serjofpower2006

I was reading a disgruntled former-sailor's blog and came across this entry he made about Admiral Rickover (the guy who's essentially responsible for Naval Nuclear reactors). It's hilarious:

The Hate Maker

There is but one exception to Big Red’s Universal Circle of Hate Rule, being that hate cannot be either created nor destroyed, merely transferred. She has a name, and in this Era, she is called Christine. Many billions of dollars have been spent, and lives have been lost to determine actual reactor theory. These are all lies. Rickover was neither an engineer, nor politician, nor genius as he is commonly referred to. His true nature lies in voodoo. He was a voodoo priest from the Georgia Bayou, born and raised into their occult dealings. His power grew large over his circle of heathens until one day, he called upon the supreme voodoo ritual, The Dance of the Small Statured, meaning to increase his incredibly small and frail frame. After many moons of preparation, and hours of tireless work, the dawn had approached to incant his spell. In a grand gathering upon the most formal of events, Rickover muttered the final words to the incantation, but alas, the fire that burned before him fizzled, and then disappeared.

His inferiors mocked him. Peers laughed at him until he was finally stripped of all status that he once had. Humiliated by becoming an outcast, Rickover went into a period of research. After many years, he came upon a black book written in an ancient language he could hardly decipher. He finally did though and realized that this was the book with the original, darkest, and most powerful voodoo spell of them all … The Dance of the Small Statured. Reading more carefully, he realized where he had gone wrong. The last ingredient, the most important of all that he had forgotten before, was one human soul. Rickover was appalled. He could never recite the spell again without his peers to help him and this very thought slowly drove him insane. Boarding himself into his house, many years passed before he was ever seen again.

Inside his home, his thirst for the human soul grew. Insane as he already was, and drawing upon his extensive technical knowledge, he designed a machine to draw the human soul out of the body and store them. It was Rickover’s new compulsion; to suck the souls from as many people as possible to make up for the one soul he failed to have. His ingenious device even utilized some of the stored soul energy to power itself, making it into a perpetual soul stealer. The next step was determining how to distribute it to the public and let the soul stealing commence.

The perfect community for this device was where the people died quietly and forgotten, in United States Submarines. He used his political might to install his machine into all submarines under the secret code name of, “The Hate Maker.” To make sure the secret stayed just that way, no one was allowed into it’s compartment while it was in operation.

Unable to escape from the “reactor’s” soul leaching abilities, these poor submariners were forced to have their souls stolen from them slowly but surely. This process has been shortened with the recent development of Continuous Training Programs, and Audit and Surveillance Programs to weaken the submariner’s soul before it is stolen. This standard protocol, in fact, works so well, that excess soul inventory is used to power the shaft and under the charade of reactor theory, provide propulsion to the ship while still collecting enough souls for Rickover’s greedy needs

In order not to outright kill these submariners, the void created from the loss of their soul is replaced with hatred in the form of “gamma radiation,” or within the inner circle of nuclear power, “Hatred Radiation.” ELT’s are unknowingly designated to measure the amount of radiated hatred each person receives. Too much radiated hatred and too much soul at the same time will cause a person to pop like a hot dog in a microwave, hence the fate of the USS Thresher, who’s real disappearance has been shrouded in mystery ever since. Hatred conservation has been created for those who have a high hatred to soul ratio as well.

Nuzzled away in his own self content, Rickover is not dead, merely feasting off the largest soul inventory known to man, as illustrated by the 1997 copy of the Guinness Book of World Records, “World’s Largest Soul Stockpile,” where Bill Gates and Donald Trump came in second and third respectively. This copy was however in limited print, due to Rickover’s Shock Troopers storming the factory and burning every last copy. The few and rare copies left can now be purchased on Ebay, starting at $200 with no reserve.

So, just got back from Pine with my dad. Went up Saturday night and hung out and watched movies most of the time. It's a lot nicer up there then it is down here. Those uphill roads kick my truck's ass, though. Was actually just going to spend Saturday night up there with him and go hiking with Alex on Sunday but she got sick and we ended up postponing the hike until another time. Damn, I was looking forward to that, too.

Saw Inglourious Basterds for the 6th time Saturday morning (yes, it's that good). Shawn said he was thinking about seeing it so I ended up going with him. Such a great movie. After that, had lunch with David at Subway and then went to meet my dad at his work before we headed up to Pine. Met a bunch of his coworkers who were all pretty cool. I hung out in his office for a while while he finished up a few things. Some of the pictures he has on his wall of him and his wife when they first got married were freaky - he looks exactly like me, but with a mustache. Kinda freaky.

Jeff at work has been a pain lately; just constantly ratting everyone out for every little thing, ignoring calls when they come in, constantly bitching to each of us and the customer's how the company sucks, blah blah blah. I heard him bitching about me while I was in another room on Friday to Bob and Cindy, so I decided to write Bob a little email about Jeff's performance and attitude lately. I sent it right before my shift ended so I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to find out what Bob's response is.

Have to go in at 7 AM tomorrow instead of 9; Darren is coming in late. Luckily I have all my homework and stuff done, all my clothes were washed on Friday, so...pretty much I just need to eat dinner, take some sleeping pills to knock me out early tonight, and wake up for another fun filled day with Jeff. Bleh. Work has actually been pretty good the past few months; Jeff is the only thing that makes me not want to work there.

