24 January 2006 2349 EST
24 January 2006 2349 EST
It was the first day of class over at Mason today, and there were a number of surprises. Number one, Charley, one of my fellow teachers from Mount Vernon, ended up being in the class. Number two, the professor was one of my mentors in the Great Beginnings program during my first year of teaching. Number three, I don't have to buy any books. And number four, no tests. How's that for a class? I'm not gonna complain.

I ended up stopping at the parents' after class and talked to grandma for about 15 minutes before heading out. I need to learn more chinese so that I can deflect the questions when she starts asking me about why I don't have a girlfriend and why I'm not getting married and having great-grandkids for her. But yeah, I left from there and made a short stop at Target before heading home. There, I spent way more than I thought I was gonna, picking up a dozen eggs, 48 balance bars, toilet paper, tissues for the classroom, a decosphere, tuna fish, multi-vitamins, and some other random things. In the future, I will just not go shopping.

23 January 2006 2246 EST
23 January 2006 2246 EST
Interesting stuff. I didn't accomplish all that much on Sunday, but I did get a lot of QT in with the fam over at the 'rents. It was nice. Lenny wasn't there, but everyone else was. I can't remember all that we talked about, but it was a good time. I can't remember when I've ever had so much hanging out with my family. Maybe it's because we don't see each other as much these days. I don't know. Maybe I'm just getting older.

Anyway, today was pretty average...not too much going on at school with the semester wrapping up. I'm actually showing videos this week and easing up a little on the kids...though I could have choked one of them today. They can act really dumb sometimes. It's like they don't realize that it's school. There are just certain things you don't do or say in school...or has school changed so much from when I was there. Honestly, I just need to start handing out detentions more. Maybe I'll start with this next semester.

Other than that, not too much going on. Dinner today was a family-sized package of tuna fish cooked in with some campbell's soup, chased with some organic mint tea to help everything digest. I had a pretty heavy workout tonight while I procrastinated with the grading, so I wanted to make sure I had enough protein to carry me through the night. Once I start going to the grocery store more, I promise I will start eating better. Hey, at least it wasn't chicken nuggets or taco bell, right?

Oh, interestingly enough, I ended up DVRing the new show #1 Single on E!, which stars Lisa Loeb as her thirty-something self trying to do the whole dating thing. It was really interesting. It definitely made me feel less bad about my situation. I mean, if Lisa Loeb is filling out online dating profiles on camera for everyone to see, than maybe I'm not doing as bad as I thought. Granted, I don't have any number one singles or a greatest hits album - but at the same time, I don't have to stuff my bra...not that I wear one. I'm just saying. Oh, and it was kinda funny too because her first blind date she went on was with this really weird guy who wouldn't eat vegetables. He brought that up right away...how he refused to eat vegetables. He just ate meat and took supplements. What a whack-job. Plus, he saw a karaoke machine lying around and decided to sing her a song...very spontaneous and very bad. I mean, it hurt to watch. It was one of her songs and he just completely butchered it. The guy was such a loser. Hehe...I'm glad that I am nothing like that guy.

22 January 2006 0023 EST
22 January 2006 0023 EST
The last few days have definitely been different to say the least. Last night, I ended up linking up with Ben and a few of his friends to do some grappling. I'd done Army-style combatives when I was down at Benning maybe three years ago, but it'd been a very long time since I'd practiced. So yeah, it was pretty cool. We went at it for maybe two hours before heading upstairs to grab some sushi for dinner. Oh, I didn't mention that there was a girl rolling around with us too. That was interesting. I'll leave it at that. But yeah, sushi. I hadn't really eaten much of that in the past, but I've had it for the last two days now. Today, I ended up playing some basketball with Ben in the morning and then we went over to this sushi buffet in Reston with Thuy. I ate way too much, but yeah...it was good. After that, we watched Underworld at Ben's before jumping over to the theatres to see the sequel. It was nice - a lot of leather.

Anyway, after wrapping all of that up, I came home and clipped coupons before going out to do some grocery shopping. I spent about sixty bucks, but I also cashed in a couple of winning lottery tickets to make back about ten. I kinda pigged out for dinner too, bachelor-style. I had a big bowl of cereal and a bag of cheese puffs. I know that's really bad, but I'll make up for it tomorrow when I eat dinner at my parents.

