Argh

Why do people operate under the (incorrect) assumption that to build a theme deck, it can't be competitive as well? Seriously!! I mean, come on! Okay, so you can cause Lyta to be loyal to a number of different races and gain eighteen different bold titles. So what? Why not just play solitaire if that's your only goal? And if you insist on playing such ludicrous decks that can't even win except under the most extreme of circumstances, why are you complaining because other people are playing decks that actually try to win, and make a concentrated effort at moving towards that goal?

I did it... well, not really

So last night, I went to Jarrod's show with Michael and Myca. They did pretty good - everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I played a little DDR beforehand - Can't Stop Falling in Love (Speed Mix), Kick the Can, Afronova Primeval, Drop Out, Abyss, and Rhythm & Police (KOG3 Mix). After the concert, I stopped by to say 'hey' to Katie. She seemed sincerely happy to see me - we talked in the kitchen while she cleaned a blender. Nothing substantial - she told me about the various issues they have with their place at the moment, what she'd been up to, that kind of thing. We went outside eventually, as I was leaving; she saw Myca getting out of my truck, and freaked out momentarily - "Billy, there's someone getting out of your truck!!" It was kinda funny. She also mentioned about how she wasn't sure it was me when I knocked, 'cause I was turned around, and she could barely see me out of the peephole. "I don't trust peepholes." I, however, thought she said "I don't trust people." It was kinda funny.

Apparently, though, (according to Matt and Michael) she now knows I like her - because I stopped by to see her with two other people in the truck, and didn't have them with me. Or something like that. I don't know...

Should I call?

Jarrod's show is tonight, and I'm definitely going. I believe Michael is going as well. However, I don't know about Katie and/or Rose. I know Rose expressed some interest about going, but I haven't talked to Katie at all about it - though Rose says she'd like to go as well. I'm afraid to call, though - afraid that they're just humoring me, "putting up" with me, if you will. I know things are bad when I'm insecure about my relationship with Rose, who's probably the closest person I ha(d)ve. That's one of my greatest fears - that people I care about, that I sincerely want to be with, don't reciprocate, and are just humoring me. I think it stems from the Chelsea thing (just about everything does, really). So I'm still debating calling her; we'll see. I told Rose about it when I called her Friday night (which is one of the reasons I feel so weird right now - when I talked to her, she seemed like she just didn't want to talk to me. Which is fine - there's a ton of reasons why that'd be the case, especially considering that Mat was over there when I called. But knowing all of these things in my brain doesn't do a damn thing to change how I feel in my heart), but I don't know if she'll remember that whole thing all the way to now.

(For the next paragraph, Katie refers to Katie Wilkinson, the Katie at work)

I went and got my schedule from work last night. Katie was like, "Yeah, my throat hurts a lot. I think it's 'cause I've been kissing Nick too much. I've been hanging out with him every day (he lives in Arkanses; I take it he's down here for vacation or something) and kissing him every day." I was like, "That's great, Katie."

We're supposed to play tonight after the show, but I don't know if I'm up for it. My classes start next week, so Luke is going to run a game Monday nights, and we'll play my game whenever the oppurtunity arises. Which is cool, don't get me wrong - I don't feel like they're just trying to get out of my game, or just get rid of me (they were afraid I would). I won't be playing in this game, since I wouldn't be there 'til like 9:30; however, I might stop in occassionally just to see what another person DM'ing is like.

Heh. Time to shower and what-not. I still don't know what I'm going to do. I probably won't call, just like I didn't Saturday when I went to play DDR. It hurts more, but there's less chance of making myself look like an idiot.

Catching Up

Not too much stuff going on, but I feel like it's been a while since I've written.

Work: Work's been going okay. Had those two 14 1/2 hour shifts, which is fun. I've been blue shirting it up, and it's weird, because the new cooks are actually responding to me as a blue shirt.

Oh, yeah, we have a couple new cooks.

Pedro: This guy sucks. At least, he did the last time I worked with him. Freddie says he's getting better; it's a moot point, since I'm fountaining all week. He's so tiny, too. That causes some complications when we need him to get lettuce, cheese, or something else high up. He's really quiet too, which is annoying because when he speaks, I have to ask him to repeat himself several times, especially if we're in the kitchen and there's a lot of noise going on. There was one incident where it was me, Pedro, and Scott; Pedro was on Dresser; he just announced "I can't do this anymore, Will, I need you to take over." and walked to grill. Which is fine... except I was in the middle of a few things and was quite busy myself. I don't know about him overall.

Scott: He's the best of the new cooks so far. He's also been here the longest (except Pedro, of course). He's decent on swamp side, but still needs backup when it gets busy. He handles it okay, though, and is getting much better about understanding that you have to watch ahead and drop stuff right away. He's kind of a jerk, though, and I know he's talked bad about me under his breath. He does have a tendency to be lazy at times, though.

Jimmy: He kinda gets on my nerves. I can't really explain why. He's only done grill and dresser so far, and he's going to have to pick up the pace majorly on dresser - he's trying to do it Whataburger style. He'll learn, or he won't. Either way...

Caleb: This guy is kinda dopey looking. It's fairly humorous, I think. Anyhoo, he's another remnant from another fast food place. I'm not entirely sure it's advantageous - they try to do things the way they're used to, which is normal, except we do things fairly oddly. He calls me "sir", and when I made a comment about trying not to be too bossy, he said something like "It's your job" or "You're the boss" or something. Odd.

