These Streets Belong

2006-05-31T14:54:00.000-07:00

The day i have been practicing for, for the last few months has come and gone. For my first official race I participated in was a success. I am sure if i had run a bit more than a handful of times I could have done better at the BolderBoulder, but I am satisfied with my result. I ran in the NC wave (NC701) and was the seventh of my wave to cross the finish line.

And if you look hard enough you can see meon the CBS4 finishline camera, even though it only looks like much but a mass of humanity, I can promise you that is me in the red circle.

You're Not the Only One Drowning in Imperfection

2006-05-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

So i hit the rode with a route comparable to the BolderBoulder, as seen in the picture. To tell you the truth I ran in the mid-afternoon so i could train in the worst environment possible. I ended up stopping three different places along the route to stop and pause for water refereshment. I was also stopped at both lights while crossing Illiff. I ended up walking for a while along the last two legs of the trip.
I ended up completing the run in approximately one hour, which amazed me since i was shooting for an hour and a half. I have two more days i can run this little route before the BolderBoulder so I am hoping to improve my time a little more.

1.86 miles to Peoria and Parker
1.35 miles to Parker and Havana
1.70 miles to Havana and Mississippi
1.00 mile to Mississippi and Peoria
0.60 mile to Peoria and Mexico
-------------------------------------
6.51 miles total

There Will Be No White Flag Above My Door

2006-05-09T20:26:00.000-07:00

To enjoy life you must take time out and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Or you could take a few laps around Utah Park and run to get in better shape for the summer. Today I had better times than last time, but it also was a bit cooler. I wonder if temperature has a big impact. Anyway - - lap times

First Lap - - 07:24.02
Second Lap - - 07:52.90
Third Lap - - 08:05.26
Fourth Lap - - 08:30.27
--------------------------------
Total Time - - 31:52.45

So I was able to cut around
First lap - - 4 seconds
Second Lap - - 8 seconds
Third Lap - - 1 minute, 35 seconds
Fourth Lap - - Pure bonus

Light a Match to Leave Me Be

2006-05-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

After nearly a month of neglect, I once again placed my feet firmly against the pavement and took the inititive to take a few laps around Utah park. This time I took the oppportunity to stretch out my leg muscles before commencing the jog around the park. I also took the opportunity to carry along my cell phone since it has a stopwatch attached to it.

My first lap took me
07:28.20
My second lap
08:00.22
My third lap
9:42.23
Total Time
24:10.05

A few things I learned from this adventure were:
1) Running around Utah Park is not a mile, because back when i was in good physical shape I could run a mile in a little under my first lap time - I would say Utah Park is about 1 kM ( .6 of a mile)
2) If I am going to run a half marathon in the mountains over the summer, I am going to have to start running a lot more.
3) I am really out of shape

I...Wanna be the Papa...You can be the Mom

2006-04-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

So Sunday my dad announce my brother's engagement at our church, and since many people there have only met Brendan in passing he made sure they did not think I was Brendan by announcing to the church... "

As opposed to my son Alex here, who is not engaged but still up for grabs."

Yes, everyone got a good laugh at my expense, but that’s ok I will get him back someday when he least expects it. Yet since I am on this subject I will proceed with some thoughts I have been thinking through. A friend of my recently posted a blog about finding your soul mate, or if you have found your soul mate hang on to them dearly. I find the idea of a soul mate to be rather interesting. I would have to agree seeing as our God is the all-powerful and sovereign Lord of the universe, He has picked out the perfect partner for me.Sometimes we would like to think we have everything figured out, but then our plans are disrupted in some form or another.

As an example, last summer I was dating this really awesome girl and life was grand. Looking back on the situation there are a few things I probably would have done differently (ha, isn't it funny how hindsight is usually 20/20), yet mid-way through summer, our paths took very different turns. At first, I was just a little ticked off until it seemed like God slapped me around a bit and told me to suck it up. Sort of like God was telling me, I have better plans for you.
"But, God I quite like it were i am right now"
"What...I do not know what is best for my life? But You do? And there are far better things for me?
"Your telling me there is something far closer to perfection, cause I have a hard time seeing or believing that. Oh OK"

So here I wait, knowing that somewhere out there is the perfect woman, my soul mate. I hope anyway.

