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I loved 2009. A ton of great firsts and memories. I feel I have grown a great deal personally this year. And I think 2010 has potential to be even better.
I have switched my journal over to a written journal. I quit blogging for a number of reasons. One was that a lot of other people seemed to have quit blogging all at the same time, taking away the interactive part of LJ (i.e. the part that made it so great). And another was that the stuff I want to write about now that I'm out of college is not interesting and/or relevant to anybody but me.
But those who truly love life really shouldn't go without recording it in detail. So that's kind of why one of my New Year's resolutions is to keep the written journal and make entries to it at least three times a week. I still plan on the random updates every now and then as I have been doing so don't expect a huge change. The only change to my LJ has to do with my other resolution, which is to go out with my camera more.
Long story short, don't expect an increase (or decrease) in written entries, but do expect more photo entries.
Happy New Year!
I am currently using my mom's laptop from the balcony of the Manhattan Beach apartment she rented for the weekend overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It's cold here but at least it's sunny. It is grossly humid and storming in Florida all weekend and I'm glad I'm not there. I really miss California, but I sometimes wonder if you have to go live somewhere else before you can truly appreciate it here. I find this to be a recurring theme in my life.
Made a friend in first class yesterday. Not to be a snob, but first class is where I will actually talk to people on the plane. I usually just put my headphones on and tune out. He was a really rich dude and we had a lot in common and I think I made a good impression. He gave me his card and if I wasn't already committed for the next two years I wonder if he would've offered me a job.
Marathon on Monday morning! Watch for me on TV! I will be wearing all black. Think I might go get a massage Tuesday or maybe when I get back to Florida.
- Location:Manhattan Beach, CA
This year I actually participated in Mustache March at work. My mustache goes beyond the corners of my mouth and is therefore out of regs, but that's kind of the point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_
Mustache March is about the only Air Force tradition that does NOT involve alcohol. I finally got rid of it today because I felt so damn creepy with it and also because I'm going on leave tomorrow and won't be back until after the competition is over (this coming Saturday).
It's sad that I won't even be able to compete after all this hard work. I definitely would've won the "thinnest" or "creepiest" category.
I barely even recognize myself without it.
I'm discovering lots of new stuff and buying albums from iTunes. My favorite station to listen to in the background while I'm cleaning dishes, doing laundry, or reading is my surf rock station. I am impressed with the music they have.
I am sick for St. Patty's day. Yesterday I thought I had the flu because I had a fever and body aches. I was up to 101.8 at one point. My bed was so soaked with sweat it was disgusting. It was the first sick day I've ever taken. Today I didn't feel much better but the fever was down to 99.0 so I went in to work around 10 and toughed it out.
I really wanted to go out for a single pint of Guinness tonight at my favorite little pub down the road here but I don't think I'm going to. I don't think it would kill me, I just think that if I was feeling bad enough to come in at 10 today and be miserable around everybody, I probably don't want to be caught at the bar.
Small wonder that I got sick, though. I think I've been overdoing it lately. Last week I probably worked 36 hours by Tuesday, then I ran a 9 miler Wednesday only to follow it up with some late night spring breaking with my buddy that same night. And then I was out until about 3 Friday night/Saturday morning spring breaking again. I should've known better.
Next week I am on vacation. Should be restful as I am going down to south Florida with my aunt and cousin and his family. They have a little kid and my aunt is in her late 50s so I don't foresee any late nights then. I plan on taking a lot of naps and getting some sun.
MOSCOW (AFP) – Russian media has been poking fun at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after she gave her Russian counterpart a "reset" button with an ironic misspelling.I kinda miss Condoleeza Rice.
Clinton's gift to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at their meeting in Geneva on Friday evening was meant to underscore the Obama administration's readiness to "to press the reset button" in ties with Moscow.
But instead of the Russian word for "reset" (perezagruzka) it featured a slightly different word meaning "overload" or "overcharged" (peregruzka).
Daily newspaper Kommersant put a prominent picture of the fake red button on its front page and declared: "Sergei Lavrov and Hillary Clinton pushed the wrong button."
Oh and I hear they are making a Where the Wild Things Are movie. I can't wait to see that and Quentin Tarantino's WWII film.
I have five movies at home this weekend. Netflix randomly decided to bump me up to the four-at-a-time service at no extra cost, and my friend Cole let me borrow Forgetting Sarah Marshall. All of these are tempting me to not go outside today, as it is perfect weather, but it's probably not enough to keep me off the beach. See ya.
