up up and away!

ok, so I may not be flying, but I am going away so there. off to garden I go. see y'all on the 27th.

ever wonder how a keyboard works?

well, as many of you know, I'm taking a course to prepare for the MCAT in a couple of months. one of the perks of taking the course is that you can subscribe to an e-newsletter called the pre-med edge. there's a section in there called 'pop science' that basicall explains how stuff works. this month's topic is the keyboard. most of the info is adapted from the website www.howstuffworks.com which I highly suggest you visit if, like me, you've ever wondered how stuff works. maybe I can finally figure out how that toaster works... anyways, below is the article on keyboards.


How Computer Keyboards Work

The part of the computer that we come into most contact with is probably the piece that we think about the least. But the keyboard is an amazing piece of technology. For instance, did you know that the keyboard on a typical computer system is actually a computer itself?
At its essence, a keyboard is a series of switches connected to a microprocessor that monitors the state of each switch and initiates a specific response to a change in that state.

The processor in a keyboard has to understand several things that are important to the utility of the keyboard, such as:

Position of the key in the key matrix.
The amount of bounce and how to filter it.
The speed at which to transmit the typematics.
The key matrix is the grid of circuits underneath the keys. In all keyboards except for capacitive ones, each circuit is broken at the point below a specific key. Pressing the key bridges the gap in the circuit, allowing a tiny amount of current to flow through. The processor monitors the key matrix for signs of continuity at any point on the grid. When it finds a circuit that is closed, it compares the location of that circuit on the key matrix to the character map in its ROM. The character map is basically a comparison chart for the processor that tells it what the key at x,y coordinates in the key matrix represents. If more than one key is pressed at the same time, the processor checks to see if that combination of keys has a designation in the character map. For example, pressing the a key by itself would result in a small letter "a" being sent to the computer. If you press and hold down the Shift key while pressing the a key, the processor compares that combination with the character map and produces a capital letter "A."
Adapted from howstuffworks.com.

there's still hope

on my lunch break today, I decided to have BK simply because I didn't really have any "lunch food" at my place. as I was heading in, I stopped and opened the outside door for an elderly lady walking out. behind the old lady was a mother with three children behind her. the oldest of the children held the inside door open for her and his little brothers AND ME. I walked through the door and kindly thanked him for his troubles. it's things like this that make me smile and think that maybe, just maybe, humanity may survive this spiral of despair it seems to be on. in this world of "me firsts" and "out of my ways", it's nice to see that there are still people that are still courteous. his parents did a good job raising him and in the off chance that you're reading this, thank you. so, long story short, be courteous, it does make a difference.

o christmas tree! o christmas tree!

andrea and I put up our tree a couple of weeks ago but I've been too busy/lazy to put the pictures up until now so here they are:

here's our tree with the lights on

I got us a 2005 ornament to celebrate our first tree together

here's our tree all lit up

and a close up of our tree topper

my arms shake like a bowl full of jelly...no wait...that can't be right...

well, as you can probably tell, I've been working out with the eye toy thingy again. I just got done and although the games are fun and good for you, I believe the toning sections are just there as the trainer's way of torturing you. I did the upper body toning section again and I can already feel my triceps tensing up (it usually takes me three days to feel the result of any workout) so I'm definitely looking forward to three days from now. should be fun doing sticks if I can't bend my elbows. and my reward for torturing myself? a glass of water and a red pear. mmmmmm...delish. and the plans for the rest of tonight? clean up the apt and prepare some food stuff for tomorrow. andrea and I are having some people over for a christmas-ish gathering and since she's got to work all day tomorrow, I have to do most of the prep work. what else...? oh yeah, I went down to manhattan yesterday and spent the night at shannon and nicole's place. we played warhammer which was pretty fun. we played a skirmish scenario where the weather changed every turn, thus producing different effects on either teams. it was fun and unpredictable. the highlight of the night was when chris's flamer rat-thingies, the only things that could've seriously damaged every figure on my side, spontanesouly combusted the first time it tried to fire its weapon and killed itself. I laughed lots. in the end, good triumphed. I believe it turned out to be a decisive victory or something like that. other things I did today include driving all the way to Nebraska Furniture Mart, that's an additional hour's drive from getting back from manhattan, to get my sister's christmas present only to find out it closed five minutes before I got there. that's all right. I wound up stopping by the nearby border's, best buy, dick's sporting goods, and bed bath and beyond for some christmas shopping. only two more presents to buy. one for my parents and the other one for a friend of mine. well, off to relax and clean a bit. if you don't hear from me tomorrow, you can rest assured that it won't be because I don't have anything to say. it'll be because I won't be able to control my muscles enough to type.

let there be eggrolls!

well, I called home tonight to tell my parents that I proposed and that she said yes and whilst on the phone, I asked my mom to make eggrolls for the christmas party. I can confirm that there will be eggrollage and fried riceage. let the feast begin!

she said yes

quite a bit of an emotional jump from the previous post to this one. just to let anyone that is interested know, andrea and I are now engaged. I asked yesterday and she said yes. so you can look forward to wedding news sometime or other. in other news, we went to vespers yesterday (the christmas concert) and it was awesome as always. this'll be the fourth year we've gone and we've never been disappointed. it has the choirs as well as the symphonies and they sing carols from all over the world. they even have sing-a-longs. well, I'm kinda hungry now so food good. anything else I've forgotten to mention can wait.

bear

I was told that Bear passed away this morning. at least I got to see you one last time at thanksgiving. much like Argos seeing Odysseus finally return, you too, let your spirit go and passed silently into the night. farewell, old friend. you will be missed and thought of fondly.

yea! christmas shopping is almost done!

well, I spent some time yesterday christmas shopping so I'm almost all done. I still have my parents and two other friends I think and I'm completely done. go me. I also updated my wishlist and watched the snow fall yesterday. that was about it. to find my most updated wishlist, click here. well, I'm going to go and paint more wood elves.

random question

if tryptophan is the chemical that causes drowsiness in humans, why don't you see any narcoleptic turkeys? just a thought. anyways, it's snowing here so I'm going to do something indoors. *gobble, gobble*...zzzzzzz....

soooooo sore...can't move....muscle...

well, I just got this "game" for the eyetoy to try and keep in shape a bit since I can't make it to as many tae kwon do classes as I used to and there isn't any hockey for the rest of the year. the "game" is called kinetic. it's pretty fun. basically, it's the usual eyetoy stuff except the games focus on toning specific muscles and whatnot. they have different "zones" that focus on different things. there's a cardio zone that works on getting the heart rate up, a combat zone that focuses on reflexes and muscles, a toning zone that obviously tones your muscles, and a mind and body zone that works on breathing and concentration. all in all, it's pretty fun but exhausting. if you're interested, you can find out more about it here. there's even a mode where you have a personal trainer that takes you through a 12 week program. that's the one I'm working on now. well, I think I'll go and let my muscles relax before they cramp up on me tomorrow. btw, the game is called kinetic.

your gift-giving prayers have been answered

well, I've had several complaints that I'm hard to shop for so I decided to do one of those gift registry thingies. you can find it here. just check off the thing once you've bought it so someone else doesn't buy it too.

through the years we all will be together/ if the fates allow

well, I was driving around and was listening to star 102 because there was nothing better on the radio and they were doing their annual we-gotta-play-christmas-music-before-anyone-else-does thing and they played 'have yourself a merry little christmas' which just happens to be my favorite christmas carol. I think it has something to do with the aforementioned lyrics and how relevant they are to me. for the past seven years or so, my friends and I have been able to be together even though we don't live in the same town and, in some cases, even the same state anymore. I think that's probably one of the reasons why christmas is my favorite holiday. well, enough sentimental stuff. I go enjoy the rest of my night now.

plans semi-finalized

well, it looks like we have a definite date for the christmas party this year and rather than emailing everyone or calling everyone, I thought I'd post it here. it will be on drum roll please....dec. 27th in Garden! tentative plans include shannon and nicole cooking dinner that night, everyone looking spiffy, and fun galore. more details tba.

short post

have 5 minutes to spare so I thought I'd post. what have I been doing? well, basically working. this weekend I actually did something fun though. on saturday, I helped out with the belt test and afterwards, andrea and I went out christmas shopping and then played mario party 7. yesterday, andrea, her mom, sister and I played mario party 7 and had pizza. and then back to work today. that's been my life so far. right now, I have about three minutes left so I'm back to cleaning before I have to leave for a staff meeting. random note: pickle and julia, howzabout the 27th of Dec?