So we've got these four jokers. We've also got Jason returning from injured status... perhaps. I heard he'd be back by now. Maybe he got in trouble or something, or Dave just forgot. We'll see.

We've also got three new carhops - Jessica Flores, Jody, and Krysta. Krysta's okay, if a little annoying. Flores is alright, and I haven't really worked with Jody, but she definitely knows what she's doing.

I need to ask Dave about becoming an assistant soon. Other than that, nothing new, really. Katie came back from vacation; somehow, Dave and Mark both still work there. I'm fountaining all this week, which is sorta cool, except our daytime fountains SUCK ASS.

School: Not much to report on this front. I've got another week before Speech Comm starts. The refund from ACC *finally* came in, and I still have to go deposit it. SWT sent me my acceptance letter, and will give me a loan, so that's good. I'll be taking as much as I can, so I can hurry up and just get the fuck out of there.

Personal: Depressing news here. I've been severely bummed over Katie lately - Matt commented on it earlier. I haven't stopped by to see them since those two days of moving, and I don't really plan to unless they call and invite me over. I don't want to bother them or anything now that they've moved into their own place. I'm afraid to even call her. I really miss the times we hung out together at Red Roof Inn. Every once in a while, I get this funny idea of telling her how I feel. But I realize that that would accomplish nothing, and if anything, make things worse. It's funny - I'm only prone to encompassing daydreaming when I'm *really* tired (like I was this week), and twice now I've caught myself in one. First time was in the freezer at work, and the second was lying in bed. Odd, to say the least.

Gaming: Still playing DDR. My current goal is Afronova Primeval on Doubles/Heavy. I haven't really tried when I wasn't tired and beaten down; I look foward to trying it later this week, when I'm nice and refreshed. Still haven't done Max 300 either, for that matter. Playing Front Mission 4 right now, which si really, really cool. Thoroughly enjoying it.

Oh, one other thing: Dodgeball is quite possibly the greatest movie ever made.

I'm really tired

Well, after two 14 1/2 hour shifts and two days of moving, I'm *really* tired. I have to go to a meeting at work in like half an hour, then work 'til 5. But after that, I"ll be FREE!! Well, at least for a while. Don't work tonight or tomorrow; the only thing I have going on is that I have to take Mom and Janelle to the airport tomorrow morning. There is a small possibility that Rose will need some help moving some more stuff up, but I called her last night, and it doesn't feel like she'll need any help. Or something like that.

So yeah, they're basically all moved in. Katie has all her stuff there, with the notable exception of all of her art stuff, which couldn't go in my truck and never had room for in her car. Her dad will be bringing it up sometime later (if I understand things correctly). She's got her room basically set up (until she decides to start rearranging things, of course). I called Rose last night to see how the hot water and downstairs carpet issues were going - neither has been resolved - and she tells me she's finally got her room looking like a room. So it sounds like things are going well. I'm probably going to go up and play DDR tonight, and I may or may not stop by and say 'hey'. We'll just see how things are going. I'd also like to go see Dodgeball, but I don't have anybody to go see it with. That's going to be that much harder to find someone to see it with, now that Rose and Katie are in Austin. Drat.

There's also some other stuff with that (and her) that I need to write down, if just to get it out, but I have to to a carhop/fountain meeting before my shift. That'll be fun.

I'm tired

Worked a double yesterday, 10 - C. I was originally scheduled 10 - 5, but I needed more hours, since I'm taking today, tomorrow, and Sunday off, and had Monday off as well, so I took Freddie's 5 - C cook shift. I'm doing the same thing Friday, although that's just converting a scheduled split, 10 - 2, 5 - C into a 10 - C double. 14 1/2 hour shifts are kinda fun.

Running Errands

Just got home from running some errands. Deposited my paycheck and got a refund on the solenoid that the mobile mechanic took out of my truck the other day. Went by the Guadalupe Sonic to grab some lunch, and ran into a couple of old acquantices. First, I saw Kassi, who's still a carhop there. She told me that that Sonic is much better - the managers are all really cool, and Rob, the GM, is the nicest of them all. She also said that although she's only been there a two or three months, she's recieved a dollar and a half raise.

Damn.

After she brought me my food, Kenni showed up right outside my window. Holy crap!! She still looks gorgeous as ever, although she did have some glitter on her face (not a lot, just a few sparkles). She's working at Hong Kong Restaurant as a waitress; other than that, we didn't get to talk much. Oh well...

It's funny, because I look back at Kenni as one of the best relationships of my life. First kiss.

