Following somewhat of an interesting week, it is nearly done. This week has brought much time at work reading emails and headers, playing with computers and viruses. Flashing back to the past, last Saturday was spent mostly around the apartment. Abby had apparently gotten entirely too drunk at Kahunaville, and spend the entirety of Saturday recovering on the couch. I retrieved lunch for the two of us, then we watched TV for at least 5 or so hours. Then we went to WinterFest in Grand Haven, where miss Heather took care of us. We were waived into the beer tent at a “student discount”, free admission, followed with a hookup to the bartender, free beer. That was a good time, a beer tent in the snow, with heaters and a beach party theme, some Jimmy Buffet playing in the back. Jason nearly jacked a woman in the face, goosed some girl, and we were on our way to find some food. Tip-a-few has some good Mexi-food, and then the trip back to Grandville by way of Allendale. We dropped Abby off, then continued back to Grandville and bed. Sunday came to finishing the model I bought as well as fixing the Legos, then to Tod’s place for dinner, talking about knots, and some soaking in the hot tub. I was then called Uncle Brian by Celeste, a cute little 3 year old. I guess I do remember when she was born so there is some justification, but it certainly took me by surprise, though as Phil points out as long as no one calls me Daddy.

Monday wasn’t too entertaining at work, just the average work, some blocking and unblocking, followed by terrible snow, a trip with Amy to Chili’s in Rivertown Crossings, a purchase of Super Smash Bros and a pair of boots. Flirting with the shoe saleswoman was excellent fun, great to see what a psychology degree from GV will get you in this world. Anyhow, there has been much playing of this game this week, with little of anything else going on in the homestead. Tuesday was horrid weather, followed by a continued slowdown of the GV internet access as well as a huge outbreak of Mydoom.A on campus, much of which is still spreading through this weekend. I have tracked down many of the still infected addresses, and have blocked those in housing and have not found those left in Office nets in the inventory. That really sucks, but we are slowly getting them. Tuesday ended with a chat about sex with front desk Abby, a ride home, video games, Then bar for Nate’s birthday, football at The Dutch/German place, followed by the replay of 24. That was the man.

Wednesday was another day of awful weather and a lack of school for those student teachers I know. Though I did have to work and deal with the virus issues and walk-in problems since CJ wasn’t in. So more email headers and whatnot took some sorting, as well as other potential methods of handling the problem as well as talking to JFK. Then to the homestead and workout and video games. and early sleep, though Abby saw it fit to wake me by AIMing, Beeping, and calling, but I was too out of it to really care. So I talked to her today and saw that Hardware had an encounter with Garth, how intriguing. That explains the sweaters and other looks, but seriously folks. Today was a great time of going to work, dealing with virii, talking with Ben, port scanning issues, as well as random copyright and wireless issues. After work, I went to play “Mr Knot” to teach the Bear Scouts their knots for advancement, I was casually referred to as “Uncle Brian” again by Tod. He didn’t realize the impact of what he was saying, but it took me as more than just repeating what his daughter had said on Sunday. I know I can tie a few knots, but I would never liken myself to Uncle John like that. After the meeting, I spent time chatting on the phone, online, and updating this to the sounds of LOTR audio books that FullJeff has provided on DVD. He is the man. Marshall Alexander, however is not the man. After receiving an email tonight, I can go to bed happy and amused, more than I have been able in a while anyhow.

Thus concludes another Friday evening and another fun week in the life of me. All in all it was an enjoyable week for me. Time with the boys and girls I like to play with. Monday was nothing out of the ordinary, just getting back into the swing of things, More blocking unblocking and emails all around. Lunch at Upper with the boys. Come home, chill out, then play Madden 2004 over at Darrin’s place till the ungodly hours of the morning. Then comes Tuesday, the notable part of this day was the trip to Village Bicycle after work to get the CycleOps Magneto bicycle trainer. All in all that might not seem so big, but it is the first step on the road to my self improvement. This purchase has started me on a basic regiment of exercise, A bicycle ride, pushups and sit ups. All in all by the end of the week I am sore and feeling a bit tired.