MSN Encarta - History's Most Underrated Inventions

ever wonder what history's most underrate inventions were? find out
here and here

Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?

I don't know if any of you ever watched animaniacs on the WB but there used to be a little short cartoon called Pinky and the Brain ("one is a genius and the other's insane/ they're laboratory mice/ their genes have been spliced", etc.) anyways, I came upon a site with fun quotes from the show on it here. below are a couple of fun ones.

The Brain: This is the earth. And this is Pinky. You can tell the difference quite easily. One is a lump of inert matter hurtling blindly through the void. The other... is the earth.

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The Brain: We're going to a place where the sun never sets, the size of your wallet matters, and actors and actresses slave all day.
Pinky: We're going to Denny's?

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The Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so Brain, but if you replace the P with an O, my name would be Oinky, wouldn't it?

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The Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but then it'd be Snow White and the Seven Samurai...

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The Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so Brain, but burlap chafes me so.

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The Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so Brain, but... Kevin Costner with an English accent? I dunno.

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The Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: Well, I think so Brain, but isn't Regis Philbin already married?

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The Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: Well, I think so Brain, but if we didn't have ears, we'd look like weasels.

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The Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: Um... I think so, Brain, but what if the chicken won't wear the nylons?

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The Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so Brain, but if Jimmy cracked corn, and no one cares, why does he keep doing it?

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Pinky: Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight?
The Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world.

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The Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but we're already naked.

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The Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but me and Pippi Longstocking... I mean, what would the children look like?

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The Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: Uh... yeah, Brain, but where will we get rubber pants our size?

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The Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: Well, I think so, Brain, but I can't memorize a whole opera in Yiddish.

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The Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but can the Gummi Worms really live in peace with the Marshmallow Chicks?

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The Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: Yes Brain, but if our knees bent the other way, how would we ride a bicycle?

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The Brain: Tomorrow night, Pinky, we will come up with a new plan. One that isn't foiled by the atomic weight of gold.

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The Brain: Do you practice being dim or is it a natural talent?
Pinky: Oh practice Brain. All day, EVERYDAY!

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The Brain: There are days I think I'd be more productive if my sidekick were a pliant corndog.

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The Brain: Pinky, there are times when I feel i'm bearing my soul to a tube of caulk.
Pinky: Yum! Caulk!

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The Brain: Pinky, you give a whole new meaning to the phrase, "counter-intelligence".

Memo

To: Friends and family
From: Management
Date: November 9, 2005


Due to recent purchases made, I regret to inform you that purchasing powers have been restricted to the purchase of food items and items needed solely for day to day survival for the following individuals: Shannon, Nicole, Nette, Chris, Aaron, Julia. Your purchasing rights will once again be reinstated on the first of January. Thank you for your cooperation.

food fight

I was driving along in my car today running errands and happened to have my radio on NPR. evidently, there was a story about how the Danes are pissed off at the Greeks because they can no longer call feta cheese 'feta' (along the same lines as you're not supposed to call champagne 'champagne' unless it comes from france. if it was made somewhere else, it is sparkling wine). well, they had the agriculture secretary from Greece talk about the decision and he was happy about it and of course, they had his Danish counterpart talk about it and boy was he was pisssssedddd...he called the decision "crap". his words, not mine. he actually said that on an interview with NPR. and then he sulked about it like a little baby. it was kinda funny.

crash

well, just got done watching three of my six movies now (Layer Cake, Mindhunters, and Crash). out of the three, I think I'd have to say that Crash is my favorite. basically, the movie shows how the lives of the main characters are intermingled and how race and stereotypes play into it. it's shown through several different points of views. the movie is very powerful and moving, uplifting and yet demoralizing at the same time. I'd highly recommend watching it especially if you're interested in race relations and your name happens to be shannon, nicole, or nette. it's one of the few movies that I've rented that I will probably also eventually buy (the others being Mulin Rouge and Iron Monkey so you can sort of guage my taste in movies by that). it's also got a lot of big name stars in it including Sandra Bullock, Brandon Fraser, Don Cheadle, Tony Danza, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, etc. so, in summary, if you're bored sometime and/or need a movie that makes you think, rent "Crash".

not leaving the apartment

well, the weather's turning cold once again and it's raining outside. I have just gotten back from church and have just changed into my white sleeping pants and my comfy mount rushmore sweater and have decided that I'm not leaving the apartment for the rest of the weekend. I've got six movies rented (Layer Cake, Crash, Sahara, Kingdom of Heaven, Mindhunters, and Unleashed) so I will be watching those for the next two days. coupled with football tomorrow, I think my weekend's all set. well, I'm going to go and enjoy my reheated pizza now, the first real thing of any substance that I've consumed today.

3dfiction

well, I actually got off of work on time today (for once) so I had a little time to play on the computer and look for a new wallpaper. I came on this site below are a couple of fun pics from there. my current wallpaper is the first pic. it's called "abstract affinity". stop by the site if you have time.

of mice and men

well, as some of you may know, I've had a mouse running around my apartment for a little while now. anyways, this weeekend, I finally got motivated enough to do something about it. I bought a mouse trap and me being me, I had to go high tech and electricy. I got the trap at walmart for about $20 and took 4 AA batteries. the way it works is that you bait the trap with peanut butter and then the mouse finds its way in there and gets trapped in a tunnel thingy and then the trap basically electrocutes the mouse. my favorite part is that on the packaging, it says in big bold letters "for a humane kill" or something to that effect. anyways, I didn't have any peanut butter so I used nutella instead...mmm....nutella....back to the story...I followed the directions like the packaging tells me and set the trap. next evening when I got home from work, sure enough, the light that tells you the trap's been activated was blinking and there was a mouse tail hanging out of the trap. very well design trap and pretty inexpensive too. I don't know how much an exterminator costs but I'm sure it's more than $20 and 4AA batteries and a jar of nutella. so, long story short, if you've gotta get rid of mice *cough* Pickle and Julia *cough* you may want to consider getting the trap.

another recipe

well, work's been busy and hectic the past couple of weeks which is why I haven't posted much lately. after coming home from work, I barely have enough energy to eat whatever fast-food delicacy I happened to pick up on my way home and then crash. well, work was no different today. however, instead of picking something up, I decided that spaghetti sounded kinda good so I stopped over at Dillons and picked up some ingredients. I spent the rest of the night relaxingly cooking dinner and cleaning up a little. that's it. that's all I got done today which is still more than usual but yet more relaxing for some reason. I've also been looking into making some life altering changes so stay tuned for those in the next couple of months. just in case you're interested, here's the recipe for my penne lasagna caserole. it tastes a lot like lasagna but without the two hours it takes to make it. well, I didn't get much sleep last night so I'm off to bed now.

1 lb. ground sausage
4 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 large onion (chopped)
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 bag penne pasta
shredded cheese (mexican variety)


1. brown sausage and drain
2. add sausage and spaghetti sauce into pan
3. saute onions and garlic
4. add onions and garlic to spaghetti sauce
5. cook pasta and drain
6. pour spaghetti sauce over pasta. add shredded cheese on top

chili...gumbo...it's the same thing...

well, I thought that chili would be a good idea to make for dinner tomorrow night 'cause the weather's supposed to be kinda cold so I went to Dillons and got some ingredients. I threw them in the crock pot, added some water, and stirred it every once in awhile. well, long story short, it looks more like gumbo now than chili. I think I went wrong when I threw the kilbasa in there... in case you're wondering, the ingredients are:

2 lbs. ground beef
4 cloves garlic
3 jalapenos
1 vidalia onion
1 kilbasa
1 can diced tomatos
cumin
chili powder
red pepper powder
meat tenderizer

it really doesn't taste half bad...at least so far. who knows, maybe the stock'll reduce down and it'll resemble chili more. the meat smelled really good when it was cooking with the sauted onions and jalenos and garlic in the skillet though. well, anyways, I'm off again.

Pictures Galore!

well, I came across this daylight bulb the other day at walsmart so now I can take pictures at night too. yea! since people have been wanting pics of warhammer stuff, I thought I'd do that now. hmmm...apparently, blogger'll only let me post so many pics per post so this'll take several posts.

here's my cursed company. I hand-painted the insignia on the shield. it's supposed to be an eye but with the ink wash, you couldn't really tell what it was supposed to have been.

the goblin musician

the high elf standard bearer

Richter, the captain

other random cursed models

skeletons!

wood elves

my wood elves so far

my glade guards. I just finished them this morning.

the almighty tree-man. I converted it with a little lichen (I thought it looked better this way).

tree man top close-up.

tree man bottom close-up. the brightly colored things are spites.