I'm still laughing my ass off.

I was talking to Shawn about his time in the Marines and he relayed one of his experiences with me:

My last stint overseas the XO thought I was funny, he put up with a lot of my crap. One night, on the radio, I kept making "xhhhhkt" noises (with my mouth) every time i said "over". The XO said, "Rotter, goddamnit, stop doing that. You're lucky I like you or you'd be pulling double duty" over the radios.

It's 5 minutes later and I'm still laughing.

So, I went to Subway to get lunch and got a foot long. I ate half of it there and put the other half in the subway bag. On the way back to work, I stopped by CVS and got a starbucks doubleshot drink (the ones that are like 2.50 in the big can). I put it in the subway bag, with my sandwich for easier carrying. As I was waiting to cross the cross walk a homeless guy came up to me and asked if I could spare some food, so I gave him the other half of my subway sandwich in the bag, forgetting that I just put the newly purchased star bucks drink in it. I was walking up the stairs to work and realized what I had done. * sigh * Luckiest homeless guy ever. Well, as lucky as a homeless guy can be, I suppose.

So, I went skydiving with my mom on Saturday. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. I was going to take her around Christmas but I was pretty much broke after NAU so I had to wait.

It was INSANE. See pictures:



Ironically, this was the first time I've been on a plane. We were sitting at a table, waiting for the place to open, and this fact suddenly dawned on me.

I think the scariest part was not the jumping out of the plane or falling but when the parachute opened and we were floating to the ground. I told the guy while we were floating, "Seeing as how the hard part is over now, this would be a shitty ass time for the chute to break!" The landing was very quick and easy but we slid on our butts (you either land while running or you slide on your butt), and the grass was wet so I had wetness all over the back of my shorts the rest of the morning.

I want that guys job. Even if I had to work for minimum wage I would do it.

Only 6 more work-days left before leaving Transcend Broadband.  I am really excited to get out.  Things have been better the last few months (at least compared to what it was before that) but still, I get tired of being yelled at by every customer who's tired of shitty internet service.  I have to go to work today, then Monday-Friday next week.  Friday is my last day. 

The following Friday I am going up to Flagstaff.  I don't have much stuff, so I think I'll be able to fit it all in my mom's car. 

I need to schedule an eye doctor appointment to get some new contacts.  I've been lazy the past 6 months and haven't ordered new contacts.  So, I'm gonna get a new eye exam and buy some new contacts. 

I've been watching a lot of George Carlin on youtube.  He's so goddamn funny.  If he were still alive I would love to go see him live.  I bought one of his books a couple months ago and it's hilarious but it's not the same as seeing the video.

Time to head to work.  Bleh, I don't want to go.  I wish I would have put in my notice for today instead of next week.

So, I might have a job working at Einsteins Bagels at NAU as a Sandwich preparer.  They said the wage was 6.95/hr.  Not great but I'm going to take classes, not to make money.

So, I got my roommate assignment for NAU - a guy from Alaska of all places.  We've emailed back and forth a few times and he seems pretty cool.  Very outdoorsy.  I should meet him on the 21st or 22nd when I got up there.

I finished paying off all my tuition and my 4 months of rent for the semester.  I officially owe no money to NAU (until December of course).  I decided to drop the meal plan because if I get a job on campus I'll get 1 free meal a day, also because it's expensive (like $350 a month), and because everybody I've talked to says the food sucks and/or gets old really fast, and it's much cheaper just to buy and make your own food.  $350 is an insane amount of money to pay for a meal plan, unless you really take advantage of the "all you can eat" cafeterias, which I wouldn't.  So yeah, I decided to get rid of that. 

My last day of work is next Friday and I'm glad.  Many things have changed with management but there are still a lot of problems.  We're still having a lot of problems with our service, and problems internally with not having great structure in the company (although it's gotten a lot better since almost every leadership position in the company was fired and replaced with new ones).  I leave most days feeling kind of depressed and sort of defeated.  The large majority of ours calls are people who are unhappy with the speed of the service and how it goes down all the time, and these are issues that we're not able to figure out.  We basically tell everyone, "We're working on it" each time they call.  I don't like not being able to fix the problem they call in for.  So I will be glad when it's all done next week. I am really glad I worked for an extra couple of months because it let me save up a shit load of money to pay off my tuition and everything. 

I'm really happy to be going to NAU.  It'll be nice to go back to being a student again and not working all the time.  i've heard that it's a very liberal environment up there and very laid back.  I'm looking forward to seeing what it's like. 

Yesterday when I came home, I fell asleep around 5 PM, and woke up at 1 AM (this morning).  I couldn't fall back asleep so I just watched George Carlin videos on youtube until my mom and I left at 5:45 for work.  I was pretty tired all day because of this.  I was planning on going right to bed when I got home at 5 PM again today but my mom and Joel were going to see the Dark Knight and I decided to go with them and see it again.  What a great movie. 

I'm exhausted now.  I've been up since 1 AM so....a little over 20 hours now and I've been at work all day.  Hopefully I won't be too tired tomorrow at work.

So, lots of stuff going on since my last post. 