~*Le sigh...*~

D&D: 6/14/04

This session was interesting. The party went with Davin to investigate a man named Edgar in a nearby town. They passed a large mob on the way into his large, three story house. The entrance hall was pitch black; even Lorm's darkvision couldn't penetrate it. Light and similiar spells' effect was diminished as well. They were then attacked by a pair of raptors, which seemed odd, to say the least. The next obstacle was a large door, which asked them for their business, then blasted them with dark energy. Oddly enough, it opened after that. They entered a large dining hall with two side rooms. One led to a bathroom, the other, to some guest bedrooms. They found a sleeping woman in the sole occupied room, which they began interrogating. This was interrupted, however, by two arrivals. The mob finally forced their way in; however, a jovoc and a large group of dretches had also arrived. They tore the mob apart, while the party manuevered for position. Lorm threw his other fire bead into the group of demons; it exploded with great force, leaving the table on fire, killing several dretches, and harming a few humans. He also threw his bead (yes, the bead). This brings us to this picture - the party versus the sole remaining demon, the jovoc.	Same idea here.
Lorm and Zhao Xi went upstairs while Zhao Fei and Davin remained to deal with the Jovoc. Howeve,r they found a bone devil. Fun.	They fought it out, however.
Eventually, they dealt with the jovoc and reinforced Lorm and Zhao Xi.	The end of the climactic showdown. They finally made it to the third floor, and opened the final door. Edgar stood there, prepared for combat. Lorm charged him... and double critted. For 60 damage.
Extreme close up.	Edgar didn't die from damage outright, but from massive damage system shock.
They dragged the gate they found back to town with them; however, that night, they were attacked by two howlers, a bone demon... and a 32 foot tall earth elemental. They dispatched the howlers easily enough, but faced quite a challenge in the earth elemental - Lorm nearly died. The demons began walking off with the gate; Lorm, however, who had retreted and drank some healing potions, returned to the fray with renewed vigor. And had a gate thrown at him for his trouble.	Here, he moved into direct melee with the 32 foot tall rock. That's Zhao Fei in Air elemental form in the back, ready to support him.
Basically the same picture, I guess.	Then the party just kind of stood there.

What a bizarre dream

I just had a dream about Katie.

Wilkinson, not Fink, which was kinda weird. Well, I've been sleeping a lot in little increments lately, which usually causes me to have weird dreams (or aids me in remembering the weird ones I have every night, perhaps), and Freddie and I were discussing whether or not Katie still worked at Sonic last night, both of which probably helped contribute to the dream.

I don't remember all the specifics, but I do remember a few things.

We were both at a hotel for some conference or something weird like that.

I don't know if we were rooming together or what, but we were lying in the same bed (not really next to each other - they were really big beds). We were talking about something; I don't really recall what. At some point, we were talking about us - like, our relationship. I said something, she said something about me just wanting sex, and I said no, I didn't really want to have sex just yet, I wanted to build a strong relationship with her. That's when we started making out, then Dave called to make sure I was good to go and woke me up.

Bastard.

But in all seriousness, that was really weird. I mean, Katie (W)'s a really sweet girl, and definitely (other than age and religion) right in the middle of my 'dating parameters', but I don't like her or anything. She's a little young and naive, and very religious (which I don't have a problem with, but creates problems on her end).

I hate car problems

So Freddie and I went to Austin last night, after Rose and I got back from Austin (she got the job at Ben White, which is good). Dropped him off at Posse East with Laurin and Suzie, then went to go play DDR.

Except my car wouldn't start. Terrific.

Played around with it for a while, tried to jump it, had some girl look at it, but eventually, had to leave her there. I called Jarrod, who was kind enough to come and get Freddie and me and take us home. Left Chelsea there, all by her lonesome, in a 7 am - 7 pm parking area.

Oh, did I forget to mention that I was originally scheduled 5 - C tonight, but Dave called and got me to take a 11 2 shift as well? Yeah.

Mom called a mobile mechanic, and we agreed to show up at my truck 'bout 10. Janelle was kind enough to give me a ride, but she was more than a little unhappy about it. I fell asleep on the ride there, and she passed our exit. Went about 10 miles north, no less. She thought I was still awake. Hilarious. I wake up, realize that we're way too far north, and have her turn around. *Finally* get there around 10:30; he was getting ready to take off - not that I blame him, of course.

It was my starter/solenoid (again!!!), which were replaced fairly easy, although Janelle did have to take me to a nearby O'Reily's twice for parts. The starter was replaced for free, but had to buy a solenoid; going to go by Carquest and see if I can get a refund on my earlier solenoid, which was only purchased about eight days ago. All in all, they just dropped the starter and solenoid and put new ones on there.

Total cost? $135.00.

Ouch.

I'm fairly broke right now; I do have some money coming in, though - class refund, half reimbursement from Mom, twenty from Freddie. Talked to Terri - that's not coming back at all. I should have known.

Why gEngine is moving closer and closer to sucking

I mean, it's always been awesome to be able to play Babylon 5.

But ever since Abyss... I don't know. I miss the custom background ability, but I can understand using that screen space for posting bulletins and other things. That was cool.

Two sliders only, each of which is half the screen (full top to bottom, half left to right)? No. *Nothing* needs a half screen slider. Chat room? Nope. Select game? Nuh-uh Cards? Possibly. That's the only thing that even has a hope of meaningfully filling up half the screen. And even then, it's not worth the incredible hassles. Opening a third slider screws up your whole thing. It makes me want to maul someone like a bear.

But I could deal with that. Then, they release the next big update, Barracuda. 'Cause large fish are scary and awe-inspiring. Right. And yeah, it's significantly faster. I mean, much, much faster. However, Bug did something in the new build that flabbergasts me. I mean, I cannot comprehend why he would do this. Now, when you select a game, it automatically moves you to the room of that game. I cannot express how terrible of an idea this is. I mean, instead of having everyone in the same room, where they can SEE other people's offers, and possibly switch games, they segregate people by the game they select. Yeah, you can move back to the main room, but it's a minor hassle, and it's fairly annoying. As if it wasn't hard enough to find games on gEngine...

Argh.

The fact that Bug is also forcing you to use his forum color scheme is ridiculous. I mean, the engine doesn't even use it anymore... it clashes horribly, and is very hard on the eyes. So why keep it? I mean, the forum default was a very cool blue, nice on the eyes. Came with it, didn't have to do anything. It's more work to disable it. Bitch.

