O.k. another post from Seattle, this time with Mark in tow. He's made it to Seattle and despite all of the poor communication on my part we seem to have made it work out pretty well. It's great to see Mark again, and bodes well for the rest of the trip. If only we can find a place for him to stay tonight. . .

We've done stuff here, Mark and I, but I'll let him tell that since I always have to don that hat. Instead I'll talk a bit more about the clinic I am in. It will be a short post, I swear.

So there's a lot of people at this clinic for somewhere around 30 different AP courses. The class that I am in (Physics) is around 35 people. Other classes are much smaller (Art History has 4). We are in a room at the edge of the school, with the rest of the science dorks. I would say that they keep us there so we don't spread nerdiness to the rest of the clinic, but every AP teacher is a nerd on some level so we are all lost.

Our instructor is named Martin (whoa!) Kirby. I think I have mentioned him before. He's from the UK but teaches in LA now. He is self described as a lazy teacher who find the easiest way to be good so that he can have a life (he is newly married all of 3 weeks ago). That being said he is a teacher I greatly enjoy. He isn't mired in tiny details very often, tells good stories and has a sense of humor in himself. He does try to put on a show often, treating us like an audience, throwing one-liners our way. I'm not too keen on that, and certainly never want to be like that. I feel like it is slightly condescending or in genuine, I'm not sure which. He's very easy to side track, and we have spend the past three days talking about the test, how it is graded (and grading some ourselves) and hanging out talking about how we teach shit. It is really laid back and informal. In order to have some structure we do a few things. Sometimes they are him reading, and then getting side tracked. Other times, like today, we do activities. Today we were given a "bucket of crap" lab, which basically means we were given a pulley, string, two masses of identical mass, a stopwatch and a meter stick and were asked to find the mass of one of our keys to within 15%. The procedure was totally up to us. This type of open lab was something I wanted to incorporate in my class already, but after doing it I am totally sold. I want a little more structure than he has (more questions, make them write it up afterwards), but it's in the new syllabus for next semester.

The other thing I really like about my class is how everyone else seems to be doing work, and we, like real physics teachers, are just chilling talking. Brian, in History, is basically being told all of history from 8000 BC to now and then talking about it. The chemistry and biology people are doing nothing but prescribed labs and learning how to teach them. It sounds totally boring and I'm glad I don't teach any of those subjects.

We have only one day left and then I get an actual certificate (really, the paper, no shit). At that point Mark and I have to figure out what to do. We're toying with the idea now. I'm pretty sure I want to spend the day touring more of Seattle, and getting to the island that I hear is so cool. Aside from that I don't know what I'm going to do. Again it is going to be really cool to have Mark to talk to for the rest of the ride home. There's lots of shit to catch up on. Since we have more time I'm not sure if we are going to blitz through the country, but the trip should be interested all the same. Right now are big concern is finding a place for Mark while still being able to get to the fucking movie at 10:20. Oh, we're going to see Spider Man 2 with Ben and Sarah.

Well, I think that is it for me right now. There really isn't much to talk about. I might blog more, I might not depending on how things are going. Regardless I'll blog from ATL, assuming Jeremy has detoxed my computer from whatever shit has been happening to it.

M

First of all, in case Mark reads this or is in touch with any of you soon:

I couldn't understand the number in your message. Gimme a call when you get in tomorrow (404 455 2515) and I'll get wherever you are ASAP.


Aside from that things are going really well here in Seattle. Brian and I were all touristy today and I learned more shit. We also tried to get our mac on and met two girls that went to Emory. It is a small fucking world. Talk to you guys more later.

M

I think my favorite weather-related phenomenon is those huge dust storms they get in Arizona. The kind where giant clouds of dust swallow the entire town of Pheonix. Its especially cool when they get a helicopter up there and show it on TV.

So I was looking around for jobs again, and I happened across another job for an engineer that can speak japanese and english. I didnt know they were so in demand. If I had, maybe I would have minored in japanese or something. But this one is in Dayton Ohio. and I said "Why the fuck would I want to live in Dayton Ohio?" but nobody answered me, so I left it at that.

So what are the logistics involved in hopping trains to various places around the country? What kind of problems come up? It always seemed pretty easy to me, especially when I saw a slow moving boxcar with its door open. I've always wondered how often they check for people hopping trains.

so here we go again. I've had a day at my class, and hopefully I'll get to talk about it this time.

So I think I left off when I crossed into Nevada and was immediately accosted by casinos. I think part of the requirement to be a town in Nevada is that you have some form of casino somewhere. I say this because during my hour on 80 in Nevada I think I passed 20 casinos. Aside from that my stay in Nevada was short, until I hit US route 93. See, I had to drive into Nevada in order to cross it off of the list. Unfortunately there is absolutely no interstates in Nevada that run north-south, so my only option was to take a US route that was the only road for miles and take that to I84 in Idaho. Well, nightfall had come and I'm driving on US 93 for what seems like hours before I hit Idaho. This is always the worst part of a road trip: I had already been in a car for around 11 hours, so I'm stir crazy; it's night fall so there's nothing to look at only the fear of deer running in the road; and there is not end in sight. I drive like this, where my mind leaves me body and I'm driving on a subconcious level, for about an hour and a half before I hit Idaho.

Once in Idaho I'm only a few (~60 mi) away from I84 and the security of the interstate. But there's an optoin to take US30 and cut the angle pretty well. I'm interested in getting to Boise fast since I have a 10:30 deadline to try to live up to . . . wait, backtrack. Once in Nevada I give Hostel Boise a call, and much to my surprise a person picks up the phone. We talk a bit and I ask if she has room for the night. She says "sure, we close at 10:30, will you be here by then?" To which I tell her my location and say nope. "Oh, well that's o.k. I leave the door unlocked with instructions for you." "I'll leave the door unlocked." Obviously this lady doesn't live anywhere with crime. But who am I to turn it down, I agree and get back on the road . . . after playing the slots a bit . . . because I'm weak. Back to the present, I'm trying to get there fast. It already is 9:30 and I'm about 1:30 away from Boise from the interstate, so chopping some time off would be good, right? Of course, little do I remember that I'm god's whipping boy at times. See, US30 is a fucking scenic highway, which means it meanders around, passing through towns and shit with wicked curves. Normally this isn't the world because it is really pretty to see the sights, but it is fucking nightime and I'm late to a bed. I don't know how long I spend on 30, honestly I lost track of time and space between there and Boise.

Eventually I make it to the house just past Boise and after figuring out that I had been driving for 15 hours I find the bed, do some crunches and fall the fuck out. I wake up in the morning and Elsa, the person who has turned her house into a hostel in her old age, is sitting there talking to some other old lady. Both were having coffee and offerend me some, to which I declined. I remember that when I came into the house I saw my note and also saw that there was another note to a person named Sarah who was in the same boat that I was in. Surely this Sarah was bound to be a hot woman travelling the states looking for some loving right?? So imagine my surprise when I wake up and I'm the youngest person in the room by 50 years. It turns out the other old wlady wasn't Sarah, but that Sarah never made it in last night. Well, I wasn't about to spend my morning sipping tea and talking about knitting so I hit the road after paying for the place.