Wednesday brings with it a happy hump day feel to the week, I was happy to be halfway through the wretched week. Where nothing of note really happened at work and I went to the mall and shopped for “dough hooks” for my Kitchen Aid power hand mixer. Then back home to workout, and watch some TV. I fell asleep hardcore by 10:00 and woke the next morning without an alarm around 7:30 and proceeded though that day of work. some random network issues, and whatnot some additional help given to the walk-in customers to the helpdesk. A night of workout, and chatting, Max and Erma’s for some drinks, avoid Lisa B’s White Russians. Then Friday comes, more network issues, fun at work with the blocking and unblock and responding to strange emails. Lunch at China One, I feel that one now, not a good thing. More helping walk-ins, then lab stuff and I guess more lab stuff. Went up to my office, but made a stop over at the language office to talk to the LAs over there. There is that one that is quite cute, how to talk to girls … I wish I knew. We actually talked for a bit and I enjoyed it. I offered up the bar for tonight, though she didn’t attend. I guess what’s the point when you are underage. In any case, finish out the day, workout and play video games, the finish the legos, pics to come. The I started on a die cast model of a ‘56 Corvette, and stopped when Abby arrived. We all attended Kahunaville for Darrin’s Birthday to celebrate his 22nd year of existence on this puny planet. That was an amusing time, booze and video games always make for good times though. Somehow, my bar tab came to $14.50 for my 4 Pint white russians, 2 Kamikaze shots, and a tequila sunrise. I am not complaining in the least, but that is all good.

After all is said and done what really matters? There are more things in life that continue to elude my grasp, both mentally, physically and emotionally. First on that note, Congrats to Chase on his achievement of something that I could not accomplish. You truly are the man Chase. But I cannot find a job still, cannot find happiness on a personal level, but I am still not so lost to the world that I am horribly depressed. I wish I had more, but I am so grateful for what I have now, I don’t know what I would do without these people that I love and enjoy so much. But there is always that little something missing in my life, some little hole that needs to be filled, and I think I know what will fill that, but truly I am unsure. There is only one way to find out, and unfortunately things never got he way that my heart, mind and friend tell me it should. But that’s not matter now, I will look to other places there should be more than one path to enlightenment, more that one way to reach that rocky summit, more than one way to skin a cat …. you get the point. Now to move on and get over that first hurdle of talking and establishing communication and seeing what is possible in life beyond the scope that is presently available to me. All in all, I need to get the balls to ask a girl out. Plain and simple …. it will not happen, well not the girls that some might expect anyhow.

Happy Birthday to Darrin, you are the man, we will catch you one the flip side. Time for me to crawl into bed and just fall into the strange world that is my dreams. G’night kids.

Congratulations to Chase Budziak, the new Section C3B Chief.

Friday my replacement part for the driver’s door arrived from Enzenberger Mitchell body shop. Apparently when they lost the light off this door and nicely tucked the wires into the door, they forgot about it. The replacement was a reflector for the door. This wouldn’t bother me if I were paying for it, as it would be cheaper, but that is not the part that they lost. I planned on attempting to wire up the power inverter this weekend, that did not happen though. I did bust out the wiring kit and pull the necessary parts that i shall need to wire it, but it was a bit cold to be poking around under the hood, especially when I have no idea what I am doing there, nor where to put the hole in the firewall. Where am I supposed to ground the damn thing anyhow? Maybe this week I can get to that.

I also was intending on hanging the maps on my wall this weekend, but didn’t the chance to make it to the lumber yard for some appropriate hardware to hang some heavier things on the wall. Hopefully this week, that way I will be able to make the place look a little bit better. I picked up a bookcase/media storage unit at target yesterday for $12, 3 shelves of media bliss. Now if I only had all my movies, instead of my parents. The real reason for the trip to Target was for a 5 shelf bookcase for Abby, which I picked up and was actually able to shove in my car, through that little hole behind the armrest. Then the delivery of such item to her place.

What a wonderfully lazy day after that point. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings up on Alpine to watch the Michigan/State game. The outcome of the game was a bit disappointing, but not unexpected. I did enjoy the 12 wings, followed by some beer and another 4 boneless wings. Those sauces are really interesting, I mean they’re not really buffalo sauces I wouldn’t think. But I do really like some of the other flavors in those sauces. The spicy garlic was delicious, as was the caribbean jerk, wow that had a bite. Then back to Abby’s place, where we just BSed and watched TV and whatnot(had more food). The funniest game show moments was awesome. I have not laughed that hard in quite some time, I was wheezing I was laughing so hard. I left at some point during SNL, so I went back to my place messed around online for a bit, then hit the sack. Woke up at various times this morning, and eventually kicked myself out of bed around noon, took a shower, put together that media storage unit, and watched some Ernest goes to camp. Then chatted online, watched the Patriots/Colts first half went to Olive Garden with Abby for dinner, and bought some DVDs at Best Buy and came home to watch the Panthers/Eagles games. All in all I was pleased with the results of the games today, I’m torn on the superbowl though. It would be nice to see the former Michigan QB win his second superbown, but it would also be nice to see the noname QB from Cajun country win his first Superbowl ring

