Reasons not to Blog

I haven't forgotten the blog. There have been several times when I meant to post, but then something comes up. Like the other day, I totally had a post, and pictures for it. I was going to take my pictures off of my camera, but since I got a new camera, one that uses an SD card, and not the useless XD card that my old Olympus used, I hadn't bought a new card, and instead was using an old SD card I had. When I put it in my computer, I noticed there were other things on it.

Even more exciting than finding a bunch of old word files I thought I had lost, was the discovery of stuff I had written that I didn't remember at all.So rather than post, I've been reading some of my old stuff for the past several days, one of which was a story that was almost 90 pages, one that I was certain I had lost.

My only regret is not doing a better job of dating this stuff. I was telling Justin about this, and he compared me to an archaeologist, going back into my life, and trying to carbon date stuff. It's pretty true. Most of my stories, I can place their conception, roughly.

The Monkey House, it was in either my Spanish four or AP Spanish class, when we were trying to talk about fears in Spanish. I'm pretty sure it was four, because the next semester, I considered trying to write it for my graduation project, but the story wasn't old enough, but I did write a lot, and found probably all of it the other day.

My story about demi-gods that govern human life and death, I remember that was the summer after senior year, and it came about while I was running on route 27 every night, and my sense were over-tuned, and I was jumping at every shadow. I found a lot of the original ideas for that.

And a lot of stuff from Eryk Valen's story. Stuff so old I still spelled his name Eric. He's the one, the important one, the one who I have no idea how long I've known about him. I can date him back to at least seventh grade, just from certain things, but I'm sure it was before then. How much has he changed in that time. That had to be before he even had a name, let alone a proper spelling.

So, with all that old stuff, then I of course was thinking about the name, and how he got, and it has been a long time since I've learned anything new about him. I replay his story over and over, and a few things get changed, added, and omitted, but there is very rarely anything new. But for the first time in probably a year, I have something new. And also, I have dated it, and backed it up for sure. Man it annoys me that I have no idea when any of that stuff was written.

Anyways, pictures. I have some. Apart from my typical three day a week workouts with Ben and Justin, I realized I wasn't running as much, so I started running to my old neighborhood, taking a few laps back and forth across the lake, and then running back home. It's only four miles, but the swim in the middle wears me out. I was talking to my old neighbor, Valerie, today, and she said that you couldn't pay her to get in that lake. I can't really argue there. It's beautiful, but it is pretty gross. It gets worse as the summer goes on. I remember as kids, when we'd all go swimming in it, we'd all have rashes from the "ching chings" as Keely (who just got engaged, congrats Keely and Mike) dubbed them. But right now, the algae and seaweed or whatever that grows in there is almost nonexistent, at least in the small part I swim in, and it's manageable. Also, people like to keep reminding me of the snapping turtle situation in that lake, a fact that I'm aware of but don't like to be reminded of. They generally chill on the bottom, waiting for prey, so I figure if my feet don't touch the ground, I'm alright.

The lake. The pictures don't do it justice, at least not to how disgusting it is. With all the rain lately though, it's quite full, meaning it's cleaner than usual, and colder than usual, both huge pluses.

Just a picture of Jo chillaxin' on the deck, under my chaise.




This was pretty sweet storm, came on pretty suddenly. Also, left my car windows open that day. It rains, like almost everyday, and seems I would learn to roll them up, even if I plan on leaving shortly and it doesn't look like rain.

Productive

I think this pretty much sums up our day. I got a new camera today, but I was at Ben's with him and Justin, a fellow member of the blog quadratic and old friend from high school home for the summer, so I didn't have a memory card with me, so I was limited to three pictures. I felt these did an accurate job of describing our day, as the three of us sat around at Ben's house. We were actually quite productive. On what, I won't say just yet, but here is just a small preview of what is to come.



That is our other friend Colin, also a memeber of the blog quadratic:

And John Lithgow, famous actor:

The rest you can deduce for yourselves.

RDTSBWTR

Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar

Just, just click the link. It's pretty awesome. I feel that everyone should make the world safe for another ten jillion years.

Still Dancing with Groogrux King

The new Dave Matthews Band album came out today, Big Whiskey and the Groogrux king came out. I'm a pretty big DMB fan, not quite the caliber that Jo is, but they're pretty good. It's been rather easy to enjoy, since they've done a rather good job of marketing it, and I was able to catch their live performance last night a Beacon theater streaming commercial free on Hulu, and Hulu also has a bunch of stuff from them, from a documentary on the latest CD, to music videos, to live performances.

