Still plugging away

I'm still working hard on my website, specifically my keepsakes section. I've had to scan loads of images and then edit them all using Photoshop and then put them up onto a web site and then publish them. It's a lot of hard work, but it's fun at the same time.

So today marks the first anniversary of my coming out here, so we're celebrating by getting married. Nope, I'm not kidding. We have considered ourselves married for a while now, so we're just making it official so I can be formally recognized by the Navy and stuff. We're both pretty excited about it. It's a very quiet thing with just Matt and me, I don't want anyone to feel bad because they weren't invited. We'll probably have a couple of big parties later on and stuff. :)

Message boards!

I am in a creative mode tonight. I've created a message board for all of my family and friends, so if you are a regular to this site, which I know some of you are, please feel free to post on the boards! One thing that is missing from this blog is the ability to really candidly have discussions with all of you, and message boards are great for that.

Please feel free to still comment on my posts, though!

The return of the top five

On my old site, one of the few good things that I had was my top five for the week. I'm going to bring that back. I'm also undertaking a large amount of content for the pictures and a new section which I'm calling "keepsakes." Stay tuned for massive updating. :)

My trip through the twilight zone

Matt's boat left today for a couple of days, which meant that I dropped him off at work early this morning so I could have the car while he's gone. This is something that we've done many times before, and I consider myself fairly familiar with the Navy base, so you can imagine my surprise at what happened after I dropped him off.

There are several different ways to get on and off of the base, but usually only one gate is open during after hours (this was around 4am) so I headed to that gate. I went the way that we came in, but when I got to the gate, there were traffic cones diverting traffic another direction. I went the only way that I could, and before I knew it, I was driving down a very straight road for what felt like miles. I eventually reached a dead end and realized that I had gone the wrong way. I made a u-turn and managed to get off the base.

I followed the signs to Aiea (our city) and was surprised when the freeway seemed to keep looping around. This was, I had thought, a way that I had gone many times before, but I had no clue where I was. To add to my anxiety, I was really really low on gas with no money to fill it up. I kept following the signs, and drove for about 15 minutes following the signs on the freeway. Eventually I found a spot that I recognized and made my way home. It was weird. :)

Hair

Why do we have hair in certain places of our body? I understand that the hair on our head keeps heat from escaping because the majority of the heat that we lose is through our head. I understand that eyebrows and eyelashes keep sweat and other particles out of our eyes. I know that nose and ear hair act as filters. But why do we have hair under our arms or on our legs?

I've also been reading about evolution in my science class and I have a theory. We have evolved into a species that no longer needs hair to keep warm - we've invented other ways to tackle this problem. So, that being said, perhaps baldness is evolution in progress! Maybe in 1,000 years, everyone will be bald. Just my odd thought for the day.

Movie reviews - Batman Begins and Lords of Dogtown

We saw Lords of Dogtown a couple of weeks ago, but I just forgot to post about it. It was ok, it's about a group of young southern California surfer kids who revolutionize skateboarding. I was hoping to see a little more action than character development, but I guess that's the way it goes. This was one of those movies where the previews mislead you and you get little of what's shown in the preview and a lot of other stuff.

We saw Batman Begins tonight. I thought this was the best of the Batman movies. It is visually awesome, yet it makes Batman and Bruce Wayne seem more real and less superhero. It felt really long, though, and they could have cut some stuff out of the beginning to shorten it up a bit. All in all, I give it a B+.

The quest for the perfect pillow

I like to be comfortable when I sleep. I think that some of my back problems might be related to the way that I sleep. My favored position is this strange twisted thing that might aggrevate my back, but at the same time, it seems to be the only comfortable position I can find.

That being said, I have been looking for a good pillow for a while now. Back around Thanksgiving, I bought a couple of mid-range priced pillows at Sears. They were good for a while, but kind of flattened over time. Recently, I really splurged and bought both Matt and I memory foam pillows. They look relatively flat, but after one night's sleep, we found that the width certainly does not make the pillow.

These pillows are great! They take your head and cradle it, and as soon as you switch positions, it's back to its original shape. We are both pretty happy. Matt says "they're not spectacular, I give them a 'B'." Geez, what a hard customer to please.

Right idea, bad time

Last night Matt and I went to a show to see a band that I really like - Senses Fail. It's rare that any good bands come to Hawaii, so I was excited. Everything just seemed to go wrong.

