Strangeland

Going back to school

2008-01-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes, the title says it all. I'm being stupid and going back to school, but I'm not going for my master's or anything, in fact, I'm not going to be getting real credits for the night class I'm taking, I'm just getting Continuing Education Credits. But hey, I'm not paying for it. I'm taking the Java Programming Certificate course at UW Extension. It'll probably be mostly a waste of time, but it'll look good on my resume and help me move into a developer position at Boeing, not that I really want to stay here all that much longer.

Swift Kick To The Head For Me

2007-10-29T10:05:00.001-07:00

I've managed to totally ruin a new friendship. Everyone that knows me knows, I email a lot, IM a lot, and text message a lot, sadly I tend to do it most to people I just meet, cause I'm excited to meet a new person and want to get to know them better. As always, I freak out when they don't respond and assume I've annoyed them, but usually that's not it, they're just busy and haven't gotten back to me yet. This time however, I've gone over the top, I sent and email that I really shouldn't have sent, basically apologising for being so annoying and then went on to say if I were them, I would have already blocked my email address, and that I've deleted their contact info so they don't have to worry about hearing from me again.

Why do I do this?
Why do I always jump to conclusions?
Why do I always assume I'm annoying people?
Why do I send emails that I really don't want to send, I'm just typing them to vent, but accidently send it instead of DELETING it!!!

Thick Hide

2007-10-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

We all know that elephants have really thick skin. Evidently, having thick skin doesn't stop them from getting electrocuted while they're drunk. That's right, I said it, drunk elephants. I'm guessing, whatever they got drunk on had to be really strong, and there had to be lots of it. According to the article Elephants electrocuted in drunken rampage they were drunk on some rice beer that some farms were fermenting. So, there were 6 elephants that "were electrocuted as they went berserk after drinking rice beer." That must be some good stuff to get 6 elephants drunk. Either that, or these elephants were actually college students and the rice beer had the highest amount of alcohol for the lowest price ... ie Natural Ice. Natural Ice taste like crap, but it's cheap and is fairly high in alcohol for the price.

A nation on steps

2007-10-24T09:55:00.001-07:00

Since when have we become a nation fixated on step programs ... there's an 8-Step this, a 10-Step that, how to stop drinking, how to get in shape, how to find the love of your life, blah blah blah. Now, I've come across the greatest one of them all. It combines our nation's 2 favorite things, a step program and being rich ... 12 steps to become a millionaire. Seriously, if it were that easy, we'd all be millionaires, then I guess we'd need a 12 step program for becoming a billionaire, it never ends!!!

Skydiving

2007-10-08T18:23:00.000-07:00

This year for my birthday I decided to take the plung ... that's right, I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. Video I read today that skydivers from Snohomish Skydiving, where I went skydiving, went down with their airplane over the weekend in central Washington. News Article It's really weird to think that some of the instructors I went skydiving with almost 2 months ago might be dead. Those instructors knew what they were talking about and kept saying how important safty is.

I'm trying to get back into blogging. I've done so much in the last couple of months, gone to Japan, Hawaii, 10 year class reunion, saw my new nephew (he's so cute), skydiving, gone to 3 weddings in 3 different states, and now looking for a new church.

Christians

2007-09-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

What is your definition of a "Christian"?

a follower of Christ
someone that believe Jesus was a good person that we should listen to
Catholic, Protestant, Mormon
a hypocritical, back stabbing, judgemental person

Or do you have a completely different definition.

Life in Seattle

2006-06-08T16:49:00.000-07:00

It's been 2 years since I moved to Seattle. 2 years ago I came out here and met FishWagon & Sig, who hired me into a small software consulting firm who shall remain nameless. This un-named software consulting firm got the bright idea that they wanted to get into hardware a bit, except they didn't exactly know what they were getting into, nor were the owners of the firm all that great to work for, they only cared about themselves and making a buck as fast as possible, and if that ment ripping someone off along the way, oh well.

After only being at the un-named consulting firm for only 5 months they laid me off ... this is after they convinced me to come out from Idaho, keep in mind that I gave up a lot to move here in the first place ... I then ended up being unemployeed for 7 months before getting a job at Cingular, which I quit after 3 months to go work at Boeing, where I'm still working. Haven't really talked to FishWagon or Sig since I got the job at Boeing, but I think I should thank them for talking me into coming out here in the first place. I may have given up a whole lot when I left Boise, but I think I've gained so some too. I've made some good friends, I've got a good job, and I don't have to put up with my parents bugging me all the time. So if you guys still look at this blog, Thank you FishWagon & Sig.

dave dave dave

2006-05-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

On my last post I got 2 comments. I was so excited to have comments, specially on that post. Except after reallying the comments, it was a rather let down. They weren't real comments, they were from daveammons45398444 & davidgribbel87925979, they weren't exactly the same, but they were both selling college degrees, in just 2 weeks with no studying. The best part of these very very similar both, they were from different people, or at least different usernames, they give out the exact same phone number. Since when did blogger have spammers, this is so not cool.

