Pain . . . oh the pain. I feel bad for Jeremy and mikx0r because they have heard my moans all day yesterday, so this is old news for the folks near the Factory. For the rest of you, my body hurts a lot. Every now and again I find new ways that my body hurts, but I think I've figured them out at this point.

To explain, Chain Lightning tryouts kicked my ass the past two days, and what sucks is I had to push past the spots where my body told me to stop. Early the first day I sprained my ankle, so I just taped it up and played some more. Then I sprained it again, and again I had to just tape it up and call it that. Both times it hurt like a bitch, and slowed me down a good bit, but what was I going to do? I don't feel like I have a secured spot on the team. Hell, I'm not even sure if I will make it, so I can't let anything stop me from being in the hunt. That was more of a problem the nexy day when my hamstring started to act up after running after former college track star Hensley. Still I had to just work harder. I feel like I can play better than everyone out there. I can get open on anyone, and I play smart defense, and I think I'm the best thrower in the bunch. O.k. that's stupid, I am the best thrower in the bunch. Unfortunately they aren't looking for offense, but defense rather, and so the nagging injuries are a pain.

What makes this worse is this week I have summer league games tuesday. Both of the teams that we play are hard teams, with Chain players on it. So my soreness will have to be kicked to the side again. What makes it worse is three other people on my team are trying out for Chain, so they are also trying to show off a bit.

On a side note, here's to hoping that both Mike and Brad enjoy themselves in their current and temporary cities. They should both be blogging from their new locations . . . especially Brad 'cause we both know he isn't going out with the coworkers.

Videogame front is moving, yet slowly. Majora's Mask has a habit of crashing on me, causing all sorts of troubles because of a wierd save function. The other problem is my PS2 is officially dead. I can't get it to read anything anymore, and I'm tired of trying ot fix it. The question is do I pay to get another. The obvious answer is yes because there is still GT4 to be done. So I guess the better question is to roll out the cash to buy a new one that will last a while, or to try to get a used one that will stop reading discs soon. It boils down to whether or not I think the PS2 will have more quality games coming out. Looks like I need to spend some time at ign.com. Out.

M

well shit damn, trying out for a team makes you tired. Lot's of stuff has been going on, but first lets talk about trying out for anything. I must admit I've managed to seldom have to tryout for things that I really want. Perhaps its because I try not to want things (expect for a DS+Kirby+Yoshi), but I bet it is more the result of just being in the right place at the right time. I joined Paideia ultimate before there were tryouts. Since I had played in high school, Tech wanted me on there team right away (also they had shitty numbers). All of the club teams I have played on I was just put on rather than have to try out. So if I think about this it continues. I wasn't rejected from any schools for college b/c Tech accepted me before I could get any more apps out. Getting into grad school was easy because of Dr. Wepfer (getting out was a whole different story. The bands that I played for just let me play. So trying out is different, but that isn't really the post.

The post is that I am very tired after one day of tryouts. I went in thinking that I didn't have that great a chance of making the team. It wouldn't be the end of the world, I would greatly enjoy playing for Rival for another year. It would be better on my wallet, that is for sure. It might also be better for my relationship with Chowning. The situation was that chain was returning a high percentage of players, which means veryfews spots (3?). I could think of a few people that would get the nod ahead of me, one in particular is basically on the team and deservedly so. Another made the team last year, but was unable to play. The result is many think he's got the bee line on the team. So with few spots, I need to really play well to feel good about the weekend. A slightly sprained ankle slowed me down, but I ran hard all the time. My poor stamina was an issue, but not a huge one due to large numbers. Still, I am ass tired and went to sleep at 10 pm last night because of it.

Unfortunately that means that I missed Ted's party at Charlie (my sincerest apologies Ted). When I got home mikx0r was leaving, but I needed to talk to chowning. By the time Mark and Shannon left, I had a pizza in the over and was working on my (still somewhat defunct) PS2. They were going to call me when people were headed to the bar, but I feel asleep to early (or so I assume). The real problem is that I need to feel good today (mission acomplished??) so that I can keep performing well.

In other news . . . there should hopefully be more blogging going on from non-ATL sites over the next while. Although neither of them see fit to post this: Brad is headed to Kentucky until January (with weekend visits back home or elsewhere); Mike is headed to . . . actually I don't remember, but it is somewhere, monday. With both of those two people outside the ATL hopefully they will stay in touch through the blod. Brad in particular . . . you know you ain't gonna be doin shit in bluegrassville, so drop a line or two to let us know what conventioner/college chick you hooked up with on random nights.