William (our boss and VP of the company) was fired on May 8th.  I have mixed feelings about this.  He was a real dick sometimes and I think the way he ran things was really inefficient.  On the other hand, I feel bad because I know he has a wife and kids.  Hopefully he'll be ok.

On the day that he got fired, my car died while going to work.  Joel and a buddy of his worked on it for about a day that weekend and we figured out it was a blown engine.  I was about 30% sad and 70% happy and relieved.  I've been so burnt out from work the past few months for multiple reasons that I really needed to get away from there.  Also, since my house is being rented out, I'm at a point financially where I can survive the summer without working. 

I emailed Chris and Tom, the investors who fired William (and Jake the President a few months ago) since they were my direct superiors at that point letting them know that since my "last day" was supposed to be for May 31st anyway and I wasn't planning on buying a new car, so I could either terminate my employment or work from home.  They decided that since we needed to hire new employees and get them trained, they would pay for a rental car for me until the end of the month.  I drove my mom's car and she drove the rental (a Nissan Versa). 

They hired a new Customer Service Manager, Chris Foster, since William is gone (actually, Chris's job is the same as Nate's old job).  He's a pretty cool guy.  The investors also brought a couple people from Maryland (where they run an identical company) to help straighten things out.  I'm really impressed with all the changes they're making.  I spent the past 6 months or so watching the company effectively go down the toilet because of numerous poor management decisions, and it's good to see the necessary changes being made to turn things around.  It'll be interesting to see how the company does from now on.

On my last day, Chris Foster mentioned that if I "needed any hours over the summer and I could find a ride" to let him know.  I already knew that my mom was going to let me borrow her car on Saturdays and Sundays since she doesn't work those days, so that might work out really well.  If I only worked 1 Saturday a week, I'd still bring in about $100 a week, which would keep me from eating into my savings.  I emailed Chris Foster about it a few days ago and haven't gotten a response.

I was chatting with Shawn the other day and found out that Timothy, the new guy that I was training, stopped showing up a few days ago.  I guess he's no longer with them.  I feel kind of bad - I thought he was enjoying the position.  It's fairly laid back and a friendly environment.  So now they're back to running a 4-man operation with 3 guys (Shawn, Kyle, and James).  Ironically enough, Shawn was promoted to Tier 2 a few months ago so he really shouldn't even be taking calls - just working on escalations and things of that sort.  I'm surprised they haven't hired more people by now.  Maybe it's just slow. 

My last day was Friday, 5/30, and I've enjoyed all the free time I have now.  I love waking up and wondering how I'll spend the day.  I've been reading a lot, and exercising a lot as well, trying to get back in shape.  I've spent the past 2 years sitting at a computer taking calls, exerting almost no physical energy, ever.  I haven't gained any weight, or lost any (I've weighed 140 since I was 15 actually).  But any physical work wears me out almost immediately.  It was bad enough that when I climbed the stairs to work, I was out of breath at the top.  When I was packing things to move out of my house, I had to keep taking breaks because I was getting fatigued and light-headed.  At NAU, when we were doing the tour, I started to get light-headed from standing up for so long (like an hour) and I started not being able to take deep breaths so I had to sit down anytime we stopped walking.  Even on the drive back from Flagstaff I was losing breath and getting light-headed.  Maybe the thin air contributed up there too. 

I've been running with Jon Mada a few days a week - just short, 2-3 mile jogs.  I'm finally starting to get in shape and have an appetite again.  I've been riding my bike a lot as well.  When I go running with him at RM Park, I've been hauling my bike up to Mesa with Joel and riding it where I need to go.  The other day I rode 9 miles from Ruscille's house to Joel's work to get a ride back home and felt good after the ride (not exhausted or anything).  Today, I really pushed it.  I needed to make a few deposits at the bank which is down by Johnson Ranch so I rode my bike there.  I left at 12:40 and got there at 1:45.  I stopped and ate a big sandwich at Quiznos and rode back (actually took a different route back and got a little lost on the way back).  Put in a total of 23 miles.  I'm pretty tired now from it and seem to be a little bit sunburned.  I'm going to keep running and biking to get myself healthy again like I used to be when I was in high school.

It's been so nice having all this free time to do whatever I want.  I've been reading a lot, some books on my shelf that I've been to busy/lazy to read, and been learning Ubuntu which has been interesting.  I'd like to spend more time writing in LJ this summer and maybe writing some essays on various topics that I'm interested in. 

Hopefully I'll be able to work 1 day a week to pull in some extra cash.  Also, I called MDS Pharm. services and they have me signed up for one of those medical testing things (where they test the un-released medicine on you).  I have to go and get a physical and see if I qualify for test later this month.  If I qualify, I have to spend 6 days at the testing center and come back a week later to get retested.  It pays 1550.  I hope I get that - it would really help out and be easy money.  Other than that, I figure I'll start giving plasma.  If I do it twice a week I'll bring in about $200 a month.  Not a lot but it still helps out and gives me some spending money so I don't have to eat into my savings.  We'll see how all of that goes. 

That's all for now, I'll try to update more frequently.