A lot of people dip at my workplace. That's where I started. And my old friend Eric has been an on-and-off dipper since before I knew him. So when he came to visit me this summer I learned to enjoy it.
And then one day Rachel and I were about to go meet up with some of my friends for a canoeing trip, and she went into a gas station to use the restroom. She walked out with a tin for me as an apology for something. I don't know why she did that, as she definitely hated when I did it around her. I tried not to do that around her, but I would get edgy if I went a day without one.
I found it definitely relaxing, and also a good way to kind of sharpen the mind for 10 minutes. I would usually come home from work every day and "throw one in," but I also would have one at work during high-stress situations like our live fire missions.
I know one guy at work who I've probably seen more with a dip in his lip than without one. He also swallows his own spit when he has one, and that's something even I find gross.
Then I found myself turning into a genuine addict. One day I came home from work and threw one in and I sat there feeling depressed. That's when I knew it was time to quit, as there was nothing enjoyable about it. And every time I get to thinking about how having one would feel good, I just think about that day.
Addict, yes. Victim, no. I knew very well what I was getting into when I chose to try it. I still am wary of people who consider themselves victims of tobacco companies, and also those who speak of alcoholism as if it were a disease.
- Location:30.1476,-85.6574
MSNBC was running a marathon of their show "Lock Up" and I found it somehow fascinating. I watched just about every episode and I think it made me an advocate of prison reform. Maybe I'll even go so far as to side with the people who advocate rehab.
I think the way our punitive system works is fundamentally flawed. I think there are a lot of people who are in prison now for non-violent crimes like drug dealing and grand theft who get turned into violent people just because of their circumstances while in prison.
And more profoundly, I think if I were in prison for such a non-violent crime, I could see myself able to kill a random person and risk a longer sentence in order to simply stay alive. That seems to be the code in a lot of the prisons they featured, and I no longer wonder why our prisons are suddenly becoming more crowded.
Being an advocate of reform doesn't mean I have a suggestion for a solution, though. I just think we need to try something else. It's up to people who didn't study stuff like engineering in college to figure out, and I think I have more respect for those kinds of studies, despite my sense of elitism for going the technical/hard science route.
More selfishly, I hope we figure it out before I pay more taxes than I already do.
I just adopted these two lolcats from the pound today! They are only two months old and very skittish, as I expected them to be for the first few days in their new home.
The original plan was just to get a single lolcat, but they showed me these two brothers in the same cage and I didn't have the heart to separate them. Also, I think it might be better for them socially for days when I work long hours, as they are destined to be indoor lolcats.
And when I go on business trips, I work with some civilians who don't go with us but are total animal lovers and already told me they'd help me out with that.
No names yet. Once they come out from hiding and I get to know their personalities, I'll name them and take/post more pictures!
- Location:Cove, Panama City, FL
- A Craftsman cordless drill and bit set. This will help because I can now utilize wall anchors.
- A Swiffer vacuum thingy that should come in handy with my all-hardwood new place.
- A half-pound gummi bear on a stick.
- A bunch of dimmer switches. I am crazy about mood lighting.
- Three nerdy t-shirts from Jinx.com.
- A serape blanket. For beach use. I asked for a large one so that there might be space for some future hunny to lay next to me.
- A Blue Ant earpiece for my cell phone. I AM BORG! Thing works pretty well. Really helped me tonight while shaking down the Washington Mutual people about the check they claim to have sent me in July that I still haven't received.
- The Hungry Scientist Handbook.
- No Reservations, The Nasty Bits, and Kitchen Confidential by Tony Bourdain.
- A new Nalgene water bottle to replace the one I left on the plane on the flight out.
- A 30-minute recipe cookbook.
- Some t-shirts from a surf shop in Orange County my uncle used to go to.
- $100 from my grandma.
- A Barnes & Noble gift card that I already used to buy American Patriot: The Life and Wars of Col. Bud Day. I recently tried to get myself off of non-fiction by picking up a copy of the complete short stories of Ernest Hemingway, but I now regret it completely as those stories suck. I liked A Farewell to Arms but that's about enough Hemingway for me for a while. Maybe Hemingway doesn't suck--it could just be that I am a non-fiction guy by nature.
- A bottle of 12-year Jameson. Aged to perfection.
- A bottle of fine tequila from a gift exchange at Eric's girlfriend's family.
- Music:See previous entry.
