It’s making my hair gray. You literally must memorize each and every room, and have a plan for what you are going to do in each and every room in order to survive.
I might restart and just do normal and get 100% completion on normal mode… but I haven’t yet.
-TJ
Video: Justin Timberlake’s “Dick in a Box” on SNL
Check it out, good stuff. 
-TJ
Hello everybody.
First off, Merry Christmas everyone. I wish you and yours a happy holiday season and good luck in the new year.
I flew out of Denver Friday evening. What was supposed to be an on-time flight became a cluster of delays, starting with a few minute delay to board the plane out of DIA, to waiting for the snowplow to plow the snow from around the plane, to waiting for the fuel tank (one of only two on the entire airport that were operational at the time), to waiting for the de-icing, to waiting to take off on one of two open runways. Despite all that, the crew working around-the-clock to get the planes back into the air at DIA worked very hard, and for that I am thankful.
My trip to Los Angeles on the 22nd was relatively uneventful, I’d imagine, compared to most of the other travelers who ended up spending a night (or two?) at DIA or surrounding hotels due to being stranded by the snow. Denver actually got more snow than Colorado Springs, I believe. Where there was maybe up to 4 or 5 inches of snow outside of my dorm room, the snow was easily at least one or two feet deep near the airport. One thing to consider, however, is that as the clouds aren’t exactly distributed properly, I’ve seen and heard of snowfall amounts varying significantly between two points less than ten miles apart, meaning snowfall in one part of Colorado Springs or Denver could be more or less than another place in town.
I ended up touching down in Los Angeles at around 11:00 PM, and arriving by 1:00 AM on the 23rd (They fucked up my violin case!!! Bastards!). I spent the day hanging out with Alvin and his friend Cindy, and ate dinner with extended family to celebrate my sister’s birthday later that night, then playing Gears of War for a few more hours even later that night back at Alvin’s while he was on the phone with someone. Alvin’s buddy Eddie came over, a fellow military vet, and we chatted a bit. But for the most part getting Marcus Fenix through whatever town it is that Gears of War takes place in occupied the majority of my focus and time, and I ended up coming home at 3:00 AM.
Christmas eve was spent sleeping most of the morning after I got back, then I went to Alvin’s place and played more Gears of War, participated in a potluck (I brought Ensaymada, much to the enjoyment of some of his family members who tried it), and met some of his relatives. Lawrence and Cookie dropped by for a bit, and when they left, I went with them to say hello to the Wangs at one of their friends’ house. (Mr. Wang says his office is lacking certain… people… and that he’d get in touch with me when I get back to Pete to see if I can arrange for duty in Los Angeles AFB.) I went home at around 10PM, took a nap, then went to midnight mass at St. Brendan’s Church. Conducting the service was a pastor, my mom says he is “Father Paul”, Oxford educated with a sharp wit and humorous demeanor, so even though I had to stand the entire 1.5 hours of mass due to lack of seats in the church, I enjoyed myself.
Which brings us to today. Today much of the extended family and friends will be coming over to our house to eat and watch TV and just generally catch up with each other. I wonder who I will see today… most likely lots of folks from my dad’s side, a few local relatives from my mom’s side, and probably some of my dad’s high school friends.
High school friends… I spoke a bit with Lawrence and Cookie yesterday about my class reunion non profit org idea, to raise money and do a scholarship for aspiring students at Whitney who would want money for college, if only to offset the cost of books or something. As expected, Lawrence grounded my ideas in reality, asking necessary questions like if I had thought of the legal logistics of running such an organization. Always the volunteer of good advice, he suggested I speak with my dad, since I was inspired to explore this idea due to the Cavite National High School class of 1966, my dad’s class reunion organization which runs just such a scholarship to send deserving kids in the Philippines to school.
Anyway, enough chatter for now. I gotta get fixed up, as guests are arriving and I haven’t yet so much as brushed my teeth. TTYL.
-TJ
Currently here’s what I have…
23 Dec - Tricia’s birthday. Probably dinner that night, but free in the morning / early afternoon unless she wants to do something.
24 Dec - X-mas eve. I’ll most likely go to church at midnight, since I’ve been AWOL from church for quite a while. It will be nice to attend church in Los Angeles, not surrounded by affluent whites but by common folk like me.
25 Dec - X-mas day. Morning and afternoon probably will be with family, but evening should be free.
26-30 Dec - Whatever.
31 Dec - New Years eve. Historically I’ve been of the opinion that I spend X-mas eve/day with family, and New Year’s eve with friends partying, but this year whatever comes up comes up.
At some point during these next 10 days I want to visit my old roommate’s bar and see if she still works there, and if she is I want to check up on how she’s doing and what she’s been up to. If not… I’ll just have a drink and walk the promenade.
I hope to visit all of my friends this time. Alvin, Kyuu Hee, Jieqi, Alex, Scott, and hopefully Lawrence and Cookie if they’re down while I’m down.
I also want to try running up to the peak of Griffith Observatory while I’m home. I’ve been running lately, and I want to test my engine at sea level, see how I do.