Amusment

2006-04-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

Lately I can't help but notice how amusing life is. Just the little things that you notice in life that make you think and realize that God has a sense of humor and that we really have no clue. We don't have the answers at all, but we sure like to think we do. People really like to read between the lines and fill in whatever they want, specially when there's nothing to read between those lines, because they have no clue what's going on. People like to watch uplifting and happy things, and like to say that they are uplifting and help others, but then turn around and are talk crap about someone who's trying to change their lives for the better and help others at the same time. Granted we're all hypocritical and two faced from time to time, I admit to doing it more often than others, and seeing it in others makes me amused. It makes me amused because when we see others doing it we get all upset and pissy, but we expect people to be with us when we do it. All of this makes me think, what's the difference between Christian and non-Christian friends???

I'm sure someone will read this and put something in between the lines that isn't there, then I'll hear about it later. When in reality we should all just be content with where we are, and remember that we can only control our own actions and how we take things.

Sup!

2006-04-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

So, things have been going. Work is never dull that for sure, the project I was on got cancelled at the first of March, but I'm on a different project now, and there's so much to learn and understand, I feel like I'm always behind and lost out of my mind. Had a girlfriend for 5 months, but then we broke up. Spring is here, it's starting to look nice out, planning on going and spending a couple of hours outside tomorrow. Just started hanging out with some newer people at church, they're really cool. Only downside, I honestly feel like I just need a break from all of it (mainly church stuff). Come the end of May my responsibilities at church will be cut back, which will be cool, and I'll be able to step back into the shadows, relax and work on my relationship with God more, and hopefully do a little puppet master work again. But right now, I'm just looking forward to my break ... planning on going to Boise for Memorial Day weekend, and I won't be answering any calls from Seattle :) If I could I'd just leave my phone off the whole time.

Christmas Toys

2006-01-15T10:35:00.000-08:00

So, it's been awhile since I've written in here. I know, I know, I had said that I was going to start writing here more often and then never did. I was a little sick of myself for a little bit, I really don't like spending lots of money on myself. So, my parents got me a H3 Hummer for Christmas, it's yellow and so cool ... yea yea yea, it's only a remote control Hummer, but still it's cool. After getting back to Seattle from Boise, I got myself a TiVo and ordered a TiVo WiFi adapter, and I also got myself a pretty nice laptop, it's sweet. Now to redo my desktop and give it to my sister, and take her desktop and turn it into a little Linux box to play with and to run extra features to my TiVo like music and pictures and email and whatever I can using Galleon (Thank you Kevin for telling me about that software).
Went skiing this past Friday at Stevens Pass, it was so nice up here, fresh powder. When we got up there at 2pm there wasn't a lot of people there, the snow was great, by the time everyone else got there at 7pm, several large groups of schools got there. There were so many people it was insane, and everything had turned to ice. It finally started snowing again so there was some fresh powder. The slopes other than the bunny slope, weren't too bad, not as many people on them.

I'm back

2005-10-12T23:20:00.000-07:00

Yea, it's been awhile since I've written in here. I've thought about it many times, but decided that if I couldn't say anything nice, I shouldn't say anything at all. So, for an update for all those that read this, which I'm sure is zero. At the end of June I got a job at Cingular Wireless in their Advanced Network Services doing Data Support, so no stupid customer service calls, everything is technical. In early June however, I had applied for a cool Embedded Software Engineer job at Boeing, didn't hear from them forever, then in July I get this email about filling out an online application for this job at Boeing, so I filled it out, and then didn't hear anything, didn't hear anything, did I mention that I didn't hear anything from them, finally in early September I get an email saying "Hey, we want to interview you." Sweet diggity yo, I was so scared, got there for the interview, it was such a cake interview, it was like sitting down with Dr. Wall and chatting ... needless to say, I got the job. So in late Sept. I sent an email to my manager at Cingular letting him know that there's a strong possiblity that I'll be leaving in a few days, oh yea he was on vacation at the time, he finally gets back from vacation on my day off, so I can't talk to him, so the next day I go into work, he's out sick, and I'm like "I QUIT!!!" I talk to 1 of the other managers, who has been kept up to speed by my manager, I end up just giving him my badge and he walks me out to my car. So, now I work at Boeing, and love it, it's such a cool job, reading specs all day isn't fun, but it's all part of the job.

Regreats

2005-06-04T01:55:00.000-07:00

I'm glad that I can honestly say that I have no regreats in my life. Well, can I really say that ... everynow and then I wonder if I should regreat 1 decision that I made a year ago. I'm not one to take very big risks, I usually play it pretty safe for the most part. So when I was approached a year ago for a job here in Seattle, I actually took it. I thought it was a sure thing, and that I'd be working there for awhile. So I packed up all my stuff and moved out here from Boise, 5 months later I was out of a job. Why, because the bosses had no idea what they were doing. And now, I'm still out of a job, no one will hire me. I can get interview, but they keep wanting someone with more experience. So maybe I should regreat that decision to take the job out here, I could have stayed in Boise and gotten a job at HP or Micron like everyone else, but no, I had to take a chance for once, and now look where I am ... out of work for 7 months, and having some great friends. Are the friends still worth the decision, I think so, but damn, I could really use a job.

Tired

2005-04-30T02:12:00.000-07:00

So, lately I've had this feeling that I want to go home. The only problem is: Where is home? Isn't where I'm at home? Maybe I'm just tired. Tomorrow is a friend's b-day, we're having a BBQ at the beach, then after that every 21+ are invited to go out to singing. I am not drinking tomorrow night.