This is sunday now, and the rest of the drive was great. I hit Oregon pretty early, and Oregon quickly grew on me as a state. Even in Idaho I hadn't seen a tree that was of a reasonable thickness in a long time, but here were some pines in Oregon. I resumed to talking to people on the phone for a long time, and tagged a scenic overlook just past what I though was the end of the rockies (you know, those are some fucking big mountains). I drive through Oregon and am spending time talking to Chowning most of the way. She was trying to leave Atlanta to return to Nashville, but there was a wreck on 75 so she was in a stand still for an hour. So we talked for a bit, but then I lost coverage again winding through even more mountains going into Washington. I would like to note that at this point I only had Montana left. I managed to call Mike Smith for two minutes and then my coverage died again, at which point I decided no more calling people until I got to Seattle.

Driving through Washington was a welcome sight after the rest of the country. While I was happy to see trees in Oregon, I got to drive through forests in Washington, and they were gorgeous. All of these healthy, well fed trees growing eveywhere as I wound down mountain roads. At one point during my trip someone asked me what my favortie state was to drive through, and I had a hard time answering it. I still do. It seems like I really can enjoy just about any state that I drive through, the terrain can change so much from state to state that each of them is (cliche) pretty in their own way.

So I'm driving into Seattle, and to get to the city by I90 I have to drive on through Mercer island, where all of the rich people live. These people are so fucking rich . . . (how rich are they?) that when the state wanted to put an interstate (90) through the island the people were like "fuck that shit, here's some cash flow, put that shit underground so it isn't fucking up my view." According to Brian (later) this is the most expensive piece of highway in the states, but I was told that about a stretch in Utah a summer ago. Clearly more research is needed.

Anyway, to get to Mercer island you have to cross this bridge (floating from what I hear) and it is like a huge welcome to Seattle. You finishing winding down the mountains and hit this straight away, with expensive houses sitting on hills looking you in the face, and a culminating tunnel to confirm your entry to the Emerald City.

And an Emerald City it is. Honestly, I've been to a lot of cities, and I really like this one. The weather right now is great, if a bit too cold for me. I went to downtown, had a hard time parking because of the Mariner's game, and walked around the livable part of downtown talking to Chowning on the phone about how fucking cool it is. I stopped and had lunch at a corner cafe, walked through city parks with belligerent homeless people (so much so that one of them threw a bottle in my general direction . . . I don't know why) and wandered in and out of art galleries that were on every block. I made it to the docks and looked at the ferried to vancouver island and then walked around some more to China Town and their sports complexes. I even found a literal underground jazz vinyl store. While the rest of the place was all on street level, this place was in a basement accessible from stairs on the corner. I stopped in a grabbed some LPs for my dad and checked out. I talked some to the guy running the place, and he said that he had been working there for 20 years, and owned the place for 12. I was no bigger than the production floor at the Robot Factory, and was packed to the walls with LPs and CDs. During the time I was there, although the streets were bustling, only two people, a pair of old black men, entered the shop. Thy strolled around a bit before grabbing two ablums, talking to the guy at the front and checking out. It was super fucking cool.

I had been spending all of this time downtown because I was early in getting to Seattle and although I had an address for where I was staying, I didn't have a number so I didn't want to get there ahead of schedule and have no one be there. At this point I felt like I was good to go so I headed a few miles up I5 and went to the house/apartment. It was on a side street, and unfortunately no one was home. So I spent a little bit of time driving around the neighborhood. The place that Ben and Sarah live at reminds me greatly of Home Park in Atlanta. It is not too far from the University of Washington, and not too far away from downtown. You have a bunch of run down houses which have been converted to apartments and are at capacity because people need housing. As a result the streets, which offer the only real parking, are packed so you have to park a few block away and walk often. I drive around a little more and notice a lot of rainbows around.

Holy shit, it's fucking Pride weekend. I had forgotten that we were having the Pride Parade in Atlanta that weekend, and apparently they were doing the same thing here in Seattle. So I'm driving down this strip which apparently was the route the parade went down because there was shit everywhere in the street. The road was broadway and I'll talk about it more. So already Seattle had a feel of home, between the homeless, home park-ish place and pride parade. I head back and Sarah has returned. I hang out with her for a bit before leaving again to find an internet cafe to make my last post. This gives me a chance to drive down Broadway a bit more.

To characterize Broadway the thing that comes to mind is little 5 from a while ago. Lots of people with tattoos and no fewer than 5 piercings. Lots of black, and people in uncomfortable looking garb. Unrelated to the last sentence, it seems that most of the people here shop at the same store and have the same fashion sense as Mary Nell. The other thing about the place is that it still is grungy/dirty enough to have an air of authenticity that little 5 has been lacking in the past few years. It really is a pretty cool place, and I felt at home walking the streets here to get to the cafe.

After my last post I went home, met the other teacher crashing at Ben's (Ben is out of town until tonight). His name is Brian Greenough. He is originally from the San Fran area, but went to school at Dartmouth before moving to Olympia to teach history in high school. He's a pretty cool guy, and as an ultimate player we hit it off well. Then I get to sleep.

I wake up early in the morning and get ready for class. Brain and I carpool in (he drove) and are hitting it off really well. He has a sarcastic, yet genuine type of humor/personality that makes him really fun to hang out with. We get to the place, find the line for breakfast and follow it to the end, which meant going into and then out of the cafeteria twice (long line). We get our food and sit down at the only places available. This clinic is pulling somewhere around 1400 teachers to cover around 30-40 subjects. It is fucking huge, and that became obvious when we were looking for seats. Brian made an apt comment that it was like being a freshman in high school again. Here we were two people that were friends basically because we rode the same bus in, standing with our trays looking for a place to sit. It was clear the cliques were already forming amongst the teachers. I felt like at any second I would hear the voice from the Wonder Years chime in and tell up how although we didn't realize it we had formed a friendship that would last the ages or some shit.

But we did find seats. Next to these teachers from alaska who flew down because the 36 hour ferry ride was too long. After having a good breakfast Brian and I head our separate ways to go to class. I won't spend much time talking about class, I will say that I really like the person running the class. His name is also Martin. He's from London, where he was a teacher for a long time, but now teaches in LA basically. Everyone was surprised that I came a long way from Georgia and drove, and everyone has snickered (at least in the back their minds) and the Georgia education system. I decided rather than try to fight it I would just acknowledge that we suck as an education system and try to move on. At lunch (we have lunch on rotations because the cafeteria can't handle all of us at once) I met some new people, one of which was originally from Decatur but now teaches at a military base in Japan. There are a lot of teachers from Japan at this thing. I also hung out with one of the 4 females in the Physics sections (fucking physics preventing me from meeting hot chicks). I don't remember her name but she is from Vancouver, the one in Canada. There is one in Washington too, which I thought was really fucking stupid, but apparently there was a Captain Vancouver at some point and this is all his fault. Anyway, I had a great time at class, stayed after talking to the teacher a bit and then went back to the car to find Brain.