19 January 2006 2300 EST
19 January 2006 2300 EST
I distinctly remember this time in my life when I was actually good at basketball. It was a while ago, but I remember this...at least in my mind I was good. Now, I'm not even good in my mind, let alone out there on the floor. We lost our game pretty horribly today, and I was doing just as poorly during the warm-ups. You see, I'm like a cross between a point guard who can't really dribble that well and a 2-guard who can't really shoot that well. Or in other words, I'm kinda short and not very good right now...which upsets me because I really like it when I'm good at everything. And so I've made a resolution to myself that I'm going to go out and practice basketball this weekend. No excuses. I don't care if it rains or even if I have no one to play with. I need to work on my game. Done.

Anyway, school has been pretty average. I just gave a couple of tests this week and I'll have some more for next week. Other than that, we won't do much more before the end of the quarter. I'm probably even going to show a movie...something I rarely do. It'll give the kids a chance to make up some work, though, and I'll get a chance to catch up on whatever grading I have left to do.

Other than that, I've been taking up a lot of extra time at home playing with the ole karaoke. I think, in the back of my mind, I know that I'm not going to be able to do that as much when I finally get a roommate. You know, at midnight, when most people are trying to sleep...they probably wouldn't appreciate me belting out some Avril or Maroon 5 or Whitesnake. I know that's kind of a strange mix, but I've been playing around with some new stuff as of late. But yeah, I got laundry done today and got a haircut. I even cooked myself dinner before heading over to Alexandria and spending about ten dollars on gas in order to lose our basketball game tonight. Next week, though....we'll see who'll be laughing. Good night.

18 January 2006 0055 EST
18 January 2006 0055 EST
So apparently, my students stumbled upon my myspace account today because I kept on getting teased about it during class. Isn't that supposed to stop when you graduate from high school? I don't know. Anyway, the quarter is coming to an end and I took a little time tonight to write a test for a couple of my classes. I'm actually quite proud of it myself. I like to think that I write good tests. I've toned down on the plot these last few years so that they're only about 500-1000 words long now. In the past, I've had complaints that the extra words made it confusing. But me, I always figured the kids would appreciate something with a little more personality. In reality, they could care less as long as they get an A...which doesn't happen all that often.

Anyway, it's late now because I couldn't resist hanging out and watching movies and going to taco bell again tonight. So I'll cut this off rather abruptly in an attempt to get about four hours of sleep tonight.

16 January 2006 2244 EST
16 January 2006 2244 EST
I ended up taking a long nap today after getting up this morning to watch Alexander, Collateral, and the Age of Wal-Mart. After waking up for the second time today, I took the trip across Fairfax to eat dinner with the parents before linking up with Thuy at University for Aeon Flux. We chatted for a bit during the pre-movie trivia and even a little during the movie. There weren't so many people around, so I didn't feel too bad about talking during the movie. We weren't doing it very loud.

Anyway, after the movie, we did some reminiscing while loitering around in Blockbuster. We jumped over to Taco Bell afterward too. He dug his travel scrabble set out of his trunk and we sat down to our post-dinner snack. Interestingly enough, when we opened up the board, there were already some words on it. I guess he was in the middle of a game already. But when we looked closer at the letters, we realized that it was a game we had started almost two years ago. Kinda neat, huh? Anyway, we played for a little while until the Taco Bell guys told us they were closing up shop. Then we wrapped up the game, which we will probably finish up in another two years.

Not much to share other than that. The weekend is now officially over.

15 January 2006 2218 EST
15 January 2006 2218 EST
And like that, I am hooked on 24 again. I didn't even intend to watch, but I was lying on my sofa watching the Panthers stomp the Bears when I fell asleep. And when I woke up, Kiefer was there on the screen and I just kept on watching. Two hour later, I am hooked. I need to go back and watch the last few seasons now...way back to season two. I remember watching season one with Tommy during that big storm when they cancelled school for like a week. We just watched Due South, 24, and Blind Date all week. It was awesome. Speaking of which, I talked to Tommy on the phone for little bit last week. I don't think I'd actually spoken to him since I'd gotten back stateside. He's living in Richmond these days, so I just might have to take a trip down there to the armpit of the Commonwealth.