They did what!?

well, I recently purchased a book called "The did what!?" at the 1/2 priced book store. it's a pretty fun book. it has all sorts of useless trivial stuff that I, for some reason, find interesting. well in any case, I've decided that each time I post, I'll also post a little excerpt from the book as well. In case you're interested in buying the book, it's by Bob Fenster and is published by McMeel publishing. if either of the two party are reading this blog and want the excerpts removed, feel free to leave a comment. otherwise, here's the first excerpt:

when Betty Grable and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. starred in the movie "That Lady in Ermine", she gave him an ermine jockstrap and he gave her an ermine chastity belt.

Preparing for the world's first face transplants - More Health News - MSNBC.com

Preparing for the world's first face transplants - More Health News - MSNBC.com

Your face will be removed and replaced with one donated from a cadaver, matched for tissue type, age, sex and skin color. Surgery should last 8 to 10 hours; the hospital stay, 10 to 14 days.

Complications could include infections that turn your new face black and require a second transplant or reconstruction with skin grafts. Drugs to prevent rejection will be needed lifelong, and they raise the risk of kidney damage and cancer.

After the transplant you might feel remorse, disappointment, or grief or guilt toward the donor. The clinic will try to shield your identity, but the press likely will discover it.

well sign me up for the operation right now!

of words and letters

splentaculariffic

part of speech: adj.
def: an portmanteau word made up of an amalgamation of the words splendid, spectacular, and terrific. an exciting event. superlative of spiffy.
example: 1) did you see that catch? it was splentaculariffic.
2) (sarcastic) what? we're understaffed again? that's just
splentaculariffic



another word that everyone should add to their vocabulary. just like spiffy and fooding.

the glade guards are coming! the glade guards are coming!

one down. a whole lot more to go.

all misty-eyed

well, I've been having a pretty awesome day so far. work's been going fine. kinda slow. I think it has something to do with the mist outside (which feels great by the way). I'm just sitting here right now listening to the rain and getting ready to food. really looking forward to tonight though. I'm scheduled to get off of work at 5:30 (which, in case you don't know, is really early for me) and I have nothing I have to do except watch frasier and lost and paint wood elves. go me! well, I go food now. hope all of you are having as great and as relaxing a day as I am.

the first wood elf

as promised, here are pics of my spellsinger. I actually used highlighting on it...and it only took me five hours to paint it. got five hours of sleep last night but that's more than enough for
me...zzzzzz....

incompetence abounds

well, work sucked today. we had a new guy start sticking a couple of days ago and he does a pretty decent job most of the time but for some reason, he had problems today. I think that about 51% of his sticks had to be adjusted or redone. luckily, we were only open for four hours today. unfortunately, I think I spent 3 3/2 of it fixing his mistakes or doing paperwork for the mistakes he made. now it's not that he made mistakes that annoys me. after all, I had more than my fair share when I first started. it's that I ask him if he needs help with a stick that obviously isn't working (i.e. there's no blood going into the needle), then he says no and digs around in the donor's veins for two or three minutes and then asks me to correct it after he's already gone through the vein and the arm is obviously swelling up and there's nothing that I can do that annoys me. throw into that the fact that we were understaffed and had a lot of donors come in and you have a pretty lousy day. anyways, after I got off of work, I came home and spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing productive. I played on the psp for a couple of hours and then started painting my spellsinger for a bit. I also worked on scenery a little bit but I don't know if I'll actually use it or not. it's too crumbly as of right now so I'll have to steady it somehow. well, I think my first layer of paint has dried on the spellsinger now so I'm back to painting and enjoying a glass of blackberry wine. if the spellsinger turns out good, I may post a pic sometime later.

my third army, or something in the woods stirs

well, I bet you can't tell what my third army is going to be by the title of my post... anyways, they should be here by next friday if not sooner. until then, two roads diverged in a yellow wood and I took the one filled with elves.

absolutely baffled

well, right now I'm rearranging my bed room so I can make a little bit more space. I'm looking at both of my surge protectors and I'm completely baffled as to how my apartment hasn't been burned to the ground yet. I have stuff plugged in that I didn't remember I owned. also, while I'm on the subject of bedroom stuff, I think my toilet's haunted because every once in a while, the water will start to run for no apparent reason, almost as if some unseen spectre had just finished using the toilet and was jiggling the handle. might have to check on that if I have time today...

I watch butts

after church today, I decided I should go to target and get some stuff. as I was walking in, I noticed this guy walking with his girlfriend and for some reason, how they walked caught my eye. when the girl walked, her hips moved from side to side but when the guy walked, his hips "bounced" (moved up and down). also, as I was driving home, with my window rolled down and hand resting out the window, I noticed that there were a lot of other people that had their windows rolled down. one interesting thing did caught my eye though. although the percentage of people that had their window down was fairly even for each gender, I noticed that guys tend to stick their whole hand/arm outside the window whereas chicks tend to leave only their elbows resting on the window. my theory on the reason for this is that sticking your whole arm outside the window shows more confidence, a trait more often associated with guys, because of the possible dangers entailed in doing so (getting your arm ripped off by a passing semi, etc.). whereas sticking your elbow out the window is a little bit more of a safer way to go. just a theory though. let me know if you have any thoughts as to why either of my observations occur.

on to less stalker-ish news, I went to see Brothers Grimm yesterday. it was...different. I'm still not really sure if I liked it or am indifferent to it. I think that part of the problem is that there are scenes where you can't really understand what the actors are saying due to them either mumbling or background noises covering them up. I do have to give the movie credit for having probably one of the best lines I've heard in awhile though: "It's not magic! It's just shiny!" plans for the rest of the day? relaxing, chillin', resting. not necessarily in that order.

my first wireless post

well this is my first wireless post. it takes awhile to post but at least it works. yea! happy day!

prone to violence

well, everyone else is talking about the hurricane so I thought I would too. while watching the news this morning, I found out that some asshole (I don't normally use words like this but I think 'asshole' is the best way to describe this individual) fired shots at a rescue chopper. so now, instead of evacuating people and helping those that are injured, like they're supposed to, rescue personel are staying back and trying not to get shot. my solution? everyone in Louisiana track down this idiot that fired the shots and just lynch him. you're already tired, testy and proned to violence so you might as well take it out on someone who deserves it. my advice to trigger-boy? run, asshole, run. problem solved. in all honesty though, I say to you, good readers, keep the people in Louisiana in your prayers and do whatever you can to help them.

pure evil

I've been in a very stitch-y mood as of late for some reason. not really sure why but I am. one of those imp-ish moods. as a matter of fact, I told my supervisor today that "I'm all out of nice. all that's left is pure evil."

quizno's : the subway alternative

well, for dinner I had quizno's. it was actually pretty good. if you haven't had the black angus before, I highly recommend it especially if you like sweet toasted stuff. as for the rest of the day, it's been hectic. woke up at 6:30 to bring my car into get fixed. painted until 8:45. walked to work. work sucked as always because we had stuff malfunction and were short-staffed again. on the bright side, we get some new people next week. all we have to do is survive this week...got off work at 5:30. hitched a ride from my sister to teach my two classes. hitched another ride to pick up the car. it wound up costing me $160 to get my headlights fixed and a couple of other taillights. got quizno's. ate a little bit. people came over for poker night. that brings me to now. and now I go relax...or sleep...

gnoblars not so gnobby

well, my gnoblars are no longer quite so gnobby. I spent most of my night finishing them off. they're all painted and assembled and everything. the only thing I have to do now is put flock on the bases and spray paint them with acryllic sealant. but I go to bed now. I've got to be up at 6:30 AM so I can bring the car in to get it's daytime running lamps fixed before I head off for work. it's gonna be a long day...

today and the week

I'm not really sure what it is but today's been a really crappy day, especially at work. I think it's because I still have a little bit of a headache from yesterday. hopefully it'll be all gone by tomorrow. anways here are some pics from the gigantic warhammer game from a couple of days ago. I call it the war of the eight armies (high elves, ogres, lizardmen, goblins, dark elves, chaos, undead, vampire counts). enjoy.

it's over! it's finally over!