Oh, this is my chance to brag. So at one point to give us a little empathy for our student the other Martin asked us to do one of the tests. Not the whole thing, just half of the multiple choice section. And we could pick the type of the test (B or C) we wanted to do. If we picked the C section then we could pick either Emag (boo!) or mechanics (yea!). To make it extra tough we only got 22 minutes to do the 35+ problems. The point was that we needed to understand that there is no fucking way that our students can do all of the problems and expect to get them all right. Well, I'm busting my fucking hump working on these problems, and although I have to skip a few problems because of time I manage to get through all of the problems (skipping 7) right at the bell. So we have the solutions and he asked us to check how many we got right, to show that even we the teachers can't get them all right. Well guess who fucking got every question that he wrote an answer for right, yours fucking truely!!! I was perfect on 28 out of 35 questions and skipped the rest. It was a moment of pride, and immediately I wanted to tell everyone, but I held it in because I knew that wasn't the point of the exercise. It's moments like that when I start to miss my Mom again. I was really excited to tell someone something, but feel a bit embarrased, that is when I could call my Mom and she'd give me the gratification that I was looking for. All the same I had to hold it in and call Barbara (my mentor) after class.

Speaking of after class. When I walked back to the car Brian was waiting for me there, listening to the radio, sitting on the back of his car. I would have felt bad for being late but there was traffic backed all the way up to our parking space and Brian is a laid back guy. Last night Brian suggested that we go do touristy shit since he hasn't done that in Seattle before. So after class we drove around doing more shit. Again, I really can't toot Brian's horn enough. He's just a great guy. Really laid back, but witty and biting when he needs to be. I'm having a great time hanging out with him. I know I can get along with anyone, but there was a great click when Brain and I were making jokes about my map weilding skills. He even is going through the same frustration I am of being single in an occupation that doesn't giveyou much time to date and has basically only married ladies in it. There were multiple jokes surrounding the lady situation at the clinic and in the city.

We went to the locks, which is where they let the ships in and out of the lake. We saw the 'fish ladder' which is where the different types of salmon swim up the locks to get back into the lake. It is pretty cool. They have to swim upstream for it to feel right, so what they did was create the upstream with sections off to the side where eddys exist. These eddys give the salmon resting period so that even the younger salmon can make it back up the stream. After that we went and hung out around the space needle. We saw some cool shit, especially cool was a photo-memorial called MILK. I don't remember what it stands for, but basically there are these photographers from all around the world are taking touching photos that realte to family, love and friendship. So Brian and I spent a lot of time there looking at this very moving tribute. There was one picture that was particularly cool, it was of Ibrahim Ferrier and Ruben Gonzalez from Cuba celebrating the release of their album in Spain. These are one of the vocalists and the piano player from the Buena Vista Social Club. I saw them play live. For this reason I decide to buy a bunch of greetings cards to mail back to various people, especially my Dad. There is also a cute girl running the stand. They will be here for a month and are open every night until 10pm. I told Brian about her and he was like, sure, like she isn't hit on enough in this job. So maybe I'll go back to buy a gift for my dad and maybe I wont. Right now I am going to get something to eat at the run-down subway next door and then go back. We're picking Wiggins up tonight at the airport. And at this point we are all caught up. Whew.

M

wow Martin. It's like you won the Cash 3 lottery. getting to experience the 1 of the 5 days of rain that will happen this year in Utah. but seriously folks, if i remember correctly from my stringent education at Tech (read Physics of the Weather) a region can be a desert with a fair amount of rainfall if the rate of evaporation in that region is high enough.

there's a small chance i might be working on a project in London with their National Health System.

i am not bilingual. my mom's cousin's husband was often referred to as bilingual. he worked in Japan at a tire plant for some time. i never heard him speak any japanese though. then again I only met him a few times. that's my story.

Bilingual means that you can converse pretty well using common topics (not bondage, microprocessors or quantum physics). I think you count as bilingual, mikez0r.

Welcome from Seattle all. There are many stories to tell, so I guess I will get going. I think my last post was from just before I went out on my last night in Denver. This is where we pick up the story . . .


I'm sitting around the apartment watching something on TV when Krista comes home. She reminds me that we are going out with her friends Jen and Reba (yes, Reba) tonight to a local pub. I'm pretty stoked about the evening. Not only will it continue my streak of not interacting with a single male for more than 30 seconds on this trip, but it should be a good farewell to Denver and Colorado in general. Before I go, however I need to go pick up the gifts for Krista and Jen.

I swing by the liquor store and am stuck. I know what I am getting: a case of Corona for Jen (explain later), and wine for Krista; but the real issue is what wine. I flounder a bit, then call Jason. I remember Jason going through a wine tasting phase at some point so he's got to have good advice, right? Well, it turns out he didn't at first. I'm getting a dark wine (red, to use the parlance of our times) and J was all about the light wines. So he's no use, until he remembers that Lori (an ex of his and a co-captain of mine) lives wine. So I call Lori up and get some advice. She says that Cali is for pussies and so is their wine. Fair enough, I get an italian wine and head back thinking that by now we'll be significantly closer to leaving.

I get home and Krista is fresh out of the shower, which bodes well, but she says that Jen isn't ready yet. So we're waiting, just me and Krista, which is a good time for me to talk about Krista:
Krista is really cool, and very well suited for Colorado. She's from Minneapolis originally, and does all of the "you betcha" stuff that minnesotans do. But she's definetely an outdoors kind of girl. So much so that I get the impression if it can't be done outdoors it really isn't worth the time in her planner. Well, we were fine hanging out before when we were talking about deep shit like life and what not, but now that we're just shooting the shit waiting for Jen our cultural distinctions will come to the front. She turns on the TV, and all of a sudden a counter goes off over her head, switching from 4 to 5. She explains that she really doesn't watch TV much, and flips around asking me what I want to watch. Best Week Ever is on VH1, so I ask her to stop there. BAD IDEA. See, the outdoorsy people (BIG GENERALIZATION MODE FOR SAKE OF STORY) are not so in touch with the pop culture, so making her watch a show which basically talks about the pop culture of the week is really stupid. It was like we were thrown into a pot of molasses and our mouths were taped shut. Not a word was said by Krista, not a laugh, not a chuckle, for the entire show. Not knowing how to fix the problem I was pretty silent also, but I did laugh at least.

Sedway: This is the complete opposite of Beth's friend Sam who is a Philly girl true and true. When I finally met her thursday I was sleeping on the couch. I woke up and she was chilling at the computer. She came over and turned the TV on, immediately going to the Fresh Prince and then starting a conversation with me. So we're talking and watching TV and the conversation goes to her trip in Phoenix, how drunk she got on $2 Coronas (see?), and the stupid shit that she and her friends did. We sat and had a really fun talk for a few hours like it was nothing. I got the impression that although Sam can handle doing the outdoorsy stuff that Krista/Colorado wants out of her, she still is a city girl in her heart and loves going out late. End sedway.

