Well hello there

Well, here I am.

Summer is now over and...I'm about to go to fucking Thailand for four months with Mr. Anthony J. Karge. Four months in an extraordinary place that I don't even think I can fathom completely. It's going to be quite an adventure. I got all of my shots and all of my pills that I need to take to survive over there. I'm going to order mosquito netting soon so that I can be protected while I sleep in some of the more rural areas that we go to (specifically, Cambodia and Vietnam). My grandmother graciously provided me with a brand new laptop that's lightweight and great for travel that I greatly enjoy already. I'll be able to take it to class with me without the power cord. Very nice. We have our plane tickets too, a nice 17 1/2 hour long non-stop flight. It's going to totally suck, but Anthony's dad bought our tickets together, so we're at least sitting next to each other.

Speaking of planes, Anthony and I were invited down to NYC to check out a couple of 2KGames latest games this summer. They paid for us to fly down to check out Bioshock and The Darkness, which both were awesome. We then spent the rest of the day walking around Manhattan, wandering some 40 blocks or so. We were exhausted. One of the highlights of the trip was an aggressive cab driver who drove us back to La Guardia airport and made Anthony and I both nauseated. Now, I have a weak stomach, I'll admit that, but this guy was fucking crazy. I fell asleep during the ride in the hopes that I would wake up and be okay, but I woke up and wanted to hurl, hard. I almost had to ask him to pull over. We went to the bathroom and the smell of it - horrid - I threw up. Barely made it to the toilet. But all in all, it was a good experience.

I'm out of Oswego and staying at home for the longest point in time since last Christmas. It's kind of nice being at home, but a little weird. I don't know. It's strange unpacking all of my stuff just to know that I'm going to pack it all up again in just a few days and I won't be here again for another four months. And then I'm home for another couple of weeks and then I go back to Oswego again for four months. It's like I barely live here anymore. I guess that's not a bad thing considering that I'm going to be 22 in a week or so, but at the same time, it is a weird feeling. It's like watching baseball and seeing Yankees pitchers playing that are younger than me. I actually feel like I'm older than I realize.

This summer was...unexpected. Andrew dying in the beginning of the summer kind of ruined the entire summer. I don't want to blame his death on anything, but I felt like after that I had no motivation to do much of anything. I didn't want to take classes (and didn't) and half the time, I didn't even want to go to work. The only solace I had was that Rita was there for me, but that got all fucked up too after a while. I felt that we were getting a lot closer with each other again after he died and tried to pursue a relationship with her again, sort of pick up the pieces that had fallen apart and try to fix everything, but she couldn't figure out what she wanted and I just ended up fucked in the end. I understand her argument, my only wish is that she could have been more straightforward with me in the beginning having known what I wanted the whole time.

From all that though, I learned that there's a lot more to relationships than what I expected. Having Rita to talk to when I was really heartbroken was more important to me that I thought it would be and it was more attractive than I had ever imagined in to be. I definately want to make sure that, in my next relationship that I can share that bond with someone else because it was truly incredible. I really want someone that I can open up to and share all my crazy fucking thoughts with without an issue.

To fill the time and keep my mind off sad things, I started trying to make a positive effort to hang out with more and more people outside of my circle of friends. I'm really glad I did. Sean and I became really good friends over the course of the summer to the point where we hung out pretty much everyday of the week. I also started hanging out with more people from work. I really always looked forward to working with Sean Berrie, Megan, Nicole, and Melinda. I wish I had spent more time with them in the beginning of the summer, but I'm glad to know that I'm going to be able to spend more time with them when I get back from Thailand. I'm really going to miss all of them a lot.

Living off-campus and having our own place was a fun experience. I really hope Anthony and I can get our own place when we get back from Thailand. The only thing that could have made the house better would be if everyone were still in it, but it was a good time none the less. It's just nice having people come over, having your own room to hang out with, making your own meals, not having to pay for laundry, not having to worry about noise complaints, and not having to walk from a parking lot to the door.