So, I bought the CD today, and I was tempted to play it in the car, but you never know if Giz is going to keep the CD's I put in her, or worse, chew them up, so waited. And I have to say, at first, I was mildly disappointed. After all the promotion, and the majority of the band agreeing that it was their best, I felt there was nothing that really compared to some of their greats like "Crash Into Me" or "Grey Street". SO I sat out in the sun for awhile and listened to it on repeat (and got a sunburn on the bottom of me feet. didn't know that could happen, and it finally began to click. It still doesn't have anything quite like the aforementioned songs, but as an album, it's really good. Not having really listened to any of their former albums as an album, together in order as they were originally, produced, I can't vouch for it being their best. It's hard to compare it to Dave's solo album, "Some Devil", which, with the exception of the title track, I am a huge fan, but him sans the band is just a different sound.

Not to mention the album art. It is fantastic. The polar bear might be my favorite, and that's just the cover. Suffice to say, it kept me rather amused for at least a whole run through.

I don't know, Jo and I enjoyed it. It was about time.

Snapper

This is my new buddy.

I went for a bike ride with my dad this morning. It was beautiful, and I haven't ridden in a while. We went to my old neighborhood first. It's always a little rough going back. It's like walking back into my childhood, only, it's not real. I can never go back. I can remember in that painful bittersweet flood that comes with every trip over there. I am one nostalgic sob.

That aside, it was a sweet ride. At some point, I lost my father, because he of course did the smart thing, and assumed I would forget the way home. I of course didn't, and

When I got back to my parents neighborhood, I came upon two girls and a barking dog in the middle of the road. The issue was my buddy the snapper. I attracted a small crowd as I attempted to get my new friend out of the road. He of course wasn't having it. One of the few things that really terrify me, and the lake was full of them. I remember one year, walking out on the ice when it was just strong enough to get out on the edge, and I looked down, and there was one about twice that size right under my feet. I always have dreams where I'm back at the lake, and most of them involve snapping turtles, usually covering the shore, just hundreds of them. Still, now, finding this guy on the road, I wasn't about to try and grab him with my bare hands, but I had no issues getting him off the road. I guess if tools hadn't been readily available, I would have sucked it up and used my hands to move him, but I'm glad it didn't come to that.

I was able to get him into one of those big plastic storage containers and get him off the street without losing a finger. I took him down to the stream where by the pond we fly kites at. Of course now, knowing he might be there, I will never walk in that pond again.

Familiar Faces

Been seeing a lot more people I used to know lately. This is an experience that can be good or bad. Particularly bad, especially when I run into people from high school at work. The best had to be a while back, when I ran into some girl I knew, who's name I don't remember, and if I cared a bit more, I might bust out the year book, but I didn't after it happened, and I don't intend to now.

Needless to say, on Thursdays, my job takes me over to the clothing side of the store, and I spend all day updating counts there. And of course, I should run into this girl while I'm researching my favorite part, lingerie.

This is awesome for me, because, for starters, I'm at a immediate disadvantage, because I didn't know her well in school, nor she me, but we recognize each other, but she has the advantage of knowing my name because I'm displaying it on my chest, whereas I've got nothing, and I can't ask her hers, because even though she probably only remembered mine because it's right there, I'd feel like a jerk for not remembering hers. And then it's just an awkward place to catch up. There's the typical "what are you up to these days", and I really don't care what she's up to, and as for me, I'm rifling through the panty wall, looking for a particular set the system thinks we have but I can't find.

This experience has prompted a change in my routine, and I now start there and get that done before the store opens.

Anyways, today was a good one. My boos came up to me while I was over in cosmetics (another great place to run into people, btw) and told me there was a guy over by the PC games who was suspected of stealing XBox games. So I have to go over and ask him if he needs help, and just sort of deter theft. And who should be the suspect but one of my old friends from engineering club, Sean something or other.

I was really good to see him actually, even if he may or may not have been stealing. I'd be interested to find out if Jesse actually saw him on the cameras or just suspected him of it, because yeah, I haven't seen the guy in like four years, but I really didn't see it. He's doing pretty well for himself, got a good job for some defense contractor, and doesn't seem like he needs to resort to stealing games, but who knows. Not me, that's for sure.

Then later, at Safeway, I ran into a guy who I generally see when I'm there, Cody, working in the bakery. I haven't been there lately, and he's one of those people who always nags me about going to school, and doing something with my life, which, I actually like him because for some reason, it doesn't bug me coming from him. And then, as soon as he saw me, he said he just saw one of my best friends from way back in kindergarten, Evan Ponton. I was about to whip out my phone and call him and see if he was still in the store, but Cody beat me to it, calling him out over the store intercom. Evan walks around the corner, a few minutes later, a confused look on his face, wondering what he could possibly be needed at the bakery for.

We talked for a bit, and I need to see him more this summer. He reminded me I need to see a lot of people this summer, as right now, I hang out with the same four people four days a week, plus, then the people from work, who I see five or six days. Really, different people are nice, change things up, you know.