NEW!! Christmas v2.0!

Today I got my CRX repaired, finally. It has been over 4 weeks and I have spent over $200, but it is fit to drive once again. Even though there is not a bigger pile of rusted crap in the greater Twin Falls area, I love this car. Nothing gives me greater joy than to drive around town. I could drive for hours on end on the exact same roads. I do not even have to go very fast, it is just so fun.

I guess I like to drive because it gives me a feeling of near-complete control. I decide where the car goes, I decide how fast the car goes. Now that I am able to drive again, I feel myself experiencing the same feeling about it as my good friend Brad does. I just want to hit the open road and drive for hours without caring where I end up.

There are 2 reasons why that would not work. The first is due to limitations on the longevity of the car itself. Currently, I would be nervous to try to drive it to Boise. The second is from my financial and educational obligations. I need to finish school so that I have a future as something other than a fast-food drive-through jockey.

I am going to cut this entry short so that I can drive around town a bit more before I have to be at work.

The picture that I have included is that illustrating the part that had to be replaced on my car. Click on it to see a big version.

Have a good night!

I Am Not Interesting

I stopped writing to my blog a while ago, as evidenced by the lack of recent posts here.

I figured that I did not have anything good to say. All I ever did was complain about school. "How can this be even remotely entertaining to read about?", I asked myself. I figured that if someone wanted to hear me moan about how terrible the long-fingernailed, spiky-leather-jacket-wearing, Dungeons and Dragons, Magic playing freaks that I got grouped with my first day in Physics class smelled, then they would say, "Hey Crouton, does school suck or what?".

The answer, of course, would be a resounding "no".

I like school. I absolutely hate being grouped with anybody to do projects. With every fiber of my being (not much), I focus my intense hatred of this abominable act at my professors. Is there some reason that they think makes us better additions to society provided we complete moronic activities in groups? I personally find that I do better work when I do not have to hold the hands of 2-4 utter idiots, explaining (for the second time in a row) just how I figured out the average of a series of numbers without a calculator. That's right, folks. I can perform basic math functions in my head, without the need for scratch paper.

Blindly looking forward now.

Work is fun. I never thought I would hear myself mumbling these words after my unfortunate stint with Dell. Kinda funny how it rhymes so closely with hell. Probably just a coincidence, but if I had noticed this fact before attempting to establish employment with them, I might not have been emotionally scarred for life. Seriously.

Also, Valentine's Day draws nigh. Watch closely as I don't give a crap. The only benefit that Valentine's Day holds for me is that there are many more cheap and disgusting candies available to overpay for and then consume stupidly in rapid succession. My bowels = Pwnd! Most notable are the little "conversation hearts". Seriously, who came up with this ridiculous idea. But more importantly, why are they still being purchased? I submit that production of these things has long since ceased as the quality of the confections has not improved. The only redeeming change that I have seen is a "sour" version. These I like. The waxy, candle-like "chocolate" that the rest of the candy is made from intrigues me primarily in the sense that I wonder how this substance was approved for human consumption. It is better suited as a scented candle, all they have to do is throw a wick in it.

I am a genius.

An update on the meal improvement thing I mentioned last time. I have not successfully compelled myself to eat 2 meals a day, but I did purchase vegetables and some other reasonably health-conscious consumables to improve my diet. My ultimate goal would be to consistently partake in at least 2 meals a day, incorporating more fruits, vegetables, pasta, and fish when possible. I honestly do not know why I am putting this down for you to see.

Until we meet again, feeble blog reader, I bid you Adieu!

Happy Birthday to Me

[rant]

Technically speaking, yesterday was my birthday.

Important questions regarding this event:

1 - Who cares?
2 - Do I feel any different?
3 - Does it matter?
4 - Quit whining about it you stupid dolt... please?

Answers follow:

1 - I do not care about it, so other people not caring does not affect me.
2 - No. Should I?
3 - Not anymore. The last milestone was 21 and I did not care about it as I do not drink alcohol.
4 - Okay.