So after 30 minutes of awkwardness Jen finally shows up and we get going to the place. The place is a celtic pub (Krista is very much a pub girl not a club girl). We're waiting for her friend Reba to show up and we get a few drinks. They both get some amber something and I get my strongbow. By the time I finish my first pint I look at their glasses and I think they had a few sips. No really, they maybe had about a fifth of their drinks. So I order another. I finish my second before they are done with their first. Now, I'm no champion drinker so these girls suck at finishing a pint. And I'm the one who is going to feel the drink being at altitude anyway. I go outside to warn my friend Beth of the drunk dialing that WILL be happening later on in the evening, and while I'm outside this guy walks by a police officer and all of a sudden is cuffed. Nothing happened before hand. It was like the two peopl were walking towards each other and the cop says to the guy, "hey, did you committ a crime." and the guys like "no, but we can pretend." "swell" and then he's bent over the rail. Strange.

I head back inside and we have gotten a table. I think the girls (Reba had shown up) have finally began a second pint and I order my third. So we're hanging out for a good hour or two, talking about life, love and all that shit. Oh, I almost forgot. When we were in the car I found out that this girl Jen, who is also a travelling nurse (all four girls I hung out with in Denver were travelling nurses) is orginally from Knoxville, but grew up in Marietta and actually went to Harrison for high school. It's a small world or something. Back to the story, so we're sitting there talking about past relationships (theirs, not mine) and Reba, who is the oldest of us (32??) is talking about how she was dating this 48 year old for a while and how he was trying to settle down. No shit, he's fucking 48! Really all of this relationship talk had started because Krista had broken up with her boyfriend for 1.6 years and he had just sent her the "you wronged me you bitch" email and she didn't know what to do. So every now and again it would get back to that thread, and evey now and again I would add some gem of wisdom. At this point I had another pint and talked everyone into doing carbombs. Being at altitude I was a little tipsy, and had this concern that everything I was saying I was yelling. After another pint (I think that is 5) I decide that it is time to start the drunk dialing, when lo and behold I get no coverage. No worries, my motor-skillz impaired self managed to write Chowning a text message explaining how lucky she was that I had no service. I was going to write one to Beth also, but then a hot girl walked by so I lost my train of thought.

I pull my wits together and refocus on the group to find Reba flirt with the tail of a man-train coming through. The caboose (sp?) stops, alerting the rest of the train that there was some drunk pussy this way and they needed to heed the call. Reba's holding her own with the guy, being very aloof. As for the other two I felt bad. These two guys swept in like vultures on carrion and weren't getting the hint to leave. All this time I'm sitting in the corner like, "that's right, I got a dick so back the fuck up." After a few desperate glances at Reba from Krista, Reba lets the caboose go. What she wanted from him I'm still not sure. She didn't even get a drink or a number. But then again I was finihsing another pint (half guiness half strongbow at this going) so I was preoccupied. At this point Krista is ready to go home. I look at my watch and it is like 12:30. Krista had earlier explained that she doesn't stay out late well, but Sam told me that was a crock. Apparently Sam was fully of shit, because it was 12:30 and Krista was ready to go home so that she could sleep and do nothing tomorrow.

We go home, and the only thing I remember is thinking that I could finally drunk dial Beth and Chowning. But my fucking phone was dead. I curled up in bed defeated and fell asleep. There isn't anything special about the next day. I dropped off the gift while they were sleeping and hit the road . . . for 15 hours of Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and Idaho.

First of all, Wyoming is beautiful. I had driven through it before but it was nightime so I couldn't soak it in. There is something more pristine about Wyoming than Colorado, Utah or any other of those states. I tried to explain it to Jeremy. Basically, it feels like in Colorado you have these small cities where people live, and then there is nature, where people pack up their bags to go on the weekend. In Wyoming, I'd find single houses in the middle of nowhere. See people riding horses hours from a town. It felt like people lived in the outdoors more in Wyoming, and that was pretty cool. The terrain was similar to other places, lots of hills, mostly dry climate, not a real tree in sight. It was wide open, similar to New Mexico. You could see for miles, and then there would be a hill or mountain. Very pretty.

After getting through Wyoming I was basically in Salt Lake. I was looking forward to seeing the Great Salt Lake desert. I called Jeremy, because at this point I still didn't have a place to stay that night, and no computer access. He hooked me up with a few hostel numbers in Boise and we talked for a bit. I had to get a few numbers because if there is one thing that I have learned from travelling is that hostels aren't perhaps the least reliable thing on the planet. The pop up and disappear like mirages so only having one number would surely lead to dissapointment. I drove past the Salt Lake, and it really does smell like salt, wierd. I also go to see the Morton salt facility. They had mounts and mounts of salt just sitting out it the open. Like Homer did when he found the sugar. It was crazy, these mounts were huge, it was like a salt mountain, but it was all grey and shit. And then it started raining, and althgouh I didn't think of it then, what happens to the giant mounds of salt when it rains??

After driving through the rain and mountains I entered the great salt lake desert. I have only one real comment about the desert . . . IT ISN'T A FUCKING DESERT. You want to know how I know . . . IT RAINED THE ENTIRE FUCKING WAY TO NEVADA. How the hell can you be a desert if it is going to rain?? Isn't that the opposite of a desert. It basically was a bunch of wet sand . . . whoopidy-fucking-do. This was my mentality the entire may through the "desert." And then in the distance I saw something. I couldn't make out what it was, not because of the rain . . . but because I still have no idea what it is. As I drove by it I was confused, so I stopped, about a quarter mile away from it and approached it.

Physically this thing, which was a few hundred feet high, looked like a yellow cactus with giant tennisball like things at the end of each arm. And then littered around with were what looked like three pieces of a hollow sphere with the radius of 2 meters or so. Obviously it was some sculpture, but what the fuck was it doing as the only think in the "desert." My curiosity made me want to get a picture, so I trekked the quarter mile in the rain to get a better picture. As I got closer I saw a rainbow, so I thought it would be cool to get both in the picture. In order to do this I had to walk into the "desert" where I had been walking on the side of the highway before. So I stumbled out there, the ground felt wierd, not like wet said, but if I walked flat footed I was fine. I get to a good position after avoiding puddles, take my picture and turn to leave. But my feet wouldn't move. I looked down and I had sunk about a half an inch into this "desert." I was wearing my shoes where I don't tie the laces, so when I tried to lift my foot up, the shoe stayed still. I bent down and tightened the non-tied laces, and then lifted my foot, taking a 6-inch radius piece of this shit with my shoe. I had the consistency of really wet clay, and wouldn't come off. I manage to free my other shoe and talk walking slowly back to the street. Now that I had shit on my shoes no more was sticking, but I couldn't get good footing, so I had to resort to sliding like ice-skates across the "desert."

I get back to the side of the road, walk about and find that this shit iscausing everything to stick to the bottoms of my shoes. So now I have gravel below this shit under my shoe. I do what I can to scrape it off of my shoes on bushes (in a desert, I'm just saying), and make it back to the car with only a medium amount of shit on my shoe. At this point I had it with Utah and was ready to get the fuck out of town. A sane person would go north to get to Boise the fast way, but since I had to get to Nevada first I continued west.