I finally heard back from the recruiter today about my interview at MSFT yesterday. Evidently the guys thought I had a lot of very good skills, but they didn't think being a Tester was really what I wanted, so I didn't get the job. This sucks. I did get 2 other calls today, 1 from another recruiter and the other from some lady at Denali AI, I have an interview with her on Monday ... and honestly, she never said what position she was calling me about, cause I never sent them my resume, she found me on Monster. I'm still waiting to hear from 1 other company though, that I know is suppose to be calling me, but HR is known for not being too fast at this place.

Job hunting tactics

2005-04-16T23:16:00.000-07:00

Will these work???

1) Start stalking someone in HR at a company I want to work at.
2) Send in my resume every Monday for the same position.
3) Camp out in the lobby of a company that I want to work at.

Got any other suggestions?

The Perfectionist Prayer

2005-04-05T14:47:00.000-07:00

As funny as this prayer is, there's a lot of truth to it for everyone. Too many times in our days do we clash with someone over something small and stupid, like how people mismanage their money then sit around complaining that they can't afford gas, etc. Just read it seriously, and you'll find something in it that pertains to you ... of course I won't, cause I'm perfect.

Lord help me to relax about insignificant details beginning tomorrow at 7:41:23 am PST. God help me to consider people's feelings, even if most of them ARE hypersensitive. God help me to take responsibility for my own actions, even though they're usually NOT my fault. God, help me to not try to RUN everything. But, if You need some help, please feel free to ASK me! Lord, help me to be more laid back, and help me to do it EXACTLY right. God help me to take things more seriously, especially laughter, parties, and dancing. God give me patience, and I mean right NOW! Lord help me not be a perfectionist. (Did I spell that correctly?) God, help me to finish everything I sta God, help me to keep my mind on one th -- Look, a bird -- ing at a time. God help me to do only what I can, and trust you for therest. And would you mind putting that in writing? Lord keep me open to others' ideas, WRONG though they may be. Lord help me be less independent, but let me do it my way. Lord help me follow established procedures today. On second thought, I'll settle for a few minutes. Lord, help me slow down andnotrushthroughwhatIdo. Amen.

hey

2005-04-02T00:55:00.000-08:00

Yea, it's been awhile since I've written anything here. I'm still job hunting. Since January I've been filling out about 3 - 10 applications a week, and still no leads. In early March I got a lot of really good help on my resume from FishWagon, thank you so much for the help. Since then, I've gotten a lot of hits on Monster, and even a couple of calls, but nothing has come of any of it. 1 guy wanted to hire me right away for a job that I was no where near qualified for, and he needed it done within a couple of day, plus it was working out of his basement, after talking to him we both realized that I was not qualified for the job and he had made a big mistake calling me. I'm so tired of job hunting, but something will come. Only downside, now I need to start looking for anyjob just so I can pay the bills, fun.

A lot has happened since my last entry. Friends from Moscow came out and I got to spend a lot of time with them, and I learned so much that weekend they were here. Then the weekend after that I went dancing at a club downtown, that was fun :) The DJ wasn't all that great, plus I can't really club dance all that well. Help some friends move. Help another friend go car shopping. Found out that Leisa's heart surgery has been moved up 2 months. Oh, and the kicker so far is, Sarah is going to be having a baby with her druggie boyfriend who's probably going to be in jail soon, what a waste of her life. Sarah, the guy isn't going to stick around anyway, even if he doesn't go to jail. I think that's about it.

Cats are evil

2005-03-10T15:21:00.000-08:00

Yea, it's been awhile since I've written anything in there. I haven't really had anything good to say. Still job hunting, got some good help on my resume, a friend that is stary eyed is joining the army - good luck buddy, weather has been really nice lately, friends from Moscow are coming out for a couple of days.

So, like my title says "Cats are evil", you'll just have to check out this article titled Cat shoots owner to find out what all happened.

PS - Not all doors that open are of God.

I am an engineer!!!

2005-02-12T21:38:00.000-08:00

I am an engineer. I dream about designing and building small computer systems. Every time I see a new electronic device I want to take it apart and see how it works and how I can add to it, like my PDA or router or xBox. Honestly, I'm surprised that I haven't taken any of them apart yet. If given a chance I could be a really good engineer, but that's the problem, no one will give me the chance. It's been 3 months since I've been laid off. I'm constantly looking for work, but I can't find anything. All my friends are always asking me what they can do for me, well ... the only thing they can do for me is pray. The people that could help me don't, which is fine, I should find a job on my own. At the rate I'm going, I'll never be an engineer again, I'll end up working at Best Buy and that's it. Yea, I'm discouraged, no one is willing to give me a chance, and why should they. It doesn't matter what I end up doing, as long as it's not designing and building computer equipment, I won't be happy, but then again, maybe I wasn't meant to be happy. Maybe I should just lower my expectations, if working at Best Buy is the best I can do, then I should be happy at that, because that's the best that I can do. There's no point in dreaming, in having ideas. With my luck, I won't even be able to get a job at Best Buy working on their Geek Squad.

I wonder how many great inventions never became a reality because that dreamer (engineer) couldn't get a job, because no one would throw him a bone, because it's all about making a buck.