well, it's been a very long day. I think we must've gotten over 20 new donors today. why is that impressive you ask? because new donors take FOREVER to process. they take about 2 hours to process and then when they finally get back to the donor floor we have to give them a fifteen minute speeche before they can even start their donation which already takes an hour or so to do. I didn't get out until a little after a quarter till seven (I was supposed to be off at six). what did I do after work, you ask? go home and relax? no. instead, I went to an instructor meeting which was pretty informative. so long story short, I worked 10 1/2 hours today, went to a two hour meeting, and now I'm home and have a headache. I think the headache was from work...well, I'm sure it was from work because I had it before the meeting started. other plans for the night include going to OCs for trivia and happy hour. if you're in manhattan, make sure you stop by their OCs (it opens today).

on other news, I went down to manhattan this weekend after the belt test on saturday. I was hoping to be down there by two but that didn't happen b/c the belt test didn't get done till 3 because we had people testing for black belt. what'd we do down there you ask? why, warhammer of course. it was a massive battle and took forever. by the end, we just wanted it to be over with because we were so tired. I think it took about 12 hours to finish including breaks for dinner and setting up. all that work to end up in a tie/minor victory. oh well, it was fun up to the point that sleep deprivation set in. well, I think I'll go and try to do something to make my head hurt less.

what could go wrong or my day yesterday

well, let's see...how many things went wrong at work yesterday...
1. computer crashed which backed us up for a while
2. about half the charts were missing which backed us up a while more
3. we had to send someone up to processing to help which backed us up even more
4. the last person we were supposed to get to help us couldn't do so because she was gone during the summer and so had to be re-trained so that backed us up too
5. the supervisor got sent home at 4:00 so that also backed us up
6. we had a LOT of donors come in yesterday

so I guess the answer is 5. that's how many things went wrong yesterday. I wound up leaving at a qurter till 7 (I was scheduled until 6).

today's been a complete 180 of yesterday though. it's been pretty slow so far. plans for the night include finishing painting my ogre army and finishing my first season of madden 2006 on superstar mode. nice and relaxing. just the way I like it.

Subway sucks (sorry Pickle)!

well, after work tonight, I was in the mood for a steak and cheese sub from Subway. well, long story short, it took me ten minutes to even order my food even though no one was in front of me in the drive-thru. I was a little miffed so I filled out a comment on their website. below is my comment:

Dear sir or madam,

I would like to write about the poor and unprofessional service that I received at the 23rd St. branch of your store. I waited ten minutes in the drive-thru before I was even acknowledged and all the while, I watched as people that entered the store after I arrived at the drive-thru came and went before I was even acknowledged. After four or five groups of people had left, I was acknowledged. Was it by some comment like "I'm sorry about your wait?" or something of that nature? No. Instead, I recieved a "How long have you been waiting there, man." I told him (I'm assuming he was the manager) that I had been waiting for about ten minutes. His reply? "You want me to fire my employee?" he said, jokingly. Then I had to wait as he took the order of the customers in front of him before I could order. The only bright side of this trip was the long, blonde-haired gentleman who handed me the food. He was genuinely apologetic and sincere. Rest assured that neither I nor any of my friends will be returning to that branch or any other branch of Subway.

CuJo a Coyote

well, in case you haven't heard yet, looks like Curtis Joseph will be playing with the Coyotes for at least a year. just thought that was kinda interesting was all. lots of interesting line change combinations this year...

a glimpse of things to come

as requested, here is a picture of my ogre army

it's been a really long day

"why has it been a really long day", you ask? well, that would be because I've been up since 4 AM. why was I up at 4 AM? because I was up at 6 AM the night before so I got tired and fell asleep on the futon at 9 PM later that day. that's all right though. I had today off. what'd I do on my day off? I went to walmart, got new headlights for the car (still haven't installed them yet), painted a lot, taught two classes, and had poker night. that, more or less was my day. anyways, I go now 'cause I'm getting kinda sleepy and we have one of our annual audits tomorrow at work.

headlights are important things

well, as the title suggests, headlights are pretty important. I guess mine burnt out sometime earlier tonight 'cause when I left to go to OC's, they were gone. here, headlight. hmmmm...no response. think I'll look for them at walmart tomorrow after work (I hear that's where they like to hide).

bobble head

we had our last hockey game a couple of days ago. my team wound up winning first place. in case you can't tell, it's a bobble-head award. the plaque says "All American Indoor Sports Summer 2005 Roller Hockey League Champion"

it's a sucky day after all

well, as you can tell by the title, I've been having a great day today *sarcasm*. to start off, one of the guys in back called in sick so we're short on staff...again. then top that off with a CCL (concentrated cell loss). CCLs are bad enough but what makes this worse is that it's their second one in 56 days so they can't donate for another 56 days. then while that was happening, one of the nurses had to be trained on documenting CCLS (which takes a LONGGGG time to do) so that pulled both the nurse and the only other phlebotemist on the floor away from sticks and everything else so that left me doing basically everything for the 15 minutes or so it took to get the documentation done. then, throw in rain/mist and you've got a pretty miserable day. well, the rain/mist is all right. I kinda like it but it enhances the suckiness-mood of the day as well.

on to other news, I'm giving my two end tables away to a friend of mine so I now have more room in the living room which I took to mean that I need to reorganize my furniture so that's what I did yesterday. I pretty much just moved things back to where they were the last time I rearranged stuff. it just looks so much more spacious since there's a direct path from the door to the bed room now. yesterday was pretty relaxing as well. I spent yesterday reorganizing furniture (as mentioned above), playing two games of madden football, starting to paint my pirate ogre maneater, reading "Life of Pi" and drinking a glass of wine (Beringer White Zinfidel...the best wine EVER...well, real wine, I'm not counting arbor mist or wine coolers).

well, off to rest a little bit before heading back to work.

to quote myself...

I will be updating this page on August 22 (Monday) so make sure that I have access to all of your pictures by then whether by email or via web site

in case you're participating in the photo scavenger hunt.

there's something about a watermelon

there's something about a watermelon. I'm not really sure what it is. some unknown factor that prevents one from cutting said fruit up without sneaking at least a bite before carefully tucking the other pieces away safely in it's ziplocked nest.

not much to report as far as today's/yesterday's events went. went to work, painted some gnoblars, listened to the rain, cut/ate some watermelon. plans for today/tomorrow: same thing except with less work. well, off to bed I go now.

report

"Sir! The sentries report a massive concentration of ogres assembling in the east and heading this way! The boys say that they've spotted a couple of ogre bulls, leadbelchers, iron guts, and gnoblars as far as the eye can see. There's even rumors of a slavegiant somewhere in their midst."

"Good job, Johnson. Tell the boys to prepare for war."

tonight, tonight, it all begins tonight.

well, for those of you that were wondering, I wound up both spray painting a matte finish on my high elves AND painting ogres today. painting ogres is soooooo much more fun than painting high elves. in fact, the messier you are, the more realistic the ogres look (not true with high elves). well, anyway, I got four ogres done. I'm not sure if they're ironguts or just bulls (I can't tell the difference between the two). looks like I'm gonna need to pick up more red gore paint from the store (the ogres get pretty bloody). I also managed to organize almost all of my high elf army into my carrying case thingy. I say almost because Imrik won't fit. I may need to make/buy a box to carry him or something. in non-warhammer news, I went grocery shopping today. I now have food again which is really nice. I also picked up some white peaches (on sale at dillons for $0.99/ lb with a dillons card) and stuff to make a really good salad (mmmm...dried cranberries...) I also watched west side story on dvd today. andrea and I went to go see it last weekend at theatre in the park and I haven't been able to get the songs out of my head. hmmm...maybe buying the dvd and soundtrack wasn't such a good idea... well, anyways, it's a pretty good show if you don't compare it to romeo and juliet. well, it's fairly late and I have church tomorrow/today so I'm off to bed.

no MCAT for me

well, I was looking over the review stuff for the MCAT yesterday night and I realized that there was no way I was gonna be ready for the test on Aug. 20 so I decided I'm not gonna take it. instead, I'm gonna take a prep course in January and then take it in April (that way I'll be more prepared). until then, it looks like I'll just have to force myself to have fun. well, I'm off to either paint my ogres now or spray matte finish on my high elves. either way, I'm sure I'll have more fun than I would've studying.

prepare for the onslaught!

here is a picture of my army and oh what an army it is.