And that will have to be it for this installment, there was plenty of other shit that happened in that day alone, not to mention today. But I need to get back. I swear I will talk about Seattle next time, which should be tomorrow. Sleep tight kiddies.

M

So I'm a little anxious.

If you scroll down past Martin's book, you'll see that I made a post about a job... uh post that I found on hotjobs.com. Basically the post was "Looking for an 'bilingual' electrical engineer to do entry level car audio design" So I applied for it. It was actually the only result from searching for "electrical engineer entry level" keywords in/around Atlanta GA. Peachtree City actually, which is on the complete opposite side of town from my parents. But then I'd have to buy a golf cart.

Anyway, I sent in my resume, after getting about 4 people and a career services person to take a look at it (hopefully to improve my chances of getting an interview) and sent it in to the recruiter person. The company that actually did the posting to Hotjobs is a HR consulting company, one that keeps a database of potential employees. Its also a company that seems to do a lot of Japan-America headhunting. I talked to 3 people there, they were all Japanese. So they said they'd forward my resume to the company that was doing the actual hiring.

The job was posted on Monday, I sent my stuff in by Wednesday, the posting was gone by either today (Saturday) or yesterday. Thursday at the earliest.

So does that mean a) Somebody took one look at my resume and said "HIRE THIS MAN!" (or the Japanese equivalent) or b) Somebody took one look at my resume and said "Somebody get that posting down before some other nutjob tries to apply for this job", or c) They collected enough interview candidates (including me) in 3 - 5 days to take down the posting, or d) The HR consulting place didnt even send my resume in. I'd like to think that its a or c.

And another thing. What exactly does bilingual mean? Cause noone really defined it. All they really said was "Native level speaking is a big plus" Which is natural, cause if youre going to hire someone to do something, hopefully they'd be as good at that thing youre hiring them to do as possible. But I'm somewhere in between "Cant speak any Japanese" and "Native Speaker" and I'm not too sure where bilingual is on that scale

So I spent the morning up at Mt. Evans. It is at 14'er, which means that it is over 14,000 feet tall. It is about an hour outside of Denver and was really fun to drive up. I left around 8:30 in the morning here and got to the summit around 10:00. It was snowing at the top of the mountain. Not hard, but enough that I could notice. I also saw a ton of what I can only assume are beavers or some part of the beaver family. There were mountain goats, who didn't give a damn about anything you did. They would mosey across the road in front of cars basically saying "I'm a mountain goat, this is my kid, what are you gonna do about it?" I got a few good picks, especially of one that was chilling with their kid at the rest center at the top. Come to think of it, I never saw a mountain goat without a kid in tow, interesting. I've secured directions to Seattle, now I still am having trouble with Idaho, but it will all work out I'm sure.

One other thing about Denver, and Mt. Evans especially. IT IS FUCKING COLD HERE!!!!! Devner isn't getting above the high seventies, which isn't bad, but at the top of Mount Evans it was 12 with wind chill. So me and moy shorts (at least I still had a jacket and hoody) had to spend no more than 4 or 5 minutes outside at a time before getting back in my car to warm up. I fucking hate the cold.

I did, however, get to tag the ice on the mountain. I took a picture of it, so hopefully there will be some proof. The ice/snow was super hard since there was no moisture in the air. Being at altitude game me a headache, but I was hydrated well, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Now I'm chilling back in Denver, watching Two Towers with Sam. I'm thinking of seeing Farenheit 911 soon, maybe even today. I need to do laundary, however and get some gifts for these folks. It is going be a Pinot Noir and a case of Corona to support both of their drinking habits. The final strange thing that has happened so far today is that I tore my pants hopping a flat-top fence. What exactly my pants caught I don't know. Maybe gnames grabbed on to them as I tried to hop across. Fucking gnomes.

I'm headed out tonight (apparently no later that 12 since the crew I'm running with can't hack the late night) so there might be a post after that. If not I will see you in a few days from Seattle.

Jeremy, I hope things went well with your Mom, and thanks for the wake up call to spread the suffering, you cock.

M

Welcome back listeners. As is the usual case, I dominate the blog when on roadtrips. Honestly I think I dominate the blog most months anyway. I wonder if we can get the blog to spit out that data.

Today was spent driving down to Colorado Springs and visiting friends. The only contact I knew that I had was a female weightlifter by the name of Doreen. She and I had hung out a bit when I live there, and she's a cool, up for just about anything kind of gal. Fortunately today was her off day in training so she had the whole day free. So leave Denver, with Crysta's keys in hand since she left at 7 am and there was no way that I was going to get up that early. Traffic on I 25 south here is some of the worst I have ever seen. At 9 am, getting OUT of the city I was in deadlock because of construction that was there a year ago when I lived in Colorado. It's like they just put the whole project on hole until I came back.

Anyway, I got to the Springs and was able to reminisce (sp?) on the way in. Stopped by the visitor center to buy some shit for my Dad and me and then called Doreen to see what was up. She was at WalMart (that's the type of town the Springs is) so I had to stall for a bit. I went in to my old place of work and wandered around talking to old friends. My immediate bosses weren't there because the are in Provo (BYU) doing some work. I did get to catch up with the other intern from my class who now has a job there and her boss who I knew reasonably well. I got to talk to a few other people, and pretty much everyone had the same reaction "Holy Shit, it's Martin, we've been trying to get in touch with you." Story goes they had a position available a few months ago. It was a temp position and doesn't pay much, but I was high on the list of potential candidates. They DID contact me about it, but I couldn't committ because at that point I still didn't know what I was doing and they still weren't positive about the position being available. Regardless, it was nice to be wanted and made me think about my future some. I told all of them what I firmly beleive, that working for the USOC is one of the few jobs that could pull me away from teaching, and that I even think of the possibility of moving to the
Springs to teach and working for them part time until something comes available. I'm kind of thinking that they might have something after the games, so I'll keep an ear to the ground for that. Problem is that I'm still teaching, and I love teaching. Who knows how things will end up.

((As I think about things more and more I waffle on whether or not I will be in Atlanta for another decade. I've got Rival and great friends here, the closest thing I've got to family. There are opportunities elsewhere, but pretty much the same ones here. Often I think that it will come down to what happens on the love tip for me down the road.))

So after hanging out with coworkers I went to lunch with a bunch of lifters and caught up on people's lives. It seems that if you are a Natinoal level athelte your life becomes a soap opera outside of your control. The lunch was filled with stories of problems, and people dating other people who are bad for them. Being one who likes to learn shit from other's lives it was great to listen to. Now I know I'll stay away from those Russians who belittle their girlfriends and fight with them all the time.