Come Monday, I'm going to send in an application for Best Buy's Geek Squad, and if I get it, guess I'll just have to be happy at that for the rest of my life, because that's the job I could get. Ok, so maybe I'll wait till next week, just in case something happens this week.

Numanuma

2005-02-05T01:21:00.000-08:00

My good friend -V- sent me a note the other day while he was in class telling me to Google Numanuma, so I did, and I got this rather amusing vid. It's a pretty catchy tune, I think it's German, but I'm not sure. The guy in the vid reminds me a lot of the the Jedi Kid from a couple of years ago ... you know who I'm talking about. Alas, it's not the same kid. I hope that both of these guys just made these vids for fun. Sad thing is, there are people out there that think their "lives" online are more real and better than their real lives. Kip from Napolean Dynamite was like this too, a guy that lived online, unfortunately most peoples online lives don't meet their real lives as well as Kip's did. Umm ... I think I'm going to have to find the MP3 of Numanuma for my collection of odd music. ;)

PS. - Just found a website that says Numanuma is in Romanian

Campus Ministry Retreat

2005-01-25T01:13:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was the campus ministry retreat, some friends of mine from Moscow got to come, and it was really good to get to see them. The retreat had its ups and downs. Some people were really touched by the speaker and the guys/girls sessions, while others weren't touched at all ... that's pretty normal for church retreats. I left the retreat with a lot to think about. Carlo has asked me a couple of times now what I learned over the weekend, and I keep telling him that he's just going to have to keep wondering what I learned ... funny thing is I think I learned more last night at Red Robin's in 5 minutes than I learned all weekend, but I wouldn't have learned from what happened at Red Robin's if it weren't for the weekend. A comment was bad about my job and money situation, and it made me feel very little and kind of mad. For a couple of minutes I was pretty upset, sad part is, I was upset with someone I really respect. I know it wasn't ment to make me feel small and needy. After all, it's just money, when someone else is short on money, I'm usually the first person to help, but when it's me, I get upset, boy talk about PRIDE getting in the way of things. Well, I can't sleep since I'm still thinking about this last weekend, so I think I'm going to post some of the pictures I took on my website.

Retreat!!!!

2005-01-20T21:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I did have a whole entry typed up, but I hit the wrong button and now it's all gone, so now I guess I'll have to try and redo it. In all reality, it was probably God that wanted my entry to get lost, it wasn't very nice to someone.

My problem is that I feel that this Campus Ministry retreat should be about grow closer together has a group, meeting new people from another campus ministry, and growing closer to God. 1 person is planning on taking some TVs and xBoxes, and I feel that that is kind of a bad idea. I mean we can play Halo 2 anytime as a group here at home, we don't need to do that at a retreat. I have nothing but respect and admoration for this person, I just personally think that xboxes at this retreat isn't all that great of an idea. Personally, I'd be happy without electricity all weekend. I think I'm going to go and start packing for the retreat.

New year ... again

2005-01-10T01:53:00.000-08:00

I just type a bunch of stuff and lost it all, so lets try this again.

As I lay here in bed thinking about this new year, I have fear and hope for it. Fear of the unknown. Fear of opening up to people, opening up to people in the campus ministry isn't too hard though. Fear that I won't get anywhere in life this year. Fear of some doom around the corner, don't know why yet. Fear of becoming depressed and freaking out again, like I have been off and on lately. I do have high hopes for this year too. Hope that our Life Groups will grow in maturity, both mentally and spiritually. Hope that Huskies for Christ will grow by leaps and bounds, and make a difference in college student lives.

I don't usually do this, but I think I will make some resolutions this year. Yea, I know it's not the first of the year, but I'm going to do it anyway. In no real order:

Be Open (show up)
Get a job and keep it
Move and start a guys campus house
Study my Bible
Prepair for Life Group
Get in shape / work out

I'm sure someone will read more into this than there is, but that's ok, just leave a comment if you do or if something is unclear.

Evidently I'm dead

2004-12-27T21:25:00.000-08:00

Well, I got a little bored after driving 8 hours back from Boise and sitting here waiting for Windows XP to install on this computer for my sister. I did a google search on my full name and came up with his article. I guess in May of 2001 I died, at the age of 39 (I'm only 25 right now), and I'm from Costa Mesa (where ever that is). Maybe it's not always a good idea to do a search on your self, but it sure can be funny.

Run away

2004-12-23T15:39:00.000-08:00

So, I ran away for the weekend, well "long" weekend. I'm in Boise right now, hanging out with my friend Eric. He's playing Rachet & Clank on his PS2. We're going to go over to Darin & Shylo's for dinner, Brandi is going to meet us there. She's looking to get a house, so is Eric. Neither of them make all that much, but the cost of living here in Boise is pretty low compared to like Seattle. It's so nice that Eric has DSL now, I can come over to his place and use the internet and chat with people. Well, I guess I'll end this post here. Laterz ya'll.

Petpev

2004-12-06T15:25:00.000-08:00

Well, yesterday in church, the preacher hit one of my petpevs. He was talking about AIDS. AIDS this and AIDS that, when he was really meaning HIV. Granted, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is the final stage of HIV. The problem is, there's another AIDS, Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome (referred to by some as Autoimmune Disorders now), with is a category of diseases many of which are nontransferable. My Grandma has Myasthenia Gravis which is an Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome or Autoimmune Disorder, so she has AIDS, but not HIV/AIDS. So I get a little upset when people start talking about AIDS when they really mean HIV/AIDS. It's like talking about Asians when there's a big difference between Chinese and Japanese.