same army different formation

another new formation

things I've done this week

things I've done this week:

tuesday: taught one tae kwon do class
wednesday: taught two tae kwon do classes
thursday: played four hockey games

end result: I will be VERY sore tomorrow. in case you're wondering about the outcomes of the hockey games we won three and tied one. now I'm very tired and very sore so I will be heading off to bed.

another update

finished painting both of my chariots today. right now I'm working on my archers (the last high elves stuff I will have to paint). once I finish them, I think my army will be a little over 2500 points (2509 to be exact). after I'm done with the high elves, I'll be studying for the MCAT (Aug 20) so I probably won't be doing too much else until then. on the bright side, after Aug 20 sometime, I think shannon and the other manhattanites are gonna have a HUGE warhammer battle (3000+ points per side) so that should be fun. I'm considering that my reward for surviving the test. and after that? why, my ogre army, of course! well, it's late and I open tomorrow so I'm off to bed. I probably won't be doing anything 'sides working, finishing painting, and studying for the next couple of days so I may or I may not be posting for awhile.

quick recap

well, I'm very tired right now so I'll probably just post really quick and probably head off to bed soon. quick recap of the trip to minnesota: 1) seeing Pickle and Julia was really fun. it's good to see old friends and to keep in touch. 2) Athos likes the couch in the basement. if you are trying to sleep on it and he's around, he WILL lick your face to get you off of it and to make you make room for him. 3) kudos to Iowa who recently raised their maximum speed limit from 65 mph to 70 mph. that made the trip soooo much faster. well, it seemed like it anyways. 4) Pickle is old. 5) don't say things like "looks like my dragon made it all the way from Minnesota" and then proceed to take it from the car into the apartment because something like its left wing will inevitably fall off. 6) it takes at least three attempts to leave any location. all in all, a good time was had by all. for a more in depth report of the trip, see Shannon's and Nicole's blog.

as for today, work went well. I had to stay late (as usual) and barely made it in time to teach my two classes. the head instructor also asked me to help him teach classes next week (apparently all the other instructors are going on vacation that week) so I'll have to check my work schedule tomorrow to see if I can. since I've gotten home, the only other thing I've done besides fooding was painting my silver helms. for some reason, it always seems to take forever for me to paint horses. I'm not really sure why but they seem to take longer to get done than people. what else...oh yeah, I ordered some ogres today so they should be in by friday. I probably won't work on them until I'm done with all my high elf stuff so it'll be awhile before I get around to it. well, I'm gonna try to finish painting all eight silver helm horses tonight and then probably head off to bed. I've got to open tomorrow.

Arise, Imrik, last dragon prince of Caledor!

as promised here are pics of Imrik. watch and tremble in fear at the mighty Imrik, last dragon prince of Caledor.;

Imrik's left side 

Imrik's right side 

dragon's head 

two thoughts

well, I've had this cough for the past couple of days so yesterday night, before going to bed, I decided to take something for it. not just "something" but THE greatest invention known to man (yes, it beats out the wheel). I'm talking, of course, about Nyquil. I took a capful of that magical blue liquid and fell asleep five minutes later and this morning, my cough is almost all gone.

on a sidenote, it looks like this weekend is a good time to leave lawrence. the weather's supposed to be 100+ degrees starting today.

yet another update

well, let's see...on thursday we had hockey. it was the D league but still fun nonetheless. we wound up winning 5-2 although it really should've been 5-1. the ref dropped the puck even though our goalie had his gloves and blocker off so he could adjust his leg pads. I had a couple of assists and two goals which is a very good day for me. I even had a couple of steals and saves. the team as a whole played very well though especially considering that the league coordinator gave the other team the best goalie in the league to make it fair. friday was spent painting and saturday was spent going to see "singing in the rain" at theatre in the park. it's a really good/funny musical. I'd strongly suggest seeing it on stage if you get the chance or renting it on dvd if you don't. this morning was spent going to church and finally finishing painting my archers. I also got my mage painted (yea! I can cast spells!) and started painting my other dragon princes and my bolt thrower. lots of fun. hopefully I'll get all my painting done by thursday but I highly doubt it considering I haven't even started my silver helms yet or my other regiment of archers. oh yeah, I also got to go see charlie and the chocolate factory today. kinda interesting. I think it would've been better without the songs but I guess they make the movie even more weird which is what I guess Tim Burton was going for (and accomplished). well, it's getting late and my day starts early so I'm probably gonna head off to bed soon. nighty-night.

random thought of the day

it's a good thing the sun sets everynight 'cause otherwise, fish wouldn't be able to sleep (they gotz no eye lids).

wow, that's long

hmmm...that last post made me sound kinda crazy if you didn't know I was talking about warhammer... well, anyways, it's been a couple of days since I've updated blogbert. as for saturday, I went out with some friends to a fancy smancy restaraunt. it wound up being one of those french cuisine type places where the waiters put your napkin in your lap for you and all that other stuff that you sometimes see you on food network. I had the bison strips with a foi gras (sp?) butter sauce. it was really, really good. everyone else had normal (but still good) food. I think they ordered the pork chop and the chicken. I'm not gonna tell you how much the bill was but let's just say the tip was about $25. on sunday, we went to see funny girl. it's a musical about Fanny Brice (apparently a prett big actress. she was in Zigfields follies or something like that). the show was all right. the actress did a really good job with her songs, I just wasn't really that impressed with the script. the food there was decent. not nearly as good as it was the last time we went but my tastebuds may be biased from the french food from the night before. I was told Pickle's parents were also going to go see the show this weekend but I couldn't find them so they might've gone to the saturday showing or they might've just been on the other side of the theatre. that brings me to today. I'm actually typing from Shannon and Nicole's place right now. they're both asleep. I came down last night after work (which went pretty slow until the last half hour or so). got down here at about 9-ish. we fooded at chipotle because the subway at the union was closed and then came back to their place for game olympics stuff (check shannon's or nicole's blog for results) and then, on to warhammer! the battle started off fairly even and then my dragon princes of caledor ran away for quite a while. stupid princes. they've yet to do anything uber cool. the last game we played, they held up some chaos knights for most of the game before getting slaughtered but that's about it. anyways, once my princes ran away, that pretty much killed our strategy and left a lot of other units on our side vulnerable to attack (which nicole, nette, and aaron did). and then when shannon's spearmen and sea guard got aten (past tense of eat? well, technically, it'd be eaten but that doesn't sound as fun) by zombies and bats, that was pretty much the end for us. the lone bright side for the armies I was controlling was that my sea guard did really well. they sustained very little casualties and onl fled once while doing a lot of damage and tying up two units. plans for the rest of the day: food, maybe do some game olympics stuff before leaving, clean aquarium, get some fish, clean apartment, paint archers if I have time. well, this post has been long enough so I'm gonna go do other stuff now (probably play on the internet until shannon and nicole wake up).

babble

too tired now...not going to type much...thinking about getting a lizardman army...

so far...

well, it's been a busy day. work was really hectic, 'specially towards 5:00 PM-ish. we just had a lot of donors come in and by that time, we had already sent a lot of people home because it had been slow. by the time I got home, I was exhausted so I figured I'd do something kinda fun. I spent about four hours or so working on my spearmen. they're almost done. right now, I'm waiting for their bows to dry on. once that is done, I can glue them to their bases, add a little texture and then I'll be done. yea! my goal is to get my silver helms and archers done by monday but I seriously doubt that that will get done. tomorrow, I'm going with some friends to a fancy restaraunt and then we're going to go see a movie (as thanks from a group for helping out at their dance a couple of months ago) and then on sunday, I'm supposed to be going to a dinner theatre with andrea and her mom and sister so very little painting time in there. anyways, while I was waiting for the bows to dry, I've been cleaning (no small feat considering I have warhammer stuff all over the place and luggage, hockey equipment, tae kown do stuff, and scuba stuff strewn all over the place). well, I think I'll clean a little more before I go glue to spearmen to their bases (I would post pictures but my camera doesn't seem to like close-ups for some reason. they get really blurry).

adults should have merit badges

that's right. you heard me correctly. I think adults should have merit badges. something that you can use to show off your accomplishments or something that can be used to display your shortcomings. beat mario world? here's a merit badge. saved a life today? here's a merit badge. choked on a chicken wing? here's a merit badge. why should boy scouts and girl scouts have all the fun? also, merit badges can be a great source for conversation. say you're out on a first day with a girl and you don't know what to talk about. take a look at the merit badge. does she have any that look like the ones you have? talk about that. also, merit badges can be used as a warning device. if you see a guy with a merit badge that looks like someone stabbing someone else, you might want to avoid him. these are just a couple of the reasons that just popped off the top of my head. I'm sure there's a plethora more so join me in the merit badge revolution. demand merit badges!