After lunch I hit up the Joyride small amusement park. It's kind of like Chucky Cheese. Rocked some go-carts and the worst 18 holes of minigolf ever and then went back to the campus. Filled up on gas and then went back to Denver (where there was still fucking traffic). All in all my trip to the Spring was good. It was great to see old friends and hang out. It was pretty laid back and I am cool with that. When I returned to Denver I fell the fuck out and was alseep until well after Crysta came home. Then we chilled with a glass of wine, talked about her last relationship and life in general and then she went to bed. Apparently Sam (Beth's friend) is coming home at midnight. I'm cruising some sights in Denver tomorrow (Mt. Evans) and then we're going out tomorrow to some pubs. Saturday will be a 12-14 hour haul for me, so I need to be well rested. I still don't have a stopping point in Idaho, although both Doreen and Crysta said that they know people in Boise so I might have to hit that up. Also, by ex-Boss is in Provo, which is kind of on the way. It would be nice to see him and say Hi and keep myself in the loop for future opportunities.


Finally, as I have the time to sit back and reflect on things a bit, I realize that one nice thing about my road trips is it gives me either the time or the perspective to put shit in my life in order. Maybe it is talking to people across the country, telling them my story and hearing their response, maybe it is the hours in a car to think, or maybe it is seeing the massive land of the country and gaining and understanding of how small I am. Regardless it really helps me sort stuff out. I never seem to remember what that shit is by the time I get ot the blog, but c'est la vie. Tomorrow will be the last post from Denver and them I am most likely out of commission until Seattle (whooo!!). I'm stoked to see the Pacific again from a different angle. Oh, and I'd like to that Skank for the drunk dial tonight. Later.

M

Why did my computer need fixing? It was fine when I left.

M

well, martin. it sounds like you need to buy a whole shitload of gifts for the peeps that you're staying with in denver. all of the karma beefing that you did on the way seems to be paid back already. before you try to stay with some strange white supremacist in idaho, you're gonna want to buy someone a gold watch.

sounds like the trip is working out as it should be, though. when you get back you'll have traveled the 'lower 48' in a car, so the next plan of action is for us to start hopping freight trains with a hankerchief on a stick slung over our shoulders and a dime in our pockets. plus inflation.

i'm glad that things appear to be in order despite some hiccups in the beginning. you know, i was trying to fix your god-forsaken computer yesterday/day-before-ish, and saw your phone charger plugged into the wall. 'he must have one of those car-jacks,' i thought. WRAWNG. OUR PRINCE-ASS IS AIN ANOTHER HAUWSE. BA-BYE!

so car trips are like acid trips? you're terribly deep and fantastically complex, but have no means of expression. then when you come back, you have no idea what happened.

we'll try this again now that my host (who is well fit for Denver as an uber-outdoorsy person) is asleep at 10:45. So here's the story about this leg of the trip. I knew that I was going to stay somewhere in Colorado, I expected the Springs since that is where I lived before. I was telling my friend Beth this one day and mentioned that I thought Ruby might no longer be in Colorado because she was headed to Greece. So Beth says that she's got a friend there who is like a blonde, cute version of her. Beth is a really great person, but not really within the limits of hot, but apparently her friend might be. So I asked her to give me the number and I'd crash with her. Later on I find out that Beth meant her friend lived in the Denver, not the Springs. No big deal really, I want to see more of Denver, but it means I be farther from my people in the Springs. After I leave ATL I call Sam (Beth's friend) and we talk about stuff like when I am going to get there. I tell her Wednesday night and she's like "Shit, I'm out of town Wednesday and Thursday. But you can stay at my place with my roommate, here's her number." That's the end of the conversation. A day later I call this person (Crysta [sp?]) and basically have to say "you don't know me, but I'm a friend of your roommate's friend, and I coming to stay at your place for a few days." It was an awkward conversation, but Crysta is super chipper and was all about it. So I'm staying at a place with a person that I just met about 2 hours ago. This is the way travel was meant to be. Maybe I won't worry about finding a place in Idaho and I'll just stay at a strangers house. If the stranger is a nice as Crysta it would work.

Let's see, I don't know if there is much more to talk about. I headed down to Colorado Springs tomorrow to see friends. Then I'll stay here friday so I can see this Sam person (she returns tomorrow night). Then it is off to wherever. My contact in Idaho hasn't called me back yet so that is a bust it seems. I also still don't have directions to my place in Seattle, but that is a long way away.

Oh, I just picked up the 5 Burroughs album by the Beastie Boys. Review will be coming tomorrow. It is strange that when I am on the road I seem to come up with these very insightful comments, but by the time I get here I forget what they are. Maybe I need to go back to audblog or something.

M

I've now made it to Denver. I've finally met the person that I will be staying with. She is a bouncy person from Minneapolis (it seems like there are only bouncy people from Minneapolis). It looks like I am in for a high energy stay in Denver. As a matter of fact, she hasn't stopped talking to me since I have gotten in the place. I also got in touch with Doreen, one of the female weightlifters from the USOC. She's a pretty cool person also, so that is part of what I'll do while I spend a day in the springs. There's more to write about, but it sounds like we (me and Crysta) are going to a local pub within wilking distance (the best kind) . . . wait, maybe not . . . oh, now she's wispering something so that I can't hear it . . . play by play is fun. Here's the verdict: we ARE going. So I guess I will wrap this one up early and finish up tonight. Remind me to write about how I found this person when I get back.

M

Greeting from Lincoln, Nebraska and the UNebraska Student Union. I tried to get in touch with the blog monday night in Nashville but was held up a bit (more to come).

The trip has gone well so far. My first day was only 4 hours so it was a breeze. Yesterday was 12, and that started to drag on me (did you say dragon?). Nashville was fun. I stayed at a friend of mine's through ultimate. I knew her when she played in high school, and now she plays for UGA. Her house was super phat, her family was super cool, and was looking super pretty (result of only seeing people on the field is when they aren't on the field they look spectacular). So we spent the evening going to a few bars then grabbing a movie at 11:30. We got American Splendor, which was an . . . interesting film. I really want to get Bruckner's opinion on it at some point. It basically talks about the life of this asshole who writes (but doesn't draw) comics about his life and has a ridiculous number of social problems. Yep, that was the movie. It didn't seem to follow a thread very well, but the cinematography was excellent (or so I think, which is why I want to talk to Bruck). A that point we were brain fried so we watched the mind-less Elimidate to get our brains back down. Lo and behold it is 3 in the fucking morinig at this point (4 back at home) so I go to sleep. She works so she was gone in the morning, got to talk to her Mom some (Again her parents are really cool) and then she left. So it was just me, her asleep brother and her dog Lucky, who is your friend one minute and then your enemy the next. I manage to get out of the house on on my way to Nebraska, but not before a little trouble.

See, you always seem to forget something on a trip, or at least I do. So the game is trying to minimize the importance of that thing. Jeremy can attest that it seemed like I was going to fail this timem as I couldn't find my phone within 1 hour of departure time. I did find my phone, and so the trip begins with the crisis overted, right? Wrong. See, when looking for my phone I took stuff out of my bag. That stuff included the charger for my phone. So no I am charger-less headed to Nashville. Fortunately I still have all of my battery life. But that isn't the end of my losing woes. While at a bar in Nashville I manage to leave my credit card at the bar. I didn't realize this until the next morning, but I then had to wait until 11 am Nashville time for the bar to open so I could get my card. I used the time wisely to get a charger as well, but that set me back 3 hours in my expected trip to Lincoln.