The joys of gMail

So I've received 11 gmail invites so far... Gave one to Michael, several to people that didn't really swap anything, but as far as the rest go...

I've met some really cool people through gmailswap. Here's the list so far:

James Bill

This guy is *awesome*!! He offered to do a trance mix for me. It's awesome!!

It has a robotic voice going 'jackalope'; then it starts going "I-I wi-wi-will maul you, maul you, I wi-wi-wi-will maul you like a bear!" Then the music flares, then stops. "Dude, oh my god!" Then, at the end, it goes "I love you, Katie." A little odd, but definitely worth it.

Jac de Haan

Another truly bizarre swap. He offered to praise me on his answering machine for the next month (or so). How great is that? I'm dead serious. Call him, and it's all, "I'd just like to tell you how great Billy Martin is. We should all be glad awesome people like him are around" (or something like that.) Email me for his number and when to call.

Amanda

She's really cool too. She's sending me 3 mood cds mixed from her personal collection. Update when they get here.

Justin Bauman

Don't really understand this one, but she sent me a picture.



Fair enough.

Finuzzu

She's really cool too. She's teaching me how to swear in Romanian:

Sa te fut (in cur / pe ma-ta) = Fuck you (up the ass / over your mother) = sah teh foot (in coor / peh maataa) Du-te-n pizda ma-tii = it actually means "go back inside your mother's cunt", but it's pretty common = doo-ten peezdah maatee Futu-ti mortii ma-tii = "fuck your mother's dead foke" = footootzi mortzee maatee Muie = originally "cum", but may also be used as "suck my dick" = mooyeah Curva / boarfa / taratura = different ways to say bitch / hoe / prostitute = coorvah / boarfah / tahrahtoorah Labagiu = wanker / jerkoff = laabaagjiu Cacanar = shit-head = caacaanaar Pula bleaga = limp dick = poolaa bleaagah

These may take a while to incorporate into my vocabulary, but we'll work on it.

She's also sending me a postcard from Romania.

Gemini Cheng

Let's see...

undying love and another postcard, this time from Vancouver, BC. Additionally, her friend from Britain, Emma, is sending me one as well. If I have another invite, I'm sending her one.

Giving out invites

Got three, gave out two already. Wanna swap with this guy who will throw some phrases into a techno song. Or something like that.

Things to post:
*Work today
*Katie (again)
*D&D Pictures
*Second gMail invite
*Why the new version of gEngine sucks

Haha, Yahoo Mail is Funny

So I log into Yahoo Mail a few minutes ago after a long D&D session which saw a few major combats.

I get the following message:

Notice: Change of service to your Yahoo! Mail account Dear Yahoo! Mail User, Thanks for using Yahoo! Mail. It's our goal to offer you an email experience that makes it easy and enjoyable to stay in touch. Periodically, we make service changes to enhance that experience for our users. As of June 15, 2004, you'll enjoy the following benefits: Increased storage capacity – from your current level to 100MB Increase in total message size to 10MB A streamlined interface that's even easier to use You will continue to access your Yahoo! Mail account as usual. No further action is required, and there will be no interruption of your service. We hope you enjoy the new features and benefits. If you have any questions, please visit our Help page. Thanks again for using Yahoo! Mail. Sincerely, The Yahoo! Mail Team

Basically, they've increased the storage space from 4 megs to 100 - that's 25x more space, increased the message size limit, and added a new 'search option.' The first and third options are obviously directly designed to compete with gMail. Which is good, because now, Yahoo Mail is better; however, I still like gMail better. They just gave me three more invites - I don't know if it's system wide again or what, but I don't even know who to give them to.

I want to go play DDR tonight

I really do. But I'm tired of the drive by myself. I need some friends who play DDR. No, I kind of have those. I need a DDR machine in town. Well, I sorta have one of those too. I don't know...

I'll probably just end up playing La Purelle for a while instead. Tomorrow, Rose and I are going to Austin. I have to talk to ACC to see how I go about accessing my refund, and... well, I forget why she's going. I'm also going to apply for a few jobs - at the Wal-Mart distribution warehouse, definitely, and possibly one or two other places.

We'll probably be playing D&D. I'm actually going to do some prep tonight, assuming I don't crash out before I get that far.

She Didn't Call Back (She = Katie)

I'm not surprised. That would be too good, and thus, isn't allowed to happen. True, she could have just been tired or not have gotten home 'til later or something like that.

Yeah, right.

I Actually Called Katie

I worked 12:30 to 5 today (I'll talk about it later). I called Katie afterwards; she was still in Austin; I asked her if she'd like to hang out later, she said sure, she'd call me when she got back in town if it wasn't too late.

Awesome.

How will this one get screwed up?

I don't know why I even bother trying sometimes

So I was supposed to work 10 - 5 today. Of course, I didn't wake up 'til about 10:20 when Joel called, but I was there by 10:35 or so. Work went okay after that, except for Dave being a total jackass like normal. It was funny - Rudy and I were working grill side, while Rick and Joel were doing swamp. We had everything out very, very quickly; they, on the other hand, were having all kinds of problems, and were yelled at by Dave almost constantly for like half an hour. Way to motivate us, Dave. The highlight, of course, was when Dave called me "Hoss." I responded by saying (and this is a direct SNL reference), "I'm going to have to ask you not to call me that anymore." He of course had to re-assert his place as alpha-male, so he threw out a couple of other nicknames.

