31 December 2005 0403 EST
Anyway, after that and about a dozen or so phone calls between Ben, Thuy, Arun, Steve, and myself, we linked up at Arun's before FAPWADing over to the Carpool in Arlington. Anyway, it took way longer than it should've to get there, but we eventually caught up with everyone. We stayed there, chatting and eating and drinking for a little bit before consolidating back at my place for a little bit of kokology followed by a game called celebrity. It took Arun about five minutes to explain the game to us, but it was pretty fun...we won of course. It was us four TJ nerds against Thuy and his family. But hey...it's now 4:00 in the morning and I have a bunch of things to take care of before heading over to Jane's for her New Year's Eve thing tomorrow. So bedtime for me. Hopefully, I'll go to sleep earlier tomorrow.
29 December 2005 1510 EST
28 December 2005 2248 EST
After that, I was off...first home to deal with my lactose intolerance and then back out to meet Arun, Rohit, and families at Champps to watch the UNC blowout. Anyway, before I actually left the house, I started AIMing with Ben some more and we had a bit of a coming to terms where we shared feelings and stuff like that. It was strange opening up and all. It started with me not inviting Ben to come out with me and Arun...though I thought I did when I mentioned going and then asking Ben what he was doing for the night. It wasn't until after he brought it up that I realized that I never at any point asked if he wanted to come along. I don't know. It seems kinda small, but I did kinda ditch him last week when I went out with Steve and Jeff...not that he has to go everywhere with me, but still. Anyway, it was good getting stuff out in the open. I brought up another thing or two that'd been bugging me and that was that. No hard feelings, I don't think.
Alright, no more serious stuff. I'll leave you with the search string of the day. I love going through my stats and finding gems like this: can u take nyquil while pregnant
27 December 2005 2305 EST
I ended up talking to Joe for about 15-20 minutes, I think. I didn't exactly keep time. He seemed pretty cool though. It seemed like we had a lot of things in common, from chess to flag football. Anyway, he'll probably move in around February time. I could definitely use the company.
Anyway, after he left, I finished up my vacuuming and ironing. I even prepped my uniform for drill. Then after that, I linked up with Ben and Ken over at the Starbucks in Huntsman to chat for a while to close out the night. It was nice catching up. I don't think I've seen Ken in maybe three or four years. He doesn't look all that different, but he's a California boy now, like Arun. I don't really know what all the encompasses, but it's definitely different from being a gold ole Virginia boy. But hey...I'm getting a little bored writing this, so I can only imagine how exciting it is to read it. With some luck, I'll have something more exciting to write about tomorrow.
26 December 2005 2229 EST
At first, I was really spooked because TurboTax said that I owed nearly $8000. That had to be wrong though, so I started looking a little closer at what I filled out on some forms. Due to about four extra negative signs, my investment income was a little inflated; and when I fixed all of that, I was back to receiving about a $900 return between Federal and State. Not bad, huh? Now I won't feel bad when I start buying things this next week.
Anyway, like I said, I am going to sleep now. I accomplished a lot more than expected today, and I am going to be just as ambitious tomorrow. On my to-do list is the following: laundry, ironing, bathrooms, vacuuming, grocery shopping, and whatever else I can fit it. We'll see how it goes.
26 December 2005 1045 EST
Anyway, I was bad last night. I came home from the parents' and watched football most of the night. I couldn't hold back any longer though...ended up breaking down and spending about $400 online buying stuff for my home theater. BUT...but...I am going to finally do my taxes for 2004 this week, so I should be getting some money back. We'll see. Yeah, I know...I'm bad, aren't I?
Alright...enough wasting time online watching tv today. It's time to go off and do something productive. I'll tell you when I find out what that is.