So, plans have changed a little for NAU.  I've decided to just start in August at the regular time.  Summer rate for tuition was something like $800 for a 3-credit class (compared to about 200 for MCC).  Plus the dorm costs and all that.  Plus the fact that I couldn't really find any open summer classes that count for my degree.  So, I'm going to continue my job at least until the end of May and see where that takes me. 

Daniel and his wife moved into my old house last Saturday so that payment is taken care of now.  I moved back to Queen Creek to live with my Mom for the next few months.  It'll be cool to get my check next week and not have to spend half of it on rent.  I'll stick it in savings for now.

I've been searching the real estate listings for the past few weeks in Queen Creek.  It's insane to see how much house prices have dropped.  One of the houses I was looking at near Johnson Ranch (way the fuck out there in Queen Creek) is selling for 120,000.  It's a 2 story, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house.  120,000 is nothing - especially for a house as big and nice as this one is.  I looked into it, and the house was purchased in 2006 for 279,000.  Insane.  I feel bad for all the people needing to sell there houses right now. 

I've been so tempted to purchase a second place with things as cheap as they are.  Only problem is, I don't have much in savings to put for a down payment, and it's really hard to find renters especially out in that area.  I emailed one of the renting agencies and they said you should have a lot of money reserved because it could take 3 or more months to find renters.  I'm still debating on whether or not I should do it.  It would give me two houses to sell in 4 or 5 years, instead of just one in Casa Grande.  I'll have to think about it some more.  If I can get my mortgage payment low enough, I can lower the monthly rent and hopefully attract a renter more quickly.  We'll see what happens.

So, I didn't qualify for any "free" money from the FAFSA that I filled out, but I did get a $3000 per year subsidized loan (this is where the gov't pays the interest until you graduate, so at the end of 3 years, I'll owe the $3000, not $3000 plus interest).  I also got a federal work study "award" for $3000 for the year.  I'm unsure of exactly what this is.  I know you have to work a certain number of hours per week to get it, but does the school give you the $3000 up front in the beginning of the year, or what?  I'll have to ask about that.  The third "award" I got was a 10,000 per year un-subsidized loan.  I found out at orientation though, that this is a parents loan - it's a loan that my mom would have to take out and be responsible for.  I don't think I'll be able to take this one - I don't want my mom to have to be responsible for it.  I figure I'll make a little bit up there by doing some on-campus job to put a dent in the tuition/living expenses and the rest I'll have to get a loan from Chase or someone. 

I signed up for all my classes.  Schedule is as follows:

Monday and Wednesday:
10-10:50: PE (Fitness and Conditioning)
11:30-12:20: ACC 205
12:40-1:30: MAT 119
2-3:15: ACC 255

Tuesday and Thursday:
10-10:50: PE (Cardio)
11:10-12:25: CIS 220
12:45-2: HIS 312 - Gandhi's India
2:20-3:10: FYE (they told us as first-years we should take this to learn about doing well)

Friday:
11:30-12:20: ACC 205
12:40-1:30: MAT 119

Total of 18 credit hours.  For some reason, universities charge the same tuition whether you take 12, 15, or 18 credits (around 2500 per semester), so I figured I might as well load up.  I added the 2 PE classes (1 credit each), and the FYE class (1 credit) to get me up there so I can earn some elective credit.  Plus, I really miss have a daily workout like I did when I was in high school.  I miss being in shape and not feeling out of breath or light headed when I climb a flight of stairs (yes, this has been happening lately, probably because I've spent the last two years sitting on a computer all day at work and not exerting any real physical energy).  The PE classes will be a good way to wake up and get ready for the day as well.  I figure I'll wake up about 8 or 8:30, eat breakfast at 9, and head to work out, keeping me bright, cheery, and refreshed for the rest of the day.  And I think I'll probably meet some cool people in the FYE class.  All very exciting.

The way my schedule is, I figure I can work Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday if necessary, and still be able to have fun most of the week since the latest my classes go is 3:15. 

Oh, I almost forgot.  I recently submitted a complaint to the Department of Labor for my employer.  Basically, they've been paying us (the 3 full time tech support guys) salary since 2006, with no overtime for all the 6-day weeks we worked.  They've always told us (and we've always assumed) that being salary automatically means that you're exempt from overtime.  This is not the case: there are specific conditions you have to meet to qualify for being exempt, like being a manager, outside sales, things like that.  Luckily I have never really deleted any emails, so I have hundreds of emails, schedules, etc, showing that they were scheduling me 6 day weeks (1-10 on mon-fri, then 9-6 on Saturday (without a lunch on Saturday BTW, since we always had to cover the phones)).  All the Saturday hours, times my time-and-a-half pay, equals just over $4000.  I submitted my hours to the department of labor last week in Phoenix.  They're going to contact me once they've launched an investigation. 

Margaret, the new HR lady, told us the other night that coming up we're all going to be converted to hourly.  This makes me even more confident that we are in fact entitled to the overtime pay: there is no benefit whatsoever for paying full time (40 hour a week) employees hourly wages.  If someone works any hours over 40 while salaried, they don't get shit.  If they work over 40 hours while hourly, they get time-and-a-half for each additional hour.  So, there's no benefit whatsoever for making us hourly, unless they know that they're fucking us over and are afraid of getting sued.  The department of labor said it could take up to 8 months to investigate, depending on how many employees are being paid illegally.  Hopefully that'll follow through.  I'll have to wait and see.  If it happens in December, it'll really help out my tuition/living expenses for 2nd semester. 