But while I was at work, I started thinking that I should call Katie tonight and see what she's up to; maybe she'd like to hang out or something. I got really positive about it and was totally ready. So of course when I got home, I made the admittedly odd decision of going to sleep instead of calling her. Truly, a wise decision on my part. I woke up about 9:30 ~ 10:00 - ish, with no real idea of where I was or what had happened, but it came back soon enough.

So I was just chillin' for a few hours - played some La Purelle (which is really good) and MvC 2, then got on to play a game of B5 on gEngine. Sure enough, Rose called 'bout 3:15 for a ride. She wasn't supposed to get off until five, so I had to cut my part of the game short. No biggie.

So Rose and I are driving home, and she tells me about how Katie called her today and was like "Yeah, let's go to Zookas and get some burritos, and get some coffee, and yeah!" Rose asked her how they were going to go do this, and Katie told her that she had gotten her license today, and would be driving her dad's car. That, and they're going to Austin tomorrow with Zack - he works 1 - 8, and Rose needs to apply at several IHOPs, and Katie is going to apply at (?)Easterly's, the sunglass place where Zack works. That's great.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I hope she gets it, because I know she's looking for a job in Austin and hasn't had great luck just yet (that I've heard of, but I'm a little behind on what's going on). It's just... I don't relish the thought of her working with Zack. He's already been giving them to rides, and I know he used to go to Red Roof and hang out with Katie as well. I need to clarify these statements, however, because I think the tone of this paragraph is far from my intended one. I'm not quite jealous (well, I am, but not in the way you're thinking - long story) of them or anything. Rose has told me that Katie doesn't really like Zack all that much (although I don't know if she might have just been saying that to make me feel better, but there was her reaction to Zack being the ride to the Prince concert as well, which does help support the original assertion). It's easy to imaging her starting to, though, especially if they're working together.

It just makes me thing, "What chance do I have?" I mean, it's not like I was planning on telling her anytime soon or anything. In fact, I wish I would just shut up about the whole thing (not here, of course, but when talking to others, most notably work, Rose, and the D&D group). it just makes me very depressed, to imagine her hooking up with someone else (not that I don't want her to - if that's what would make her happy, then I hope it does happen, because I want her to be happy, and that would probably be with someone else).

Additionally, at times, it feels like my only real connection with Rose and Katie is giving them rides to places. I mean, that's not really the case (or it wouldn't be, if our schedules were more compatible), but it just feels like that sometimes. And with Zack apparently stepping up or whatever, I feel like I'm losing that one tie I had, which bumps me down that much further. It's mainly just me going on another low self-esteem trip, but that doesn't make it any less fun.

Why do I bother liking her? I know nothing will come of it, and it's just going to make me feel like shit in the interim. Blah blah blah human companionship blah blah blah don't sell yourself short blah blah blah go for it blah blah blah just do it blah blah blah tell her. Anyway.

Clarification

"She Didn't Answer" - She = Katie

"She Called" - She = Rose

She called

We talked.

They made it to the concert in for the last hour and a half. The main delay was in getting across the flooding at Hilliard (another odd coincidence, no less). Zac took 'em, and Katie (reportedly) had a good time. Which is good. I'm glad things turned out for the best. I'm still gonna be pretty bummed 'cause I missed out on this great chance. Freddie said I should invite her somewhere, but I don't know if I'm ready to take that kind of initiative.

No, I'm not.

She didn't answer

So I left a voicemail. There's something weird about her greeting, though. It doesn't sound like she's saying "Katie Fink." It almost sounds like "Katie Forrester" or something like that. I'll have to listen real hard next time.

Long time followers of my personal life will not be suprised at the outcome of my evening with Katie

It didn't happen. Nope.

So I came home from work, after talking with Rose on the drive home. Everything's going fine so far. I shower, do the dishes, clean up, clean out my truck (not in this order, of course), and get ready to leave. I even burn two new CDs; one is a dance mix, and the other is a compilation of the all the Reel Big Fish, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Squirrel Nut Zippers songs I have so far, with Sing Sing Sing and You're the Boss thrown in for good measure.

I go to start my truck... it over-revs, and when I take the key out, it keeps trying to start. This is seriously bad (it's raining fairly heavily at this pint, as well). I call Jerry, and he tells me it's a short in the starter, and to disconnect the battery cable from the terminal. I do so, and it stops. He then tells me to get underneath the engine and (I'm not kidding at all here) hit the starter with a hammer. I do so, to no avail. I had the cell phone with me a little under the truck, as I was trying to find the starter and he was helping me. It got a little wet, but I didn't think anything of it. I, on the other hand, got *very* wet. My shirt and shorts were just soaked.

I finally called Rose to let her know what was going on. I also let her know that Janelle wouldn't let me borrow her car, and that Mom wouldn't be home for a while, and probably wouldn't let me borrow her car either. She said she'd start looking for another ride. I resumed banging on the starter; no effect.

Rose and I talked a little later; Zack Scofield said he'd give them a ride, but it would cause some delays. It was really funny - Katie, upon learning that Zack was going to be their ride, wasn't sure if she wanted to go. She was like, "Well, I'm really tired, I think I'm just going to go back to my house then." (I finally got the story out of Rose as well - apparently, Katie asked them if I was going to be driving back here, then back to San Antonio, or what while they were at the concert, and Rose told her that she was fairly sure I'd be remaining in San Antonio; Katie then asked if Rose thought I'd like some company. Rose was like, I'm fairly sure he would. We were all four going to pile into my cab for the rides, and Katie and I were going to hang out in SA during the concert. This is the second time we were going to hang out, just the two of us, at her instigation, that's been cancelled). So in a weird, preverse way, that makes me feel better - she didn't just want to go to San Antonio and hang out, she wanted to hang out with me. Damn. Zack, upon hearing Katie wasn't going to go, was like, "Well, what am I going to do, then?" It was a funny little moment, and I think Rose got Katie to go anyway to help salvage the situatin. I'll have to talk to Rose when she gets back.