[/rant]

Idiocy, Redux

Physics, as I previously predicted, is my favorite class at school. I seem to comprehend nearly everything that the professor says almost immediately. I spent about 30 seconds skimming over chapter 2 last night while at work. In class yesterday, I answered nearly every question that the professor asked. I started feeling like a know-it-all brown-noser towards the end. It wasn't that I just burst forth an answer either, I would wait to see if anyone else wanted to answer the question first. 8 - 10 seconds later, if silence still remained, I then answered. Same thing in my Biology class as well. Apparently I was the only one who had read the assigned chapters in the text and completed the chapter quiz online (100% I might add) out of the entire class. It felt good to know the answer to just about every single question that was thrown out.

In Biology, 2 out of the 4 people in my group did not know how to find the average of 3 different numbers. I know this is not a scientific measurement, but I mean, C'MON! 50% of them do not have rudimentary math skills. How do these people function?

In continuation, I have decided that I need to start eating at least 2 meals a day. Paying attention the last week or so, I noticed that I only eat about once a day, if any. Sometimes I eat more, sometimes less. I do not eat breakfast and have not done so since I moved to Idaho, about 2.5 years now. I do not plan on starting to eat breakfast at this point. Baby steps. If I can get myself to the point that I eat 2 meals a day consistently, then maybe I will try for breakfast. I just do not like breakfast foods as just about everything is the same. You can have some form of cereal in about 329,874 ways. I am not too big of a fan of cereal unless it has cinnamon on it. There are not very many forms of cereal that meet those stringent requirements.

If you do not know who Brian Regan is, you should find out. One of the funniest comedians I have heard in a long time.

The Dream I Wish I Did Not Have

I woke up this morning at 6:30am in a cold sweat.

I suppose that could have been because I felt like vomiting, but I prefer to attribute it to the dream. I only remember about 1 or 2 dreams a year due to my coma-like sleep state, and none in recent memory have been as vivid as this one.

The dream started out with my brother Nick and my roommate Aaron working on their cars. I don't remember what kind of cars they were working on, but it is not important. Then they took off on this impossibly curvy and hilly road. I, of course, wanted to go along and watch but for some reason I did not hitch a ride with one of them. Still wanting to join in on the fun I hopped in my POS car, a 1985 Honda CRX, and tried to follow them on the road. The very first hill/curve that I came across is when the fun started. As I remember, when I took the first turn (to the right) my right rear wheel fell/broke off. Immediately thereafter, the car rolled.
I do not remember much about the actual rolling. Afterwards, the car landed right-side up and was still coasting forward. It was pulling hard to the left, but I got it onto the right shoulder and stopped. I had a huge, splitting headache, and my left ankle was either broken or severely sprained.

Almost immediately afterwards, and I am not joking here, there were several black or hispanic people there trying to steal things from my car. One of the hispanic guys was able to remove the intrument panel from my car in about 3 seconds flat. This is impressive even when not considering the fact that he did not remove any screws that I know hold that panel in. I do not remember how I got them to stop, but I somehow managed it. The police arrived, but for some reason they did not ask me anything. I think they were more concerned with controlling the large amount of people that had gathered to spectate. My Dad arrived shortly after and, rather uncharacteristically, began yelling at me. I am not even sure what it was about, but I remember feeling terrible about the whole situation.

There are some details that I left out, but I wanted to get the general idea of the dream out there for you. This does not make me feel easy about trying to fix my car. In fact, it downright gives me reservations about fixing it at all. Even if I do get it fixed, I will be driving it only when absolutely necessary for work or for school. The dream has made me very depressed. I do not think that there were any happy moments in it at all.

Sorry to have depressed you all.

The Ole' 96-er

First full day of school today. I am taking Physics, "Health and Wellness", Biology, and Macro-economics. You heard earlier about my physics class, so I will spare you my comments on today's class. Although, I should add that today a guy that I knew when I worked at Best Buy came into the class. He's a pretty cool guy, too. Hopefully that will make it better in there from now on.