25 December 2005 0927 EST
Anyway, it's Christmas, so I won't talk about that any more. Let's talk about presents. I haven't gone over to my parents' yet, but I spent all of last night finally wrapping the presents that I did get. As I was doing it, I thought about the people on my list. My parents are always hard to get stuff for. This year, I didn't get them much at all. My siblings I was pretty good with this year. I tried moderately hard finding things for them. For Jane, I actually had to hold back because I always end up getting her so much more than everyone else. I don't know if it's because she's my little sister or because I've lived with her for longer and know her little preferences a little better. Either way, I didn't buy her a lot of things that I normally would have. I don't know...I took a chance with a few gifts this year, but I hope they'll do well. Do people remember who gives them what on Christmas? Especially with a big family. When you leave, do you think about who gave you crappy gifts or do you usually just think about the people who gave you the good ones? I'm hoping for the latter. I guess that's why I usually say they're from Santa instead of from me...trying to maintain that anonymity. Anyway, if my presents suck this year, I blame it on Jane. To keep from buying myself stuff me myself, I had to refrain from a lot of shopping this year. I really only went out on three occasions, and I refuse to give in to gift cards.
Yeah, lets talk about gift cards. They're cheating. They're only slightly more thoughtful than giving cash, and significantly less useful. Hehe...I say that after getting Yenny a Sheetz gift card for her birthday. I admit it. I've done it before too. But no more. It's not that I think that gift cards are bad; I'm just saying that if you're going to give someone money, just give them cash and include a card or message to convey your thoughtfulness.
Enough. It's time for a shower.
24 December 2005 0414 EST
This morning, I got up early to start working out before the cable guy showed up. Oh, I started watching Underworld too. I was craving a little leather, you know? Anyway, the dish guy ended up calling and started working on my job early, finishing up just a little before noon. After that, I played around with the remote for a little bit before Arun and Thuy picked me up to go out to dinner for Michelle's birthday. That was pretty fun. We played FAPWAD on our way to the restaurant. We knew that it started with the letter 'Z' and that it was somewhere around the Chinatown metro stop. Anyway, that wasn't too much of a challenge. We actually got to the restaurant before everyone else showed up and took a seat at the bar while we waited. Anyway, dinner went well, and we followed that up with an evening at the movies.
We linked back up in Fairfax for a 12:30 showing of Brokeback Mountain. Originally, it was just supposed to be just Ben and me, but we ended up inviting everyone else along. (j/k...I know Ben is really sensitive about that kinda stuff, so we kinda like to egg him on.) But yeah...it was a really long movie, and everyone seemed rather disappointed at the end. Me, on the other hand...I actually liked it quite a bit. It wasn't the greatest movie in the world, but it was an above average love story. It just happens that the love in this story is between two gay cowboys who happened to be married to Jenn from Dawson's Creek and the girl from the Princess Diaries. Anyway, I don't see myself paying twelve bucks to see another movie for a while, but it was worth it. I need to see Kong soon though. Anyone wanna come with?
21 December 2005 2359 EST
Tomorrow will be fun though. It doesn't hurt that it'll be my last day before break. Plus, Arun is back in town for the next week, so I'll have someone to hang out with during my break. I already started on my cleaning today for the possibility of new roommate. I cleaned out the fridge, did the dishes, threw out some stuff, and did a few loads of laundry. I did a little grocery shopping at WholeFoods too. Oh, and luckily, I put away my presents for Jane before she stopped by while I was gone. I almost left them out in plain sight.
20 December 2005 1210 EST
The other thing I wanted to talk about has to do with a comment I made last night referring to half-naked photos. Jane sent me an e-mail this morning - obviously, she was hard at work - and it got me to thinking about the way I phrased my comment. Like the old glass half-empty or glass half-full argument, I wonder what percentage of people see people as half-naked and what percentage see others as half-clothed. Discuss.
19 December 2005 2318 EST
Oh well...for dinner tonight, I started getting hungry after a nice three hour nap on the sofa. I woke up around 8:00 and didn't want to spend any more money ordering chinese food tonight. So I started digging through my fridge and freezer looking for something that would satisfy my hunger. I don't think I've ever had such a bachelor fridge before. I used to be so good with my grocery shopping before going overseas, but I've just been slacking these days. Oh well...I ended up eating some stuff that'd been sitting in my freezer for maybe two or three months. I was a little worried when I tasted the fish inside, but it was still good...I think.