I have to remember to bring back some ensaymada for the filipino troops here at Peterson… they like that shit, and quite frankly so do I. I wish I could bring back like 3 boxes but after last time, I’ll have to probably settle for 2. I’ll just bring an empty suitcase for that shit.
Time to do some last-minute packing. My plan for tomorrow is to roll up to Denver in the morning around 9AM, and get there early at the airport and just hang out at the USO.
Details to follow in a private post. See you soon, Los Angeles.
-TJ
How can I expect to bring peace to the world if I am a turbulent storm within? Do I want the turbulent storm to pervade my life? No. Therefore I need to strive towards inner harmony. Meaning, not beat myself up over dumb shit, not obsessing over dumb shit, not being nuts over dumb shit. Chill. Calm. Slow. Down.
-TJ
I hope I can make my flight home tomorrow… DIA is closed until tonight, so there’s gonna be alot of people at the airport. I hope my flight gets delayed just an hour or two…
-TJ
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!
*downloads entire old website from N11*
-TJ
Would Jesus play this RTS? I don’t think so.
Forbes.com - What Would Jesus Play?
There are only two things in this world that I have problems with… evil intent, and female emotions. Strange bedfellows, as one is obviously not similar to the other in most cases. Of the two, I think the former I have a better time dealing with than the latter.
So in the time between placing the period down for the last sentence and pressing shift+’s’ to start this one, I processed the following thoughts:
So what am I posting about, then? I guess I just needed to vent my sentence of whine so I can get over what has transpired between myself and the lady I’ve been talking to over the last few days (hereafter assigned with the designation of “P”).
Unfortunately for me I do tend to fall easily for a girl that I’m interested in. To my credit, I don’t think I meet too many girls that interest me… so I suppose there’s a sort of balance that prevents me from truly wearing my heart on my sleeve.
Guh. Anyway, when I get like this I disgust myself. The last time (about a month, now, I believe) I felt like this, it was slightly different because for some dumb reason I kept worrying about what she thought of me, when in reality I really had nothing to worry about because there literally was nothing to worry about… there was nothing. Today, there is not nothing, and as I automatically calculate possible outcomes I feel as if there could have been a good chance for us if it were not for certain circumstances and events that have recently transpired. In short, the stars were not lined up for this to happen, at least not for now.
So what now? First, I need to figure out how I can get less passionate about a girl I’m interested in. This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me, as I feel that if I can’t be passionate about a girl I’m interested in, then I must not be interested in her all that much, as was the case with the girl I was lamenting only about 4 months ago. Indeed, my friends would even ask me “Do you even like her?” How is it that I could lament over a girl I don’t even like? Apparently that’s what was happening, and it took a ditched pre-arranged outing for me to realize she really wasn’t worth that kind of attention. (Not to say that she couldn’t be a good friend. I have zero attraction for this girl now, but I’ll talk to her still, because she’s good to talk to about mundane stuff. But I digress…)
…
The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is a wondrous piece of internet technology. Not so much for the way it works, but more for what it does. Specifically, it let me see a few of my blog posts from 2003. Even then I was lamenting girls, and reading one of the snapshots made me find this little gem:
“Well I did it. (September 7, 2003, 2:52 AM)
I finally asked her out using my signature move — “the truth”. I just went up to her and didn’t even screw with a menu or order anything, but I just asked her if she would be in West LA this Monday. And she said “oh… no. Why?” Then I told her that I was wondering if she wanted to have lunch on Monday since I would be at a client site doing some work in the area. She then told me that she had class all day up to 7PM.
Oh well, right? I said “Okay then. Maybe some other time.” and she said “yeah, sure”
In any case, I felt alot better after I asked her, even if she did say no. At least I’m not wondering if she would ever do anything with me anymore. It kinda sucks that I’m learning these courting/dating lessons a little late, as I would think most folks learn this shit late in high school or early in their college years. But I suppose if I don’t start now I’ll just be debilitated for that much longer. Here’s to life!
-TJ”
Funny how history tends to repeat itself. If I don’t keep trying, I won’t keep learning, and I’m going to wind up one of those poor assholes that marry the first girl that says yes to them. I think I’m learning, at least, that if I hold myself back it tends to be worse in the long-run than if I just go balls-out in a blaze of glory. So for CSS I did the right thing, and for P I did the right thing. I was true to my self, and if I just happen to be a passionate person then so be it, that’s who I am. Passionate about girls I like, passionate about causes I believe in, passionate about the people and ideals I am willing to protect with my life. My passion is the fire that boils the water that makes the steam that causes the engine and (Psycho)GEARS to turn. The day I stop being passionate is the day I take life for granted… I hope that day never comes.
-TJ
Then I did it.
I cancelled my EVE Online account. It was fun while it lasted, thanks to the folks in Industrial Warlords [INWAR] corp for letting me in. I got my EVE out of my system and now can focus on doing more substantial things like practicing violin and soon studying for staff sergeant and my masters.
-TJ