Back from Thanksmas

2004-11-29T13:05:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back in the Seattle area from spending Thanksmas in Boise. Had a good time hanging out with my family, and getting to play with my 2 nieces. They are so cute. Got some letters in the mail from the state unemployment, looks like there might be some problems with me filing for unemployment. Called them today, they still don't have all the info from Idaho, so if that doesn't come through I have to call them back and have them recalculate everything ... fun fun fun.

Laid Off

2004-11-22T21:16:00.000-08:00

So, last week I got laid off. Even knowing that it was coming, and that it had nothing to do with my ability or anything I've done, it still hurts and has made me freak out a little. Honestly, I'm rather surprised that I'm still standing and running helping all the people that I have been helping. I've only broken down in tears 3 times, twice while on the phone. But you know what, I will land on my feet, I know that, and I'm not just saying that to make my self feel better. I know it's true. I've been offered 1 job several times now and I've said no everytime. It's campus ministry, and I would have to raise all my own support. I'm worth more to the campus ministry not running a campus ministry at a school. blah blah blah (stuff I can't write because of who will read this) Beside, I worked hard for the degree I've got and I'd like to get a chance to use it. Plus, I know I'll be much happier working as an engineer full-time, and helping the campus ministry part-time. I've actually been really really really busy since I've been laid off ... Carlo, you da man.

Rough 2 days

2004-11-16T14:44:00.000-08:00

Man, it's been a rough 2 days. I've been shaking almost non-stop since yesterday around 2:30ish. I'll go into more details later tonight or tomorrow once I've calmed down some more. Most of you will find out what's up tonight at Life Group or Starbucks. Yea I know this entry doesn't make a lot of sense, I just needed to post something to pass the time :)

Insane week

2004-11-09T11:02:00.000-08:00

Last week was such an insane week. Every night from Tuesday through Sunday I was out doing something, and usually out pretty late (or early next morning).

Tuesday - Live Group then Starbucks till 1am
Wednesday - Impact, only out till 11pm
Thursday - movie at Jamies, about 11pm again
Friday - Lola's going away party, 2:30am
Saturday - Airport and Sushi, 12am
Sunday - Church then Starbucks till about 12am

Yesterday and work, I went home, tried not to get online or answer my phone, but that didn't work out 100% as well as I wanted, but it was still relaxing with 4 loads of laundry, LOL.

Lola's party

2004-11-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

Last night we had a going away party for Lola. Everyone is really going to miss her when she leaves this week. Some people are already talking about visiting her in Tanzania, would be cool to visit there :) Well, I got the picture from the party up online already.

Bush Wins!

2004-11-04T09:54:00.000-08:00

Bush won relection, and there was no confussion like 2004 with Gore. If you like or hate Bush, one thing that you must remember is God has a plan and no ruler comes into power without God allowing it. Majority of the people interviewed leaving the polls said that their number one reason for voting for Bush was on morals. Any christian knows that when a nation turns to God that nation will prosper and when the Nation turns away from God it will be destroyed, this is shown over and over in the Old Testament. Regardless if I think Kerry could get us out of Iraq quicker and better, his morals do not follow the Bible as much as Bush. Well, that's my 2 cents worth.

So, Arafat may or may not be dead, we don't know for sure yet. The hospital in Paris says no, but a lot of people seem to think he is dead. Wonder if the hospital is saying that he's not dead because Arafats buddies told them to and they're planning something, maybe good...maybe they want to get in place to stop any possible riots :)

Pictures

2004-11-01T13:13:00.000-08:00

Got pictures posted from the party yesterday. Have been playing with it a little, I don't really care for FrontPage, but it's easy to use and easy to just throw a quick site together with a photo gallery. Granted, it's a pain if I want to update it in HTML, but on well. The pictures are on my new website.

Halloween Party

2004-10-30T19:14:00.000-07:00

I threw a Halloween party last night, there were 20 people crammed into my little apartment. Some people were dressed up, but most weren't. The apartment is a nice size for 1 person, maybe 2 or 3 people over to watch a movie, but not the best size for 20 people. I'll get pictures posted online tomorrow, I'll post the link when I've got them up.

Had lunch with Ryan & Nikki, Ben (both campus ministers at UI), along with Craig & Anna (students at UI). We ate at Red Robin downtown on the water front then we walked around for awhile.

Having a party

2004-10-28T22:36:00.000-07:00

I'm throwing a party tomorrow night, should be fun except I don't have much seating, good thing there's floor space.

I read as much of a friend's LJ as I could since I don't have an LJ account and his is set for friends only. Found his LJ very interesting though, there's a lot more to this guy than I had thought. He may be quiet but there's a lot going on in his head.

Got a couch

2004-10-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been in this apartment since July 1, and I've finally gotten a couch. I talked Jaime into going to Ikea so I could use her for a pickup. I've put some pics of my living room online.

TV - http://home.comcast.net/~me_strange/TV.JPG
Fireplace - http://home.comcast.net/~me_strange/fireplace.JPG
Couch - http://home.comcast.net/~me_strange/couch.JPG

Hope this entry turns out ok, I'm writting it on my PDA while sitting on my new couch, watching CSI Miami.