My mom had today off and hasn't been to church for a while, so she decided to go and check out the new Central church in Gilbert.  Being in church again and hearing some of the nonsense that was spewed was an interesting experience.  I got the same feeling I get when I'm reading Christian apologetic literature: embarrassment  for the human race and specifically for the religiosity of modern day America. 

The lesson was about how secular society, and secular humanists were causing all the problems in the world, and are "attacking" Christianity.  I wish I would have took notes or something, but here are a few things I remember hearing:

1.  The speaker talking about living in Nepal and bring "dragged by his feet by two Hindus into their temple so they could convert him." 
I have known many Hindus (including my old roommate) and am fairly certain that the majority of Hindus don't care what religion anybody else is, and how many converts they have.  This is strictly a Muslim/Christian obsession.  I feel that he's leaving out some details about this story, or exaggerating parts of it, unless these two "Hindus" were some radical split off group.

2.  How in the past 20 years or so, secular humanists have come to the offensive position, attacking innocent, well-meaning Christianity all over America for no other reason than to "destroy" everybody's beliefs.  Anybody who thinks this needs to take a look at reality.  You can turn on the news everyday and see fanatic religious groups protesting this or that issue, science in schools, abortion, stem cell research, death penalty, etc.  Why is it so wrong for the Secular Humanists to REACT to this and say, "Hey, I disagree with you for reasons A, B, and C."  No, no, the only people who are allowed to speak up are Christians, because after all, they have the truth, right? 

3.  We look to Secular Humanists more for morals than we look to the bible for.  My response to this is: GOOD!  Richard Dawkins says it the best: We tend to cherry pick verses that we like from scripture and ignore the ones that are morally questionable.  For example, slavery and polygamy, two of the worst systems ever created in human existence, are totally justified in the Bible.  So what's wrong with bringing these two back?  What's wrong about kidnapping people and forcing them into labor?  And I always enjoy the response of "Well, that was in the Old Testament - it doesn't count."  These same people are adamantly against homosexuality which is primarily condemned in the Old Testament and not in the New Testament.  Again: we just cherry-pick. 

4.  Crime, poverty, violence, rape, murder, etc has all increased in the past few decades because of Secular Humanism.  The ironic thing is that America has become tremendously more religious in the past 50 years or so.  The parts of the world (including the parts of America) that are more religious than others (the American south, the Middle-Eastern countries, etc) tend to have the most crime and acts of immorality.  By contrast, places with little or no religious activity have the LOWEST rates of crime.  This could be just correlation or it could be causality, but it clearly indicates that there is a direct relationship between religiosity and crime.

5.  The founding fathers like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, etc, were all Christians and founded this great nation upon Christian values.  This is absurd, and to see the absurdity you just need to read some of their writings, and their letters to each other.  Things like "Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man" from Thomas Jefferson and "Lighthouses are more useful than churches" from Ben Franklin and "The United States should have a foundation free from the influence of the clergy."  I have a difficult time believing that these men were anything more than tolerant of the Christian religions around them. 

So, a ton of stuff going on the past few weeks.  I've tried to update my LJ 3 or 4 times now but when I think of all the stuff I need to write about, I get intimidated and quit.  So, here's my best shot to remember everything that's been happening.

A couple months ago Tena gave her dog because she couldn't take him to the place she was going to be living.  The only problem is, I live in CG and spend so much time in Queen Creek and Mesa with my mom and my girlfriend that I never had time to play with the dog or give him attention.  I had to drive home to CG all the time JUST to give the dog some extra food and I always felt guilty because he never had anybody to play with.  So I decided to give the dog to my brother up in Cottonwood.  He has 3 kids to play with him and another (female) pitbull.  I drove it up to Cottonwood with my truck and my brother says the dogs and the kids are all getting along really well, so I'm happy. 

The night that I drove my truck back and forth to Cottonwood, I was driving on the 202 East heading to Ruscille's house.  Around Stapley, I kept hearing a "Click-click-click-click" sound.  Quiet at first, then over a period of about 3 minutes growing louder and louder, to a point where it was literally shaking my whole truck.  I kept trying to downshift and upshift, thinking it was something with the transmission or something, but the problem persisted, getting louder.  So I pulled over to the side of the freeway, and as I'm slowing down to stop, the truck just shuts off.  I try starting it up again but all I hear is "SCREEEEEEEEEEEECHHHHHHHHH!!!"  So I called my girlfriend and her and her dad came and picked me up for the night.  I had the car towed to the shop Monday morning, hoping that it was just a timing belt that broke or something cheap like that.  Nope - not the case.  They call me a few hours after they have it in.  "Sir, the engine is toast."  Something about the rings or valves or something.  I asked him how much it would cost to repair, and he said that the labor to fix that type of thing was so expensive that it would be better just to get a new engine.  He said including the labor to put the engine in, it would be about 2000-3000 depending on how many miles I wanted to be on the new engine.  So, yeah - in my last entry when I said "I need to get rid of this truck because I'm afraid something really expensive will break and I won't be able to get my money out of it again" I was right.  I ended up selling the truck for $400 to a friend of a friend, who wanted a project to work on with his son.  So, at least I got something out of it.