I guess some thinking, I really wish I could find a job. I need something more permanent than what I now have, and I can’t see that happen from GVSU. So the search continues elsewhere to get a job, I can only hope that Darrin’s connection at USF might help by at least getting me an interview for a parttime job. That is more than being unemployed come next month. I was talking a bit to William Seger about the Boundary Waters area, he didn’t have any details about getting a job up there. I figured having the summer home up there might lead to something but i guess not. I still hear that song by the Tobasco Donkeys, and it really strikes a chord. I need to get away from corporate America, but I am so deeply involved in all this computer BS. Maybe I just need to reach further out there to see what can be turned up

I know, what the heck, another post so soon. Well the end to the week has deemed it necessary. So Wednesday slips into Thursday, I wake up without a headache, so things start out well. Really unfortunately work is somewhat uneventful. Deal with job responsibilities related to IT and Housing issues. Meet with Jason and Gary from Tandberg about the LRC and discuss the changes that Jason and I have made with Gary. A tangent later and somewhat back on track and a half to 45 minutes later, we leave the LRC. Then we find Karen and discuss JW, find Heather and further discuss JW and then time for lunch and just general/average bitching. Afternoon was spent as per usual, talking to Ben about issues, with Bob about Data Center stuff, then with Helpdesk folks. Deal with more copyright stuff, then Check in wtih Gary and the LRC, unfortunately Michelle was not around there. Go tie up loose ends and go home for the night, take time to hit the PO on the way home to mail back my brother’s first Christmas present.

Come home and deal with regular stuff, emails and basic issues. Then on to Cisco issues with configuration of a Aironet 1200 unit to enable WEP with Meer. This did not work, so we ended up just reseting and enabling the MAC filters. Then after 2 hours of fussing was another 2-3 hours at Max & Erma’s bar we discussed life and grievances. Women and singleness, and everything that came up between. Mostly my desire to find a woman, KT’s newfound freedom, and the like, made for an interesting night and after 3 more Magners at my apt and a bodily injury due to non-twist-offs later, I finally drifted off to sleep. and had a very interesting dream. Esentially, my car was demolished, back panels and front drivers side wheel into the engine compartment. The Police made report but missed a car/pedestrian accident in the lot, to which a burly man made note to the police by firing a weapon.

Friday was a day of dealing with average stuff, copyright infringement, and some work in the data Center to help boB clean up the mess of stuff in there. After we were done, you can now see the floor on the back, tech areas of the Data center. Lunch as normal, aside from slow people jsut standing in a line, but not making any efforts to get ahead. Friday afternoon, copyright infingement, working in the LRC, talking to Cassie about the incident with her and Michelle on Wednesday, updating the clients on theh LRC machines after multicast. Cassie was cool, michelle seems pretty cool, i need to talk to her more, then home and BS for a while. Bar was Cambridge house, followed by Founder’s brewery, and Chicago Dr Pub. I didn’t fit in at the first, I saw some girl I find attractive at the second. I shoudld email her tomorrow, then beer and discussion. New bar, Chicago Dr Pub, good atmoshpere, horrible service and high prices tend to steer me away. Our server was a dumbass, apparently the draft menu was incorrect, he couldnt identify the difference between a Red beer and Bud Light. Pure amatuer i think. Even if the difference in color is between Killians and moonshine, seriously. But eventually my Leinies Red draft turnned to a Bells Amber bottle, and then time to go home. Apparently Amy, Jenn’s roomate thought that Abby and I were together. and last night the waitress thoguht Jason and I were brothers. strange thoughts. I need to learn to talk to girls more openly.

There has to be a decent way to be able to talkt ot a girl to see whats up and interest levels. and how to make ends meet about jobs and lifestyles. Somewhere the balance is ther, it just needs to be discovered and proliferated. In any case there are several girls I would like to spend some time with, and of them I would potentailly send him most of my love Anyhow, time for bed I think. Goodnight all, it was nice to see you and catch you next time I am up. Peace.

So I put on my robe and Wizard hat. Well as I see it, these posts end up more entertaining after a few drinks, so this may take a few for me to spit out. But I will continue drinking anyhow. Magners, and trying to kill off the Bud Light, it’s all fair in love and blogging. So what have I been upto? Not a whole lot really. I guess I pick up last Thursday, I dont remember much of work. Nothing particularly noteworthy goes on there anymore, I think I talked to Karen about problems in the language lab. Talked to Bill about a few issues regarding the packeteer and the personal firewall logs that were submitted. Bill expressed his desire to keep me around provided that Sue has the funding for it. I really hope she does, the market does not look particualry good to be going out into right now. I guess that is the fact that I have to face, since I have been able to prolong the inevitable to this point.