Moving forward...

My intructor in macro-economics is a total fruitcase. He looks to be about 65, not that his age has anything to do with it, but I think it'll shine a different light on things once I tell you what happened. He started off by telling us his complete life story, ending at, apparently, just before he left for work this morning. This took up nearly all of the total class period. The last 10 minutes he spent pounding into us the fact that economics is an abstract idea, a concept which at this point I strongly disagree with. How can economics be an abstract idea that, apparently, every person interprets differently? I maintain that economics is, and will remain, predictable. If that is the case, then therefore it cannot be this fuzzy, abstract "concept" that my professor claims it is. He alluded to the fact that everyone has a different definition of love, but I do not think that the two are alike. Oh well, it was only the first day. We shall see where he takes this.

My biology class seems like it is going to be pretty easy. The toughest part is going to be working on these idiot posters that get hung up around the building for all to see and ridicule openly. Why so tough, you ask? Because I am going to be forced to work in a group with a few of my peers for this project. This is not an attractive prospect to me. I prefer to study/work by myself. My experience from the physics lab helps to explain why. The way that the professor has it set up though, if I have a 97% or higher at the end of the semester, then I get to skip the final. This appeals to me. Furthermore, she has made it incredibly easy to get 100% on every single chapter quiz. Actually, the chapter quiz thing is true for my physics class as well, unlimited retries and only 5 multiple choice questions per test. Cheese.

It has come to my attention that I write hideously long blog entries, apparently. Oh well. I figure that if you spent the time to come to my website and read my blog, then you deserve a fairly beefy, as well as descriptive, posting by me. Hence the reason for the title of this particular post. This ties in to the movie quote theme I got started here. Name the movie that the "96-er" came from...

The last quote was from Caddyshack. "So what? So let's dance!"

Post v3.0.0.1

Post number 3, officially written on the new, used Dell Inspiron 8200. I am actually typing this out while at work, watching Futurama at the same time. I had a whole hour to kill between starting the 7:45pm shows and having to thread up the projectors again for the 9pm shows. Working at the theater is probably the best job that I have ever had. This might be due to the fact that the last job I had was without a doubt the absolutely worst job that I have ever had. Working at the theater though, is not without its shortcomings. The owner is a royal pain in the arse, and sometimes the things that I have to do are actually embarrassing. I recently read a blog post from one of my friends’ friends about the theaters in the area. Most of the things that he said were true. The biggest one is intermissions. I hate them. For some reason, the management feels that they are needed. Wait, I know the reason. It’s money. Intermissions are irritating to most normal people including me, and as an employee, it just means extra work. Not that the work is all that hard, evidenced by my being able to write this blog post while working. On the other hand, I am being paid pretty well for some of the easiest work I have ever done.

First day of school is officially over, and I have already decided that the people in my Physics class are complete idiots. As we had no school on Monday, today was the first lab. We had no prior lecture. All we had to do was take some measurements of a hacksaw blade. We had to use a couple of different calipers and a half-meter stick. The two people that I got stuck with were utter morons. Even though the professor came over twice to explain things, they still didn’t understand. We were supposed to hand in our papers as a group, meaning one set of lab papers for all three of us. I handed in papers that I had filled out myself. The Idiot-Duo couldn’t grasp the concept of the calipers no matter how many times I tried to explain it to them.

The sad part is that I am not finished yet. The second half of the assignment was to figure out opposing forces. I have already said more than they grasped of the concept. I ended up just completing the second half without much input from them. Watching them trying to figure out how to use a protractor was hilarious though. They went through 3 pieces of graph paper before I stopped them and showed them how I made my calculations on the first try. Guess what, my math was impeccable. I know that addition can sometimes be a tricky concept to grasp. The professor came over, I showed him my graph and measurements, and proved that it worked using the scales. I then filled out my own lab papers while under the vacant scrutiny of the Idiot-Duo’s blank stares. They wanted to compare the papers, but I shrewdly dodged that figurative bullet by claiming that I copied from their papers, and I was just keeping mine to use as a study aid in the future. I am going to ask the professor if I can just complete the lab exercises by myself from now on.