Think Before You Make Up Your Mind

2006-04-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

Ah, the joys of national holidays. Even if the holiday is only 4-20, or "National Pot Day". The day when all can find joy in a simple thing called Mary Jane. Yet for those of us who dont smoke pot, its just another lame holiday. Next we will start celebrating crossword puzzles on "National Crossword puzzle day" on July 23rd.

Change My Attempt Good Intentions

2006-04-10T15:53:00.000-07:00

I have had every intention to return to update my blogspot. Yet it seemed whenever I had the opportunity, I had nothing to say, or I was to busy with schoolwork to reply. A few months ago one of my good friends told me he was training for a race this summer in the mountains of Colorado. This sparked my interest, and I quickly agreed that I would also attempt to make this run. The problem comes now several months later and all the training I have done would have a extreme negative impact on running.
I decided I would start preparing for this event by slowly getting used to running once again. I took a run around Utah Park near my house. Now for the last several months I have been sitting around drinking soda and programming for school, so you can see how hard this little run turned out to be.
About 100 yards from the starting corner my legs and lower back started screaming at me. I continued on attempting to outrun the discomfort. After a while I was able to make it completely around the park and about then I decided to give up and run home. That was when a little voice in my head told me "Your pathetic, you call that exercise, get back out on the path and do it again." And so I did, I ran around the park one more time. This time around about half way through the lap everything became calm and I started to pick up my pace. With the last portion of the run I picked up the pace again and finished strong. Then I ran home, and my first step toward the race was complete

I Won't Be Standing Up for Long, I Better Learn How to Crawl

2006-03-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a funny comic I found in the Rocky Mountain News
Win, Lose, or Drew on March Madness

As to me in the Yahoo Pool
Hansolo
Points: 45
Overall Rank: 113,678
Percentile: 90th
Rank Change: +41,386

Why Can't You Ever Let It Go

2006-03-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

The second day of the NCAA tournament rolled around and boy what a fun and exciting day it turned out to be. As to be expected all of the #1 teams pulled ahead of their #16 seeded opponents. Although it seemed for a few minutes during the second half of the Connecticut/Albany game that a #16 team could be the first in the tournaments history to pull this type of upset. As much as I was rooting for this to happen I was also waiting for UConn to catch up and not through my bracket into total disarray.

Unfortunetly for me, #4 Kansas fell to #13 Bradley in the first round. This upset was really upsetting to me since I had picked Kansas to win the tournament. This upset proved to be extremely fatal for any of my chances to win a spot in the bracket pool. Yet this was only the first of many upsets.
#14 Northwestern upsets #3 Iowa
#11 George Mason upsets #6 Michigan St

The Upset keep on rolling in:
#5 Washington upsets #4 Illinois
#7 Wichita St upsets #2 Tenessee - this upset was one I had predicted in my own bracket. Tennesse had barely squeaked by #15 Winthrop in the first round, and Wichita St had beat #10 Seton Hall by 20 points.

In better news:
#1 Duke takes care of #8 George Washington
#3 Gonzaga edges by #6 Indiana

Even more upsets rolled in on Sunday the 19th. #13 Bradley continues its winning streak and enters the Sweet 16 for the first time since the 1980's. Having already taken out Kansas a #4 seeded team and taking out #5 Pittsburgh there game with #1 Memphis should be a game to watch.
#11 George Mason upsets #3 UNC to make it into the Sweet 16. To get to the Elight 8 they must beat Wichita St. Since I had UNC advancing to the fourth round of the tournament this game also should be enjoyabel to watch.
One final upset shows up with #7 Georgetown's 70-52 win over #2 Ohio St. they go on to play #3 Florida who is coming off a win over Wisconsin Milwaukee.
To tell you the truth with all the upsets my bracket has so many changes from what I though would happen I have the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the rest of the games without worrying to mcuh about upset.