New Reality Show

2004-10-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

Last night on TBS I came across a new reality/contest show He's a Lady, it is so funny. I was laughing to hard through the whole show. And I think Ann is right, I could probably beat all the guys on that show, except all of them are guys guy, and I'm not exactly a guys guy. I'm don't really like sports, drinking beer, or strip clubs. But do those things really make a guys guy? I don't think so, but I'm also not the rest of the country. Oh look at the time, Futurama is going to be on in a few minutes, then after that it's Family Guy. I'm off to watch some TV.

It's been awhile

2004-10-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

So, it's been awhile since I've written in here, wish I could say that it's a good sign and I've been busy with life, but it's not, I've just been busy with work and too bored to write anything. blah blah blah, yea whatever.

My boss gave me a pretty good article today, I'm sure I'll hear about it when he reads this :P. So you guy won't call? There's a message there It's actually a really good article and makes a lot of sense. So I decided to fire off a text message to her and see how her day is going.

A couple of weeks ago there was a poor college student in Eugene Oregon, yes I know that's normal, but his TV was emiting an international distress signal. So the search and resue people show up at his door, do a little looking around and messuring before discovering that it's his TV...there's been a lot of people, mostly on slashdot, wanting to know what he was watching to cause his TV to ask to be rescued. However, it was just a hardware malfuction, those do happen from time to time, I'm sure we all know someone who's brain as malfuctioned. On the good side though, Toshiba is replacing the guys TV even though it was out of warrenty.

Went to dinner

2004-10-02T15:07:00.000-07:00

So, as many of you know, I took a girl to dinner last night. Everything went good. I had a good time, I think she had a good time. She didn't try to run away. I picked her up at her place, and she was dressed up more that I normally see her. We went to a little place in Kirkland call Hector's. Online I saw that Hector's was a Mexican place, but it wasn't. I don't really know how to describe their food, it was a nice place. Prices weren't bad, $13 was about average. After dinner I took her down to the office to show off the lab and tried describing it to her. She's not really into computers, so I didn't go very in depth. Showed her the Seattle skylight from our office window, and you could see a lot of traffic on I-90 too, which was cool.

Too many cooks in 1 house

2004-10-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

What happens when you've got too many cooks in 1 kitchen? ... Usually there will be some disagreement on how certain dishes should be prepared. Well, in this article that Heather sent me, a disagreement over how the skinless chicken was the least of this family's problem. You'll just have to read it for yourself.

cell phone edicate

2004-09-29T16:13:00.000-07:00

CNN had this article titled Loud phone call leads to pregnant woman's arrest. This girl named Sakinah was being very loud, rude, and cursing on her phone in public. An officer asked her several time to please calm down, but she didn't. So, the officer did what he was trained to do. He put her on the ground and hand cuffed her and arrested her...the only problem is, she was 5 month pregnant at the time. I do feel bad that a 5 month pregnant woman was forced to the ground and had a knee in her back, but come on girl, learn some cell phone edicate...for that matter learn some edicate period. Granted, I'm not perfect, but we need to keep our tempers under control. There are more important things in the world, like Sakinah's unborn baby, than whatever little thing she was screaming on the phone about with her girl friend. Get a life people, and learn some edicate. Screaming and cursing in public is not nice, and offensive to most everyone.

Baby tossed from car during cop chase

2004-09-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

CNN has this article where a guy tossed his girlfriend's 8 month old out the car, still strapped into the baby seat, while he's driving. From the sounds of it he wasn't going very fast when he tossed the baby out. The baby is fine, no injuries, but what bothers me the most, is CNN, or any of the other articles I've read, tell us the manufacture and model number of that baby seat. I for one wouldn't mind knowing, looks like that's a pretty safe one to put your kids in.

Playing with guns

2004-09-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

A guy got shot by 1 of his dogs. It's just too funny, you'll have to read the CBS article to truely understand what happened. CBSNews has the best picture to for it.

Well, sounds like Leisa's heart surgery went very well yesterday, and she didn't have to stay in the hospital over night either. She had a similar surgery done 2 years ago, but it didn't solve the problem. The doctors said that this might not solve her problem this time either, but hopefully it did. I'll probably call her tomorrow after work to see how she's doing, she should be on her way back to Moscow today.

Boise State 65, Idaho 7

2004-09-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

Go Vandals, Go Vandals, how badly can you suck. This weekend was the big in state football game between University of Idaho and Boise State University, and guess what UI lost 65 to 7. I think we're going for a new record this year, win 0 games. That'll beat the other year when we won just 1 game for the season. Can't wait till they play WSU, probably going to be like 120 to 0. You can keep track of UI football at ESPN. And to think, UI had a great team just 10 years ago, we beat WSU 6 years straight I think. At least UIs engineering program is pretty good.