I was pretty upset.  I just bought this truck in November, invested a total of about 4000 into it (2500 to buy it, the rest for repairs of various things).  I had to buy a new car immediately because I still had to go to work, so the next day I bought a really cheap 1989 Toyota Tercel.  Ugh, I miss my truck.  It was nice to have something relatively new.  I bought the cheapest thing I could find because I only need it for 2 or 3 months.  So far it's been running fine (knock on wood!).  I just try not to let anybody see me in it (it's a really old beater, that sounds like shit when it starts up).  When Joel asked me what color it was, I asked him, "What do you call the color when all the paint has been chipped off over the years - grey?"

I'm over it now, although I'm upset that a $4000 car only lasted me 5 months.  That's like $800 a month.  I could have leased a frickin' BMW for that price...The next car I buy is going to be brand new (or close to brand new).  I have such horrible luck with used cars.

Other than that, I took my girlfriend and her Mom, Dad, and sister to the Grand Canyon a few weeks ago.  We drove up on Friday morning, stopped in Sedona and went shopping at tlaquepaque - it's an outdoor mall up there.  I went there a few years ago with my mom and my brother's wife.  Ruscille really enjoyed it.  We stopped in Flagstaff that night to rest (grand canyon is still another 1.5-2 hours from there).  We headed up the next morning to the Grand Canyon and spent a few hours there.  It really is a cool place, and Ruscille and her family had never been there.  On the way back the I-17 was supposed to be incredibly backed up because of construction or something, so google maps recommended another route, through Strawberry and Payson down to Mesa.  One of the turns was "Turn right on Fossil Creek Rd."  Yeah - what it doesn't tell you is that Fossil Creek Rd is a 1 lane-sized dirt road up and around 26 miles of mountains.  I turned right on that road and it kind of forks into two roads at the very beginning.  I wasn't sure which one was Fossil Creek because they weren't labeled.  Then there was a guy and his girlfriend driving on the road (toward us).  I stopped him and asked him where it lead.  He said he took it from Tempe and it takes about an hour to take.  This was a lie I think he purposely told to have a good laugh.  You literally could not go more than 11-12 miles per hour because of 2 things: First, the road was pretty bumpy and dusty, and second, because it's so narrow, and your hundreds to sometimes thousands of feet in the air, with no guard rail to keep you from falling off the mountain.  I kept thinking to myself, "I can't believe I'm going to be responsible for the death of my girlfriend and her family..."  Eventually though, (after 1.5 hours) we started smelling strawberries (that's why they call it Strawberry I guess :) ) and were able to find our way toward Payson and then down to Mesa.  About an hour before we got home, Joel called me and told me, "Hey David - you guys can go ahead and take the I-17 down home - they got done earlier today with the construction..."  Lol, I told him and my mom the story - they were laughing their asses off.  The whole trip from Flagstaff (where we stopped to eat at Denny's on the way back home) took about 6 hours (left at 1 PM, got home about 7 PM).  It was a lot of fun - a good adventure with that road as well. 

So, I filled out my FAFSA a few weeks ago and apparently I'm not entitled to any help because my expected family contribution is $9000.  I hate how they don't take into consideration the fact that both me and my mom spend over half our paychecks on our houses so...I know it LOOKS like we made a lot, but we really didn't.  So, this year I'll have to pay it all myself taking out loans and stuff.  At least next year I'll be able to get more because my income will be significantly less. 

That's all for now.  I feel like there's more to update but I just can't remember right now.

So, it's been a while since I've updated and a lot of stuff has happened. 

I broke up with Lori and Ruscille and I are back together again.  It's been really nice spending time with her lately, I forgot how much fun we have together.  I've been spending a lot of my time at her house hanging out and watching movies and stuff.  It's been good.

I was accepted to NAU a few weeks ago so the only thing left to do is wait until class registration opens up and sign up for classes.  I'd like to start during the summer.  I got the summer housing application that I need to fill out and mail in.  I've been debating a little on whether to move up at the end of May, or stay and work until August - to save up some money to pay for tuition and stuff.  I'm still not completely decided. 

My old coworker Daniel and his wife are going to rent my house starting April 30th when their old lease is up.  This is exciting - I originally thought that his lease was up in June; him moving in on April 30th means I can quit my job at that time if I need to.  I'll see what I'm going to do.

Work has been really shitty the past couple of months.  Nate being fired just made it harder.  At least with him we had a manager who understand how messed up the whole company is.  Our boss now is William, the VP.  He's constantly trying to micromanage everything that we do.  "Did you get that email??"  "Did you grab that sale??"  "Why wasn't that done another way??"  I can't stand coming to work each day. 

Neeraj, my roommate from India, moved out back in January to go get married.  He got back a couple weeks ago and he came over to chat with me.  I guess his wife is still in India and she's coming over next month.  He's going to get a place in Chandler where there are a lot of Indian people so his wife can make an easier transition. 