'Cause I'm Late Again, Forgive Me Friends, For I Am Late Again

2006-03-20T00:22:00.000-07:00

As you all know I got a vehicle last week. Unfortunately I was not able to drive it during the week since the brakes on my parents white van sort went ca-put (if that is even a word) . The first opportunity for me to drive The Falcon was on Saturday when I went over to my buddy Abe's house to program our fuel injector board. Now Abe lives about Sheridan and 285, so I was a bit reluctant to drive across town with so little experience on a stick. In the end I made the journey with little to no mess ups. I did have a problem starting from the hill on Sheridan and Yale, but I also conquered it on the second light cycle. Abe, Ryan, and I also headed down to Red Robin for dinner, and since I had the only car big enough for 3 people I drove. I ended up telling them that I had little experience driving a stick, so the entire time my buddies were making comments about how we were all going to die. Yet I came, I drove, I conquered.

To ease everyone's minds, I still have been following the NCAA championship quite religiously. Unfortunately I have not been able to write about the last 3 days due to being busy. Don't worry though, Tomorrow I will recap a good majority of the tournament thus far, and how my bracket is basically ca-put.

I'm Bouncing Off the Walls Again

2006-03-17T01:58:00.000-07:00

So I had this long exposay on all of the days event that unfolded, commentary on every single game and a recap of the day in my own words and I lost every singe bit of it.
Two hours of my time lost and gone forever. Wow that sort of suck when you think about it. At least next time i will take precautions.

Anyway, at the end of the first day I had an 11 out of 16 from my picks. On Yahoo I am ranked:

Hansolo
Points: 11
Overall Rank: 528,188
Percentile: 56th
Rank Change: +135,795

Not the best, but not the worst.
Hopefully I will have a more in depth report tomorrow, like the one I had today before I lost it.

They Say Freak, When Your Singled Out

2006-03-13T23:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I offically signed over my soul to my very first P.O.S. vehicle. I am so excited. It is all mine, my own. My vehicle is in no ways new to our family, as a matter of fact it has spent many happy years with the Greene household. Yes, yes I bought my brother's White Dodge Truck. The funny thing is the truck was Brendan's first vehicle, and now it is my first vehicle.

Today I embarked on this journey and there were two issues I had to set straight:

1. I had to christen my first vehicle and give it a name. So after thinking about it for a while I had an epiphany. As most of you know my alter ego has been using the identity of Han Solo. Since my vehicle is a POS it fit perfectly to call it "The Millenium Falcon". Now all I need is a wookie.

2. Since my parents white van was an automatic, and "The Falcon" is a stick shift, I had to take it for a spin, to practice my technics. I would have to tell you that the maiden voyage was a great success. I still need practice, but i am glad to report that I only stalled "The Falcon" out five or six times.

Reckless and Indiscreet, I'm Hypnotized Beyond Belief

2006-03-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

Just when I was about to give up hope on our church basketball team we came racing back with an excellent game. I would have to say we still lost the game, but only by three points as opposed to 20-30 points as normal. With the addition of Titus Martin we were able to rally to a one point deficit at half time. We also had help from Phil, who during the game stuffed someone going up for a layup. It was a rockin game, and to all those who missed it, I believe Mrs. Murray taped parts of it.

For all of you loyal fans out there I give you a challenge:
1f10 0112 1204 1cd1 6313 1435 0802 0906 a9e4
26f0 04b0 03ef 2124 0704 a802 1b01 1f3e a10a
04f0 1804 0901 0e18 a961 0408 22f0 f406 05a4
1c1b a11f 05a5 03fa 1b01 1908 02
Please don't ask for hints, my mouth is guarded

Knock Me Down Til We See Eye to Eye

2006-03-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

Another week has come and gone, and what a wonderful week it was. I spend a good 24 hrs of the week in front of my computer watching nothing more than the fourth season of 24. There is nothing better than staying up really late iin the night filling your brain with the suspense which makes 24 so great. I would have to say, the fact that Marwan keeps slipping away bugged me. I am once again reminded by my sister that in every situation Jack knows exactly what to do even if it means breaking rules.

I would like to inform you i did not spend all of my time sitting in front of the TV. Thursday night I went up to Boulder and watched Broomfield play Thomas Jefferson in the High School 4A Boys Basketball. It is always fun to watch two teams who are really good play. In the end Thomas Jefferson came out with the win, ending Broomfield's season.