That was the final conversation with Rose. I really hope they made it to the concert and had a great time. I feel really bad that I wasn't able to take them - it was so very frustrating, having problems AT THAT MOMENT, with them all depending on me and stuff. I think Jerry's coming over tomorrow to fix it or something; I don't know. Janelle's going to give me a ride to work, and I don't know how I'm getting home. We'll see.

But our story doesn't end there. Oh, no. So my phone's acting a little weird; I assume it's due to the water exposure, and let it dry out. I was (and still am) very depressed, so I sat out on the driveway in the rain. I eventually got up and moved to the chair in the garage when I realized Mom would be home soon, and wouldn't be too happy to find me sitting there in the rain. I sat there for a while, then changed into some dry clothes and went to bed (it was like... 6:30 or so at this point). I finally got to sleep when my mom came into the room, saying that Cullen's dad was on the phone and wanted to talk to me. That was... weird, to say the least. The last time a parent's friend called me, it was Stuart's mom while we were playing D&D, and they had to home and couldn't come back. So yeah.

But apparently, Cullen's dad was on his way to pick up Cullen from work (they live out on Hilliard), but couldn't because of some major flooding. He waa asking me if I could go pick up Cullen and take him to a hotel or something. I was like, sure, no prob. Of course I'll help a friend in trouble, especially when it's something minor like just drive around a little. So I go and pick up Cullen; we come back here, he calls his dad, then we have a mini MvC2 and SCII tournament. He beats me in MvC2 4/3, but I destroy him in SCII 3-0, 3-0. Then we go to Target, Sonic, and Motel 6 where he's going to crash for the night.

When I get home, my phone freaks out. It basically lets me know that it's not going to work anymore. This was a shame, because it did survive the three story fall and continue working after that. Michael did have an extra phone, so I called and he let me have it. I sent him a gMail invite when I got home. It works fine now, although I don't have my custom ringtones anymore. That's slightly annoying, but much, much better than being phoneless or having to buy a new one.

This whole thing brings up an two interesting points:

1) If I had gone to San Antonio, what would have happened to Cullen? I'm not sure. So I guess it's good, to an extent, that I wasn't able to go. I'm certainly not going to go into a "Everything happens for a reason" spiel (well, it does - the events leading up to it, obviously). I made a comment about how I felt somewhat cheered up by our hanging out, and Cullen said something about how Katie was a lot cuter than he was. I forget exactly how it went, but it made sense at the time, trust me. Cullen's like Jarrod and I - we understand, agree, and even expect each other to choose girls over friends. Why? The friends will be there tomorrow, but the girl might now, so enjoy that while it lasts. Plus, they're usually a hell of a lot cuter. If I had to make a choice, it'd be pretty difficult. I'm somewhat confident that Cullen would have been taken care of, and he would preferred that I had gone to San Antonio. In his shoes, that's what I would have preferred (and yes, I've been in a very similiar situation). This is now the second time Katie and I had our plans, made at her instigation, to hang out together dashed by cruel, cruel fate. I don't really believe in signs or that sort of thing, just that it's a very annoying pair of coincidences. Those that feel otherwise will point to the Cullen situation as a third coincidence that makes the whole thing being just a random collection of events unlikely. I say: go away before I hurt you.

2) Dagmar lives out on Hilliard. Were they able to pick her up? Cullen's dad tried 1 1/2 to 2 hours later than they would have, so I'm not sure that they would have been caught in the same situation. What about taking her home? I don't think she'll have a problem crashing with Rose or something similar, but it's an interesting little situation. Again, I'll find out later when I talk to Rose.

I've been toying with the idea of calling Katie to find out what happened and how things went. Of course, if she's hanging out with Zack, that might not be the best idea. That, and I'm incredibly awkward on the phone. I feel - not quite sick, but definitely something in the nauseous category - at the mere thought of calling her. But I think I will.

Looking at the concert info, this is his last concert, or something to that effect:

http://www.sbccenter.net/events/detail.asp?EventID=311&EventDateID=390.

Interesting.

Okay, I'm going to call her.

HOLY CRAP!!! AH!!!!

So I'm giving Rose and Dagmar a ride to the Prince concert tonight. Ho-hum.

I call Rose on my way home from work to find out the latest details...

While explaining the situation, she notes Katie is going as well.

But they only have two tickets.

So we're hanging out in San Antonio the whole time they're at the concert.

Holy crap.

General Housekeeping

Lazy day today. Slept 'til about five or so. Went and saw the new Harry Potter movie with Janelle. It was pretty good overall; I liked it. After that, went and played D&D with the guys. No combat or anything, just Brett trying to bring down a demon army on the party.

Got some invites on my gmail account.

Argh!!!!!!

Katie just called!!! She was looking for Rose, and was wondering if she was with me, or if I had already taken her home (no, and yes, at midnight). She kept breaking up, though, and I couldn't really understand her. She also asked if she had woken me up, but I told he I'd been up for a while. Then we said goodbye and that was that.

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A perfectly good oppurtunity to talk to her... ruined completely.

