HOKIE.US

16 April 2006 1851 EDT
16 April 2006 1851 EDT It feels like it was only Tuesday of last week that I was driving back from Connecticut. Oh...wait. It was just last Tuesday. And I ended up spending this past weekend up in CT visiting with the girlfriend too. I know I drove probably 1600 miles in less than a week, but it was kinda now or never with the way the next few weekends are looking. Next weekend is the state officer conference down in Virginia Beach and the week after is my Praxis exam. So knowing that I wouldn't get a chance to visit until May, I figured it'd be good to break up my one date per month pattern that I'd kinda set for myself.

Anyway, some details about this weekend...we spent more time outside this time around. We actually ended up at Panera twice this weekend...and we made enough of an impression that the lady working the register recognized us. The second time around, she made a comment about how infatuated we seemed to be with each other. I mean, we were holding hands, but I don't think we were too over-the-top. At least I hope not. Anyway, there was that and then we had dinner at this quaint little Thai place just outside of Hartford. We ended up there after driving around for an hour or so looking for a place to eat...kind of a modified game of FAPWAD. Anyway, it was called the Thai Room. It was good. Then after that, we circled back to Target to pick up Crash to watch at home. Unfortunately, I don't think we got through the whole movie. I forget why. We had popcorn and everything. It was good up until the point where we stopped though. I'll have to finish it up sometime.

The drive home this time was a little better. Sunday afternoon traffic on the turnpike and the beltway was still pretty heavy though. It was moving, but there were a lot of cars. I came home to a pleasant little surprise though. My new hands-free headset came in for my phone. I'd dropped my other one so many times, that I was getting frustrated. My new one is the H700 by Motorola...so sexy. I can't wait to test it out. It's charging right now. Oh, and the second best part is that the charger works for my RAZR too...which is good because I ended up leaving my other charger in CT this weekend.

But with that said...I am going to have to stop buying things. I say that, but I just saw two things in this weekend's fliers that I kinda want. One is a huge patio thing that would be awesome for my backyard. The other is a set of mirrored closet doors. We'll see how much self-control I have this next week. Of course, Lenny said that he might have a new roommate for me. If I end up with two tenants, I might end up splurging for a month. I can't help it. But I will stop...after this...I promise.

13 April 2006 0758 EDT
13 April 2006 0758 EDT So two nights ago, I ended up taking Joe to the Smithsonian lecture and met up with Jane and her friend Dan there. It was a lot more relaxed than the Carnegie lectures we usually go to, and there weren't nearly as many people...which is interesting. I think it might have something to do with it being spring break, but who really knows why. Anyway, the talk was about the sun-earth system and the variations in irradiance we get from the sun. It turns out that with the way the sun rotates and the subsequent variations in the magnetic field below the surface, sunspots and faculae (bright spots) cause an 11-year cycle of increasing and decreasing radiation from the sun. The variation is relatively small, only one-tenth of one percent. But when you're talking about the energy from the sun, that still amounts to a lot considering that it only takes about a 4-6 degree (Kelvin/Celsius) shiift in order to trigger an ice age. The speaker also went into the various other contributors to climatic (as opposed to climactic) changes other than solar variability, to include anthropogenic gases and volcanic aerosols, one which raises the temperature on earth and one that lowers it. Of course it got me to thinking about cool movie ideas and what could be done to combat the next ice age if something were to hit the earth. There should be a way to release enough chemicals into our atmosphere to balance out the effect of a large object hitting the earth. That made me feel a little better. I mean, I didn't actually sit down and do any calculations or anything, but I'm pretty satisfied with the anecdotal evidence I recieved during an hour-long lecture. On the other hand, if global warming gets too out of hand, I figure that we could also combat it by inducing volcanic eruptions which would effectively lower the temperature on earth. Again, no calculations were done on my part, but I have complete confidence in those nerds working at NASA. 11 April 2006 2134 EDT
11 April 2006 2134 EDT 327 miles, one Tuesday morning New York rush hour, one bathroom break, one venti vanilla frap, about $15 dollars in tolls and $20 in gas, two dozen caffeinated peppermints, and seven hours later, I am home. I have never been one to do anything crazy and spontaneous for spring break, but I figured it was worth a shot to try this year. The fact that spring break started with a drill weekend, combined with my alternator deadlining my car wasn't enough to stop me from taking a little trip up North. Thanks to a little bit of help from my sisters, I made the trip up on Sunday night to meet this girl in Long Island. I left around 10:00 or so and showed up around 4:00 in the morning. Crazy, huh?