I rolled into Lincoln around 11 pm, which was when my friend Kristin (from the Springs trip) gets off of work, so that all worked out well. We spent a good bit of the night catching up and talking about the other interns from the USOC. Didn't get to sleep until 2 am. Fortunately she doesn't work in the mornings, so I slept in until 10 am and got a good nights sleep for my trip to Denver today. The Denver leg of this trip is interesting. I'll be spending a few days between there and Colorado Springs, so there will be multiple posts from there and I'll tell you more about the strangeness around Denver at that point.

The last thing to bring up is that I have tried to revive a "lost art" of travelling. Back in the old days it was all about gifting when you travel. I mean, if you weren't giving your hosts gifts they would kill you. So I've been buying stuff for everyone along the way. I got Chowning (Nashville) some UGA sandals at a Nike outlet store. Kristin is getting a stuffed Tigger doll (she has a . . . healthy fascination with the bouncing tiger). The trick is that I can't give these people the gifts up front. I have to wait until I leave. I don't really know why, but it would feel awkward to gift people right away. So I've been hiding the stuff in their house with a note in true, avoid interaction, Martin fashion. The idea behind this gifting is that the Travel Gods (Issaries, or something like that) like to reward those that help with the journey. So I'm building good trip Karma, which I figure will come in handy when Mark and I are trapped by Nazis in South Dakota. He'll be all like "dude, we're fucked" and I be all "it's cool man, I gave someone a Tigger doll along the way. They can't fuck with us now." And then a meteor lands on the Nazis or some shit. Anyway, that is what I am hoping for.

Stay tuned there is more to come from Denver.

M

I'm applying/submitting my resume to this job

Yes, Jeremy, I will call them back if I dont get a response.

::gasp::

mark honeycutt?!

Roadtrippin' here I come. The final chapter in Martin's Trek Across American will (barring no craziness) start taking place monday when I travel to exotic Nashville, TN. The goal of this trip is to finish off all of the 48 conitiguous states. The states remaining are: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Nevada. There is a secondary purpose of attending an AP Physics class in Seattle so that I can be certified to teach AP Physics. The class is a week, and I will spend a week crossing the part of the coutry I've already seen before getting to Washington. There should be plenty of blogging along the way. So stay tuned for the final chapter . . . featuring Mark Honeycutt.

M

So the lady from the Roxy finally got back to me about the loft. Apparently they'd been having problems with their voice mail, and they just got my message recently. She said she's sending a letter and photographs via the post.

I finally got hooked up with a gmail account thanks to an invite from Jim Whitehead.
bthurmond@gmail.com.

In work related news... I'm still in Atlanta this week, sucking at the teat of my dear sweet company.

ok. with that additional information, i'd say that if the dirt was thrown with malice and forethought, you might be in line for an ass-whoopin. if it was accidental, you'll prolly get a stern look and some verbal abuse. i believe the boots being part of one's persona is popular with the DON'T DARE TOUCH MY HAT crowd. or something.


Martin, you need to fuck up your knees less or throw down for the full-on bionic replacements.


Mikex0r's doppelganger apparently continued south on sheridan after crossing hollywood. this is merely speculation.


lord willin' and the creek don't rise, nikki and i will be closing on our house next thursday. we should be busy packing, but we're lazy. next week is gonna be a big damn blur of closing, moving her stuff out of storage, moving my stuff outta my apartment, setting up the house, my folks comin into town saturday, entertaining the rents, setting up the house, etc. it'll be good to get it all done but i'll be relieved when it is all over.

Okay... First things first. Control Volume: Approximately one quarter of a full flat ended shovel of dirt thrown in the direction of someone's feet with some dirt landing on said someone's boot. The boot is a work boot (sans steel toe, synthetic leather possibly, water resistant at least) and the dirt is less than a class C 60 silty soil with some loams and clays (Ie, it mostly clumps but breaks in your hand if pressure is applied). So, I did not get shoved or a 'talking to' but the someone did say that the action of dirtying a boot is a "fighting action."

Second thing. I will be in the ATL for some as of yet undetermined length of time after the fourth or fifth of July. I will be arriving with Martin. I expect a parade with school closings to precede my arrival but would be happy with just a simple get together / shin-dig.

I will be available in Atlanta definatly to laugh at Martin as he gets his new knee (again).

By the by, when is Jeff Lindsy getting hitched?

I am currently playing Knights of the Old Republic off and on. Its an involved first person d20 type game played on (in my case) the X-Box. The controller is somehow not as offensive as when it was first released.

Hope all is well with you.

Mark

Motherfucker, I didn't grow up on a farm. Farms produce goods for the local or world market - vegetables, fruits, animals, minerals or any related byproducts. I grew up on 5 acres out in the sticks. We didn't produce anything - we were strictly consumers. I hauled grain in with the `78 van and lugged 50 pound sacks to the barn or basement, where the horse/geese/ducks/whatever would turn it into shit. So maybe it was a shit farm, but we didn't sell or give away any of it. Jerk.


I don't think I understand your question, Mark. So are you shoving someone then throwing dirt on their boots or just kicking/throwing dirt on someone's boots? Are these cowboy boots or steel-toed boots or combat boots or what? Are pants tucked into these boots or are the pants coaxial to the boot uppers but on the outside? I need you to fix the state of this control volume before I can tell you what happens.


I BOWMB YOUR HOUSE. IDIOTH.


hope yer dog gets better, yo.

Well, I have modified my last two posts to include href's. Are you happy now? I was hoping that the blog filter unit would automagically do that for me. But, it doesn't. I nearly bought a GBA today to play Final Fantasy Chronicals. But I resisted. I think I would like to spend that $100.00 on food. Or porn.

By 'my dog' I mean the dog that I have spent the better part of a year raising. The same dog that my sister brought to the US from Gabon. The dog has had over $600.00 in vet visit bills and is still throwing up on the $4000.00 rug. Bad form. I would like him to get better and stop hacking in the middle of the night. I fear it may be cancer based on a shadow spot on the X-ray. Cancer -> Booo.

In other news, I was wondering the opinion of someone who has grown up on a farm concerning throwing dirt (not mud or manuer) on someones boot while shoving. Is that bad form enough to merit a punch in the gut? I fully expect that from shoveling shit, but just dirt? Come on. So, for those that grew up on a farm and whos parents still live on one, what do you say? Eh, Ted?