This does help solidify a disturbing trend, though. Usually, when she calls, she's looking for Rose, or (once) a ride home. Hmm...

Pictures from D&D: 6/ 7 / 04

Not very many pictures this time.

It's really dark and hard to see, but that's a delicious piece of chocolate pie.	Pre-game preparations. Not much really going on. It took us FOREVER to finally get started.
Matt's preparations consisted entirely of eating delicious chocolate pie.	Zhao Fei was knighted in Lightstone Keep.
Right.	Michael looks kind of scary in this picture.
Matt's getting more pie.	Don't remember. A battle?
Our party just vanquished a red slaad. Go team.

It's Kinda Funny

We played D&D tonight. Just got home from it, in fact. It was a fairly productive session - the party traveled to Garath for the first time, and will soon begin a series of quests therein. Pictures to follow soon, but I didn't take many this time around.

My phone is a major hoss. I dropped it from the balcony right in front of Matt & Luke's apartment to the concrete below. They live on the third floor. The case didn't suffer any damage, and after some minor tinkering (a Magic card now forms an integral part of my cell phone), it's working just fine. Yes, it survived a three story fall and is working fine. That's so awesome.

Rose told me today that Katie isn't working at Red Roof anymore. Apparently, she was training her replacement, who was gradually going to ease into her shift over the next two and a half weeks. But the boss called her today and told her something to the effect that the new girl was going to work by herself tonight, and if everything went smoothly, she'd just take over the shift (Monday and Wednesday - Saturday). I hope she's okay; she should be; she told me she was contemplating quitting early anyway, but had decided against it.

The funny thing, though, is that it's not that difficult for my mind to construct a bizarre scenario where this is just a ploy for Katie to lessen the amount of time she has to deal with me. Like, this whole thing is just made up so I'll stop stopping by Red Roof and hanging out with her. To clarify, I certainly don't believe it, but it's easy to imagine.

I stand corrected

Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 12:06:30 -0700 (PDT) From: "Suzannah Donaldson" <s_donaldson1984@yahoo.com> Subject: Um To: mr_binky_the_jackalope@yahoo.com

No, I don't comment on your journal, as I would hope you don't to mine. I read your blogger for the first time in a while and I wanted to know why you posted my email? I was saying hello. But I guess that's you... Whatever man, whatever

Fair enough. I just meant the most recent one, on the CD book post, because the time fit. But I stand corrected.

It's Gone

I can effectively rule out "It fell out". I checked the Sonic parking lot, IHOP parking lot, and Dora's place. No dice. Or rather, no CDs. I'm fairly sure at this point they were stolen. There's a lot of punk kids in the neighborhood now, so I think I might have to start watching out for this kind of thing. There's been a few earlier incidents - one time, my CD book and case of B5 tournament decks were both stolen out of my truck while it was in front of my house; another time, they grabbed one of the large rocks in our front yard and put it on my hood. I guess I'm going to have to start locking my doors in my neighborhood. It's so weird to think back to how it used to be here. Oh well...

Got an e-mail from Suzie, who I think has been the one leaving the comments ('cause they aren't signed). Here it is, in its entirity:

Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 09:25:16 -0700 (PDT) From: "Suzannah Donaldson" <s_donaldson1984@yahoo.com> Subject: Hell-o To: mr_binky_the_jackalope@yahoo.com

Hi there, it's me, Suzie. Sorry for the last email, I was kind of in a hurry and couldn't type right because I was also holding hot coffee in one hand. Well How are you doing? Fine I hope! Moving into San Marcos August or end of July. Still graduating July 2nd. Have plans with a friend of mine to just live in town. He has a job with a cellphone company (I think, can't remember name of company) and we think it would be awesome to be so close to Gary, since we still have friends on campus. Met some new/old people and found new friends close to my age.. running games of DnD without dice is REALLY dorky. I'm thinking of buying miniatures but not sure where the store is anymore. I know they sell Dark mage or something at Hastings, but not sure if I want to buy those. Well I got to run, have fun with whatever you're doing and laters!! Suzie --

No reply sent, nor do I plan on sending one. I'm not like mad at her nor do I hate her, I just wouldn't know what ot say to her.

Dave called at like 8:30 this morning trying to get me to come in from 11 - 3 or 5 or something. I was basically asleep, but luckily, I was alert enough to pretend I was going out of town, and couldn't come in. He asked me if I could stop by and sign a tip sheet; I said sure. I was a little confused, though, since I already went through the tip sheets, and I didn't have one. Figuring I missed it, I went in and checked. It was Bonelle's. Or someone else's with the last name Martin; the SSN didn't match up.

I already miss my CD book

Because I'm fairly sure it was stolen (again). Now, I'm not jumping to any conclusions here. There are a number of possible other solutions, including:

• I left it somewhere else
  
  The main problem with this one is that I never take it out of my truck. I've only done so... twice? Well, three times, and all three were to bring it inside to go through the CDs inside to decide which ones I was keeping and to re-rip the songs off of them. I haven't done that in a long time, and I know I haven't taken it out recently.
  
  
• It's somewhere in the truck, and I just can't find it
  
  Again, very unlikely. I checked behind the seat and underneath it. I mean, it's a truck. There's not exactly a lot of places something that size can hide. I'll double check in the morning, but I can almost garauntee that it's not there - I know my truck, and I know the places it could be, and it's not in any of them.
  