I missed Anthony a lot over the summer. He went off to Poland again and seemed to have a blast. We're meeting up on the 22nd to go get our visas in NYC and I cannot wait. I really want to get my visa without a hassle, but I'm nervous that it's going to get fucked up. We should have done this sooner, for sure, but oh well. I'm sure we'll get it and if we don't, we can take another trip and get it hopefully.

My computer has been freezing lately, so I'm going to format it tonight I think. I bought some DVDs to back shit up since my backup hard drive also died. Oh well. Most of the data was on this computer anyhow.

Eddie Corlew and I hung out a couple of times this week. He has officially retired from Regal, which he and I signified by hanging our shirts upstairs in the projection booth with Brent's old shirt. We also bombed the concession stand with Nerf guns during the set. It was awesome. People were scared, nervous. It was hilarious.

So that's that. Probably won't update this again until I get on the ground in Thailand.

Ooops

Ooops...

Into the Semester

I've been incredibly busy this year. It's amazing how much work I've been getting done. My classes seem to be morphing into one another, and I can barely keep up with all the assignments I've had. Nearly every week, I'm working on a paper that's due that week, and when I'm not, I'm working one the three terms papers I have due at the end of the semester.

For my Global Security and International Organization classes, I'm writing essentially the same paper on Nuclear Proliferation. With the Global Security paper, it's broader and has, well, a global reach. My International Organization paper focuses on North Korea and the five nations that are encouraging it to give up the 'nukes. The final paper for my English Modern Culture and Media class is going to talk about stereotypes in modern buddy cop films. I think that'll be fun, because I get to sit here and watch Martin Lawrence, Eddie Murphy, and Chris Tucker films all day and it's academic. My parents were pleased.

I bought a new computer, so I've got something nice to watch them on. Brand-spanking new Dell. They fucked me over on it. I bought it and when I received it, the graphics card was broken. I called and complained, they told me to wait a couple of days and I'd have a new one. I waited and then no card came. I called again, they told me to wait some more days. I waited and no card came. I called again, they told me to wait two more days. They called me and told me I'd have to wait 20 days and the card was out of stock. I was pissed, threatened to return the unit and...surprise, surprise, the graphics card came on Monday. It really is a nice computer though. Plays games very well, I love the monitor, and I can have my surround sound hooked up.


I got a job at the Oswego Cinema 7. I like it a lot. I'm learning so much more than I learned at Regal. The projectors are much older, so my actual projection skill is improving. Regal had very simple projectors designed to be simple so that even the most retarded people could do projection without fear. Oswego Cinema 7 has real projectors. There's no handy windows for framing or anything like that; you just need to know how to line it up by film sprokets and stuff. Each projector has unique quirks, some don't have automation and you have to start everything manually, some take a long time to turn on the bulb...but it's fun. I'm also doing film builds. I hate taking movies apart, but putting them together is interesting and much less boring. I like all the people I work with. The only problem I have is that I work on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday usually, which isn't a huge deal, but I miss Tae Kwon Do Club.

Nothing else is really going on. I really haven't had time to do anything but work and school. It's depressing. I miss playing games and shit all the time.

Back to the lovely SUNY Oswego...

So, I'm back at OSU, the college on the lake.

Not a whole lot has changed. The whole campus seems to be ripped apart by construction, but through and through, this is still the same Oswego that I fell in love with last year.

Having a suite has some advantages and disadvantages. Having a place where we can party comfortably with a group of people all the time is nice. It's nice that there's always a roommate around to talk to when you're bored. At the same time, I have a hard time studying in the suite, and it's incredibly amazing how much crap we've needed for the suite. Bathroom cleaner? Who really wants to buy that shit, or knows what's good and what isn't? We sure as hell don't.

Classes are hard this year.

International Organization: A lot of reading on organizations that have no power and no enforcement techniques, so they're amazingly ineffectual. Our first test is coming on Friday, and we're almost done with the first book, so that should show you that there's a lot of reading.