Mark

mark's right about my minion. does anyone watch aqua teen hunger force? my minion is sort of like dr weird's minion steve. by that i mean that i hurl corn cobs at him with such velocity that they pierce his flesh and pin him to the wall.

so my plan is to rear my minion as a henchman or perhaps an arch-minion. we'll see how that plays out.

navigator. that doesn't sound like a minion position. maybe things are different when you navigate in space ... but in the car, the navigator basically has all the power. you tell the driver where to turn, what direction you're facing, etc. you know. or like navigating martin's videogaming. he mindlessly kills things and the navigator solves the puzzles.

also -- what's the deal, mark -- you can't write an href? it's not like this is some super fucking secret project. make it so i can click on the motherfucker.

by your dog, i presume you mean your sister's boyfriend's father's dog, right? don't kill it. they'll be pissed. noone want's to come back from tuscany to a rotting pile of dog in the living room.

'the return of harry potter, again' was better than the first two. the complaint that i've heard is that you couldn't follow the movie if you didn't read the book. who is going to see these movies who hasn't read the books? the only people who don't read the books appear to be those 'intellectuals' who've written harry potter off as 'pop' and beneath them, so they forsake the entire enterprise.

and brad - you should collect spam emails. they're hard to come by.

Mike - Hakata dolls look breakable and expensive. Especially if I send you to Japan every time I want one. Sounds like the perfect combination.

Regarding the new Harry Potter movie... Gwinnett checking in... everyone here has seen it except Brad. I've got a movie watching backlog. I still need to see Kill Bill: Vol. 2 and Shrek 2 as well. I think I may have missed my window to see Kill Bill v2 in a nice movie theater with stadium seating and good sound. Nuts.

I've decided to rip all my CD's into ogg format in preparation for a digital audio player. I may not get one any time soon but at least I'll have the pleasure of creating ginormous playlists in the meantime.

Mark - I'm sorry to hear your dog is sick. I'm dogsitting for the neighbors this week. A feisty little jack russell terrier. I'm having fun trying to teach her to use the doggy door. She refuses to believe it is a working entry/exit. Even as I demonstrate by sticking my head through.

Mike,

I think that you may have Jeremy's minion confused. He is lacking the "of Doom" modifer that allows him to take hostages and be slain by the protagonist. This minion may be the one that tells Jeremy there are intruders on the radar, but the minion can do nothing about it.

ALso, I have seen the Harry Potter flick and liked it a whole lot. Then again, I mostly would have liked anything they did to the movie. I like Sirius. He is my favorite character in the books. It is going to be a challenge to get movies based on books four and five with their weightiness. But, we shall see.

In other news, Jason Stauch has taken a role as navigator for the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan. So, this means that he is a minion (not "of Doom") in the colonization of Titan. See more about the space mission here: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

My dog is sick. :(

Mark

Can your minion do tasks such as taking cities hostage and killing secret agents? Or do I have him confused with a henchman?

Jeez, I think nearly everyone has seen the movie . . . and by everyone I mean Jeremy and I. The movie rocked.

M

Brad,

Start collecting Hakata dolls. Theyre these little porcelain dolls they sell in Japan, mainly near the city of Hakata. I'll even go get some for you all I need is the money for the dolls and plane fare. I'm free anytime after August 1st. Just give me a call and we can set something up.

on another note: kudos to ted for finding a doppelganger of mine in Chicago, and then calling to make sure it was me before he (presumably) ran it over with his car. What do you get if you kill your doppelganger? I heard a lifetimes supply of pudding.

Who's seen the latest Harry Potter?

i have a minion. it's great. i don't know why i even come to work anymore. as soon as i can work up a long enough list to keep him occupied for a day or more, i won't.

seriously though, dood is pretty smart, but needs a little guidance. luckily, though it frees me up to do other less busy-work type activities.

Well Brad, the Chronicles ha already begun. It will continue again wednesday (maybe tomorrow) with the addition of Jeremy. I think we might be up to 4 players, but I'm sure we can figure something out. Four swords will be showing up tomorrow night, so that is always an option. Basically we're always playing games so almost any night will pass as long as you call ahead.

M

Brad-

First off... how tall is the shelf that you want to collect collectables on? Second, I would brouse the ebay "collectable" category to see if you get any ideas. Pez and novelty key chains come to my mind. Go to: http://collectibles.ebay.com/

As for the multiplayer kill your friends down the hall syndrome... I always have that gene turned on. Too bad I don't live down the hall from anyone now.

Mark

I thought my computer gaming days were on the decline. Then Ryan goes and buys the Diablo II clone Sacred. I start playing it and whatever gene it is that causes chronic game playing kicks in and I spend almost all of Friday attached to my computer. The game isn't even that great. It's pretty good, but I think the true fun of it comes from playing multiplayer on the lan. Nothing beats shouting at each other across the hall over the sounds of death and mayhem.

That brings me to my next thought. So when do we start our gameboy, gamecube, chronicles, multiplayer action? yo.

Also... if anybody has any ideas on something I could start collecting and show off on the two empty shelves in my room... fire away.

So, actually, I cannot stand writing in the third person on personal comentary. Technical documents, no problem. Blogs and emails, problem. So, four way Gameboy on your GBA sounds pretty damn fun. The final fantasy chronicals sounds more interesting in the use of the GBA than the four Links. I must say, I thought the best use of the controller info screen was the Dreamcast with the NFL game that used the memory card visible on the controller to control plays. That was cool. I hate football. I hate football games even more and I thought that was cool.

Speaking of sports, it sucks that Martin is not going to be doing any more for a while. Awww.... sucks to be you. Karma. You should have stayed at the hotels and gotten drunk with us and stumbled your way around the room in the middle of the night and torn your acl on a piece of furnature instead of playing in a tourney. Thats just my opinion. But, really, that just sucks. Are you going to be on crutches for a while? Are you going to be under doctor's orders to take it easy and play video games for a while?

Anywho, if you need me, just email me and I'll try to get in touch with you. My cell phone I think has taken critically ill. Booo. Hope everyone is liking their new digs at the robot factory (Is that its correct term?).

Mark

Hey, I know a guy named Mark Honeycutt. I know where he is too. I also know that he tried calling your ass and got no answer. But, a message was left with the number where he can be reached.

Guy who knows Mark

Well, apparently I have yet to tell any bosy on the blog that I did in fact tear my other ACL. I have a surgery date of July 7th. Everything is fine, don't send me all of your condolences. So that is that. Obviously I wont be playing this year, but this is better than last time when I had to get playing within the next few months. Now I can take it slow and really work on my recovery.

In other news, I desperately need to get in touch with Mark Honeycutt. So if that is your name, gimme a fucking call (404) 892-2416



M

so it's the first of the month. that means that everyone must absolutely (no shit, this time for real) finally be out of their old apartments and into post biltmore. martin is off handling that right now. i'm done with my part (except for cancelling the phone at the old place) and it looks like mn and kate have finally finished their shit too, as evidenced by the gigantic pile of trash in front of the house on hansell street.

anyway, there's been a bunch of bullshit work to do this past month and as a result, i've been utterly unmotivated to be at work. pushing through seems to be working and rumor has it that new and exciting database projects will be on tap in the near future, so here's hoping.

on the video game front, rich dropped off a spare gba, and jason's got a couple weeks' break from class. that means that soon it will be time for much crystal chronicles down-throwing. that and (on the seventh) four swords.