Okay, a little about the girl. I know my sisters have been lurking around here waiting for an update. She's nice...I actually met her through Ben and a little bit of myspace flirting. HEY! Don't judge me. But yeah, we were doing the e-mail/chat/phone thing for a few weeks now, so I figured it'd be nice to see her this week since she had a day off yesterday. Details? Well she's a year younger than me...ensign in the coast guard. Her best qualities are that she thinks I'm funny and she thinks I'm smart. I like that in a girl. No, seriously, the best thing I like about this has been that I am able to be myself around her. Well, not the farting and the picking my nose in front of her yet, but I can be funny. I don't worry about being on my best behavior all the time, and that's cool. The only downside is that she likes Nickelback. I found that out this weekend. I'm not sure if I'll be able to work through that, but I'll give it a shot for now. And yes, I'm not thrilled about the whole LDR stuff. I mean, I told myself that I wouldn't do that again, but that does seem to be my modus operandi.

But yeah...the day I spent with her was pretty awesome. Highlights include chinese takeout (GTC, baby), a Matthew McConaughey movie, and installing Firefox on her computer. There may have been some other things that I'm leaving out here, but rest assured that I was a perfect gentleman. Hmm...actually, I don't think I opened any doors for her and I don't think I carried any of her bags for her. Maybe I didn't act as gentlemanly as I thought. She really digs me though. Don't worry.

Anyway, I'm back at home now. Since my sister was nice enough to lend me her car, I couldn't stand her up for the lecture at the Smithsonian tonight. So that's what I'm up to. Well, that and a week of all-out karaoke debauchery. My new system arrived on Friday with 3000 songs to try out, and I just ordered an alternator online for about $100. It should be here by this Friday for me to install. Joe said he would help me out with that, so hopefully that ends up saving me a few hundred dollars and the hassle of taking it in to the shop. Good times...

09 April 2006 2134 EDT
09 April 2006 2134 EDT SPRING BREAK!!! Yay! Drill...okay. Ride home...boo...alternator gone...car dead...call big sister...cool people...jump start...battery dead...sister, jump start...battery dead...sister, jump start...battery dead...new karaoke machine awesome...Ben...parents in China..can I borrow their car? No? Boo...awesome baby sister...can I borrow your car? Yes? Really? New York...girl...to be continued. 05 April 2006 1940 EDT
05 April 2006 1940 EDT I was reading the Post in the teacher's lounge yesterday, and I couldn't believe the article that ended up in the A-section. It was an article about instant messaging. Yeah, I know. It must've been a slow news day. Anyway, what was interesting was that the article was all about AIMstalking...you know, reading people's away messages and never talking to them - stuff like that. But instead of calling it stalking, they call it monitoring or some crap like that. And then they go about justifying it by discussing how culture has changed and how that is a way to keep in touch with people without actually talking. Anyway, interesting stuff. Take a look if you ever AIM.

Today, I was hanging out with all of the old teachers like I always do during lunch, and one of them came in talking about how we need to find out what it is that these kids do on this thing called mySpace. I couldn't help but chuckle. I'll be honest, it took me about a minute before I finally owned up to it, but I was like, "alright...I play on myspace. What questions do you have?" I ended up drawing a pretty good analogy about why there's so much drama when it comes to high school kids. I said it was like the bathroom walls. You know how kids used to carve stuff into them and leave nasty rumors about people? Well, with mySpace, it's like all of these kids have their own little virtual bathroom walls and people just have at it. People leave messages for each other, spread rumors, etc. But yeah...that's about as exciting as the lunchroom gossip got today. We'll see about tomorrow.