Global Security: My senior seminar. Good discussions sometimes, but I'd like more debate in the class. Again, a lot of reading.

Spanish: The teacher is ridiculous and rambles on endlessly with random stories about how much better Spain is than anywhere. That should say enough.

Modern Culture and Media: Interesting readings, and I get a lot of funky moments where everything is crystal clear and my head no longer feels like it's going to explode. Exciting.

Solar System Astronomy: Roby is all over the place, but generally this class is interesting and fun. We go to the planetarium a lot and look at stuff. I can't wait to get into actual planet analysis.

Alright, I'm done pooping, so I'm done blogging. Wireless is sweet.

Some random shit...

I should be going to bed because I'm leaving for Oswego tomorrow and I have a long drive and what not. But I'm sitting at my computer listening to Ludacris. Ludacris is fucking awful, but I love his music. It's so fun and happy and amazingly retarded. This motherfucker has more money that I ever will and he deserves all of it for being able to sell this shit to people. Not to me though, I stole it fair and square. You can't trick me.

I hate flying insects. All of them. Gnats, bees, dragon flies, and moths in particular. I've decided that they serve no purpose and should all die. I really can't imagine my life being any worse without them. Only better. Lots better. You might try to convince me that they're important because they serve as food for other creatures, but here's something: on a day-to-day basis, I only really like dogs and cats as pets. I really only eat chicken, pig, and cow. And as far as I know, none of them eat gnats or mosquitos or moths or dragon flies. So, I really don't need them, and if that means that all the bats die, so be it. Bats freak me out anyhow. Fuck them.

The Yankees lost two of three in Seattle, which shouldn't have happened. They come off being Boston five fucking times straight, Boston, one of the best teams in the league, but they can't beat Seattle, a team that had lost eleven straight going into the game. They're still six games up on Boston in the AL East and Boston is I think three games back from the wild card, so as long as the Yankees can stay on top in the AL East and the White Sox and Twins can keep the wild card, Boston won't make the playoffs, thus ensuring the beginning of a new curse because Boston let Johnny Damon go to the Yankees (and now he's having arguibly his best season).

I drove around my stepmom's Tahoe for a few days. While I like the added feeling of power, I really missed my car. Yeah, I bitch about that little piece of Civic all the time, but I really do like it. Who am I kidding, I love that car. As soon as I got back into it after getting it back (the backdoor finally opens again), I felt a lot more comfortable. The Tahoe is too big and takes up too much room and uses too much gas. The Civic just melts into me and seems to know what I'm going to do before I'm going to do it. It's changes lanes a lot better. It gets up to speed the way I want it it. And it sure as fuck stops a lot better than that fucking tank. It also smells delicious and the mats are nice and clean thanks to a free carwash that I did not expect. All around, I'm pleased, and I don't even care that that back window still doesn't work, the CD player doesn't work at all anymore, and the roof light went out. I think a fuse might have blowen. The Civic is a vehicle that simply wants to be broken.

Alright, that's all I've got. Can't say that I'm not looking forward to getting out of here.

It's almost time to go back...

I can't wait to go back to Oswego. Technically, I've already been back because I was there all of last week, but even still, I really don't think it counts as being "back" until it's permanent and that won't happen until like, the 25th or something. I'll probably sneak back a little early and just bum around in Rita's room all secret-agent like. Not that it really matters, I think the people in her building knew I was there anyhow. At least, the janitors did because I let them in for all the work orders they tried to put through.

So, last week I mostly sat around and did nothing. I wrote a few reviews, a couple that I'm actually proud of! I also played through Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and also Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. I started playing Extermination as well, which is an awfully generic survival horror game made by Sony for the PS2. I also watched a lot of TV, including Cops and World's Scariest Police Videos. Man, I love it when cops chase criminals and catch them. And of course, I spent a lot of time with Rita, even though she was very busy with RA training and all. We went out and bought a very nice foton for the two of us to share. We got suckered into it, but the lady dropped about $100 off the price tag, so we got it for a good price. I'm going to be pleased with it. I forgot how God-awful school beds are. BUH.