Motion Sick

2004-08-31T14:36:00.000-07:00

So, since Ikea was all sold out of the couch I wanted to get this weekend, I decided to spend that money on a TV and XBox instead, and of course I had to get Halo, not that I really like that kind of game all that much. I sat down yesterday to play Halo, or as I like to call it "see how fast the machine can kill me." I did good, I haven't died yet, but it is on the easiest setting. Played for about an hour to hour and a half, at which point I started to get really sick. Oh yea, did I mention I don't like RPGs much cause they'll make me motion sick after about an hour to hour and a half...which isn't all bad, cause I can't just sit and play for hours on end. Umm, think I'll get some Dew and drink that while playing Halo, isn't that what all the gamers drink ;) Oh, I wonder what the Dew would taste like with some Vodka in it, yummy, might have to try that someday.

Eye of the beholder

2004-08-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

It's amazing that what 1 person sees as simple another person sees it has very difficult. Spent awhile on the phone tonight helping my dad to check his voice mail on his cell phone, mind you, this is the first cell phone he's had that's had voice mail, plus, he's never used voice mail before. Granted, the instructions were missing a step, they forgot to mention that when the system is telling you that you are now being redirected to voice mail, you're suppose to press # if you want to check your messages. Didn't take too long to figure that our though. I guess he'd been at it for a couple of hours. If I ever get to the point where I can't figure out some simple piece of technology, like voice mail, then it's time someone ended it for me. ;)

Is freedom leaving Hong Kong???

2004-08-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

According to an article on SFGate, a Hong Kong pro-democracy politician was arrested for allegedly having sex with a prostitue, and then sentenced without trail to six months of "re-education through labor." He was arrested inside of mainland China and not in Hong Kong. So, odds are he didn't do anything wrong except for being pro-democracy...welcome to China, guess you shouldn't have crossed the boarder.

Well, it's been awhile since I've written anything on here. Got through last week without people at work knowing I had a birthday...well, they'll know now... I went to a drive in movie for the first time, say Bourne Supermicy and The Manchurian Candidate. They were interesting, but not really my type of movies, and that it was really hot sitting in a car. We did have lawn chairs and were sitting outside of the car, but got yelled at for having chairs, so we put them away and just sat on the ground, then we got yelled at again. But come to find out, they never yelled at, or talked to, the old lady that wasn't far from us who was sitting in a lawn chair next to her car. Age discrimination I tell you, Age discrimination :)

Went and hung out at Starbucks last night after Bible study, didn't leave there till a little after 1am, and that was in Shoreline, so I didn't get home till almost 1:30am, and didn't go to bed till about 2am...weeee

Heather's Visit

2004-08-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

My trip here to the Seattle area has been great! I've been trying to plan a weekend to come up and see David for awhile and it was perfec timing.

Did a lot of fun stuff including: visiting Pike's Market, seeing the Blue Angels, taking some time to wander through the IKEA store and look for furniture for David's apartment, I bought more than he though, since he didn't actually buy anything this time.

We went to the lab/office. David showed me his work~which since I didn't get to see the Senior Design when I went to his graduation, was very much anticipated. It was, for lack of a better word, Astounding. I am one of the only ones in the family that actually understands computers and what David does, so I have been in on his projects from the start. I was surprised at how far it has come and been developed farther than I was expecting.

David is SOO excited about this project, his child-like excitement in showing me the demo-room was contagious and relieving. David is doing something he loves and is excited about it-I am proud to say the least...Okay enough of the sappy stuff...the project Rocks!! David's nerdness pays off, who would have ever guessed but me of course. Never had a doubt!

So Seattle is great and fun, and relaxing gettaway for myself with some great company, but as all great things end-I need to head home and go back to my job and home.

Have fun World!

Weird Deaths

2004-08-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

There were 2 rather odd deaths in the news today, first one was a 13 year old boy that died after running from a bear. He didn't die because the bear caught him, nor did he run off a cliff, he died from respiratory distress. Kid dies running from bear. US has the most over weight people in the world, and the most out of shape people in the world. Granted, I'd have some respiratory distress too if I had to run for my life, but I wouldn't drop over dead from it...I hope. The second odd death, wasn't really that odd as much as it was a very traject accident. Man in England was prunning a tree with a chainsaw while his wife was below him working in the garden, he fell and the chainsaw landed on her, nough said. I can't find the link anymore. My question is, why was she below him, while he's on a ladder with a chainsaw, that's just asking for trouble. Umm, maybe someone should submit these 2 to the Darwin awards. Real offbeat news you've got to check out this article, some people will do anything for their pets.

blah blah blah, yea it was one of those days, but tomorrow will be better, why you ask, cause I said so :P

UB Pep Band - QuickTime Video - Tunak Tunak Tun!

2004-08-03T23:19:00.000-07:00

UB Pep Band - QuickTime Video - Tunak Tunak Tun! Wow, thanks Ann for sending this link. I thought we were so original at Darin and Shylo's wedding...well, these guys are in a Pep Band, so maybe we're the first ones to do this at a wedding reception ;) Love you Darin and Shylo.

Finished Bedroom

2004-08-02T00:35:00.000-07:00

Well...more or less I guess. I finally moved my bed in from the living room, where it's been against the wall since I got back from the wedding. It's so nice to sleep on a bed and not the floor. Put my desk together too, now my computer isn't on the floor, so I can lay in bed and watch TV on my computer now :) Got my DVDs and VeggieTales stuff unpacked today. I think I'm going to put my Legos on the bottom shelf of my little book shelf instead of text books. Heather is planning on coming up and visiting next weekend, not for sure though. She's going to help me pick out some couches. Hopefully I have enough money for couches, I spent over $800 last week with my car breaking down, and getting a hitch put on, and renting a trailer and hotel room. Which reminds me, I need to get the recipe for being towed mailed into my insurance so they reimburse me.