Anyway, enough about that. Drill took a little longer than I expected today. It was nice going back to Winchester for the little reunion, but release came a little later for me because of some extra work I was tasked with. I mean, it was important stuff, but it just took an extra three or four hours. So I ended up missing what I heard was an awesome game between the Steelers and the Colts. Other than that, it is cold again. Brrr...

14 January 2006 2252 EST
14 January 2006 2252 EST
It's definitely been an interesting day today. We'll start with this morning, when I learned a lesson about how wood can become slippery when wet. My arms were full of things as I was filling my car up to head out to drill - then smack. I hit the ground and everything falls out of my arms. I jump to my feet quickly, realizing what had happened, and I look around to see if anyone else was around at six in the morning to see it. Yeah, so I felt like a pretty big idiot. And to think of all the time I put into getting my uniform all pressed and pretty for first formation. Oh well.

We actually ended up taking a diagnostic PT test this morning after first formation. I wasn't quite prepared, but it never hurts to get a little exercise. All of my numbers were a little low, but I put up a respectable showing: 66 push-ups, 66 sit-ups, and a 14:21 two-mile time. It was good enough to give me my lowest PT score in a few years, but a 255 is still like a B. I'll work on it though. I think it'll be up to 300 by the time we take one for record. Anyway, drill was pretty uneventful, but I did get to release everyone an hour before the skins game. Unfortunately, I only made it home in time to catch about ten minutes before having to drive through the snow and rain to Warrenton for the three+ hour battalion training meeting. I stopped by Sheetz along the way to pick up my usual 12" italian sub before the meeting, and the skins were just about to put the first three points on the board at the time. But by the time we took our five-minute timeout during our meeting, the final score was in. Boo that.

I get to sleep in an extra hour or so tomorrow morning, but I am tired as heck. So I'm gonna sign off now and I'll update more when my weekend really starts.

12 January 2006 2228 EST
12 January 2006 2228 EST
I've been going to be really early these last few nights...really early...like 9:00 or 9:30 early. So in the end, I've been averaging close to eight hours of sleep these last few nights. It feels sooo good. I've already taken a nice two-hour nap this afternoon with Headline news playing in the background. I feel so refreshed, but that's not to say that I've been lazy. I had a decent workout already this evening, and I sat in on an hour+ conference call to do some last-minute coordination for drill this weekend. Plus, right now, I am working through an online course, the Commander's Safety Course to be specific. I'm only about 45 minutes into it so far, but it promises to be a long one. I'm in the middle of the second module right now...which has 35 parts. I finished the first module about fifteen minutes ago. That one only had 18 parts. I hope they get shorter eventually though. I would like to get to sleep before midnight again to keep my resolution...

Okay, it's an hour later and I'm in the middle of module three. I thought that the second module was long, but this one is 46 parts long. I think I may just go to bed at the end of this one. I was so motivated at the beginning of the night, but I am starting to drag now. I did do some good multi-tasking during the course though. While taking notes in word, I also started looking up airfare for a possible spring break trip with the boyz to Vegas. I did four sets of pull-ups, blogged, and I sorted out my address book on my cell phone while transferring a few more numbers over from my old cell phone. I still have a ways to go, but I think that's it for tonight. Maybe I'll finish up tomorrow. Until then...

11 January 2006 1823 EST
11 January 2006 1823 EST
There is so much to share, I'm not sure where to start. Let's begin with credit cards. Back when I was on leave in France, I met a guy who worked for a bank or credit company...something like that. I forget exactly. Anyway, he was talking about the things he hated about his job...mainly how the rich can get away with everything while the banks try to take advantage of poor people and people with bad credit by charging them crazy fees and insane interest rates. So lets rewind a few weeks when my credit card bill was supposed to be due. I'd thought I'd scheduled my online payment, but I guess not everything went through. So when I looked up my account, I'd been charged a 40 dollar late fee and another 30-some dollars in finance charges. I was pissed. But I remembered what my friend had told me in France. Since I had good credit, I eventually (this week) called up the credit card company and just asked for my fee to be refunded. It took me about three minutes of beating around the bush before I just came out and said it. And guess what? It worked. They agreed that I was a good customer and had been with them for a long time...so they just refunded my fees. Not bad, huh?