Other than that, there were two other good post articles I read today. One was about the number of obese women leveling off (geez...it's about time) and the other one was about Senator Feingold of Wisconsin standing up for gay rights. I mean, he's practically committing political suicide by taking a stand, but I hope it works out for him.

04 April 2006 2054 EDT
04 April 2006 2054 EDT Cooking tip #1 - when you try to boil eggs, it's a good idea not to crack them when you drop them in the water. So that's kinda what happened yesterday as I decided that I would try boiling eggs for the first time. I was four for four. Four eggs in the water...four eggs cracked. It was almost like egg drop soup. The worst part about it, though (you know, besides wasting an egg or two) is that it takes like five times longer to clean. Things went much better tonight though. Four more eggs - only one broken.

Yeah, that's really exciting, huh? I really don't have much else to talk about other than that. School was average today. There are two days left until spring break and I have a bit of grading left. I had fun at class today playing with physics equipment and then I spent an hour driving home in heavy traffic before my conference call I had for guard stuff. I've been spending a lot of time on the phone these last few days too. Like a lot...I think I've quadrupled my minutes for the year in just this last week. It's cool though. I've been collecting rollover minutes like crazy for the last six months. I couldn't believe when I was talking to some of my students the other day. They said that they had a cell bill around $500, I think. It was because of all of that texting that the kids do these days. Can you believe that? That's what they get for sending messages to each other during class. I should confiscate more phones now. It's for their own good.

03 April 2006 2355 EDT
03 April 2006 2355 EDT I'd forgotten how nice it was to talk to girls and stuff. Last month, I actually made a mid-new year resolution that I would go out at least once a month...with a girl...other than my sister. I didn't really publicize it because I felt that there might be too much pressure on me to meet my quota. I know that once a month doesn't really seem like that much, but it is for me. Anyway, March didn't quite pan out, but I am ready to start clean with April. One date a month minimum for the next nine months. *Counting fingers* That should make at least nine dates for the year, which would be about a three hundred percent increase from last year if I can keep up this breakneck pace...hehe.

Go ahead. Make fun of me. I need to start somewhere though, you know? And maybe that's what I need...a little encouragement. *laugh* I feel so dumb posting this today. I think I'll just stop now.

Three days until spring break!!!

02 April 2006 1248 EDT
02 April 2006 1248 EDT #1 thing not to say at a poker table: "Good idea...gotta lubricate for tonight." That's what I said to Thuy when he brought back a water for me, at which the other two guys at the end of the table started giving us dirty looks for...which is understandable. After just realizing what I'd said aloud, I clarified to them that I was talking about karaoke, and that the water was for our vocal chords. Geez. Come on, people. Get your minds out of the gutter. Of course, Thuy did end up coming over to my place and he fell asleep on the couch and one thing led to another and he eventually ended up staying for breakfast...but that's another story.

Anyway, except for Mason losing to the Gators yesterday, it was pretty cool. I got a decent workout in and I took care of a few errands. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that it was daylight saving until about 2:00 in the morning when Thuy looked at his cell phone and said that it was actually 3:00 in the morning. Oh well. I'll try to squeeze in a nice hour+ nap some time this afternoon. Maybe I'll start now.

Oh last thing. Link of the day. Thuy showed me this yesterday. Awesome new site: Google Romance

01 April 2006 1125 EST
01 April 2006 1125 EST I ended up spending this morning watching a handful of True Life MTV documentaries that have been flooding my DVR. I had set a timer to record the competitive eating one, and it's just been recording every one since then. I don't mind though. It kind of goes to feed my voyeuristic tendencies. The ones I watched today were about a bunch of people who ended up moving back in with their parents, a bunch of south-central LA gangbangers who were placed in this rehabilitative firefighting program, and a bunch of people who were trying to work towards achieving their perfect body. I also cleaned up a whole bunch of #1 Single and Earl episodes while I was at it. I think I watched some other things this morning, but I really can't remember what right now. It can't be too important, I guess.