Today, I spent the entire day sitting in front of a computer programming code for my Hardware-Software Class. Being the third week on the same project made the day it so much fun going back and sifting through code to locate errors. I kept myself thoroughly entertained since i have yet to find out why my code still is not working. I managed to take a break and learn to solder.

If You Wanna Step Up, Step Up You're Gonna Get Knocked Down

2006-03-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

So I finally made it up to Winter Park and spent a day torturing my body attempting to learn more cool moves on the snowboard. Overall I would have to say it was a big success, so for your edification I will dispense with a recap.
1. I spent a good majority of the day brushing up on my carving skills.
2. I practiced riding goofy footed
3. Dave and I continually switched back and forth from normal to goofy for several runs, to any onlooker it looked like two guys spinning in circles while going down the mountain.
4. I went down a Blue Black Diamond and attempted a few small jumps and did somewhat good till the third jump took me down.
5. I finished of on a black diamond, and took a spill turning to heel side, and became a snowplow for at least 20 feet.

Tips:
1. Moguls are awful when there is no fresh powder.
2. Laugh at yourself when you caught your edge.
3. When checking out the female snowboarders, be sure you are aware of signs in your vicinity.

Overall The experience was a great success. I must find the time to return to once again conquer the mountain. Someday I will come for you MaryJane, but until then remember, NO Pain, NO Jane.

Until Next Time,
Conquer the Mountain, Do the Dew

Greene out

You Are My Only, My Only One

2006-02-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

So as we all know tomorrow is Valentine's Day. The day of the year when you get to prove how much you love your sweetheart. Of course you also have all of those people who dread the day also because they are single. I am here to remind you all that your life no matter how bad you think it is, is really nat as bad as you all imagine it to be. I will prove my point by starting off with the pro's and con's of being single:

Being Single:
Con's (cause there always more fun)
1. You are single, and being single means you have no one special to share the day with.
2. You can't sing romantic love songs to another person
3. You can't get all dressed up and go to fancy restaurants (unless you are a chaperone)
4. You have to buy chocolates, flowers, and food at a fancy restaurant

Pro's
1. You are single
2. Being single you do not have to buy flowers, or chocolate...etc
3. You can spend your money on yourself
4. You can eat massive amounts of candy while sitting at home
5. You can sit at home and watch a half a dozen episodes of 24, or Lost, or Desperate Housewifes...etc
6. Your couch does not care what clothes you wear
7. You can be your own person

Having Someone Special
Now i would comment here, but that would be silly, since you are all smart in this aspect of life.

Let me remind you of one thing.
1. Being content is the best outlook on life, cause
2. The grass is always greener on the otherside of the fence.

Something Scratching its Way Out

2006-02-08T16:45:00.000-07:00

So today i got on the bus to come in to school, and it was not one of the normal p.o.s. 11 bus. No today at 1211 they sent an new bus down the 11 route. It was so refreshing, and it still had that new bus smell (well that was until someone sat down behind me who was wearing a bit to much perfume). I for one like the setup in the new buses. instead of stepping up into the bus the bus the front part of the bus is low to the ground and behind the rear door of the bus is now were the steps up are located. This setup makes sense because now the handicapped patrons have easier access to the bus, and riders on the bus who are running late while riding the bus do not have to fret about be late because the handicap ramp is taking forever.

So i got to school feeling invigorated and ready to do my Electro-magnetic fields homework, which I neglected to do yesterday, because I went to bed super early, and I also skipped work so I could catch up on my sleep cycle. You would be surprised how much better you feel when you get a decent nights sleep (8 hours or more). Yes I can take on the world.

Where Are You Now?

2006-01-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

I must be insane to be continuing the tradition of logging random thoughts on internet spaces reserved for that very purpose. I barely have time to keep posting on Myspace, and Xanga let alone this new one. And why you say did I create this new one then? To tell you the truth it was sort of an accident. I was bored one day and came across an old friends post. It was considerable funny, and I felt compelled to reply. Yet in the time I replied and started to post I realized I had signed up for the blog, and in efforts to cancel the blog I cancelled the post. But it was to late the account became active. As I reflect I guess it will be ok, since now I can bug this certain individual with frivolous comments.
One thing you must remember is I always prevail in the end.