sucks to be me

well, to start off, we were going to be short-handed at work today anyways with only three phlebotomists (wednesdays are our busiest days) but add on top of that the fact that one of the people that were supposed to come in couldn't come in and you have a very hectic day. unfortunately, the guy that couldn't come in was supposed to be the last closer so now, that makes me the last closer which should be fun because I have to be off by 5:30 so I can make it to tae kwon do to teach class and we don't close till 6:00. most likely, I'll be late to that too. we'll just have to see. after tae kwon do tonight, I'm thinking of having a glass of wine or a cup of ice chai latte, putting on some music, and painting my spearmen. ah...sounds so relaxing. now where'd I put that accelerated time button...

scubafied

well, I survived my scuba certification dives so it looks like I'm a certified scuba diver now. the card should be arriving in a couple of weeks. while at the lake, the place we stayed at had their fireworks show which was really quite good considering the town only had 1900 people or so. since I've gotten home, I've been working on paintin my army. they are taking forever to paint. I've managed to finish two complete models in the past four hours (dragon prince general w/steed and dragon prince standard bearer w/steed). they look all right. nothing spectacular but they look decent from a distance. well, think I'll go work on the rest of the figures now. just wanted to let all my loyal readers know that I made it back all right.

menomenom

well, tuesday was a really good day. it was really slow at work so my colleagues and I just sat around talking a lot of the day. somehow or other, the jingle for cherry dr. pepper got stuck in my head and I successfully got it stuck in everyone else's head. if you don't know what jingle I'm talking about, you can check it out here. just click on the drink cherry vanilla dr. pepper icon. so now, we walk around the floor just singing menomenom. since we were so slow, I got to go home early which was great because it meant that I got to go to get my oil changed and get my tires rotated a lot earlier than I had intended. after that was done, I stopped by the games workshop store here in lawrence (I didn't know we had one either) and picked up some high elf spearmen and silverhelms as well as the warhammer starter kit. so I've been working on those the past couple of days. I've been trying to paint with the paints that I've had for awhile but either the paint's too old or it's just not formulated for painting on metal or something because it's starting to flake off. guess it means I'll have to invest in some quality paints. well, that's about it. I'm leaving for scuba certification so if I don't update this blog in a couple of months, it'll be because I've drowned at the bottom of the lake.

I painted good

I had forgotten how relaxing and peaceful painting could be. I worked on painting my dragon princes tonight. I didn't get very far but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I plopped two of my tv tray tables open and set my models on one and my painting supplies on the other. the only thing I really accomplished was that my horses are painted white now. I'll probably have to use another coat or two of paint but that's all right. I still have to paint the heads and the riders anyways so I'm looking forward to that. I'm not sure why I find painting so relaxing. it's not just painting models either. I get the same feeling when I'm paintin cels. I think it's just the joy of taking something that was already there and making it better so that others can take joy in looking at it. which brings me to an interesting question: do people paint (artistically) for themselves or for others? do people paint because they take joy in the act of painting itself or do they paint because they take joy in being able to bring joy to others?

recap

yesterday was spent in manhattan. it was lots of fun. I got a squad of dragon princes for war hammer. they got assembled and primed. word to the wise, if you have to glue something pewter to something plastic, make sure you have some sculpting tacky stuff. I don't know if I could've gotten the heads of the steeds onto the bodies without it. after that was done, we (shannon, nette, chris, and I) went to applebees to eat while the figures dried. we went back to shannon's and played some hocky on the game cube. then we played frisbee golf on the k-state campus. it was pretty fun. lot less water hazards than I'm used to having on a golf course though. I wound up losing. shannon wound up winning. and everyone else was in between. then we went fooding at carlos o'kelly's. pretty good food. I'd suggest the cinco sampler platter. then we got back and played warhammer. chris and I played the good guys (high elves and lizardmen) while nette, shannon, and aaron played the bad guys (orcs, undead, and dark elves). chris and I wound up winning pretty easily once we got rid of the stupid scorpion that wound up eating everyone and the chaos knights. by the time the game was over, it was 5 AM so I thought sleep would be a good idea. woke up at noon this morning. shannon and I fooded at planet subs and then I left for lawrence. my only other accomplishment today is that I practiced scuba stuff. well, that's enough recapping for now.

the past 24 hours

well, to start off, I hate having games at 11:15 PM because 1) it's pass my usual bedtime of 10:30 2) you feel like you don't have any energy 3) if you win, you'll have too much adrenaline and can't fall asleep when you get home 4) if you lose, you still won't be able to sleep when you get home. so, quick recap, I hate having games at 11:15. luckily, that's the only one we have this season. most of the others are at 8:15. we have a couple at 10:15 but I don't think those'll be as bad. in case you're wondering about the outcome of the game, we wound up losing by one which is pretty good considering the refs didin't call any (I strongly stress the word ANY) penalties against the other team even though the other team was slashing, hooking, high-sticking, and cross checking most of the game. the only penalty that was called was called on our team. a boarding call which is pretty impressive considering the guy that had the penalty called on him was the one closest to the board (explain that one to me). well, because the game was so late last night, I got about five hours of sleep and had to go to work this morning which made for a very long day. it was really slow at work, just very long at least until half an hour before we close (as is generally the case). I can understand if you don't get out of work until 5:00 or so and then come and donate. it's just the donors that are at the center an hour or before we close that just sit outside smoking and then have to wait awhile before they can sign in because their pulse is too high that bothers me. when I left, there were still over 10 donors that still had to be stuck. then I taught my two classes which went pretty well today. the classes were a bit smaller than usual and the kids in the 6:00 PM class were a lot better behaved than they generally are. after that, I came home and got ready for poker night. I finally won! :) only six people showed up tonight (as opposed to the usual eight or so) but it was still fun. I made a whopping $30 (the 2nd place finsher gets their $5 back and somebody had a re-buy). so here I am typing in blogbert before I head off to bed. my knee's been bothering me most of the day today. I'm not sure if it's just because I was standing all day at work today or if it was a combination of that and hockey yesterday and tae kwon do tonight. hopefully some sleep will help it. it seems like a lot has happened in the past 24 hours but it really hasn't. I just use a lot of words to say it. good night everyone.

a very busy day it's been

today's been a very busy day for me. I had it off which meant, as is usual, that I had all sorts of things to do. I washed, dried, and ironed my laundry, dropped off the recylcing at walmart, got a hair cut (same hair, just less), got an atomic clock (I think it's the same one shannon has) because I got tired of using my kitchen timer to see what time it was, stopped by the bank, and gassed up the car. plans for the night? hockey and maybe clean the car if I get motivated enough. that's it for now. ja

Your Expression Number is 3

A natural performer, your destiny lies in writing, speaking, acting, or teaching. Imaginative and unique, you have a natural creative talent in the arts. You're also a natural salesperson. You can easily sell your ideas and yourself. A total optimist, you are enthusiastic about life and living. You are friendly and social - and people are taken by your charm. Your role in life is to inspire, motivate, and raise others' spirits. At times, you can seem a bit superficial. Sometimes you're a bit unfocused and too easygoing. You're best off when you don't dwell on trivial matters, especially gossip.