My last little confession I have tonight is that I finally started playing around with Myspace now that fantasy football is starting to wrap up. When we were overseas and all of my friends and soldiers started to play around with it, I told myself that I wouldn't. But after a few friends got me playing around, I started spending about two or three minutes a day on it and it has now increased to about fifteen minutes. I can see the habit growing though, especially if I hang out online waiting for more roommate ads to come up on Craigslist as I search for a renter. Anyway, the reason why I bring up myspace is that I was wondering about pictures that people post. Lots of people, both guys and girls, post these really provocative pictures where they're not really wearing a lot of clothes...and I'm just wondering who ends up taking those pictures. I mean, I don't really have any friends that I feel comfortable enough with to invite over to my house to take half-naked photos of myself to post on the internet. Does that make me a prude? Does everyone else have friends who'd do that for them? I don't know. Anyway, I'd write more, but I've got to type up some stuff for class before I go to sleep tonight.
19 December 2005 0048 EST
18 December 2005 1127 EST
We'll begin yesterday morning. I got up around 0600h and did a quick double-check of everything, cleaned out my car a little bit, and showered before heading over to Jane's, our previously designated rendez-vous point. I was fortunate enough to find one of the ten visitor parking spaces open when I arrived, but get this. There is a sign in the parking lot that says that I have to park head first...no backing in. What's up with that? Anyway, minor point...I ended up showing up right when Lenny and Steph did, so we played around with the entry system at Jane's condo place until we figured out how to get her to buzz us in. We puttered around Jane's place for about a half hour and had a breakfast tour of the condo before finally packing up the car and heading off on our journey. About five minutes down the road, the family realizes that no one printed out directions for the trip. Enter FAPWAD, v.2.
We took a quick pit stop in Maryland at a McDonald's about 45 minutes or an hour into the trip. It was Lenny's treat there as he picked up the tab for our group of five, and then we conitnued on our way to link up with the rest of the family just outside of Philadelphia. There, we took a break for lunch and took a lot of pictures. But two hours later (and after a short half hour nap for me), we were off to the reception in the middle of the city. Much discussion ensued at this point as people were trying to decide who would ride with whom. The main issue was that no one in my car knew their way around NYC....and for some reason, no one was willing to play FAPWAD with me on this trip...yet. Anyway, Lenny and Steph ended up jumping out since they were the most important people and had to get there early and didn't trust my navigation abilities. My Aunt jumped to my car to replace them, and ended up giving me a nice little tour of the city while guiding me to the restaurant. Our car arrived there first, BTW.
Anyway, the reception itself went well. I'm starting to remember more and more of my extended family...maybe close to 40-50 percent of the people who were there. Some added bonuses include a goofy-pose picture taken pre-dinner and the fact that football games were up throughout the reception hall for the duration of the dinner. Enough about dinner, though...I don't want this entry to get as long as the ones I wrote last week.
Fast forward a few hours to 10:00 yesterday night. Dinner is over, and we're ready to head back to Virginia. We re-shuffle the cars and get some last-minute verbal instructions before heading on our map-free journey out of the city and back home. The whole thing started off well. We missed the first exit to the LIE, but were able to circle around to jump on. But the next turn onto the BQE was much harder. When we missed it, we were well on our way to Manhattan with no real understanding of how to get home beyond knowing that it would be in a southerly direction. At that point, the reasoning that got us through the city was the fact that we would have to run out of room on the island eventually, and there would most likely be a bridge or tunnel to get us over to the Jersey side. And after 45 minutes of driving and cutting people off and singing down Broadway and sitting through traffic on the Holland Tunnel, we were in New Jersey. The rest of the trip wasn't nearly as exciting or eventful, but it was nice to finally get home around 0400h yesterday morning.