And more, I have goals for the semester. Being back in Oswego really got me pumped for learning and personal improvement. Here we go:

1) I got a gym membership. I want to use it.
2) I need to work on being nicer to people. I learned this summer that I'm probably going to be surrounded by absolute dipshits for the rest of my life, and now's the time to learn how to deal with them. Plus, with Rita being an RA, I can't argue with her residents, even if they are awful.
3) 3.7. This semester is going to be hard, what with the senior seminar and all, but I'm going to try to actually take notes when I read things and the like so I'm ahead of the curve. Plus, considering most of my tests are take-home essays, summerizing the most important points in each chapter as I read it would make it a lot easier when I go back to write my essay.
4) Get a fucking job. I applied at the in-town movie theater and I'm applying at Price Chopper. I need to work. My parents are too angry to give me money all semester for stupid shit.
5) Improve Thunderbolt. The site kind of just sits there sometimes. I want to make sure it doesn't.

I think those are good goals. I think I might be able to do them too.

In other news, I think I have an ear infection. Fucking thing hurts. I think I got it on vacation in the Poconos. While in the Poconos, I bought some fireworks, and Zach and Anthony and I did a tour-de-explosion around South Glens Falls and Queensbury. It was exciting launching off fireworks in the K-Mart and Wal-Mart parking lots. We also rented Santa's Slay, which stars the always enjoyable Goldberg of WCW fame, and the movie was entertaining as all hell. They even featured the stupid game we play with the circle-thing below your waste. Twice. We almost died of laughter. Zach said "It's almost like we got drunk and made this movie." It had explosions, ass-kicking, and curling. Sweet.

That's that. I'm going to bed now. It's almost morning.

An update? So soon?

Yeah, I decided to update this again, even though I JUST updated it a few days ago.

Today was slightly awful. I woke up feeling like absolute shit again. I felt like I did the day I had my asthma attack, but worse, with a headache because I slept like shit. So I laid in bed, trying to sleep, trying not to move so my head didn't hurt, and coughing and blowing my nose every few minutes. And feeling like I couldn't breath. I sucked on the inhaler for a while and then went to take a shower, but I got lightheaded and ended up laying on the bathroom floor on a towel in the fetal position for a while. I tried to call into work, but my mom wouldn't let me. So I went to work and told her to fuck off and called people cunts and that was lovely. If I had called into the theater or EB like that, they'd have given me the day off. Her excuse for not letting me stay home was because I'd taken a lot of weekends off. Bull-fucking-shit. Who cares? There's a guy who works there that takes every Wednesday-Saturday off. I was legitimately ill. Gay. I can't wait until I'm done working there.

And today was gay too. I was working with a new guy, Jake for the night, with Michelle too, the owners daughter I think, but only with her for a little while. They're both alright, but they're 16 and make me wonder if I was that annoying when I was 16, which I probably was. Both of them seem to know just about everything about the world, and that annoys me a little. But they're both reasonably smart, so they're good. But one thing that bugs me about that place is Friday Night Movie Night. One thing I've thankfully avoided all summer is engaging in political discussions with the owner. He's very left wing, a proud member of the Green Party. I don't trust far-left and far-right political parties. I believe that they're detrimental to the American way and self-serving. And I would tell him that if he asked me my opinions, but he hasn't. Instead, he subjects audiences of like-minded patrons to left-wing movies that are all anti-Bush and the like. Look, I'm not a huge Bush fan either, but he's not the anti-Christ like those liberals make him out to be. And really, can you take anyone on the left seriously that's criticizing Geerge Bush after attending college? I know I can't. I like all my classes and the like, but there's just so much stupid, overblown Bush-bashing. And all those movies do is remind me of all the stupid arguments that I had in POL 369: Terrorism and Political Violence to the group of anarchists in the front row that had the approval of Dr. Venable. Nice lady, but I wasn't surprised that I got a C+ in that class considering I called the American Revolutionaries terrorists.