What's Your Expression Number?

like star wars? like m&ms? well then, this site is for you.  

that's the last time I use a flare gun on a person...

well, yesterday was spent going to church and buying lots of things (for no particular reason). after church, I went to walmart. I needed paper towels and after seeing batman begins the night before, I had to get the orignal batman movie to remember what all happened. I found it in a boxed set for only $25. they also had just the original batman for $7 but I figured four batman movies for $25, I can't beat that. went to best buy (because that's the kind of thing I do). wound up buying WAY more than I intended. I got a multitap player adapter (yea! four people can play NHL Hitz now!) and, to go with that, two extra controllers. I also got this game called Time Splitters. pretty fun. only problem is that it's one of those first person shooter games which gives me headaches so I can only play it in ten minute intervals or so. you get to travel back in time and use all sorts of futuristic and pasteristic(?) weapons. the reason for the title of this blog was because one of the guns you get is a flare gun. I think I was supposed to use it to signal for help or something but I accidently selected it from my weapons list and used it on one of the guards. he burned pretty nicely but I think that'll be the last time I use a flare gun on a person. after playing the game for a while, I went to dillons to get stuff for an ice cream float (because nothing goes better with charred flesh than an ice cream float). I made a mango vanilla banana ice cream float. recipe:

torani mango syrup
1 whole banana sliced in half vertically
Sprite
milk
vanilla ice cream

dir: fill the glass a quarter of the way with the mango syrup. add milk until the glass is halfway full. add the two banana slices. stir. add one (or more) scoops of ice cream in between the banana halves. add Sprite until glass is full. stir. enjoy.

it was pretty good. actually, it wasn't bad at all, especially for something I made up. off I go now. work should be pretty fun today. I'm in reception so I get to ask questions and play with blood.

short blerb

well, today was really busy at work even though we were fully staffed. we just had a lot of alarms that went off at the same time. I don't think I really had a chance to rest from the time we opened till I left at about 2:30. plans for the night include going to Olathe to some italian restaraunt and then watching batman begins. I'm looking forward to it. also, my AC is broken which sucks but I think they said they're going to try to send someone today to fix it which would be nice. well, off I go to do other things.

just a thought

I was reading the paper at work today and I came across an article about the Massachusettes governor trying to ban gay marriages and even civil unions and this got me to thinking. most christians dislike gays because it breaks up the christian "family", right? well, doesn't Jesus tell his disciples to leave their families and follow him? I find it hard to believe that that is a viable reason to hate gays. maybe there's something else in the Bible that I'm missing. perhaps from a book I haven't read yet. let me know if you find something.

two firsts

well, two firsts happened at work today. first off, I did my first sample today up in processing. it's a little bit different from taking samples on the donor floor in that I have to use a tourniquet to palpatate the vein instead of using a cuff and the needle for samples up front is smaller. the second first I did today was that I did my first finger stick today. we have to do them to get the hematocrit and protein level from the donor. we had to do it today 'cause the doctor that does the monthly evaluations came by today so I basically got a crash course in finger sticks. the doctor that did the evaluation was pretty nice. his name was dr. hughes (sp?) and he was really cool about it. apperently, he's a lot more friendly than the other doctor that usually does the evals. anwyays, I got his approval to continue doing finger sticks so I can continue with my training in reception. well, I'm off to go enjoy the night. andrea's supposed to be here any minute now. we're gonna have dinner and watch Hitch with Will Smith in it. sounds pretty relaxing.

I hate automated systems

well, I recently got a bill from sprint (my former wireless company) saying that my bill was ready. I found this rather interesting considering I switched to another wireless company two months ago so I went online to check my balance. unfortunately, I couldn't because my number, obviously, was no longer on file with them. so then I called their number. got their stupid automated system. after fifteen minutes of going around in circles on the automated system, I finally figured out how to talk to a representative. two minutes after talking to a very pleasant and courteous rep, my problem was fixed. that, ladies and gentlemen, is why automated systems will never fully replace people.

as for the rest of my day, it was fairly uneventful. at work we got our annual evaluations. looks like I won't be getting fired this year.

classes went all right. kinda strange though. as a student, I used to look forward to the first class after a belt test because I got to learn a new form. as an instructor, I dread it because I have to spend the whole class working on teaching new forms and figuring who to assign to teach which student their new form. also, the first class after a belt test is usually more full than normal because, obviously, everyone wants to promote as soon as possible which means I have students in class I've never even seen before. arrgggg!

after class, I came home, had lasagna for dinner, watch a little tv, took my nyquil and am getting ready to go to bed. hopefully when I wake up tomorrow this cold'll be all gone. I'm feeling a lot better than I did earlier this week though. on the bright side, I'm only work from 8:30 to 4:00 tomorrow. hmmm...it seemed shorter than the 7 1/2 hours it was when I looked at it on the schedule. I guess it just seems shorter compared to working from 10:00 to close (anywhere from 8 to 10 hours). well, off to bed for me.

its been an all around good day

well, today's been pretty good. work went well. hockey also went well. we won our game which is really good for us. we're now 1-0-1. I didn't score any goals but I did have a couple of assists and stole the puck a couple of times and generally became a nuissance and got in the way. got knocked down once. guess that's bound to happen if you get in the way. also got hit with the puck. luckily, I was wearing shin guards and as an added bonus, it stopped the shot from going into the net. after hockey, andrea and I went out to 54th street brewery and had dinner there. the food was pretty good and the waiter was really nice. I'd highly suggest stopping by there the next time you're in olathe. we fooded and decided that going on a walk sounded fun so we went to the park and walked around the lake and watched the sun set. so, all in all, it's been a good day all around.

as well as could be expected

work went suprisingly well today considering we were well understaffed and I was left in charge. we were fairly busy and only had a few errors which is pretty good. tack on top of that the fact that we didn't have any CCLs and you have a very good work day. there was only one dark spot on this otherwise awesome day at work. I stuck this donor who only had one usable vein in her arm. well, I couldn't get it the first time so I had to dig around. I finally got it but by that time, her arm started swelling up a bit so I told her she couldn't donate. she asked why and I explained to her that if I connected her, it would be a CCL because we couldn't give her red blood cells back to her. I don't think she understood me because she wanted me to connect her anyways and got mad when I refused to do it. I just saved her from being deferred for over two months and she gets mad at me. guess there'll always be people like that in the world *mental note: when I rule the world, have people like that shot* :) well, off to relax a little bit before I leave for hockey :)

quick update

well, to start off, I caught a cold on friday and am still trying to recover from it (not fun). I took my temperature tonight and it was 99.7 so not too high but still higher than normal. other than that, yesterday, I went to the belt testing at my school. I held lots of boards and got to spar with the black belt candidates. that was fun (for me, not for them). the head instructor even let me lead one of the groups of people testing. I got to lead the brown belt test which was fun because it they are the group just below the black belt candidates so I got to make them do all sorts of things (some of which they apparently hadn't even seen in their usual classes before. I don't think they liked that). well, I'm off to bed now to try to recuperate my strength. I've got to work from 10 to close tomorrow so I'll probably need it.

all is right with the world

I have a powerade slushie in my hand and the fifth season of frasier. all is right with the world *end transmission*

well, I started screening in reception yesterday which was lots of fun. I get to put info in the computer and give donors a survey. so basically, I can do most things in reception except the finger stick that we use to figure out people's hematocrit (ironic since the needles we use for that are a LOT smaller than the ones we use for venipuncture and we don't have to worry about getting it into a vein) but oh well. other than that, work was really busy for some strange reason. I don't think I had more than two minute's worth of free time all of yesterday. after work, I went grocery shopping. I think it's true what they say: you shouldn't go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. I left checkers with $118.70 in groceries so most of my paycheck from last week is gone but at least I won't be hungry. andrea came over and we decided that steak with watermelon with dessert sounded good. and it was.

on a totally different subject, I've been trying to wake up earlier in the summer (I'm not really sure why) but since I have, I've had a lot more energy (I think it's because I'm going to bed earlier rather than it having anything to do with my waking up earlier). so for those of you keeping track, I'm going to bed at midnight and waking up at around 7:00 AM-ish. off I go to get ready for work, I guess.

Mission:Frasier

well, the fifth season of Frasier was supposed to be released today so I, being my usual self, decided to go out and get it. the first place I looked (as per my usual routine) was best buy. no dice. not a single copy. the guy there did tell me that the oak park branch has two copies though. that trip being completely useless, I went to wal-mart. at wal-mart, they had a slot for it. a Frasier hole if you will. the only problem was that there was no Frasier to fill that hole. they seemed to have misplaced a whole shipment of their dvds or something. so off to target I go. no Frasier in sight. my last ditch attempt was Hastings. once again, I was thwarted in my plans to obtain a copy of the fifth season of Frasier. so, I cut my losses and went home and cleaned my hockey equiment to make sure the wheels haven't fallen off the skates or anything since last season. I left for hockey at about 4:30 and got there early. the game didn't start till 6:00. seeing as how I had a little free time and I was only five minutes away from the Oak Park branch of best buy, I thought I'd drop by and pay it a little visit. once again, disappointment. it seems they sold their only two copies. my only solace was that hockey was only moments away. the game went pretty well. I'm playing on a house team this year and the teams are very well matched. we don't have many good shooters on our team but our goalie's probably the best one in the league. I think that's why we were able to come out with a tie game tonight (6-6). andrea and I then had dinner at Chile's which was pretty good. afterwards, I left for lawrence. surely, they must have found that missing shipment by now, I thought. so I headed back to wal-mart. well, they hadn't. so, here I am Frasier-less and tired so I guess I'll go to bed now.

another wonderful find just wandering the internet

well, I was visiting random blogs and one blog had 43things.com on it. basically, it's a place for you to make long-term goals and it lets you keep track of them, add to them, or just check them off when you're done with them. it's kinda fun. you can also cheer on other people's goals.

an interesting little flash movie I found at Every Topic in the Universe(s?) blog. take a look at it at billy blob. it'll make you think. 