Next up...the lunchladies at school. I chat with them every day, and they seem nice enough. But today, they started getting really personal, asking if I was married and if I had a girlfriend...stuff like that. Then when I went to pay, one of them showed me a picture of her 25-year old daughter. The other said she would bring a picture of her 26-year old daughter tomorrow. I didn't really encourage or discourage them. Should I? What am I getting myself into?

I don't know. I guess there's not too much else to write about. I've eaten leftover lasagna for dinner for the last three nights in a row. That's been good, but it's all gone now. I'll have to figure out what else to make for dinner tonight. Other than that, my neck is almost all better now. I think I'll start working out again. It's one of my more productive procrastination techniques.

10 January 2006 0029 EST
10 January 2006 0029 EST
Wow, so I'm a lot rustier than I thought I'd be returning to the basketball court tonight. I guess I can blame it on a number of factors...having not played for a year, being all sore from flag football this weekend, being out of shape, sucking, etc. I bricked a couple of lay-ups during our five-minute warm-up and only made maybe one or two other shots - so when it came to gametime, I didn't even dare put one up. Maybe basketball is a metaphor for my life. You know, if I never take any shots, how do I expect to score? It's like I'm spending my life on the sidelines or something. But yeah, maybe I'll get better with some more practice. I remember being pretty good while I was in the 'stan, but maybe that was everyone playing along since I was in charge.

I don't know. Today, I continued my chick flick viewing with Spanglish. Good movie. I just have a few more on my DVR that I have to go through before I start recording again. I do need to stop watching movies and start getting more sleep though. I'll start now.

09 January 2006 0040 EST
09 January 2006 0040 EST
So my neck is so sore today, I don't even want to work out. Heck, I had trouble lying down to watch tv today...but I still did it. I ended up watching Garden State tonight, and started getting really introspective afterwards. I've been talking to myself aloud a lot these days. Ever since Jane moved out and I started living alone, I've been doing that more. Mainly, it's when I'm in bed at night and trying to go to sleep. I'll just start talking to myself...about how I need to make something out of my life or how I need to get out there and live a little. Today, the talking to myself has occurred twice, once while I was "testing" to see if I hooked up the karaoke machine correctly with my home theater and once after watching the movie. Usually, it's enough to blog. I mean, when I do this, I'm talking to myself, but it's quiet...just me typing. I kinda have to slow down my thoughts in my head in order to collect them on paper. It's even more cathartic to say things aloud though. It's hard to do that when I'm typing though. I just tried it now, and I just ended up stammering as my words tried to catch up to my fingers and vice versa. When I talk to myself, though, I just tend to yell at myself or give myself advice. Often times, I'll even curse to get the point across. I'm by myself though, so it's okay. I'll rarely ever curse aloud otherwise...during sporting events, but not much else.

Anyway, I spent too much chatting on AIM tonight, so I now have to go to bed. Three-day weekend coming up (one day weekend for me if you count the drill days), so that's not too bad. It looks to be promising, especially since I now have internet again. Until next time...

08 January 2006 1100 EST
08 January 2006 1100 EST
So one thing I missed about not having the internet was not being able to look up movies on IMDB while I watched them. Take yesterday morning for example. I had a lot to do (haircut, making some lasagna for Ben's regifting pot luck, and getting ready for flag football), but I started off the morning by watching First Daughter with Katie Holmes and Michael Keaton. Anyway, I had to look it up on IMDB to find out who played the first lady because I know I'd seen her before. She happened to be Margaret Colin, the same actress who played the president's cheif of staff in Independence Day. And yes, I know I'm supposed to be a grown-up, and I watched a movie made for teenaged girls. That's the thing with having HBO and the DVR. In the last two weeks, I've watched sooo many chick flicks, including Mean Girls, Home Fries, and Along Came Polly among others. I watched Phantom of the Opera too. That one was disappointing...and I point out that that particular movie was disappointing because I actually enjoyed all of the others.

