People, if you happen to notice that every time you’re out driving, someone is riding your ass… maybe that means you’re driving too slow. Maybe. An even better indication of this is when you notice there are four or five cars backed up behind you. I only say this because there are thousands of you out there who don’t notice these things, and if I can help just one of you become aware of this, I will have made the world a slightly better place.

I finished my fourth Vonnegut book last night, Mother Night. My favorite so far is still Sirens of Titan, but I like them all. I am going to take a short Vonnegut break and read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. I was told I HAD to read it long ago, so I think I will take that advice.

TV just hasn’t been cutting it for me lately. I think I’ve seen every Simpsons episode (minus some of the brand new ones) and almost nothing else interests me. I’m tired of re-runs, and when I really compare what I could be doing with watching TV, there’s no choice to be made. This story perfectly illustrates my feelings.

Did you know that eBay doesn’t have any phone numbers on THEIR website? I was only able to contact them by phone after reaching this website, which is not a part of their business. Then, I was informed that the department I was trying to reach “does not have phone extensions.” Yeah, I fucking bet they don’t. They communicate telepathically. Oh, gotta go… eBay is subconciously signaling my mind.

Welcome to the new look of my blog! Woohoo! I finally dechipered the CSS code enough to make my blog look halfway decent. I kinda like the simple clean look… I just didn’t like the colors much. Or the fonts. Now, it’s a lot closer to my style of things. Plus, I added some more links for your enjoyment. I wish I knew some more blog links, but I only have one. I am going to talk to my friend Josh soon and get his address .. we both knew we’d forget to do that last time we saw eachother. Now that I have some more links, I’ll try to remember to post any good links I find back here at the blog.

My flight yoke and rudder pedals arrived on Friday (recap: shipping was 2 cents, arrived in ONE DAY) and I must’ve caught downs syndrome from the air because I totally fucked up the installation. I realized my level of stupidity when I contacted tech support, where the friendly gentleman explained how I had made the installation three times as hard as needed. I only needed to plug the things in and play the damn game! We got ‘em working, and off I went, ruddering and yoking all over the world. The rudders really help when you’re taxiing the plane. (Before, I was practically dragging my wings on the ground saying “this isn’t right…”.)

Yesterday the Browns REALLY blew some goat ass. Up until then, I really thought the Browns were a good team and we were just getting a few bad breaks. After watching the Brownies get chance after chance to recover the game - only to blow it in the end - I can say (without abandoning my home team pride) we better get our heads out of our asses. I know it’s hard boys… Cleveland is a cold city, and asses are very warm holes, but COME ON.

Time for lunch. Mmm.

Got my car back yesterday, and boy is she runnin’ well. Thank god, I won’t even disclose to my good friends how much I spent. The only people who know are myself, my father, the cashier, my mechanic, the old man standing behind me in line, and god. Or whatever you believe god to be. I don’t really believe in a “god” so maybe he doesn’t know about that. Who cares. My point is that my car is running like a champ. It handles 100% better too. I’ll try to take some pictures to post on here to show ‘er off.

I exceeded even my own acceptable levels of geekitude yesterday, by ordering a flight yoke controller and rudder pedals for my computer. I couldn’t help it! This is the flight yoke here… and here are the rudder pedals. They got really good reviews from everywhere I looked.. and I didn’t pay much for them, considering how much I’ve seen them going for elsewhere. Even though I elected for regular ground shipping (it cost 2 cents vs. $18 for 2-day) they are set to arrive today! I guess they’re only being shipped from PA. Yes, you can come play with them. haha

Well, I know Ben HAS to be pissed about this one. Last night, while watching the Cubs play the Marlins, I saw a most amazingly retarded event. Luis Castillo of the Marlins hit a high foul that dropped on the 3rd baseline, in the stands. During the ball’s plummet, Moises Alou of the Cubs made a fantastic leap to catch the foul, which was just barely over the 3rd base wall. One 26 year old genius snatched the ball up, just above the waiting glove of Alou. Alou proceeded to swear and curse the “fan” up and down, but the fan was only concerned with where the ball had landed. (He had fumbled the ball and dropped it.) Who knows if he even came up with the ball. The security staff was all over him, but I think he may have gotten to stay at the game. At that time, the Cubbies were up 3 - 0… but in the next four outs, the Marlins scored 8 points to win the game! The guy’s lucky. Why? Because if this were the Indians, and I actually gave a huge shit, he wouldn’t have made it home with his legs intact. Tonight is game 7, so we’ll see… hopefully the Cubs will kick some ass. They deserve to beat that fucking expansion team. (Yes, they’ve been around, and they’ve been good, but they’re still an expansion team to me, dammit.)

My new car is doing alright, but the initial repairs are a bit more than I originally thought. Thankfully, I have that fantastic mechanic I spoke of, so I know I’m not getting ripped off. The entire exhaust system is being replaced. I still don’t think I have a lemon though! It’s just a 10 year old car that spent it’s life driving around in the northeast US with no rust protection. Right now I’m driving my bro’s Honda CRX, which is essentially a junk car at this point. It doesn’t have power steering, but man is it fun in rush hour! You can fit it in just about any spot, so you just zing around in it. I even made an RTA bus wait for me while to pass before he switched lanes. I bet that was the first time he yielded to a micro-car! I also find myself saying out loud “Eat CRX, bitch!” as I pass people.