So I'm tired as heck when I walk through my front door...but of course I have to check my e-mail before going to sleep. I need to rewind a little bit to give some background before going on though. So there's this girl that I've gone out with a few times these last few months. It's been kind of an ambiguous relationship - I hadn't even kissed her yet - but I've had some really good conversations with her and enjoyed her company. Anyway, we were supposed to get together today, but I didn't really decide on where we were going to go until a few days ago. We e-mailed back and forth with the final decision being putt-putt golf along with coffee/tea to keep warm. Okay, everything is set...except last night, I call from the reception in NY and end up making the decision that we would be playing strip putt-putt golf...not unlike strip poker. I was just being goofy, but it seemed like a fun idea. Anyway, she had her doubts, but reluctantly agreed after a minute of discussion. So fast forward to 0400 this morning. I'm reading through my e-mails, and I have one from the girl. Let's just say that we're not going out any more. Hehe...oh well. Oh, chicks suck, btw.
So instead of getting ready to play my first game of strip putt-putt golf this morning, I'm updating my blog while watching Meet the Press. It looks like my afternoon will be free, so if there are any ladies out there (or guys) who want to play a game of strip putt-putt, the number is 703-340-0148. That's all I have to say about that.
16 December 2005 2255 EST
Right now, I've got some laundry going so that I have something to wear to the big dinner in New York tomorrow. I need to wake up around 6:00 tomorrow if I want to have enough time for a haircut before going. On top of that, I should probably be cleaning out my car. I've got a few things to take care of around the house, too, because I've got a full schedule of things this weekend. I need to get back early enough Sunday in order to go out with a girl, and then I should be cleaning up around the house too. It's not too messy, but I plan on having people over soon and want it in condition to show off to possible renters...among other things. So yeah, thought I'd just throw in a quick update before I got started with the work for tonight. I'll be around on AIM until I finally go to sleep in an hour or so. Still trying to decide whether or not I should pack up my computer for my day trip to NY. Can I live without it for a whole day? We'll see.
16 December 2005 0716 EST
Hehe...oh well. I think I'm just gonna shut the door and take a nap in my comfortable office chair until the kids show up. It's days like these that I wish I were still at Mt. Vernon where I had a sofa in the back of my room.
16 December 2005 0056 EST
Oh yeah...we were suppposed to sing our carols in class today, but we couldn't get to it because of the early school closing. We'll fix that tomorrow though. Good night.
14 December 2005 2254 EST
I came home and worked on my carol which I chose to do to the tune of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen this year. Here goes:
The states of matter, there are three,
Each different in their way.
By adding energy and heat,
A substance can change phase.
Like making water out of ice
Then evaporate away,
O solids and liquids and gas,
Liquids and gas,
O solids and liquids and gas.
The steam condenses as it cools
Below one hundred - C
Or the boiling point in Fahrenheit,
Two hundred twelve degrees,
A little lower and there's ice,
Maybe some snow or sleet,
O solids and liquids and gas,
Liquids and gas,
O solids and liquids and gas.
The processes may be reversed,
The chemicals don't change.
The molecules just speed or slow
And sometimes rearrange.
The mass will always be conserved;
The states are all that change.
O solids and liquids and gas,
Liquids and gas,
O solids and liquids and gas.
13 December 2005 2326 EST
Anyway, tonight was dedicated to studying...well, at least an hour or two after taking a two-hour nap on my sofa and watching the 90-minute long Fear Factor meets Blind Date episode and eating my Chinese food from Maple House. My last final for the semester is tomorrow, and then I'll be done for the semester. Also on my to-do list, though, is writing my physics carol for the year. It's due from all of my students on Thursday and Friday, but I always have to share mine before they embarrass themselves. So sometime tomorrow, I'm gonna have to buckle down and work on that. Of course that's not really work...that's more play than anything else. The main reason why I didn't work on it earlier this week or last was because I had to get all of my grading finished for touch base last week and for interim submission today. Now that I'm done with all of that, I can slack a little bit leading up to the break.
12 December 2005 2346 EST
For laughs, I ended up watching my old boxing video from Afghanistan this evening when I came home from class. I need to get back into training for that kind of stuff, and it probably wouldn't hurt if I got Lenny back into it too. He's been feeding his cold the last few weeks, and now it looks like he's almost eating for two if you know what I mean. Anyway, I'm not really worried about embarrassing him because he doesn't have internet at his house, and so he never reads my page anymore anyway. It's like making fun of the Amish online I can do it all I want and be safe in knowing that they'll never find out.