Anyway, yesterday was pretty packed with activity. I took a shower while my ground beef defrosted after the movie, cut my hair while my lasagna was baking, and then finished up everything about an hour before my game in DC. I drove into the city and made great time...only about a half hour. However, it took me maybe fifteen minutes to find a parking spot. Oh! Oh! I almost forgot. Before I left the house, I spent about 15 minutes looking for my keys. I looked EVERYWHERE...like five times. I checked my basement, my desk, my bathroom, my living room, my refrigerator, freezer, my bathroom, my bedroom, my kitchen, my bathroom, my basement, my living room, my laundry room. I looked everywhere. I checked between all of my seat cushions. I'm serious. I looked everywhere, and I was even worried about being late for my game. I checked my gym bag maybe ten times, even though I know I didn't put my keys in there. Anyway, for some reason, I opened my front door to look outside...maybe to check the weather or look at my car for some reason. And there they were. My keys were still in the lock on my front door. When I got home from picking out some pasta sauce and velcro from the night before, I must've left them in my door. Imagine that.

But back to football. The first game was against FSU. They really sucked, so that helped. In the first half, we were down 2-0 for most of it. We ended up going on 4th down from inside our 15-yard line early in the game and ended up turning the ball over. We held them on defense for about two series of downs, but when we ended up getting the ball back, a bad snap ended up putting us in the endzone. So yeah, we were down 2-0, but our defense pulled through that whole game and we ended up winning after a couple of big drives. The second game didn't go so well. We lost to Georgia Tech pretty big even though we kept it down to 6-6 at halftime. There was one play where I almost had a touchdown. I'm not exactly sure what happened. The pass was good, but I was turned the wrong way. I ended up jumping for the ball and rotated my body around to get to it. It was in my fingers when I was hit by something and then I spun a little more until I cushioned my fall with my head. I was dizzy for about 15 seconds or so. I tried getting up, but I couldn't stand up straight. I even ended up taking a play off. I really hated that. But we were back on defense on the next play, so I went back in. I guess the good thing about losing in the second round of the tourney is that I have Sunday to myself now and I don't have to worry about missing the championships which would have been on my drill weekend.

The skins game also ended up bringing up my spirits. I listened to it as I waded through traffic on my way home. I cleaned up a little and then headed over to Ben's, where we ended up watching football, playing celebrity, yankee swap (the regifting remix), and eating a lot of food. With that last item on my mind, I ended up watching Super Size Me first thing this morning, after complaining to myself about how sore I was all over my body...my neck and left wrist specifically. But yeah, interesting movie. I learned a lot about the food industry. It was kinda like the Insider without all the action and drama. Anyway, after seeing that, I am considering a McDonald's boycott for a little while. My last visit was back in December during the trip up to Lenny and Stephanie's family gathering thing, but I think I could go a good 10-20 years without it. I don't think I'll miss it that much. What do you think?

05 January 2006 2147 EST
05 January 2006 2147 EST
It seems like forever since I lost the internet, but the end is nearing. The Verizon guy is supposed to show up tomorrow to finish with the installation. The last few days have been eventful, though, and now I have time to get all introspective before I possibly revert back to my old ways.

First off, though, let me recap since all of you are probably wondering what's been going on. I ended up taking a huge nap once I came back from school today because the last few nights have been very limited due to watching bowl games with the guys. I was lucky to squeeze out about three hours each of the last two nights. The triple-overtime orange bowl definitely didn't help with that. But yeah, it was pretty awesome hanging out with the guys. It was Arun's last two days in town, so we wanted to get as much QT in as possible. The first night was him and Rohit, while Steve, Thuy, and Ben showed up last night. I wasted a lot of time making adjustments and installing stuff for my new home theater set-up. My 10-foot projector screen showed up on Tuesday, and all of my habits just went out the tube. Heck, I even took down my Christmas tree down in order to re-arrange my living room. WHAT?! Yes, you heard that right. I took down my Christmas tree...and it isn't March or April or May or even June yet. That is definitely a PR for me.