I woke up around 0630h this morning. I just couldn't sleep any more. I did a lot of lifting too - multi-tasking, you know? I ended up hitting abs, shoulders, back...drank maybe a third of a gallon of water during the whole workout, and I ate a bowl of cereal too. I think I'm almost ready for my nap. Oh, last thing. I think I missed a week or two of PostSecret recently, but I went over there today. Apparently, there's going to be a book-signing/exhibit thingy on Thursday, May 25th in Old Town. Anyone wanna go with me? Tickets are $15.

31 March 2006 2334 EST
31 March 2006 2334 EST And just like that, it's over. Our postseason basketball tournament started tonight. Unfortunately, the girl whose number I got last night ended up getting so trashed that she was throwing up all day and couldn't make it out to the game. That left five of us on the court for the entire game. Yeah, that's pretty crazy. But honestly, we had our best game all season...I think it helped that I actually kept my turnovers in the single digits and only took like 3 or 4 really crappy shots this time. Unfortunately, no one really got hot tonight, and we just couldn't put the points on the board. In the end, we kept it close and lost in the single digits. I even hit two three-pointers in the last minute in our failed attempt to upset one of the #1 seeds in the tournament. Maybe next year, right?

In other news, my new water cooler showed up today. I already emptied my other one out and brought that over to the parents. Unfortunately, I'm having a little trouble with the refrigeration part of this new one. The manual says that I should maybe move it to a different location to get it to work. We'll see tomorrow. The good thing, though, is that it glows a pretty blue color at night when it turns on. That's really the main reason I got it.

I also submitted my formal leave request at school today. The reasons I cited for taking next year off include getting my masters and going to ranger school. Hopefully, I can hold up my end of the bargain on both of those. We'll see.

Other than that, I plan on drinking a whole lot of water tomorrow. I'll throw in a pretty hardcore workout and then it'll be over to the NVCC Annandale campus for casino night with the teacher union. Plus, we'll watch the big game over there with a bunch of drunk teachers. Sounds like fun, huh? You know it.

30 March 2006 2222 EST
30 March 2006 2222 EST Awesome time tonight. I met up with Ben over at Carpool in Herndon, and probably had the best time that I've ever had there...at least in a while. First off, as I reached out to say hi to Ben when I showed up, I heard "LT" or something from behind me. Two soldiers I'd worked really closely with in Afghanistan just happened to be there too. So we talked for a little bit before I peeled off to link up with Ben. Anyway...long story short, I ended up actually getting a phone number today along with two new mySpace friends...hehe. Yeah, I know. But I also did a little recruiting for our basketball team. I hope that's okay, Dave. But there was this girl - a giant. She's six foot and was all-State like ten years ago. So I told her about our game tomorrow and how we might be short a girl. I'll give her a call tomorrow. She said she was pretty sure she could come out to play with us. Score!

So yeah, that was my night at Carpool. I cut the night off short so that I could come home and lift and eat my healthy lasagna...which I am doing right now. Tomorrow will be awesome though. I get to sport my brand new Final Four Mason shirt that I waited in line for and I'll probably stop by the parents' for family dinner before heading over for our tournament game. After that, who knows.

29 March 2006 2321 EST
29 March 2006 2321 EST I was on my way to my parents' for dinner today, so I figured that I would stop by campus to grab some Mason gear to sport on Friday and for the big games this weekend. Little did I know that I would have to wait in line for over a half hour just to get my hands on the Final Four shirts that they're churning out by the thousands these days. It's crazy. Plus, by the time I got to the front of the line, I was so happy that I didn't even blink when they were selling each of these five dollar t-shirts for a price equal to half a tank of gasoline. Yeah...craziness. But how many times is this gonna happen, right? I picked up a bunch of extras too, so send me an e-mail quick if you want one. There's one for me and one for Thuy...and I've got two more up for grabs to any Mason alums out there.