When I got back to my house from my vacation (after Flagstaff I stayed with my mom in Queen Creek) I got a call from Luis, my other roommate.  He was laid off by the City of Eloy.  They're doing some cutbacks and so he and a few others are getting laid off.  He had to move all of his stuff to a friend of his in Tempe so when I got home, all of his stuff was gone as well.  I have the house to myself now.  It sucks because I have no spare money anymore and I have about $3000 to pay back on my credit card.  Luckily it's 0% interested until January so it's easier to pay off but still, I don't have any extra money each paycheck to pay any of it.  I figure once I get moved up to NAU and settled in, I'll sell my truck.  I can (hopefully) get 2500-3000 out of it.  I'm worried because it's been having problems lately (I had to replace several parts including the starter and the battery cable and 3 of the tires), and I'd like to get rid of the truck while it's still running before the engine dies or something.  Between all the repairs lately and the recent 3 tires I put on it, I've put in almost $900 in the past couple months into the truck.  This is part of the reason my credit card balance is so high.  I need to get rid of it before something more expensive breaks or it stops running altogether.  I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed until I get up to NAU.

That's all for now.

Nate, my manager, was fired on Friday.  It's sad to see him go, we were all really close to him.

William the VP is our new boss I guess.  Work is starting to really suck but I don't mind anymore because I know that I only have a couple months left before I go back to school.

I'm so excited to get started at NAU. I wish I could go up there right now and start.  I'm thinking about going part time with my job until May.  I could make just enough to pay the rent and food and just not spend anything.  I could spend more time exercising and catching up on some reading/writing that I've been putting off since I've been working.  We'll see how that works out.

So, I just saw the first two episodes of season 5 of One Tree Hill.  It's more awesome that I remember it. 

I scheduled a time to meet with an NAU advisor and take a tour  of the campus on the 28th of this month.  I'm really excited.  I'm hoping that I can start this summer, maybe take a class or two to get used to the campus, and also start practicing with the cross country team and get back in shape.  I'm so looking forward to it all.  I should have done this a long time ago. 

I told my mom that I was heading up to NAU on the 28th, and she told me that she's going skiing with my brother that whole week up in Snowbowl and said I should come.  So, I requested the days off and got one of the guys at work to cover for me!  I'm really excited.  I went skiing a few years ago and had so much fun.  And that was only for 1 day.  This is the entire week.  I'm very excited. 

Time to head home.  I miss the 10 minute drives home.  Tempe takes 40 minutes to get home and I guess I got spoiled with the short commute the past few months.  Oh well, such is life I guess. 

So this morning I woke up and felt like crap - I had a screaming headache at 9 and felt sick to my stomach.  So, I drank some water and a little grape juice and took an ibuprofen and tried going back to sleep.  I woke up again at 10 and couldn't lay down because I felt so queasy.  I started feeling that disgusting feeling in my mouth wear your spit becomes really bitter (maybe this just happens to me) so I went to the toilet and immediately threw up everything I ate last night and this morning.  I still have the headache and I think I'm gonna take another pill for that but at least I don't feel like throwing up.  I need to find something light to eat though.

So the Christmas party was tonight.  It was a lot of fun although nothing as huge as what they did last year.  It was fun to hang out with everyone outside of work.  JC, his wife, and Troy and me went to this bar place that had a big volleyball thing in the back, so we met Rich there and played a few games.  I got to drive JC's huge truck too which was a lot of fun.  All in all a fun night.      

So, part of what I do at my job is tech support.  Keep in mind that we troubleshoot people's internet connection problems, not their computer hardware problems.  I decided to write about this call I took a few hours ago because it's funny.  Maybe it's just funny to me because I deal with it a lot.  Anyway, here goes:

Customer: Yeah, my screen is just black.  We just got installed.  We need someone to come out to fix this.

David: Ok...this doesn't really have anything to do with your internet so we can't send someone out.  Perhaps your computer is just turned off?

Customer: No man, it's gotta be something you guys did 'cause it only worked for like 2 days after we got installed, and our computer worked when we had our old service.  You gotta send someone out tonight.

David: Well, if it worked after we left the installation, it wouldn't have been anything unplugged by us.  But maybe we can try a few things.  What color is the light on the monitor?

C: Let me give you my wife, I don't know any of this stuff. *gives phone to wife*

Customer's wife: Hi.

D: Hi. Ok, what color is the light on the monitor?

C: It's orange.

D: Ok, usually that just means it's in standby, or it's not plugged into your computer all the way.  Try moving the mouse around or tapping the keys on the keyboard.

C: *customer moves mouse around and taps keyboard keys* No it's still stuck like that.

D: Ok, check to make sure the monitor cable is fully plugged into the back of the computer.

C: Oh, I can't do that, there's a desk in the way.  Can we just cancel this and put it back to where it was working?

D: Well, this issue has nothing whatsoever to do with the internet service, and if you go with another provider, you'll still have a non-working computer...

c: No, I'm telling you, it was working with our old provider.  It HAS to be something you guys messed up!

D: Well, your computer also worked just fine for the first couple days after getting our service installed.  It wasn't anything we unplugged or messed up, otherwise it wouldn't have been working when we left.  Chances are, it's just a loose cable or a problem with the computer or monitor.  Who makes the computer? Dell, HP?

C: DELL.