But yeah...I was talking about hanging out with the guys. We ordered a whole bunch of General Tso's chicken (GTC) from maple house yesterday, along with some other stuff and just pigged out during the game. It was pretty awesome and I'm considering throwing a Super Bowl party or something now that I've got a big screen. Games look really great (and cheerleaders even better in life-size). The only thing I'm wondering about now is whether or not I need to get HD. Movies look great too. We did a sneak peak with Underworld, which was still in my DVD player, along with another movie or two that Thuy brought with him and random things I DVRed over the last few days. But yeah...good times.

My habits have changed a lot though...no blogging, no checking e-mail in the morning, no checking e-mail right when I get home, no checking e-mail before dinner, after dinner, or before I go to sleep. I didn't even spend an hour in my basement...which is good but also kinda bad. I feel so out of touch with the world without it, but I'm also saving a lot of time, especially during my morning routine. So maybe that's one thing I an take away with me when I get the internet back tomorrow. We'll see. Now, the bad thing about not spending time in the basement is that that is where I keep all of my exercise equipment. I guess it's only been two days without working out, but it feels like much longer. I started back today though...oh, and the good thing is that I got the piece I needed to put my roman chair together. So I got a chance to christen it this evening while watching the Hot Chick on FOX. It's a really funny movie.

But yeah, I need to get back to that and grade some papers too. I kinda slacked on that during the break. Other than that, plans for the weekend equal flag football and Ben's re-gifting party. I'll probably take tomorrow night off in order to rest up. I am so tired, I think I nodded off during a meeting I probably shouldn't have nodded off at today. Oh, I almost forgot all about that. It was so hot in class today. I think one of the teachers checked it with their thermometer and it was somewhere in the 90s. Anyway, we spent some time outside during first period, but then it was too cold. For my second block, we were able to requisition one of the small lecture halls. Anyway, I had a meeting at 11:30 this morning, which is about 45 minutes after my second block is over. Well, my second block ended and I looked down at my watch. It said 11:45. I was asking myself...am I going crazy? So I'm walking around downstairs looking for my meeting, and I find it. I sit down and go through everything, all the time thinking about how I must be going crazy. Like I started going through my motions of the day trying to figure out where my hour went. At the end of the meeting, I ask some of the other teachers what time they had. I guess in the heat, my wrist expanded a little and I was playing around with my watch a lot and changed the time by accident. I ended up so early for my meeting that I sat in on an extra one that took place an hour earlier. Hehe...oops! So I took about a 15 minute break to settle down and sat back down for my actual meeting. Let's just say it was a long day.

01 January 2006 1828 EST
01 January 2006 1828 EST
Happy 2006, all. With it being that time of year again, it's time to take a look back at all that was 2005. I have to admit that I was pretty ambitious with my resolutions last year, and I failed miserably on a number of them. The one that stands out in my mind especially was my goal to take bigger risks with my investments. I definitely did that last year. Unfortunately, insteading of doubling my portfolio, I ended up losing somewhere around 30-40K. Hmm...maybe I'll be a little more conservative this coming year. Some other things I didn't do - I didn't buy an analog watch. I didn't really buy a bed, though I inherited most of one. I didn't fill up my iPod like I wanted to, and though I continued my exercising after reaching stateside, my bench never quite reached 300 pounds and I didn't quite continue my recreational reading habits.

So, with all of that in mind, here are my resolutions for 2006:

- do not procrastinate when it comes to approaching/confronting people, to include, friends, family, customer service representatives, women, students, etc.
- spend less time sitting in front of the computer doing nothing in particular (use it for reading, writing, or cleaning up around the house instead)
- reduce spending (keep credit card bill under $1K each month)
- continue to make sleep a priority (go to bed before midnight at least four times a week)
- become ambidexterous, beginning with eating, writing, and throwing a football.
- dance
- box

I could probably tack on a few more things, but I think that's enough to set the tone for the year. I think it would be good to come up with a motto or a jingle/theme song for the new year as well. I'll work on that. Until then, miss me. I know I've been missing the internet, but I think the internet misses me more.