I would like to think that this exact same scenario isn’t going to play itself out over and over again in my other classes, but I know that isn’t true. My lot in life is to be grouped with total idiots in class, and also to make stupid decisions regarding money and/or cars.

This post is overly-long. It is time for the movie quote portion.

- I wanna hamburger, I wanna hotdog, I wanna…
- YOU’LL GET NOTHING, AND LIKE IT!

Last movie quote was from Back to the Future, Part One.

It's Broken

Look at this. I already broke my resolution. No matter, I shall continue on as if it never happened, why not.

I went to Casey's house yesterday. He's on a cleaning binge and was clearing out is computer stuff. I got a couple things that I needed, some things that I didn't as well. I ended up offering to take an old Dell Inspiron 8200 notebook off his hands even though it has a dead hdd. It'll be useful for the upcoming school semester, even if it doesnt last past that point.

So, today was the first day of school, but like all state schools, Martin Luther King Junior day is an observed holiday. Translation: no school. This is disappointing as I want it to start. I have only one class tomorrow and it's at 2pm. It is going to be my favorite class though, physics. I already know this as I am inherently interested in just about anything related to science. I have read a few books regarding quantum-physics, but I dont get too much farther as the more advanced stuff requires a greater education in mathmatics. I can do math, I just hate it. It's boring.

Still no news on the automobile front. I am waiting for the Honda dealership to call me when they get my part. This Panhard Rod was a pain to find. The only place that could order it in for me was the Honda dealership, and it's been almost 2 weeks now.

Chad, the oppressed employee down at the theater where I work, quit yesterday. My initial feelings were bad. I felt that I had taken his job. I was called into cover his shift, and lo-and-behold he was still there. I talked to him about it, and he didn't even seem to care. He has another job that I think if he worked hard towards, would make him more money in a week than he made in a month at the theater. The financial implications of his resignment on my situation, though, are good. This now means that I get all of his old shifts, 5 shifts a week. About 30 hours a week, 60 a paycheck. At 7.50 an hour, gross earnings are approximately $450 every two weeks. Implications: I can pay my bills and even maybe pay some debt off. Happy day!

So I think I am done here. Movie quote time.

- Plutonium? Did you rip that off?
- No! From a group of Lybian Nationalists. They told me to build 'em a bomb, and in turn, I gave them a bomb casing filled with used pinball machine parts!

Answer from last post - Heavyweights. Excellent flick. If you havent seen it, go rent it or something, it's really good.

My Inaugural Address

Well, it's a Saturday night. What am I doing? Working on my website and watching Indiana jones movies by myself, that's what. Since I do not have any bigger plans for the night, I thought I would start this thing off. As a belated New Years Eve resolution, I want to post to this thing at least once a day for this entire semester of school. I have never kept any sort of journal in the past, so why not put my first one up on the web for all to see?

School starts on Monday, and I could not be more excited about it. I want it to start. I am excited at the prospect of finally getting an Associates Degree after nearly 5 years. Long story, that one. I might tell it sometime.

Brad has gotten me interested in cars again. It has waned a bit over the last month, but it is still there. The problem is that I do not have any money. I cannot even pay my bills at the moment. I am just going to have to get a reliable car and stick with it for at least a couple of years. Once I get a decent job and pay off my slowly growing debt to my parents, then I might think about a project car again. The keyword here is "might". These little (read: major) issues have not prevented me from acquiring magazines and other materials regarding quick cars. One day, it will happen...

Also, this blog may undergo some cosmetic changes in the near future and from time to time. If something looks out of place or broken, drop me line at the email address listed in my profile.

Movie quote trivia time. What movie is this quote from?
- I have a severely deviated septum. When I sleep at night, I make an alarming sound. Do not be alarmed, I am fine.