Anyway, after that little fiasco, I showed up at the house a little late, but grabbed dinner before heading back out to the field house for a workout. I am the man, by the way. I haven't done flat bench in maybe six months now, but I've been playing with my impulse-purchased Bowflex selecttech dumbbells ($500) since this last summer. So when I showed up at the field house and all of the courts were taken, I figured I would go ahead and lift for a little bit until things settled down. I sat down at the bench, not knowing how much I'd be able to put up. I started with my normal high school warm-up with 135. It was nice...pretty easy considering I hadn't lifted in so long. I went up to 185 on my next set. I delayed a little bit, contemplating whether or not I would need a spot. I skipped it for this set...living on the edge, I know. When I kicked it up to 205, though, I went ahead and asked the guy at the bench next to me to give me a spot just in case. I was still feeling really good though. My dumbbells at home only go up to 52.5 lbs on each, so I've been doing a lot more endurance stuff these days as opposed to strength. But when I kicked it up to 225, I ended up throwing it up six times...more than I'd ever done before. With a little work on it this summer, I think I may finally be able to join the illustrious 300 club...which was one of my new years resolutions for 2005. Yes, I know you don't care, but I'm gonna keep you posted anyway.

After that, I lifted for another half hour before heading out to the courts to play basketball for the next three hours. The last 45 minutes or so was just me by myself working on my free throws and left-handed lay-ups. I'm getting a lot better...just trying to psych myself up for what promises to be an amazing 8-seed/1-seed upset in the first round of our CAN tournament on Friday. I've squeezed in about eight hours of practice these last two weeks. I sure hope it pays off.

That's all I've got for now though. Time to write a test before I go to bed tonight.

28 March 2006 2220 EST
28 March 2006 2220 EST I was going to skip on the update tonight, too, but I know people would go crazy if I went two days without posting. Yes, I am still alive people. Don't worry.

Yesterday was just really busy. I ended up going back to Reston to hang out/have dinner with Ben before going back to school to watch some of my girls play soccer. By the time that wrapped up, it was 9:00 and I was on my way back home to do a lot of work. I just graded papers for hours before finally going to bed around midnight. Then I set my alarm clock for 3:30 (yes, in the morning) so I could get up to finish a test review handout for my kids and finish grading so that they'd be ready for the test. The sacrifices I make for these kids, you know?

Anyway, after getting just about three hours of sleep yesterday, I think I just may go to bed early tonight. I wanted to at least update though. MTF

26 March 2006 2051 EST
26 March 2006 2051 EST I just drove back from my parents' place in Fairfax, and stopped by University Mall to grab some detergent from Giant. While I was there, though, fireworks started going off as the GMU convoy arrived from DC, where the Pats just stomped UConn earlier today. I went wild. I ran outside and started screaming my head off. "MASON!!!" followed by "PAAATRIOTS!!!" as other random college students yelled back and forth across the parking lot. It was awesome. I got a fuzzy picture of the fireworks with my camera phone, but I have yet to figure out how to get that stuff to my computer without shelling out extra money for the software. But yeah...I took a short detour home just so I could drive by Braddock along the Patriot Center so I could honk my horn and yell out the window like an idiot. It was cold, but it sure felt good.

But yeah...that was pretty much the highlight of the day. That's hard to beat, you know? I actually stopped by a few places on my way to my parents' in search of some Mason gear since I wore my only Mason shirt to school last week and I didn't want to rerun so soon. No luck, but I did end up picking up a bunch of stuff on clearance at Kohl's though. I got two pairs of jeans, two pairs of pants, and a couple of long sleeve t-shirts for about thirty-five bucks. Not bad, huh? It'll go well with the clothes hangers I bought yesterday...hehe.

Other than that, it promises to be a quiet night tonight. I already worked out earlier, so I think it'll just be laundry and grading. Until tomorrow.