People, trust your mechanic. …. As long as he deserves your trust. Okay, find a good mechanic and trust him.

I took in this nice lookin’ ‘92 Accord two days ago, and I got a no-go from my mechanic. It had frame and chassis problems that could have cost over $1000 to repair! Then I take him a ‘93 Accord yesterday and (even though the dealer wanted 1300 less than the car I took in the day before) he said it was a much better vehicle. So, I talked the price down to $1500 and went for it! I am the proud owner of a 1993 Honda Accord, 4 door, manual trans., power nothing, maroon ext. grey int.
I knew the a/c didn’t work, big deal, but then later on I found that the tape deck doesn’t work either. Knowing it wasn’t a big deal, I hopped on eBay and found a stock one for $1.00. I didn’t buy one yet, but all I need is the cassette player. I ain’t gettin’ that thang stolen! So, I’ll post some pics, maybe later today… but it’s dark out right now and I need to get ready for work.

See ya.

I found a prospective car today, which I’m taking in to a mechanic tomorrow to check out. It’s a 92 Accord in the only color I wouldn’t consider buying - white. It seems that the engine runs great though, and the miles are low, so screw it. I can have it painted.

I started a training program this week at work that’s all about working with troubled kids in crisis. It’s very interesting, and people from all over came to attend, not just people at PEP. There’s even some folks from Chicago. I don’t really need the class because I’m not teaching, but it’s keeping me busy and all the principles apply to adults in some way too. Especially the more childish adults!

I just completed my sim flight from Mexico City to Paris, but the wind kept blowing me off course and speeding me way up. It was quite the bitch, especially since I don’t have rudder pedals to stay on course. I made a pretty nice landing though, which is always nice.

Another weekend slipping by. Ah, but the Browns play tonight - we have the night game on ESPN. Normally, ESPN would not be allowed on our television (at least not while I’m in the room) but in this case, it’s a blessing in disguise. I have not tried to find any concrete proof of this, but I am told that most network stations on ‘digital cable’ systems are ACTUALLY just an antenna signal routed through the cable network. I’ll tell you what, after flipping through the network stations last night, I would say that not only do they only use antenna signals, they also are using aluminum foil for antennas. So, tonight I shall watch my Browns in true digital cable, thank you.

We had another good Moon practice last night too. So far our new drummer has learned 9 songs in 3 practices. That’s damn good, especially since we worked on Universe last night. That one is very unpredictable. We are all impressed without a doubt.

I’m happy to see Bush’s approval rating dropping. Finally, a few people noticed that he’s misleading the hell out of us. I’m not happy to see that my man Al Sharpton probably won’t be the democratic candidate. Keep your chin up baby, we still have just over a year to get you in office!

A final super-geek note: I’ve been flight-simming it up lately. I’m a total plane-nerd. My last 5 flights were: Bangkok to Paris on a Thai 747, Paris to Cairo on an Air France 777, Cairo to Frankfurt on a Lufthansa A343, Frankfurt to Mexico City on a Lufthansa 747 and today I’ll return to Paris from Mexico City on an Air France 777. After owning Flight Simulator 2002 for several months, I realized that flying around for no reason is only fun for a little while. I flew everything from the Antonov 225 Mryia (the biggest plane goin’) to the X-15 (it could get up to Mach 6). Still, I found this pretty boring. Then I found Cathay Pacific Virtual Airlines where you actually fly the real schedules in the real planes at the real times. (Of course you can set the time in the game, you don’t have to wake up at 4:30am to fly.) Well, it is the ultimate in nerdyness… but it’s fun. You can also do flights for other virtual airlines that are affiliated with CPAV. Anyway, it’s been keepin’ me busy. Yep.

Tuesday night we tested out a new drummer for the Moon, and it went pretty damn well! Bot knew this guy named John who has been playin’ for a while, and he just jumped right in and started jammin’. I’m pretty excited because the Moon seemed to be slipping off the map, and now we could start right back on track. We’re going to practice again Friday.

I’m still looking for a car, but my mom’s going to loan her car to me next week, so I still have at least one more week to find something. It would be really easy for me to pick up a couple of different cars right down the street from here, but you never know about those dealership dudes. I plan on taking whatever car I find down to a mechanic to check out. I hope they can handle that, coz if not, the deal’s off. Tonight I’m going to check out this one Accord, which could be the one. Black, 5-speed, 4 door.

I met a homeless guy on Tuesday, Jerome, who was pretty interesting. I think when he first saw me, he thought I was uncomfortable downtown coz I looked at him. So he came up to me and asked how long I’ve been a student at CSU! haha I told him I’ve been working for over 5 years, and that I used to work downtown for a couple years too. Then we got on the race topic. He realized pretty fast that I’m not a racist and we walked all the way down Euclid talking about who’s racist, who’s not… etc. We made no profound discoveries, but each of us gained something from hearing one another’s perspective. Plus the dude got some kind of cheap steak for lunch.. on me. I had some kind of veggie wrap further down the street. I’m such a god damn yuppie. It was damn good though.