Friday was spent at work, hour and a half helpdesk meeting for lunch, for which I had to order the food. MMMMMMMM Mancinos. Anyways, after the meeting was a good conversation with HH about JW. That was awesome to be able to slam on him and get everythign out in the open to a regular full time staff person. And I have the faith that she will get this information to the right person. Otherwise the rest of the afternoon was nothing much of note, I was able to leave early as we met through lunch. Nap time was bad, I fell asleep on the remote for my car and “unprogrammed” the remote so i had to manually unlock the doors. WTF is that, anyhow I eventually figured out how to reprogram those by Monday night, and Tuesday morning both remotes were functional again. Friday night was bar night, so off to Mulligans we went. There was a large group again and it was fun, but I really just didn’t want to be at home that night. Hotdogs were delicious, they definately rival Whiteys after drinking.

Saturday I went to OSR to take some pics of the snow covered nature. One pic that I am particularly proud of is the panoramic of Lake Wolverine. That pic turned outmuch better than I thought it would. On the way back to Grandville with Jason, we were discussing food, as always. We called Bamm, and arranged our “mansome” date to Outback for some good red meat. Some money, a steak, and 2 beers a piece later, I dropped them off and headed home. Just dicked around the house, then talked to Abby and she was bored. So we decided to be bored together, and she came over and we watched Meet the Parents some SNL and then she went home. I went to bed shortly after. Sunday was an awakening to food, Tod wanted to take me to Mongolian BBQ. Who was I to agrue, fresh up from my dead to the world sleep. 2 bowls and a Mongo chalice of beer later, we left to search for dough hooks for my mixer and some parts for his wheelbarrow. He was successful, I was not. Sunday was then spent watching football, sleeping, and chatting online.

Monday was an average day at work, block and unblock people, sleep after work. Most notable about this week at work was going to dinner with Abby on Monday night after work and working with Meer on the Language Lab to get the registry settings to do what needed to be done. Wait … that reminds me, a story …. So I had finished talking to David and Karen about the MLL and was heading to the bathroom. I round the corner and see 2 of the MLL girls. They ask if my name is Darrin. not quite so inform them, they ask who I was so I told them …. but i was in too much of a hurry to get to the can. So I went over to the HelpDesk to pick up a copyright infringement form, head back to the office, and see this one MLL girl again. She apoligized for calling me Darrin, I explained it wasnt too much of an insult, she introduced herself, a little small talk later. She was hot. Anyhow, when I went back to the lab I was having problems keeping my eyes off her, we got some stuff figured out. Then done for the day, Wednesday I did not see her, maybe again sometime soon. Sometimes I feel so lonely, I need another person to talk to. In any case, we got all our registry stuff figured out today. After some self-education, I talked to Ben about the packeteer and why my idea wouldnt work, and possibly workarounds. Front Desk Abby was quite entertaining, she was dancing while I was helping people out, I was more than amused. 5 Bottles later, not drunk, but a decent post. Gnight people, I guess this one wasn’t more insightful, must not have been enough beer.

Wow, after a short absence from updating. And to be perfectly honest, finally a lack of time to update. It is time. Though I am halfway tempted to not update due to the tremendous demad from “my fans” to just increase interest in what is to come. I know that some people will be thinging, “Oh god, another week and a half update.” But I turly hope to make this one a bit shorter. To pickup where we left off last time, I was in Chicago wtih the family awaiting a phone call from Kelly, to go out and do something. I ended up staying in that night, chatting and eventually setting up a lunch date with her for the following day.

At lunch, we discussed life, jobs, love lives and all other basic things in life all around. Eventually we got back to her last relationship where she was recently engaged to a gentleman down at school. About 3 hours later we were finally feeling the necessity to leave Bennigans, as the waitress looked at us a little strangely. Tuesday also held in store a trip to the body shop to talk to them about the missing interior light in my car following the body work that they performed. Then the trip home, napping, then dinner and movie at home with the parents. Jon stopped over after we watched A Clockwork Orange, and then we watched The Patriot together, while I bopped back and forth between the computer and the movie. I had called Amanda hoping to go out as we had discussed, but both contacts with her the past 2 days proved fruitless andI didn’t end up running into her. Oh well. So eventually after watching some Conan and Jay, I headed to bed only to wake up the next morning for breakfast with mom and dad. The last m eal befor heading back up North. We had panckaes and bacon. Dad cooked the bacon, while I cooked the pancakes. I have not made any in some time but they turned out wonderfully golden brown. After dinner I worked with Dad with some photoshop elements stuff on his comptuer, packed up my stuff and finally made the return journey up North to Grandville. On the way I stopped and sepnt $119.86 on alcohol at Kenwood, for myself, Abby and Tera.