Project at work is pretty much done, MS will be in on Tuesday to check it out, they were suppose to be in a Friday, but rescheduled. Not too sure what will happen with work after this though, guess time will tell. Got to remember, no matter what, I'm here for a reason.

Wedding

2004-07-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the wedding was on July 24, and I'm just now getting around to writing about it. It was fun, got to see a lot of people. Kevin has pictures posted on his website. I ended up with the garder, wink wink. One of the best parts of the reception was the final dance...we danced to Tunak Tunak by the talented Daler Mehndi. I've gone ahead and posted both the MP3 and Video of this wonderful song. The video is a real file though...don't hurt me, that's all I could find. The girl serving at the recpetion tried to card me for chapage, cause she thought I was too young. So that got me a little pissed off.

After the wedding we went and hung out at Ed's hotel, the Hilton, and spent some time in the hot tub, that felt so relaxing. Then we went out to eat and meet up with Jason. On Sunday is when I drove back to Seattle, or at least tried. I ended up breaking down just South of Baker City. I nice trucker stopped and gave me a ride to a gas station where I called for a tow. I ended up having to spend the night there, and the girl at the hotel I stayed at carded me, cause she didn't think I was over 18, and they don't rent rooms to people under 18...turns out I'm older than she is :-P Monday morning, finally got my car fixed and drove up to Seattle, talk about a long and expensive weekend.

Bachlor Party

2004-07-24T00:58:00.000-07:00

weee...the bachlor party rocked. We conviced some people that I was the one getting married, cause the guy getting married was ridding in a different. So, I'm a little...drunk...not too sure how much I had tonight, but I know I only had 1 beer (bitch beer that is), everything else was hard A. I had a good time, I got to relax and have fun with my buddies. It's good to relax. Wedding is tomorro, so I'll be in my tux and ready for pixs by 12:30pm. Well, it's late (or early depending on how you look at it) so I'm going to crash on Eric's couch...so my parents don't know I was out drinking...hehe

Here for a reason

2004-07-20T23:56:00.000-07:00

Well, by 8:30pm tonight I really wanted to pack up and go back to Boise. Had a hard day at work, don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the work, it's a lot of fun, just don't like having to keep changing the same small thing, over and over again, because everyone thinks that things should be done slightly differently or in a slightly different location....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I just have to remember that God has put me here for a reason, and He won't put me in any situation that I can't handle. I'm starting to make friends, so that's good. Meet more people at bible study tonight, beats me what their names are though :) And, I'll be in Boise this weekend, get to see Kira's baby, and see everyone at the wedding. Sleepy sleepy time now..........

Fellowship

2004-07-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

Fellowship was tonight's sermon topic, and how we no longer have the "agape" feast, so after the sermon everyone went into the fellowship hall for pizza, fellowship, and each table took communion on their own. The key verse for the sermon was Luke 14:12-14 - "The Jesus said to his host, 'When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.'" (NIV)
So, I hung out, ate pizza, and meet new people. I sat with a family, didn't get their names, and Pat, the pastor's son. The father of the family was pretty cool, they asked what I do, and I told them, and he just went off and on different projects that he's been on, which were pretty cool. He also talked about him and his dad doing stuff with X10, and hooking X10 up with hot tubs.

Bite of Seattle

2004-07-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Erik and I went to the Bite of Seattle, on the way there traffic was so bad, I ended up cutting in front of someone, and ended up "tapping" the pickup in front of us. We got to looking at the pickup and saw the license plate cover and it said "Alumni Washington Status University", great I tapped someone from Wazzu, but there was no damage, so scratch. We followed him for awhile, since we were going in the same direction, he finally got out at a stop light and checked his bumpper, I apoligized, and he said since there was any damage to not worry about it, and he turned right and we turned left and went out separte ways.

When we finally made it down to the Seattle Center area, parking was expensive, so I found a spot to parallel park :D I ended about half way up on the curb, but hey, I was out of the way. There were so many people at the Bite of Seattle, virtually no where to sit, and it's been a very long time since I've felt like a minority, and boy did Erik and I stand out, at least we thought so. There were a lot of freaks out there too, saw 1 guy with a rather large spiky mohauk. We stayed for about an hour, then left. The food wasn't anything special, the ads said that 50 area resturants would have booths there, but it was mostly fair food, stuff you see at just about any fair or carnival.

After the Bite of Seattle we came back to Kirkland, than around 9:30pm we went downtown since we've noticed that at night Kirkland gets rather busy. Walked by a couple of places that I'll have to go back and check out sometime, and I don't have to feel bad being that 1 guy sitting there all alone, saw a couple of different people that were all by themselves.

Guess I should start getting my stuff together to go to work, weee, as long as I'm out of there by 5:30pm so I can make it to church :)

Assignment #1

2004-07-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

So, I got this assignment before I got hired, but as always, I put it off. But I've finally gotten this blog up and going, sort of. I'll do more with it once I get my new webspace up and going to and get away from UI's webspace, which I haven't updated in awhile. If you're interested it's www.uidaho.edu/~ande2050