D: Ok, go ahead and give them a call.  They'll probably have you run through some of the same things we just did, and have you check some cables and stuff.  If it's a problem with the computer, you can send it to them for repair.

C: (to her husband): He's not going to send someone out, he won't help us!

(Husband, in the background): Let me talk to him!

(husband): Dude, you guys need to come out and cancel our service so the computer works again.  I'm not stupid, if it was working with our old provider, and now we switch to you, you expect me to think that it's not your issue?

D: Well sir, yes.  Just like, if your car suddenly broke down, it would have nothing to do with the fact that you were just installed with our service, right?  We wouldn't send someone to fix your car, either.  This really is probably an easy issue to resolve with Dell, if you just give them a call.

C: Bull**** dude, this is a 2 year old computer!  There's nothing wrong with it!  We've never had any problems with it!

D: Well, it's kind of like a car.  It works until something stops working on it, and then you have to fix it.  You don't say, "Well, these tires are only 3 months old so there's no WAY I have a flat tire!" It's ALSO quite possible that it's something as simple as something being unplugged.

C: THAT YOU GUYS UNPLUGGED WHEN YOU INSTALLED US!!!!!

D: No sir, if we had unplugged it when we installed you, your computer would have been like this the whole time. 

C: Who do we talk to to cancel?

D: You can call the sales line.  I should tell you that you'll have to pay a $200 termination fee, and that your computer will still have the exact same problem when we pick up the equipment, no matter who you go with...Or you could just call dell and get your computer fixed in a few minutes.

c: And what's your name again?

D: My name is David.

(Customer hangs up).



So, basically, either his monitor cable is loose/unplugged, or his video card/motherboard/something on his computer/monitor is messed up.  The call took around 10 minutes, and by the end of the call I was getting frustrated that he kept accusing us of messing up his computer and wasn't grasping the whole concept.  I felt SOOOO tempted to say, "Well, you're going to feel really stupid when you cancel our service, pay a $200 fee, and switch to another provider, only to learn that the problem is still there."  I had to hold back though because I'd probably get in trouble, and it would have just pissed him off more :-).

So, our office move to Tempe is * supposedly * happening on September 1st, but I'll buy it when we get there.  It was supposed to be April 1st, but obviously that didn't work out too well.  I will miss my 15 minute drive to work.  Tempe will be approximately 35 minutes from my house.  The nice thing is that work will be about 3 miles from MCC, so I will already be in the area 3 days a week.

Ruscille and I broke up a few weeks ago.  I'm not sure if I'll get into another relationship right away or just hang out a little bit with different girls.  I'll see where I end up.

My roommate Neeraj moved in a few weeks ago too.  He's a funny guy.  He's Indian and he's being forced into an arranged marriage that he's not looking forward to in January.  I didn't realize those still went on over there (I thought that was like a 50's thing or something).  He's pretty cool so far.  He makes a lot of interesting foods, and some really kick ass Indian tea.  It's nice to have his company.  Coming home to an empty house was getting kind of lonely.  It's nice to have the extra cash as well.

I've rented out my other room as well to some Mexican guy named Luis.  He should be moving in a few weeks.  It's going to be awesome to have both of their rent checks coming in each month.  It will give me enough to put in my back yard in a few months (currently, it's just dirt).

School starts on Monday but I'm not real excited.  I only have one class: communications.  I can't imagine it's going to be very hard from what everybody has told me about it.  I wanted to take more technology classes but all of mine got canceled because everybody who takes them wants to take them at night.  I was hoping that we would have hired more people at my work by now so I could start working a morning shift and go to school at night, but it looks like that's not going to be a possibility now.  I'll have to wait for springtime to take more classes.

I watched the new Simpsons movie earlier - I was laughing my butt off the whole time.  "Spider pig, spider-pig, does whatever a spider-pig does.  Can he swing, on a web.  No he can't, cause he's a spider-pig."  Very very hilarious. 

I watched "The Hills Have Eyes 2" the other night as well.  I thought it was a little better than the first one.

I'm going to bed now.

So, I'm having a barbecue at my new place for some friends and coworkers this Saturday night.  If anybody wants to come along, feel free.

I invited Janie, the girl who did my loan.  She was the one who turned things around and made it possible for me to get the house, so I owe her a lot.  I'm not sure if she can make it yet or not.

My brother is coming early on Saturday to help me get and install ceiling fans in my two bedrooms that don't have them.  I'm gonna spend the extra money and get the ones that come with remotes to let you dim the lights and stuff.  He might help me wire my ceiling speakers as well.  I think it'll be fun.  I always enjoy hanging out with him when it's just me and him.  It's only when he's with the rest of his family that I hate being around him.

On Saturday, I went with Ruscille, Kelley, and Tim, some old track buddies from high school, and went ice skating.  I forgot how much I enjoy skating.  I haven't really skated since just before high school.  I remember roller blading to pre-season practices in the summer, but after I started driving, I never really went again.  Long story short, I went out this morning and got a pair of roller blades that were on sale.  I skated for 20 minutes this morning when I got home and loved it.  I may go again tonight.

I just got a call from the blood donor and I scheduled myself for a blood donation tomorrow morning at 10 in Tempe.  They said I'll be entered into a drawing for a new Saturn, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for that :)

That's all for now.