But anyhow, back to my original rant. Movie night is awful because of the political leanings, but also because the owner likes to debate the movies after, and the movies usually end after 10, which is closing time. The kitchen closes at 9. So by like, 9:45, I'm generally done with all my work and I just go out front, have a drink, and read the NY Times, which is my newspaper of choice at this point because the Post Star is awful and the Times Union just bitches about Albany, and, quite frankly, I don't care about Albany. I like fictional stories better anyhow. But, tonight, the owner, his girlfriend, and her kids decided to stay and talk to Jake's mother and father RIGHT NEXT TO THE REGISTER. And they decided to talk to Jake while he was trying to count the till. Now, Jake isn't stupid or anything, but he doesn't know how to close yet. He's only done it a few times. He goes slow as hell when he doesn't have people distracting him, but when he has people talking to him the entire time, it's awful. I ended up sweeping, mopping, taking out the garbage, and bagging up the bread on the front end, leaving his only responsibility being counting the register, and we still didn't get out until 10:45. Fucking gay.

Right now, as in, this very moment, I'm tired, but I'm hungry. I'm almost tempted to run out and get something to eat, but I don't really feel awake enough to go. I looked upstairs, and the food selection is poor at best. I don't know what my parents are doing with groceries, but they aren't buying them, that's for sure. For some reason, we have three bottles of barbeque sauce though. I'm not complaining. Some people don't have barbeque sauce at their houses, and when they do, it's some weird, down-state brand that I'm skeptical of and avoid. Apparently, my parents want me to give back my Mobil/Exxon card, because their gas bill was 600 dollars, and I charged more than my dad. My parents also want me to save money for school. The unfortunate thing that my parents don't seem to realize is that if I have to buy my own gas, I won't have cash for school. I mean, I don't spend that much, between gas and tolls, maybe $200 a month, and this is only for the summer. At school, I fill up my tank maybe once every 3 weeks, if that. And it's not like they're buying me anything else this summer. They haven't bought anything besides gas and tolls, I've even paid for all my doctors visits, which I feel falls as a parental responsibility. And yes, while I might have a job and I might be 20, almost 21, my parents spend a FUCK of a lot more on Kristen and Ericka's babysitting fees, which probably come out to about $200 a week. But if they're really serious about the gas thing, then I'm going to start seriously whining about how my door on my car is broken that I haven't asked them to fix really, and I'll start whining about how the window in my car is broken that I haven't asked them to fix really, and how I need new tires for my car, which I haven't even mentioned to them. And then I'll run out of money again at school and they'll have to give me money during the school year again, and they won't save any money at all. Sounds like a plan to me. Because, really, I'm going to spend as much as I do on gas now even without that. This summer is lame enough half the time, without being able to drive down to Staten Island to see Rita would make me miserable.

Alright, I'm going to go. I'm still debating food. I don't know though. I'm a little more tired now, but also a little more hungry. I ran out of snack food. I was going to wait until Sunday to go to the store because the lovely Rita Torsney-Sullivan is coming up to celebrate the 4th of July with yours truly, but I might have to go now and get some snackage. Maybe some Munchos. I like those. Best chips ever. Salty, but not greasy, at all, unlike my nuts. I could go for some cookies too. I liked those Elf cookies for a while with fudge in the middle, but I was getting the double-fudge, and then quadruple-fudging them, and that's just way too much fucking fudge. It grossed me out. I always end up eating one more than I should have. Maybe I'll get some Chips Ahoy! cookies. I like them. The double-chocolate ones are delicious. Rita got me on a Tostitos and Salsa kick for a while, but the last can of Salsa I got didn't taste that good, so I don't know about those. And I'm back on the Pepsi again. Delicious caffeine. So happy-inducing. But I'm not that bad with it. I go several days without a bottle, and I usually don't finish that one bottle for a couple of days (I'm talking 20oz). I think I'm going to go to Hannaford and wander around aimlessly, buying random junk food and convincing most of the employees that I'm probably stoned.

BURRAP!