I had been awake for well over 24 hours when we arrived and I hadn't eaten all day. As a result, I was already on edge. We looked for parking for 30 minutes and eventually made our way in. We got there early and stood in line for an hour or so. We had some good conversations about things like nuclear power and other nerdy stuff. We finally got into the venue, which was an outdoor thing, but in a fairly small space. We didn't have any cash, and figure that we'd just find an ATM. We asked where one was, and it was about 5 feet on the outside of the entrance. So, I went up to the guard guy and asked him if I could just get some cash quick. He said that there were no reentries and that I could either get the cash and not come back in, or not get the cash. Add one to my edginess. As a result, we couldn't drink or buy shirts or anything.

There were no seats or anything, but we managed to find a place to sit on a concrete block. We couldn't really see the stage, but we had a nice view of the tour ships coming in and out of the harbor. We listened to the first two opening bands, which were moderately okay, one we had seen open for another band and didn't really like them then. But we had fun making fun of their music and people watching. Then Matt went to find me a soda while I saved our cement block.

While Matt was gone, a security guard came along and kicked me off the block, saying that there was too much traffic gathering along the fence. I gave him a really nasty look and he apologized but said I had to move. I did and was really starting to boil at this point. Then, as soon as I got off, other people started to sit on the block, he kicked them off. This happened five times before he gave up. Now I was boiling. Matt came back and said that they didn't have Mountain Dew. I kind of exploded at this point and sent him to get a Coke instead.

He was gone for what felt like 30 minutes (didn't have a watch) so I went to look for him. It took me about 5 minutes to weave my way through the crowd to get about 100 feet. I didn't see him, so I worked my way back. My mood was lightened quite a bit when a guy came up to me, and seeing my Brewers shirt and hat, asked me if I was from WI. He was from Madison, too, so we talked for a bit.

Matt made his way back with a Coke and we watched (listened is more like it) to Senses Fail. They were alright, but the accoustics in the place were less than ideal. After they played, we went home and didn't stick around to see the last band. All in all, it was an interesting night if nothing else. :)

My lack of posting

I haven't been posting much lately, and I haven't really been doing much of anything outside of school and a new video game that I bought - Civilization III. It's really addictive, but it has pissed me off tonight because I can't destroy the Romans in the third mission. So, I'll probably give up on it for a while and switch back to a more productive life. :)

Reading

This new block of classes is significantly more challenging than my last three. The subjects are things that I don't know a whole lot about, so I am forced to read the textbooks. And it's a lot of reading. This first week alone I've had 7 chapters to read. It's interesting stuff, which makes it a bit more bareable. I was looking over my final projects, and I don't have to write one 2000 word essay, I have to write three. For my religions class, I also have to attend a religious ceremony of a faith different than mine and interview someone within that church. This takes me way out of my comfort zone, but I guess that's a good thing.

For the first time while attending this online school, I really feel like I'm learning stuff. The science class is also very interesting. I'm reading all about overpopulation and the negative effects of pollution and stuff. My organization theory class is a lot of stuff that I know and know quite well, but it is kind of fun being in a forum with people with different types of management experience. We've already had some good discussions.

Upcoming tour dates

Here is a tentative schedule of my upcoming tour dates (travel schedule :)

Early to mid December - Australia
December 18 or 19 - December 27th-ish - Wisconsin
December 27th-January 7th-ish - Colorado
Then back home.

It's going to be a busy December, but it should be fun. The cats are going to hate me because I'm boarding them. :)

School's out!

Well, for about 12 hours anyway. I finished both of my final projects, and I figure I did both well enough to get me solid A's in the classes. Definitely not my best work, but I really don't care as long as I get an A in the class. I start my next three classes tomorrow, and I'm ready for the change.

I had to ground myself from EQ2 until I got the projects done, though. I'm glad I did or I'd still be trying to write the first words on my paper.

The paper that won't write itself

My fourth block of classes ends this Sunday, which means that my final projects are due. One of my projects is a 2500 word paper analyzing the influences of rase as it relates to my community. Here's the problem - I don't give a rats butt about race. It's just not something that I think about, except in this class when I've been forced to. I want to instead write a paper about how I think that race is something that we should be able to put behind us now, instead of dwelling on it and how many mistakes we have made as a nation in this area. I do believe that it is important to be aware of cultural differences and study history, but not keep beating it into the ground.

However, I don't think that my instructor would appreciate that or give me a good grade. I will most likely end up writing about being a white minority in the state of Hawaii, which I will have a hard time coming up with even 500 words on, much less 2500. I might also compare and contrast this with the community that I am more familiar with, Wisconsin. That should take me up to 700 words. Wish me luck.