NPR

sometimes I like to listen to NPR. not necessarily for the music (although, sometimes, after a long day of work where there are constanlty alarms going off, there's nothing better than a nice piece of classical music) but more for the news and for prairie home companion (a radio sketch show). well, anyways, I found their web site and it has their whole program on it so you can listen to it from the comfort of your computer. stop by prairie home companion if you have time. I highly recommend the May 21, 2005 show.

I survived

well, to aleviate all your fears and asuage your worries about any mishap that may have befallen me, I survived the tournament. I got third in sparring and third in board breaking. these medals didn't come without a sacrifice, however, for I seem to have injured my wrist and my hand's a little swollen. hopefully, it'll be okay in time for me to go to work on monday.

I'm singing in the rain...

just wanted to update blogbert before I headed off to bed. I don't know what the weather is like where everyone else is at but it's raining pretty hard over here. made the drive back from olathe lots of fun. now to the updating part. got back from watching "the longest yard" at the amc 30 in olathe. it was a surprisingly good movie. I hadn't seen the original but I thought the movie would be more drama than comedy. sure am glad I was wrong though. I would highly suggest you go see it if you like "happy gilmore" and/or football. off to bed for me. I have a tournament tomorrow. I have to compete in the adult black belt division so I don't really expect to get any medals. my goal's just to have fun. if I do happen to place, go me. otherwise, oh well.

two things I learned at work today

1. plasma donation + power outage does not = fun
2. according to the manual, we're not supposed to be suctioning plasma with our mouths. dang.

another wednesday

well, today went pretty much the same as every other wednesday before it. work was pretty much the same except we're slower now 'cause a lot of the donors were KU students so they're home for the summer. other than that, the only other difference was that I started my training in reception today. I get to set up appointments and things like that in the computer. it was pretty basic stuff. the hardest part would've been the computer stuff and that was pretty much the same as it was on the donor floor. I got done with the skill set for BMT I in reception in one day. I get to go back in reception again tomorrow. it's kinda fun or at least different.

classes went pretty well. the 12 + year old class went well as usual but there was even more energy in it 'cause of the tournament coming up this saturday. I guess a lot of the adults wanted to get some practice in before then.

as for monday and tuesday, shannon and nicole came up so that was fun (as always). we made sushi on monday which turned out fairly edible. I'm still alive and as far as I can tell, everyone else is too. the sushi didn't look too bad except for this burrito-sized sushi roll we made. it took a while to finish that one. the other two we made were normal-sized so that was pretty boring. we spent that night/next morning beating Gauntlet and playing NHL Hitz Pro on the PS2. on tuesday, we spent part of the day on mass st. when chris and nette got to lawrence, we left mass st. for a while to play disc golf. I think we got about four holes in before it started downpouring. we decided to give up strenous physical exercise in favor of hurling projectiles at babies and monkies in cars (we played Mario Kart). then we got hungry and apparently the call of mass st. was too great 'cause we went back there for dinner (or more accurately, Free State). I think we talked about going Pickle-wrangling either the third or fourth week of july, so if you're reading this, pickle, I'd start running. after dinner, we stopped at signs of life which I hadn't been in before. it's a coffee shop/book store/art gallery. all in all, a pretty cool place. I'd recommend stopping by if you're ever in lawrence. well, that's long enough of a post. off I go.

I like new clothes

well, I did laundry today 'cause I ran out of clean clothes to wear which led me to the realization that I really need more than one pair of comfy pants that I can wear outside. this led to the trip to kohl's. of course, I like to multitask so I figured, hey, since I was already out getting clothes, I should probably stop by best buy and world market while I'm at it. long story short, I bought a new set of earphones, the new lifehouse cd, mango syrup, two pairs of cargo pants/shorts, and two t-shirts. I think that'll curb my urge to buy things for a little while. plans for the rest of the day include ironing clothes and possibly tidying up a bit.

today has been a productive day

well, today has been a very productive day. not so much getting stuff done but planning for my future sort of stuff. work went fine. I was the last closer so I didn't get home till about 7:30 PM because I had to stock and count tonight. then I had dinner (mmmm...nachos with taco meat...) and then studied physics for the MCAT. it's amazing how much more this stuff makes sense now than it did when I was taking the class in college. after about two hours of that, I got burnt out on physics so I was messing around on my computer and I checked a site I hadn't been to in about four years or so - the AACOM home page (the osteopathic medicine home page) so I messed around on there for awhile. osteopathic doctors basically do the same thing MDs do except they treat the whole person instead of just illnesses. DOs (doctor of osteopathic medicine) tend to be more primary care physicians/ pediatrics (the fields I'm interested in) anyways. anywhos, the site had a link to DO schools in the US and I found one in Kirksville, Missouri that looks really promising. it's four hours away from Lawrence so it's fairly close and I have all the pre-reqs for it as far as I know so it's definitely a possibility for me. here's a link to their website if you're interested. I also visited the Kirksville page and the city looks pretty nice. the city only has about 17,000 people so it'd be a nice small town. apparently the campus is three miles away from Thousand Hills State Park which also looks very nice. wells that's it for now. I'm getting tired now so off to bed I go.

slow day, quiet night

well, work went VERY well yesterday. it was slow most of the day until about four (when we sent everybody but myself and another guy home, of course). then it started getting semi-busy. sticks went pretty well, didn't have too many errors. I was even able to stick one of the donors I hadn't been able to before (which was a very good thing because I was the most experience phlebotomist at the center that was still there). got home at about 7:00. andrea came over and we made soft-shelled tacos and had strawberry daiquiries. all in all, a pretty quiet night.

well, it's better than a sharp stick in the eye

quick recap of today: I got my wet suit in today and I got kicked in the nose. I'll let you figure out which one I enjoyed more (it starts with a "w" and ends with an "etsuit").

I want a maggot

wow. it's been almost a week since I last posted. let's see...what's happened since then...scuba classes are now over. well, at least the knowledge-based portion of it. andrea and I still have to do four open water dives before we get certified to dive. yesterday, I went to a friend's graduation. she graduated from med school. at her open house, another friend of our's showed up with her 20-month-old daughter. she was soooooo kawaii!!! I got to give her a piggy-back ride and she weighed almost nothing! it was unbelievable. well, I think that's it for now. I go shower now and get ready to find things to do on my day off. oh yeah, I also updated stuff for the photo scavenger hunt yesterday so if you haven't been there in awhile, you may want to check it out.

bar code art

I was surfing for blogs again and I came across maysamblog.blogspot.com he had a link to barcodeart.com. basically, it's the site of a guy who made images out of bar codes. kinda interesting. take a look if you've got the time.

to follow up on my previous post; beware the emu 

oh what a mess we make when we involve bird seeds and potting soil

well, I was feeling pretty summer-y yesterday so I thought I'd go out and get some stuff for an herb garden. while there, I realized I had to get some filters for my aquarium which brought me down the pet aisle where, as luck would have it, they keep the bird seed. "I like watching birds," I thought to myself. logically, "Therefore, I should buy birdseeds followed." so I walked out of walmart with not only stuff for my herb garden but a bag of bird seeds, a bird feeder, a finch feeder thingy, and a hummingbird feeder and sugar water. when we got home, I was in charge of potting the herbs and andrea was in charge of filling the bird feeder. now prior to getting home with walmart stuff, my apartment had been spotless 'cause my mom was up (she cleaned it, not me.) after andrea and I were done with our chores, it looked like an emu broke into the apartment and attacked the birdfeeder and kicked over the herbs while it was here. that's how bad it was. so now, I get to clean all of that up today as well as reading for my scuba class tomorrow. so off I go to do those things. beware the emu.

worth 100

I was searching the internet and I came on this site: worth100.com. basically, they take pictures and digitally enhance them. below are two examples from their site.


flying beagle 


space