Once I got back to my apartment, I brought my junk in. Cleaned up some of Si’s stuff, and generally got the apartment into nice shape. By the time I was assembling my new office chair, Abby and Tera arrived with their overnight bags and ready to party in the New Year. We prepared some drinks and started watching the tube about Jenna Jameson’s career. Hardware showed up, Abby and I played Beer pong, then Dutch showed up. We got back to the tube, then more people started showing up. Much beer pong was played, much fun was had by all. I met several people, and saw what a beauty Chris is, and just ahd a good ole time with my friends. around midnight I blew off some homemade explosives. I am very much surprised that they worked. In fact they worked so well that after the first one made a nice boom. I lit off the tighter packed one and lit and heaved that one. It exploded in the air and the shockwave caused a truck alarm to go off. What a way to celebrate. 4 bottles of champagne were shared, many cigars were had on the balcony and I just still had a blast playing with all these great people. People left and by the time Nate and Tera were going to sleep was about 4:00am, and I headed to bed myself.

New Years Day, what a blast, to wake up with just the slight headache and rolling out of bed around 11:30. Abby took Flo home and picked up lunch for her and Tera at McDonalds. She came back and we just sat around and watched some football and BSed about the night before and life in general about what had happened lately. After going through wtih Abby, the pictures, I uploaded those here, and they went back to her house to grab Tera’s stuff so she would be able to leave when necessary to get back to the D in time. I continued to clean up the place and figured out how to relight the pilot light in the fireplace. On their return we consumed Subway and chilled, and Tera took a shower. We watched the Rose Bowl, and unfortunately had to endure Michigan losing, I guess it happens though. Then we just shot some shit and Abby, we ordered and at Cottage Inn pizza, and she left later that evening. I gathered up my stuff and went to bed.

Friday came and went at work, nothing too terribly exciting except the session that Jason had with Sue. Friday night was another night at Mulligans, 5 old styles and 2 hot dogs later. I was a content little boy to go to sleep. But seriously it was a good time at Mulligans. There were a lot of people there, and we had some good conversation. I am less enchanted with some of the people that I hang out with as ther discussions are completely wrong and immoral. I did enjoy asking Sarah about her tattoo and telling her that she is hot.

Saturday consisted of waking up late, going and getting an Amp wiring kit to hook up my power inverter, watching football, and starting to build the Lego Wright Flyer. KT showed up and we attempted to meet Abby and her fajher for dinner. We played with the TiVo for a little bit, then we headed to Fricanos in Grand Haven. A bet turned bad about gas prices, ended in a free TV for Abby. But not only did it end that way for her, but somehow due to his golden tongue, Abby’s father ended up getting $40 off the list price on an open box TV, then 10% off that, for a total saving of way too much. Then we headed back to Allendale with the new 27″ tv and ended uphooking up the TiVo to the new TV and about an hour or so later going out to the BS Lounge. That was a shady little bar, but it was karaokee night, so that was fun to watch. Though the white russians were way too expensive.

Sunday was another day of waking up late, working on the wright flyer, watching football, and I can’t believe that I’m saying it. But go Packers, it would serve Favre’s father well to see his son’s team make it well this year. Eventually I made Mac and Cheese and went to bed, chatted online, then went back to bed. Monday was rather uneventful, as well as the rest of the week at work actually. I have been quite busy with some stupid people. Virii and Copyright infringement cases are running rampant this week, I assume it is all the new computers that people are getting for Christmas. Monday night was spent working with Tod at his place, eventually we ended up playing Unreal Tournament and I won the Capture the Flag game. Tuesday I went home, Wednesday I worked on Officer Wayne’s computer. after beer and pizza we got him taken care of, the to discuss with Dutch. and home to await KT’s arrival. We ended up playing Super Mario world and got very near beating the whole game by 3 am, when we went to sleep. I woke her up at 5, woke up near 8 and went to work, came home slept and went to the bar with Wes, Emily, Jenn, Darrin and Jason. It has been a fun time. End massive post. Next one should contain more insightful thoughts.