Well, I need to get ready to leave for tryouts. This is only the first weekend. I'm sure if I make the cut to next weekend it will be even worse. Not to mention that I am missing one of Chowning's relative's weddings next weekend. That sucks.

M

Time to talk about more things. Chowning has started her job in Nashville, and things are going well. She is working with clients directly and is probably going to have to travel some. Not as much as mikex0r or Brad, but some. MP&F is having a get together at the Bob Dylan/Willie Nelson concert in Nashville in the next few weeks. So that will be cool to go to. She hhas signed on her new place, and will be moving in there (or more importantly OUT of her parent's place) soon.

I've recently gone through the trouble of budgeting this summer, only to learn today that I'll be continuing the same monthly pay I did during the last semester. I'm not sure why. I was on "extended day" before, where they pay me more money for teaching more kiddies, and apparently that pay scale continues through the summer???!!! Fine with me. I've gone from trying to determine a budget where I don't eat food and instead ingest video games and turn them into nutrition to thinking I can bankroll some good money this summer.

That is assuming that I can not spend too much money. See, I want to implement LEGO into my cirriculum. The way to do it is through the Technic and Mindstorm toys. I'm pretty sure that I can get cobb county to foot the bill for some for school, but I want my own, and I can rationalize the 200+ purchase by stating that I need a prototype in order to write a good grant to get more. Sure . . . that's why. mikex0r will be going with me to discover mills when he gets back from Philly.

I haven't gotten as much done on the part-time job front. I'm going to go buy a CD or two tomorrow, so I'll hit up Tower and hand in my app for GameStop. I've learned that while pretty well educated, I'm really not all that desireable as a retail employee. While people want to tell me otherwise (people who say that I have a college degree, I can kill at the job), the fact is that I have no experience in retail, I don't know how to work a cash register (you take all the money out and walk away . . . right?), I'm also looking to work for only two months. What I really need is to sit on the corner with the rest of my hispanic bothers and try to get work in the mines or in the fields. At least that will pay cash.

The search for a grad school is slow at best. Losing the internet for a day didn't help. I feel bad that I'm not just telling Doc that I will take the position at ETSU, but there are two big questionmarks. First: I don't want to live in Johnson City, TN. It is too far away from Chowning, and it isn't a City (although it does have an interstate at least). Second, I'm not sure what good this PhD will do for me aside from learning more cool stuff. Don't get me wrong, I like learning cool shit, but aside from a handful of jobs with the USOC and its governing bodies, I think my options are to teach in college. But maybe that is good?? Although I don't like the teaching model in college, I would get to do the research that I want to do . . . now if only I could figure out what research I want to do.

The one front is that going well is video games, or so I think. Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap is done; at least in its first iteration. In order to 100% the game I would have to go through it a second time, and without my database (lost access when my drive crashed so if anyone has one gimme a hand) I don't get the gratification of updating a database that I only I look at anyway (sigh). I'm starting Majora's Mask as soon as I can get Jeremy to come home before 10 pm (which I think will be after he conference he's gearing up for). I've also been pushing through Musashi: Samurai Legend. There will be a review of this game (and probably God of War) soon. I needed a game that I could sit down and not think to play. Zelda games require thought . . .

and GT4 requires hours and hours of monotinous work in order to achieve perfection. That is what I struggled through last night, where I spend 5 hours NOT getting a gold on a singe course. Sigh. That game will take all of summer to get the liscenses just like last time. And lets not even talk about 100%. I still haven't gotten 100% on the last one because of the fucking glitch. I don't know what it is about me, for some reason I always have these glitches happen with shit in my life.

There's a lot more to talk about, especially as ultimate is starting tonight. I'll come back and post more for all you readers out there.

M

despite my better judgement, i've decided to host the fort blog. some caveats:

• my dsl doesn't usually go down, but it might


• i'm on a dynamic ip connection and the DNS servers are set to update at 0700 & 1900. it may be unreachable if the IP changes until the DNS has had time to propogate.


• i got farkdotted the other day, due to some ass linking images from my machine. thanks to the majick of mod_rewrite, it's not a problem right now


• i am very very lazy and this machine is a low priority for me.


• if it interferes with my bandwidth at home, yr blog goes elsewhere

blah blah blah. the usual crap. close cover before striking, light fuse and get away, do not pet the tiger, etc.

enjoy, you hiney hobbits