  
• It fell out
  
  This is the most probable scenario. The only thing against it is that it hasn't happened before - it's usually on the seat next to me, or on the floorboards where people's feet go, which keep it safely away from the door. True, just because it's never happened before doesn't mean it won't ever happen, but I just don't know. Additionally, the only time the passenger door is ever opened, it's usually Rose or Katie, and they're used to grabbing things that fall out. Especially something as big as my CD book.
  
  Oh, wait!! I gave Dora a ride home from work today! It might have fallen out at her place. I'll have to stop by Sonic tomorrow and ask her if she noticed it, or drive by and see if it's still there. The chances of either are remote, but I'm still down 'cause of Katie, and I like driving around when I'm down, but I can't drive around aimlessly like Jarrod is so fond of.

Those are the main alternatives that I can think of. I'm not even going to mention it to my mom, because the first thing she'll say is something about how this is what happens when I never roll up my windows and leave my truck unlocked. I KNOW THAT. I don't need to hear it again. (Rebuttal: Obviously, you do, because it hasn't sunk in yet.) (Rebuttal to the rebuttal: If it hasn't sunk in yet, it's not going to, and all you're going to do is annoy me, and make me that much less likely to listen to anything else you're going to say. She really annoys me when she feels she has to editorialize on EVERYTHING. The Brad Pitt was annoying and embarrasing; the bowl one was just stupid. So I probably won't say anything to anybody unless someone notices. The only person that might would be Rose, because she rides around in my truck so much. There wasn't anything I didn't burn from my current collection, with the exception of all the Weird Al CDs, Britney's "In the Zone" CD, and the Alexia CD.

Oh well, fuck it.

I talked to Rose, and Katie was definitely very tired tonight. Which is good. Not that she's tired, I mean, but that she wasn't just dissing me. Not that she would, but... I just don't know. It's just my low self-esteem screwing with me at this point. I just hope things go well for her, and I'm glad to see her getting some much needed rest. I might see her tonight, but I don't know. That, and I'm taking Rose and Dagmar to a Prince concert Wednesday evening (I'm not actually going to the concert, of course, I'm just the ride). Then there's D&D tonight, which I haven't done any prep for, and I really need to.

Argh.

Finally...

I finally beat Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.

The end is pretty cool, and it explains a couple things - why they choose Jango Fett, why he wanted a son, etc. It also explains why Boba is such an incredible badass - Jango taught him everything he knows. The game is a ton of fun - you get dual pistols, a jet-pack, flamethrower, missle launcher, toxic darts, sniper rifle, heavy repeating blaster (optional), a whipcord, just all kinds of stuff. You can lock on to an enemy, and remain focused on him as long as you hold down the R1 button, very nice. Even better, though, is that he'll automatically track and fire at a second enemy while you're locked on to one. It can be annoying, but overall, it's really neat. The final couple of boss battles were much easier than the stages to get to them. I beat Montross and Komari Vosa without losing a life. It's just a couple of the stages that took me forever to get through, and the Kyatt Dragon, until I learned to ignore the missle guys and just go smack the dragon around.

I'm going to go to Front Mission 3 after this, so I can get it back to Matt. Well, I'm also going to go to Blockbuster and see what I can get. There's a few things I'm looking at - the new Transformers game, the Chronicles of Riddick game, a few others. There's also my Final Fantasy quest to consider, and I just bought a Game Boy Advance and Golden Sun from Janelle; there's some really RPGs for that as well. This is the kind of problem that's a lot of fun to have.

Major picture dump: 6/6/04

Here goes. Cross your fingers!

Haha!! It works. I'm a genius. Or something like that. The only problem right now is that it's printing "JPG" instead of "jpg", but that's easy enough to solve. With the latest version of my java app, it takes a fraction of the time it took me to do the first multi-picture post. Now, if only there was someway to automate uploading multiple photos and deleting the excess posts...

As always, these are just thumbnails. You can click on any picture to be taken to a larger version of that picture.

Rose is totally oblivious at this point to what's going on.	Here too, although she's looking right at the camera.
I think she's starting to suspect something...	Typical girl blush type thing.
There's my truck, sitting out all alone Friday morning at 7:30 am.	Checking out the schedule of DJs for this rave thing she's going to.
Um, Rose? Your top strap?	No idea.
Biscotti. Yum.	Chew it.
More biscotti. More yum.	Weird angle time.
She decided to get even by busting out her little camera phone and taking a picture of me. Right.	I can get off several pictures in the time it takes her to take one. Bwa ha ha.
Processing...	The aforementioned schedule...
What's going on over there?	Still hasn't fixed that strap.
Chillin'	A car. Duh.
My finger.	Same pictures, sans finger.
There's an ongoing debate about whether she's checking out that guy's ass.	No idea.
She's definitely checking out the milk guy.	Don't try to look coy with me, Rose.
Oh, that's mature.	I took these pictures upside down.
That's the 5th Mix machine at Le Fun.	And the 7th Mix.
That's PIU. Ah, the pain!!	The poor Extreme machine isn't working right now.
Crazy Taxi, my diversion of choice during extended DDR sessions.	Hi Katie!!
She just realized I'm taking pictures of her.	Close up.
If you can't see me, can I still see you?	Tasty.
But not big enough to hide behind.	Don't remember. Telling a story?
Still thirsty?	Action Katie!!
Just look at her, renting a room to someone for the night.	Back to DDR. Here's Cullen, dancin' it up.
Oh, wait. He was playing PIU. It doesn't count.	That's the punk girl.
Cullen, during his final game.	And the punk people pose for a picture.