25 March 2006 2209 EST
25 March 2006 2209 EST The word for today is random. I just did stuff today...random stuff...and it was great. I got so much done, it's not even funny. Start with this morning. Yenny was supposed to stop by around 8:00 so we could go to the Home Depot to pick up some mulch for her. We talked on the phone a few times in the morning, but she didn't show up until around 10:00 or so. In the meantime, I cleaned my kitchen, hung my Afghanistan print (awesome, btw) and my hokie clock finally, sorted a bunch of mail, and gave myself a haircut. When she showed up, we jumped in the minivan and ended up going to the Lowes in Chantilly, where one of my students actually ended up saying hi to me.

While we were there, we looked at water coolers, but none were even close to what I was looking at online. So when I got back home, I ended up buying the Whynter one with the LCD and temperature control for a little under $200. After that, I decided for some reason to venture into my backyard and rake for what must have been the first time in nearly three years. Good news is...I don't think I'm gonna have to mow my lawn this year. Hehe...yeah, not pretty, but at least it looks better than before. I don't know what I'm gonna do for the Easter egg hunt this year. I think it'll still be a go. I mean, after three years, it's about time we had the second annual Easter egg hunt already.

Anyway, I wrapped up with that and then interviewed potential roommate and boyfriend for about 15-30 minutes. They seemed normal enough. He's in the navy and stationed down by the beach, so he won't be around much at all. But yeah...nothing settled yet. When they left, I jumped in the minivan and took a quick trip to Bed, Bath, and Beyond as well as Linens n' Things. I ended spending another $40 or so on the following:

- new dish rack and drain tray thingy...it was easier than cleaning the old one
- beautiful 2 cup pyrex glassware to match my other one - I have a set now
- twenty more hangers - I hate having different types and I think I have enough to get rid of my plastic ones now
- little acrylic tray thing to consolidate my tea bags
- little metal tea ball thingy

I think that's it. I came home and cleaned up for a little bit before lying down on the couch to watch some more of the NCAA tourney. I fell asleep for a little while, but I caught the end of the LSU game. Then I lifted for the first time in about four days and then called Ben during the UCLA game. For some reason, though, I decided after I hung up that I needed to make the healthiest lasagna ever...and ten pounds of it. Considering that it was already 9:00 at night and there is no one else around to share it with, I admit that's a little weird. It's not the first time I've done that though.

So no recipe today. I took my family's (I forget if it was mom or jane) suggestion of using tofu...though I did mix it with the ricotta instead of completely replacing it. So yeah, a pound of tofu, another pound+ of ground turkey, and low sodium sauce. I guess I can still make it healthier. Next time, I'll use the high fiber/whole grain noodles and throw in some vegetables or something. I was still experimenting, but I also wanted to make it taste good the first time around.

Anyway, that was pretty much my day. I forgot to mention the karaoke, but you probably just assumed, right? I might even do some laundry tonight to mix it all up. I know, pretty wild, huh?

24 March 2006 2359 EST
24 March 2006 2359 EST I admit it. I have a serious problem when it comes to spending money on random things. For now, it's water coolers. I'm about three clicks away from spending about two hundred dollars to pick up this GE Profile one from Home Depot. My alternatives are this Whynter one for about $200 with LCD interface and temperature control, this Pacifik one with bottle cover in the upper $300s, and this shiny S2 one that I just plain can't afford.

I won't tell you about my other impulse buy that I'm planning (I know that's a little contradictory, but I don't care) because I'm not gonna let anyone try to talk me out of it. I know that I really shouldn't be spending so much money with me being unemployed next year, but I'm interviewing a potential roommate tomorrow and I got a letter today telling me my free money from the county for my class last semester was approved. So a few hundred bucks here and there won't hurt me too much. I'll get two weeks of double-pay during AT this summer to help me out as well, and who knows what fun side-jobs I'll pick up this summer. Part of me wants to work at Blockbuster or even wait tables, but we'll take a closer look when the time comes.

Other than that, go PATs!!!!